'Thor: God of Thunder' Video Game

Can 'Thor: God of Thunder' video game break the movie video game curse?

Comic fans are getting the royal treatment this year with all the comic based movies coming out. Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger and DC’s Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters are both slated for this summer, while Thor’s release date is just around the corner. Of course, with big budget movies, comes the comic book inspired video games.

In the past, video game developers have burned comic book fans by making some poor excuses for games with our beloved comic book heroes as the star (horrible flashbacks to the Nintendo 64 Superman 64 game come to mind) and ones based after the movies seem to be the worst. In the past few years games like 'Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds' and 'Batman: Arkham Asylum' give some hope to comic book based games, but neither of them were tied to any blockbuster movie and the curse of being produced alongside a movie seems to carry vicious repercussions along with it (the Iron Man 2 game and The Watchmen: The End is Nigh being prime examples).

The 'Thor: God of Thunder' video game will be the first to launch of the new movie games with a release date of May 3. The game will be available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and 3DS. The PSP edition was strangely enough scrapped without much reasoning as to why. The trailer, which made its appearance on Spike’s Video Game Awards, packs some cinematic graphics and great talent like Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. Gameplay demos from video game events also look promising, giving Thor moves and abilities worthy of the God of Thunder. Summoning storms of lightning bolts, hurling Mjolnir at foes (one of my favorite signature moves of the Avenger) and crushing combos are all a part of Thor’s arsenal. The game employs a grapple system that on the surface appears to be a simplified version of the boss fights in Shadow of the Colossus that has been showing up in a lot of games lately. However, the fact that the game is only a week from release and developers have little more than a few cinematic trailers and short gameplay clips leaves a sense of skepticism in the air. All this fancy show may just be elaborate paint to cover up a lack substance.

Hopefully this game can rise above the movie video game curse and offer us fans something with a true gaming experience, but only time will tell when the game comes out next week. Will 'Thor: God of Thunder' smash through the stagnant movie video game stigma or will it crash and burn like so many others?

Written by Ryan Heuer

Tags: Comic Book Video Games, Thor