Just as superhero video games have become more popular and successful over the past few years, new footage from an unfinished Avengers title has surfaced online after almost a decade. Marvel’s premier superhero team has gained greater attention thanks to the high-grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe movie franchise, prompting game developers to try to ride that new wave of fandom with a number of superhero titles, many of which have sadly never come to pass.

That includes an unreleased Avengers game from THQ Australia, which was being developed for the Xbox 360 to coincide with the premiere of the first Avengers movie back in 2012. However, due to a number of different circumstances, the game was shelved before it could get past the early test build stages, leaving many to long wonder what could have been had it been finished. The situation isn’t unlike that of a similarly unreleased Daredevil title that was being developed for the PlayStation 2. Just like that ill-fated project, footage for this would-be Avengers title would eventually be uncovered for the world to see years after the fact.

Related: How Marvel’s Avengers Has Improved Its Disappointing Character Models

Unfinished video game hunter PtoPOnline posted a video of this previously unseen Avengers game on YouTube a couple of days ago, a good eight years after it was originally meant to be released. The raw footage features a multitude of different Marvel heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor battling the shapeshifting alien invaders known as Skrulls in a number of different environments, utilizing their various abilities and tools in a first-person perspective. Check out the full video below:

Recently, Marvel has seen a bit of a renaissance in the world of video games, with Insomniac’s critically acclaimed Spider-Man title for the PS4 becoming the highest-selling superhero game in US history, and a new Avengers game (which is gaining buzz for featuring a superhuman character with a disability) being set for release this September courtesy of Square Enix. Even the aforementioned Daredevil might be finally getting the interactive treatment in the near future, with rumors spreading over the past few weeks of a PS5 title based on the Man Without Fear.

With all of this in mind, it’s interesting to finally get a peek at what THQ’s unfinished Avengers title was going to be. Some observers have noted a similarity between the raw footage’s first-person gameplay and Overwatch, another first-person game that features a colorful cast of superheroes similar to Marvel’s all-star pantheon of do-gooders. Blizzard’s online multiplayer FPS has achieved great success using the type of formula the THQ Avengers game appears to utilize, leaving one to wonder how well it could have been received had it actually been made. As it stands now, all fans can do is watch the gameplay footage of the Avengers game that wasn’t to be and imagine playing it for themselves - at least until Marvel’s Avengers comes out later this year.

Next: How The Avengers' Video Game Designs Compare To Comics

Source: PtoPOnline