The Fantastic Four: First Steps has done a stellar job of making Marvel’s first family feel important again. It nailed the characters well, gave us the best on-screen depiction of Galactus, and blessed MCU fans with that incredible blackhole sequel. My only complaint is that you don’t see their powers showcased enough, but First Steps is still a huge improvement over the movies that came before.
You know what would have helped showcase the powers of these iconic characters? A tie-in video game that details their early years. Specifically, a 3D beat 'em up with co-op that has a simple upgrade system and fun combat. Because it takes place in their early years, you don’t need a huge, coherent narrative; just make the game a highlight reel with some of the group’s best villains.
“Isn’t that just the 2005 Fantastic Four video game released on the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube?” I hear you ask. Yes, it is, and First Steps would have benefited a ton from having a simple prequel game that lets players beat up mole men and Skrulls as this dynamic group of heroes. Also, I just miss those simple tie-in movie video games, even if most of them weren’t very good.
Witnessing Their First Steps
Because The Fantastic Four: First Steps starts in medias res, the movie assumes you already know these characters and how they operate. For the most part, this film does a great job of making these characters feel developed, while also giving them new issues to worry about. Nothing brings the family together like a giant planet-eating man in purple, after all.
Playing a game about the superhero team’s actual “first steps” would have been a treat, though. The movie tells you about their battles with Mole Man and Red Ghost, but experiencing them in a montage would have been nice. Actually playing them out in a video game would be better, as we can imagine how fun it would be to clobber some of Red Ghost’s apes or the Mole Man’s Moloids.
And to be frank, the 2005 Fantastic Four game kind of does that. While you are going through that movie’s boilerplate origin story, the developers sprinkle in a ton of bad guys from the comics for you to face. No joke, you fight Pupper Master, Diablo (not that one), and Mole Man. It helps that the combat feels good, with each character having unique combos and special moves.
In 2025, developers would spend a ton of money to make each of the villains’ set-pieces feel epic. But in 2005, the game just gave you linear levels to beat up enemies in, an easy-to-follow upgrade tree for more combos, and basic quick-time events. There are also collectibles for some replayability, which will be more fun to collect with a friend through co-op.
Do I just want a The Fantastic Four: First Steps video game that plays like the 2005 movie game? Yes, I do.
Movie Beat 'Em Ups: A Lost Art
Okay, maybe “art” is generous, but movie tie-ins like the 2005 Fantastic Four game or the acclaimed Lord of the Rings: Return of the King beat 'em up stay in our minds for one simple reason: they were fun.
Booting up a game based on the movie you just saw and seeing game developers re-enact them in unique ways feels lost in the modern age of gaming. You don’t see licensed movie games anymore, unless they’re being made by publishers like GameMill, just Fortnite tie-ins. The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman had Fortnite tie-in skins, which is fine, but I still remember waiting for these (hopefully) 7/10 experiences to come out and make me happy for a weekend or two.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to know that I’ve been playing some of these simple movie games recently, specifically, the 2005 Fantastic Four movie game. While it doesn’t move the needle in terms of gameplay innovation or superhero stories, this tie-in does give me what’s advertised: a beam-up with Marvel’s first family. To be honest, I’ll go as far as saying that this game is a little bit better than the movie it’s based on, just because we actually get to see this team do cool stuff against iconic bad guys who weren’t in the film.
Think of the kind of game Sinners would have had in 2005. You would play as the Smokestack Twins during their early days in Chicago, before transitioning to the movie’s events, where the game unleashes some Klansmen for you to destroy. We would also have levels that weren’t in the movie at all, like saving certain characters from vampires in an overly long swamp segment with weapons. It would be about four hours long and have movie clips as unlockables.
Man. I would have loved that game.
Look, I know we’ll eventually get Marvel’s Fantastic Four in the style of Insomniac's Spider-Man, and it will be a good game, maybe even better than the 2005 movie tie-in. It could either be a cinematic linear experience or a full open-world title with character-switching, but the overall gameplay would be good. Marvel Games is huge now, and they aren’t going to settle for mediocre products, at least for the time being.
But that means waiting seven to eight years for a new game, long after the relevance of First Steps or its inevitable sequel. There’s just something neat about having a movie game come out in the same month as part of the marketing to get people’s butts into the cinema. Were these games always good? No. But we don’t have them anymore, and that’s a shame.
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