The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set to premiere on Disney Plus in March, and a new trailer just released for the show during the Super Bowl. The show centers around Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, grappling with the retirement of Steve Rogers and Rogers passing the shield onto Sam.
While the show itself definitely looks like it’ll be a good time, there’s something about it that seems like it would make a really fun video game. Marvel has only relatively recently forayed back into the AAA video game market alongside DC with Spider-Man, Marvel’s Avengers, and the newest Ultimate Alliance; it’s been stepping up its game lately.
Co-op Gameplay
At its core, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier looks like a buddy cop adventure story. Anyone who’s seen these two interact in the past knows that they don’t always get along, which is the case in the beginning of more or less every single buddy cop story ever told. It’s a premise that works, especially when the two characters are as interesting as these two are.
And a buddy cop adventure story means co-op. If The Falcon and the Winter Soldier were adapted into a game, it would be an absolute tragedy if it weren’t co-op or at least had the option to play co-op, or with the other character being controlled by AI. Not only would Falcon and Winter Soldier be trading witty banter, but players would be able to trade witty banter with each other, too. And witty banter makes for a good time.
The MCU is Expanding with Disney Plus
The MCU was, for a long time, all about the movies. There were shows that loosely tied into it, like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Marvel Netflix shows, but those could be watched or ignored with little-to-no consequence for understanding what’s going on in the MCU as a whole.
But that’s changing with Disney Plus. Marvel is expanding its storytelling formats with shows like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and so on. It follows that Marvel could further expand into gaming, as well. That doesn’t mean that a Falcon and Winter Soldier game needs to tie into the MCU, Marvel probably won’t go that far. But Marvel is definitely branching out, and creating a game around similar iterations of these characters would be a continuation of that.
Marvel’s Competition For Gotham Knights
While Marvel has released some co-op games recently in Avengers and Ultimate Alliance, neither of them have been in the style of what it appears the more Arkham-style Gotham Knights will be. There still isn’t too much known about this game yet so a lot of this is speculation, but it is confirmed to be an open-world game where the player can accomplish every single mission as any of the playable characters, albeit in different ways.
A Falcon and Winter Soldier game in this style could be something really special. It would allow the game to introduce multiple villains from the comics, such as Baron Zemo (featured in the show), Mister Hyde, Red Guardian, and more. There could be so many different possibilities for different gameplay elements involving these two as well, since they both function very differently. Falcon flies, obviously, with some cool bulletproof wings, but throwing in either a real or electronic falcon for some abilities would be awesome, too. Bucky has his robotic arm that the game could do a ton of different stuff with, allowing the player to upgrade and expand it as they see fit.
Another awesome mechanic this game could have that would be utterly unique to it revolves around Captain America’s shield. It would be really cool if it was included, but wasn’t just an item one of the characters could use: they could throw it back and forth throughout a fight to each other, each using it when they need it or see fit. It would create some really cool synergy throughout the game, and really make both players work together in a special way.
