Marvel’s Super Hero Squad DS was first planned as Smash Bros.-style game

The DS version of Marvel’s Super Hero Squad was at one point planned as a Smash Bros.-style game before contractual obligations got in the way. That information comes from Luke Muscat, who worked on the project.

Developer Halfbrick was working with THQ, the game’s publisher, at the time. The title was initially intended to be a brawler, but THQ asked the team to pivot and make it more like Smash Bros. instead. Halfbrick seemed pretty excited about the idea, though had to throw out some previous work. Blocking, rolling, and dodging were all a part of the core gameplay.

Unfortunately, Marvel’s Super Hero Squad ended up seeing another radical shift during its development. THQ would later notice that its licensing contract required the game to be an action adventure / street brawler experience. That means Halfbrick had to shift plans once again. Given how the team didn’t have a ton of time, Muscat said they “just hacked together what we could.”

Muscat’s information about Marvel’s Super Hero Squad on DS is a part of a larger video discussing a couple of other games, including Avatar: The Last Airbender for GBA which ended up cutting about 35 percent of its content to match the stopping point of the Wii version. You can check out the full video below.