Hey, it’s Chris again…and I recently had a rather startling realization. 

If you’re a hardcore gamer, you know that the Electronic Entertainment Expo—its friends call it “E3”—lights up downtown Los Angeles all this week. As far as the gaming industry is concerned, this is the week for big announcements, big parties and, well, big…other things (usually most prominently displayed at Tecmo’s booth).

But here’s what I’m realizing: This is my tenth one of these shindigs. Ten. The number astounds me. 

Even though I’ve been to so many E3s at this point, I can honestly say that the magical feeling of the event has yet to wear off. Of course, the appearance of Marvel games there has always particularly excited me. So I figured, hey, why keep all those memories to myself? Here’s a year-by-year breakdown of all the cool Marvel stuff I’ve seen since ever since my first trip there, having just wrapped up my third of nearly 60 issues as an editor at Official U.S. Playstation Magazine. 

2000

In May 2000, we were but months away from what I still consider to be one of the most important comic book games of all time: “Spider-Man” by Neversoft. Its release was just a few months away at this point, and Activision pulled no punches with this sweet display.

Elsewhere in Activision’s booth, we see Spidey doing some good ol’ THWIPPIN’. It’s a safe assumption that he’s saving some helpless booth babe from the clutches of an overly grabby game store employee who hadn’t showered in three days. (BONUS: In the lower right is none other than Todd “TQ” Jefferson, who was then a producer on the game at Activision…and is now the director of games here at Marvel!) [Photo: Todd Patterson on Flickr.]

I don’t remember seeing Activision’s “X-Men: Mutant Academy” at E3, but I sure do remember seeing this blowup of a then-current magazine cover featuring the game on its cover. I hear the kid posing next to it wrote the 14-page feature story. You know, he looks an awful lot like me…only nine years younger and missing some pounds.

2001

E3 2001 was the last place I ever used a camera with film in it. Of course, it would have helped this blog entry a lot if I had ever bothered to get that film developed. Oops. But I can tell you that I distinctly remember being in absolute awe of seeing “next-gen” (i.e., PS2) Spidey in action—this was where the movie game based on the following summer’s debut web-slinging flick debuted.

Also there was “Spider-Man 2 – Enter: Electro” and some handheld games—even for that hot new system called the Game Boy Advance…but it was all definitely overshadowed by the great-looking game that was still a year away.  

2002

Booth babes! There to help celebrate the fall release of “X-Men: Next Dimension” were models depicting Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue and Psylocke.

“Blade II” had recently taken a bite out of the springtime box office, and the game was set to suck you in a few months later. Oh, vampire puns…

2003

More Marvel movie props—this time to help announce a game you may have played called “Spider-Man 2.” Needless to say, the idea of swinging through an entirely open NYC for the first time ever was something that completely blew me away.

Hey, look! It’s a company that isn’t Activision that had a cool Marvel-related display. Just a month or so away from the huge movie and game to support it, this was a life-sized Hulk who greeted you at the entrance to Universal Interactive’s booth…which was pretty much the entrance to the whole show floor as well. A pretty imposing sight, as you might imagine. And yeah...don't touch.

2004

THQ created one of the best Marvel-related E3 displays ever with this one for “The Punisher.” Not only was the moving animatronic cool to look at from about two stories below (with dialogue too, as I recall), it was also depicting a scene in the game. Not bad at all.

This E3 was about six weeks away from the release of “Spider-Man 2”—both the movie and the game. This time Activision was a little more timely with its movie props for Spidey, showing us some of Doc Ock’s goods (along with the awesome game that accompanied it, of course).

AHHHHH!!!! It’s a huge mega-Spidey climbing E3! Run for your lives!

2005

“Ultimate Spider-Man” had a great showing at my first E3 in PR (for LucasArts). I remember watching the trailer several times, loving how it looked and thinking how cool it’d be to play as Venom. [Photo: djwu on Flickr.]

“X-Men Legends II” also had me pumped. [Photo: Phu Son on Flickr.]

What better way to announce “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance” than with a Stan Lee appearance? [Photo: Activision.]

I think we can only assume that Hulk smashed most of their clothes. [Photo: AlbinoGrimby on Flickr.]

2006

Yikes! No pictures from this year, unfortunately—though I’m pretty sure “Ultimate Alliance” made yet another strong appearance.

2007/2008

As many of you know, the last two E3s were very scaled back and, as a result, not very exciting. They lacked the spectacle of years past. And I sure don’t have any pictures of Marvel games at them. But you know what?...

E3 is back to its classic form in 2009, baby! Check back soon (hopefully Friday) for a rundown on Marvel games shown at this year’s show. I’ll make sure to get plenty of great pics for you this time!

Excelsior, etc.

C-Bake

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