With New York always a central focus of so many Marvel games, the defender of Hell's Kitchen himself, Daredevil, is almost non-existent. The red-horned vigilante hasn't had a presence in video games beyond cameos and being an additional playable character alongside other major heroes. It's been decades since Daredevil has had a starring title in the gaming medium, and his relevance and popularity have only increased in recent years. With a resurgent big and (hopefully) soon-to-be small-screen presence, now would be a great time for the Man Without Fear to join Spider-Man and Wolverine and receive a Marvel's game of his own.
Daredevil first debuted in a video game in Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety as a support character, and would go on to make several other appearances in other Spider-Man games in the years following. He also starred in his first and only game, self-titled Daredevil for Game Boy Advance. Unfortunately, like most superhero titles of the time, this one was a poorly received 2D side-scrolling beat-em-up tie-in for the film of the same name. Two years later, after a stint as a playable character in the tepidly received Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, his role was again reduced to a cameo appearance in 2005's Punisher as his alter-ego, Matt Murdock.
Things stayed mixed for Daredevil post-2005. First, he appeared in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2 alongside other spotlight-hogging mainstays and underrepresented legacy characters, followed by MMO-style titles like the hero collecting gacha-esque Marvel Heroes in 2013. The character's most recent video game appearances came in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes in 2013, and later the Nintendo Switch exclusive Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 - once again as a supporting playable character. However, the closest Matt Murdock ever came to a standalone title of his own was in the early 2000s, with a PS2, Xbox, and PC game titled Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, which was in development by game developer Encore and canceled before ever seeing the light of day.
Canceled Daredevil Game Shouldn't Stop A New Title Being Made
Shared back in 2016 on Unseen 64 - a segment on the video game YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming? - unearthed some of the first details on the canceled Daredevil game, including its conception and eventual fall. The game saw Daredevil in an open-world setting that seemed to fit the archetype for most of the modern superhero games seen today. The combat shared many similarities with Spider-Man 2, and traversal saw Daredevil swinging throughout the city with his billy club and grinding on various power cables to move quickly around the environment. However, the most significant feature was the "Shadow World" mode, a feature that predated the detective mode seen in Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham games. The "Shadow World" mechanic allowed players to see the world as Daredevil does. The world would be seen as a nebulous blue sensory field that allowed Daredevil to react to gunshots, hear crimes occurring, and target specific weak points such as vital organs or pre-existing injuries of foes. This visual mechanic allowed him to gain the upper hand in more challenging encounters.
A modern Daredevil game could easily employ a sensory-style detective mode, further refining it compared to what has been seen in Batman: Arkham and Assassin's Creed. While it's unlikely players would spend much time fiddling through courtroom drama, detective sequence moments could provide clues for Matt Murdock to utilize outside of superhero excursions to advance the story. Unless perhaps, a devoted developer would be interested in incorporating Phoenix Wright-level gameplay amidst the crime-fighting segments. Studios like Insomniac and Rocksteady have shown that modern superhero games can be tailored explicitly around what makes the hero special. For example, Daredevil is an agile hero with significant martial-arts training; a talented developer could even incorporate Daredevil's boxing into specific encounters. Hopefully, the leaked Daredevil game rumor is accurate. Otherwise, It's high time that Marvel stops ignoring the Man Without Fear and gives him the game he's due.
Source: YouTube/DidYouKnowGaming?