Marvel's Wolverine could lead to an X-Men game eventually, X-Men games have had a history of either leaving Beast out or relegating him to the sidelines as a minor NPC character. This is somewhat surprising, considering Beast's prominence in the Marvel Comics, both in and out of the X-Men. Debuting in 1963 in X-Men #1, Beast is one of the five original of the X-Men (alongside Cyclops, Angel, Iceman and Jean Grey), and has remained a vital part of the team through many of the X-Men's biggest and most prominent storylines, including his vital role in X-Force during Jonathan Hickman's Dawn of X run.
Beast also played a major role in Fox's popular X-Men films. While Marvel's Wolverine should move away from Hugh Jackman and his portrayal in the Fox films, the popularity of Beast in these films should indicate to developers that there are plenty of fans who would like the chance to play as Beast. Originally portrayed by Kelsey Grammer in X-Men: The Last Stand and later portrayed by Nicholas Hoult in X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocolypse and Dark Phoenix, Beast has long played an important and prominent role in the films, often overshadowing more popular X-Men heroes, such as Storm and Cyclops, in later films. Despite all of this, Beast has still only been playable in a small handful of Marvel video games, most of which are mobile titles with already massive rosters.
Beast is also one of the few Marvel heroes to have been a member of both the X-Men and the Avengers, making him a great fit to add to the DLC roster of Marvel's Avengers. Unfortunately, very few games have elected to make Beast a playable character, leaving the majority of his playable appearances in mobile titles, where he is added years after launch into an already crowded cast of characters. While Beast is playable in the first X-Men Legends game, he was left off the roster for X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (unless playing on the N-Gage), and was never added to the roster of any Marvel Ultimate Alliance game. In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Beast was introduced as an NPC (alongside Cyclops and Colossus) during the X-Mansion set chapter. While Cyclops and Colossus were later added as free DLC characters, Beast remained an NPC-only character.
Why Beast From X-Men Is Rarely Playable In Marvel Games
While Beast is only one of many characters that should've been playable in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3's roster, his exclusion seems to represent a pattern in X-Men games, which often choose far less popular characters (such as Sunfire or X-Man) to appear as playable characters over Beast. While there are likely several reasons for this, one big reason for his exclusion might be due to similarities between his powers and those of Wolverine or Sabretooth. Like the two aforementioned characters, Beast is both a strong and agile melee combatant, who primarily uses his claws in a fight. Game developers might feel that the overlap would make Wolverine feel less unique, and decide to focus on Beast's high intelligence instead, making him a non-playable NPC.
However, Beast's abilities could add a lot to X-Men games like Marvel's Wolverine or Marvel Ultimate Alliance. While Beast's combat abilities might be similar to Wolverine's, his intelligence can be utilized to give him powerful abilities. This can range from providing healing or buffs to teammates or placing gadgets to help in battle. In a single-player game like Marvel's Wolverine, Beast can be playable in certain sections that require terminals to be hacked or logistics puzzles to be solved and can pave the way for Wolverine to properly tackle the area later. Beast is one of the X-Men's most interesting heroes and deserves a playable appearance outside of mobile games, and hopefully, an X-Men video game can give him that.
