10 Video Game Abilities Developers Always Get Wrong
6. Flight In Superhero Games
Sega
The ability to fly is synonymous with superheroes, and with so many characters from both Marvel and DC possessing the ability, it stands to reason that developers should probably have a handle on how to make it work by now.
Unfortunately that's never really been the case. Developers are constantly struggling with how to successfully relay the idea a man can fly in their titles, to the point where the Man of Steel himself, Superman, has yet to appear in a genuinely great title - and no one's tried making one for a good decade.
Flight has always been the main criticism, with devs seemingly unable to convey the agility one man in a suit of armour would have were he to zip between buildings at a high speed, and especially the seamless transition between full on flight and hovering.
Here's hoping that Crystal Dynamics' Avengers game nails this mechanic when it releases next year - for Iron Man's sake, if not ours.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
