DC Comics has been busy of late, what with announcing a brand new MOBA style game Infinite Crisis as well as having their new fighting game Injustice a month away from hitting store shelves. So, while the iron is hot why not give some love to a would be franchise of yesteryear named Justice League Heroes.
Why would we want that? JLH has many factors going against it yet still remains fun and worthy of your time. So it stands to me that if given the proper time, love, and money to succeed Warner Bros. might have another hit on its hands and we might get the game we truly wanted in the first place. What's not to love about that?
What is Justice League Heroes?
JLH is at its heart an action RPG. Each hero comes with their own combos and special abilities, and heroes can perform special teacup attacks as well. Throughout the game you are able to unlock power modifiers that you can combine and experiment with to customize your hero of choice. This system was actually quite fun and while simple on the surface allowed for some depth the more you toyed with it (even on multiple playthroughs, of which I had 3).
What Went Wrong?
For starters 7 members of the League, including Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Zatanna, and Martian Manhunter are available, however, you only have access to two heroes at a time per level, and the game chooses those two for you until about 65% through the campaign. The game has multiple unlockable characters, including Aquaman, Huntress, Hawkgirl, Supergirl, Black Canary, Green Lantern (Hal & Kyle), & Green Arrow. These are unlocked by picking up special tokens throughout the game, which is good in theory, but due to not being able to actually play them till over halfway through some of the luster is lost. Why spend all those points on a character I get to play (no matter how cool they are) for only 3 or 4 levels?
The game was only two player, while its main competition, the similar themed Marvel Ultimate Alliance, had four player built right in. UA, as well as the previous X-Men Legends games, all had many more choices when it came to characters, costumes, and fan service. You could also swap in heroes at special hubs throughout the game in Legends and UA, and not having that was Justice League Heroes' biggest mistake.
What it Did Right
After all that you're probably wondering if I actually liked the game at all, and the answer is a resounding yes. As opposed to Marvel's games, JLH stressed teamwork. When you were playing as Green Lantern & Flash you really had to get used to the other person's abilities and work within them to take down groups of enemies. The game blossomed on the harder difficulty, as the A.I. would make mincemeat (all of the sudden feel like a TMNT villain) out of button mashers. The modifier system was fun to experiment with and really let you highlight your favorite powers and traits. The story was coherent and nicely blended the different villains and locales that the developer wanted to highlight, and as for the characters you got the distinct impression that Snowblind was very reverential of them and wanted to do them justice. While fan service wasn't as overflowing as in Marvel's games, each character played just as you felt like they should. Wonder Woman felt like Wonder Woman, and so on and so on. The actual gameplay was solid too, with punches and kicks landing like they should and the characters handling well overall.
Okay, I'm on board. Now What?
Good. Glad to have you. Here is what needs to be fixed and who I think could do it.
Learn From The Competition
UA and UA2 did a lot of things right, and if you are going to do this then learn from your mistakes as well as theirs. 4 player co-op right out of the box is a necessity, with multiple characters available from the get go and then selectable at any time (or via checkpoints is fine too, but you get the picture). Fan service went a long way in Marvel's games, and DC has years and years of history to draw from, so do the research and throw the DC fan a carrot or two please. It's really not asking that much. I buy your game for $60 and you throw me a reference to Floronic man, win win.
Have Your Own Style
This goes right with our previous statement. You need to see what your competition does right, but not completely mimic it. Come up with a unique visual style that provides something different yet keeps the integrity of the property intact. As Injustice has shown, it's okay to mess with the looks some too, just make sure when someone looks at Batman they still know he's Batman.
Work as a Team or Die
JLH did this so well, and this would be taken to the extreme in JLH 2. You are the League, and obviously the threat you are facing is bigger than any single hero can handle. Otherwise you would just tell Supes to take care of it himself. Have the game scale to the number of players actively playing, much like Left 4 Dead's Director, and send the message early and often. If a player is running ahead and not paying attention put the hammer down. To do this when playing solo the game is going to need some really good A.I. for your computer controlled squad mates, but that can be accomplished.
As for the systems themselves the game should use a newer version of the modifier system from the first game, but allow more stats to be tweaked and higher levels to be achieved. The fusion system from UA could be expanded upon (don't want to see the same animation 80,000 times if it can be helped) to have multiple team-up attacks per character, meaning if Batman and Green Lantern use a special attack together it might be one of several, not just the same one over and over.
A Roster of Legends & Soon to be's
The core seven are as follows. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Open Slot. Some feel its Martian Manhunter, some go with Zatanna, some go with Green Arrow, and the most recent addition to that slot is Cyborg. Either way, this is open to interpretation, but the other six are untouchable.
That said, you need a plethora of other heroes to give the player some variety. I would love to see characters who don't have the spotlight much given a shot. Characters like Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Constantine, Big Barda, Wonder Girl, Star Sapphire, Kilowog, Shazam, Static Shock, etc. The unlockable's from the first were good, and those need to be included as well, but some fresh blood would be good to see.
Who's going to make it?
Snowblind isn't around anymore, so another developer would have to take up the torch. Raven Software would be my first pick, as if you can't beat them then get them to make your game instead. I'd much rather see them make this than just being another cog in the Modern Warfare machine, and it would be nice to see them get to flex those action RPG muscles again.
If that doesn't work then maybe Runic Games (of Torchlight 1 & 2 fame) could give a licensed property a go. The combat and inventory management of those games is top notch, and I would love to see the artistic style they would bring to the DC Universe.
So there it is folks, my pitch. Its not a genre that has necessarily been neglected, but its a premise that had all the potential in the world and was just stopped short. I'm all for happy endings, so maybe Justice League Heroes 2 is something that will happen in the future. Either way, let me know what you think and also what your ideas are if the game ever gets made. Eager to hear your thoughts.