With Daredevil now being a hit series on Netflix, things are looking up for Hornhead’s licensing and franchising opportunities. In other words: it may finally be okay to talk about giving the Man Without Fear his own video game.
DC tends to be the comic book label that’s more video game savvy, but that shouldn’t squander the potential of a deep, rewarding, Matt Murdock-lead single player experience the likes of the Arkham series. I’m no game maker, but those within eyeball range of these words heed my premonition: Now is the time for a Daredevil game.
Rantings of a fanboy? Possibly. I remember watching the ill-advised Daredevil movie back in 2004, my trade paperback of Yellow shaking furiously at my TV screen. “How could they do this!” I raved. “Did they even read the books?” Hypothetical tears flowed, knowing that, even though the movie was technically profitable, the hype wasn’t enough to ever see him realized on film again. Let alone something as (at the time) scarce as a big budget superhero video game (Game Boy Advance games are totally plausible, though – more on that later).
The rumors after Marvel’s buy back of the Daredevil rights in 2013 served as a fleeting bit of hope for fans like myself that they’d get a proper screen rendition of the character. Fast forward to now, as we watch the Netflix series blow away critical expectations of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. The next logical step is to put the character in our hands.
But there has to be a respect for his history in video games before we start wildly speculating about how to plug him into the present.
His cameo appearances spread across many franchises over many years, including 2000’s Spider-Man, 2005’s The Punisher, and 2011’s Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. All small parts, of course. A few lines here, a background theme there.
In 1996’s Spider Man: Web of Fire for the Sega, freeing Daredevil from a birdcage at the beginning of the game makes him a playable character. He teams up with Spider Man to take down HYDRA in the arcade style beat him up. He wasn’t the focus of the game, but he did have a voice actor in Dee Bradley Baker. He played no different than Spider Man, with different sprites and animations cloaking what was essentially the same sort side scrolling beat em up that the era was notorious for producing.
His only lead role in a game was in the Game Boy Advanced (GBA) movie tie in, which was an unfortunate cash grab with very few redeeming qualities. Besides running from left to right, jump kicking goons on the way, players could utilize a feature that mimics the hero’s sonar sense, allowing you to see items and enemy weaknesses that normally weren’t apparent. The game itself was still underwhelmingly simplistic, with the difficulty spiking severely in the middle of the game. Suddenly, bosses hit like trucks and didn’t take nearly the damage they maybe should. If you’re still curious – or simply a masochist – then I’m sure you can find a cheap copy at whoever sells GBA titles near you.
Other games he’s playable in include arena brawler Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, both Marvel: Ultimate Alliance titles, and Marvel Heroes 2015. Many of these games make no attempt to characterize the hero at all beyond small fan services like old costumes or easter egg references to old stories. Marvel 
There was once a full fledged Daredevil game in development for the Xbox and PS2 around the same time as the movie. It wasn’t a tie-in to the Ben Affleck lead blockbuster, and it was going to focus more towards the comic book version. When its developer, Encore, decided it was going to be a publisher instead, this was one of the games lost to the transition. The game was far enough along to have working demos floating around and even printed ads from Marvel, if the rumors were to be believed.
His appearances in these titles were admirable, but it’s time for him to shine properly.The how’s and why’s are a conversation for another day, but a franchise as old and respected in the Marvel mindshare like Daredevil deserves to stand among the likes of Spider Man and The Avengers when it comes to great video games.
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