Last Friday, Disney revealed their upcoming slate of games during their D23 Expo showcase, which included announcements for a new Tron game, a Mickey Mouse platformer, and a title starring Black Panther and Captain America. Although the 23-minute event felt somewhat slight, there were still a few interesting surprises.
The event began with the reveal of Tron: Identity, a new title from Bithell Games, which previously handled narrative-oriented indies like Subsurface Circular and Thomas Was Alone. The game’s Steam page describes it as a visual novel where players will make decisions that impact the course of the story. It is slated for a 2023 release.
The next big announcement was Illusion Island, a colorful 2D platformer coming to the Switch starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. Its art style appears to be based on the new Mickey Mouse shorts from the last decade (the same style you’ll see in the Disney World ride Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway), and it is based around four-player co-op. It is also planned for next year.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns, the next title from XCOM: Enemy Unknown developer Firaxis, was given a new release date of Dec. 2, 2022 following a series of delays. This date came as a nice surprise, as many assumed the title would not be arriving until 2023. Based on preview footage, Midnight Suns looks to combine deck-building mechanics with turn-based tactics and a supernatural take on classic Marvel characters.
Slipped in between these bigger reveals was news that the 1995 Sega Genesis platformer Gargoyles is receiving a remaster. It is based on the beloved animated series of the same name.
The final two big announcements of the event were centered around Marvel properties. The first was that Skydance New Media, a studio run by former Uncharted director Amy Hennig, is working on an untitled Black Panther/Captain America game. The trailer showed an image of World War II-era France seemingly under the occupation of Hydra and concluded with Captain America and Black Panther squaring up to fight. The teaser alluded to two other playable characters, a soldier and a Wakandan, which implies that the title may be centered around four-player co-op.
The other Marvel reveal was that Niantic, the people behind Pokemon Go, will be making a new AR game called Marvel World of Heroes. Details are scarce, but it’s safe to assume the augmented reality title will stick to the studio’s formula and could potentially result in an army of Marvel fans descending on their local parks.
Here’s the full showcase, if you’d like to check it out for yourself.