TSA’s Top 100 of 2011 – #77 Thor

When comprising our Top 100 games we’re most looking forward to in 2011, an obvious and explicable trait quickly became evident. We bloody love superhero games. Without wanting to give anything away, the game adaptation of next year’s Thor movie staring Chris Hemsworth (Jim Kirk’s Dad in the latest Star Trek film by the way), Natalie Portman, and resident scenery-chewer Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin*, is but one of a collection of superhero games we’re looking forward to next year.

You can probably think of at least another one right off the bat (yes, that’s a hint), but let me assure you that there are other spandex-sporting juice-junkies lurking in the wings of this list, costumed-donned mavericks ready to pounce and flex their anatomically incredulous physiques at a moment’s notice.

Why Thor makes it in the Top 100 is likely based more on hope rather than logic. After all, there has been a Metropolis load of bad superhero games that have crawled on to our platforms since the dawn of gaming, and we’ve all been burnt at least once after picking up a game that we were certain they couldn’t mess up only to realise we’ve been hoodwinked, characters such as Iron Man destined for the scrapheap considering how impossible it is to actually control the cumbersome suit but one of far too numerous of examples to choose from. But for every Superman 64 (shudders) there’s a Spider-Man 2. For every Iron Man 2, there’s a Batman: Arkham Asylum.

If we’re being completely honest, however, portents don’t bode extremely well for Thor: The Video Game; not if we’re going to make the logical connection between Sega’s last couple of superhero movie tie-in games and this, their latest venture. That said, it does have comic book legend Matt Fraction on board as a story consultant, and, hey, who doesn’t want to get their hands on that hammer and just lay into Loki and whatever else gets in the way?

If you’re looking for some concept art of the game, we suggest moseying on over to here. It sure does look good conceptually. Whether or not it executes well, I guess we’ll find out next summer.

Finally, and just as a small aside, one of our merry band of TSA misfits gave Thor the maximum score in terms of anticipation. I’ll let you guess which one.

* No, seriously, Anthony Hopkins plays Odin, god and ruler of Asgard. How awesome is that?