Lots of fans nowadays seem to think openworld games seem to be the way to go for most superheroes out there, and why shouldnt they? Most superheroes and antiheroes protect and/or operate in an entire city. This is the case with Flash as well, no matter who's under the mask (Jay Garrick, Barry Allen or Wally West), they all protect the twin cities, Central City and Keystone City. However, Flash gets rarely mentioned in this discussions, with many people wondering if Flash really could be adapted into a video game. Well, I'm here to prove that yes, he can! And it would be an awesome game!

Gameplay

First things first, the most important part of any game. How could Flash's speed work in his hypothetical game? Moving around shouldn't be much of a problem, it's been done before:

Seems pretty straightforward (heh), right? You're fast, very fast, but not so much that you can't control your speed and know what's going on. Of course, you'd be able to tap in and out of superspeed mode so you could comfortably interact with NPCs and such.

Next is combat; when fighting bad guys you have your typical combat layout (punching, grabbing/throwing, etc). Since Flash should notice when someone's about to attack him you could have a similar combat system to the one from the Arkham games (which seems to be pretty popular nowadays), but that's where the similarities end. When approaching a enemies the game should give you the chance of blitzing at least one punch on an unsuspecting enemy (that could grant you an instant KO, similar to that move in the Arkham games where Batman glides into an enemy, grabs him and slams him into the ground). With that said, there would be button combinations to take advantage of your superior speed. For example, a move that allows you to deliver one punch to all enemies in superspeed, a small tornado that could lift them from the ground or take their oxygen away, attack with small whirlwinds generated by your spinning at superspeed, punch someone many times very fast, etc. At the beginning of the game you would have certain basic abilities but as you gain experience you would get new abilities such as vibrating through solid objects, freeze time for a short period of time (or as I like to call it super-superspeed) or the aforementioned combat moves. Just because you're Flash doesn't mean you have to be that fast.

Characters

Of course there's the question of which Flash should star in this game. I personally wouldn't mind any of the choices (although I would obviously prefer Barry) but based on WB and DC's recent track record I'd say it's a pretty safe bet they'll be going with Barry Allen. I personally would prefer a Pre-52 setting where we get to interact with the other Flashes (Jay, Wally, Bart Allen as Kid Flash) and the Flashes' allies and supporting cast (Iris, Joan, Linda and the kids, maybe even Jesse Quick and Max Mercury). An special option that allows you to use other speedsters would be quite awesome.

Story and Villains

A basic story for the game should be easy to make, especially if you're hoping for at least one sequel. The villains should be the Rogues, who would have very cool boss battles: Captain Cold would use his cold gun/powers and release several hazards to even things out in his favor such as creating a cold field to slow Flash down, freezing the ground to make you slip, the classic cold beams of course; Heat Wave would use similar but much more destructive tactics since his fire won't just go away forcing you to end the fight fast (pun intended) and he'd burn everything around him, destroying the area; Weather Wizard would use his wand to create all kinds of disasters through the city and you'd have to avoid them and keep pursuing him; Mirror Master would use fake versions of himself to fool you, create mirror duplicates of yourself to attack you, trap you in mirrors, etc; Trickster would use his gadgets to attack you and avoid you and his flying shoes to avoid you as well, forcing you to come up with creative ways of handling him. There's other great and dangerous Flash foes of course, such as Abra Kadabra, Top, Dr. Alchemy, Gorilla Grodd and the Reverse Flash but you could save them for other games. You could also use more minor Flash foes like Grinder, Tar Pit, Cicada, Murmur, Double Down, etc. for side misions.

Setting

Both Central City and Keystone City would work (as long as they use the correct Flash of course) and it would be awesome if you could be in both (current technology could make this possible). Other places that would be cool to see, depending on which characters are in the game would be: The Flash Museum, Gorilla City, Iron Heights, and many others.

Extras

This one's easy, as there's many cool stuff they could include in the game, such as other costumes, bios of different characters, maybe even unlockable characters and extra challenges or free digital comics.

So, have I convinced you? Would you give The Flash a chance if it was made (and it looked awesome of course)? Voice off below and let me know what you think, and if you have any new ideas present them as well of course!

Awesome blog bro! Flash fans unite!!

I agree with all of your points. If it's a game with Barry Allen vs the Rogues, then I'm all in

My dreams for a Flash game skyrocketed when I saw the Super-Speed navigation in Saints Row IV. Seriously, it's crazy fun.

@batmannflash: Thanks a lot!

@strangeman: I haven't played Saints Row IV but I did watch a gameplay video and I liked that superspeed gameplay too, it's pretty much the same from DCUO but with better animations.

Pretty cool, i can dig it

For setting I'd prefer detail over size so maybe Central city for first game and Keystone for the sequel? Would add variety between the series as well.

Am I the only who think hack 'n' slash style gameplay would work for a flash game? The combos and fast-paced moves would give the feeling of speed blitzing.

Super speeding through city as Flash? It would be all day, all night fun for me lol.

@stormbox: Thanks!

Agreed, that's an even better idea. Maybe even have Barry for the first game and Wally for the second one, that way you can explain why your abilities are back to square one.

Am I the only who think hack 'n' slash style gameplay would work for a flash game? The combos and fast-paced moves would give the feeling of speed blitzing.

It can work but I've never been a fan of that idea, I've always preferred a game where you can run freely all over an entire virtual city.

Same here, haha!

@jldoom: Eh? I meant only hack 'n' slash style combat, not the rest of it, including linearity.

@maccyd: Oh sorry, since you said "gameplay" I assumed you meant it should be a hack-n-slash game as a whole. In that case I agree, I mean, Flash is obviously not going to fight like Batman, the combat gameplay should be more dynamic. DCUO has hack-n-slash combat gameplay so the video I posted above should give you a somewhat crude preview of what I'm thinking.

Great blog. Really makes me want to see a Flash game made.

An open battle field would involve more creative combat than injustice gods among us (which is still a sweet game), but it seems odd that flash (or superman) is restricted to this limited battlefield. If done right, it could be a masterpiece.

I wouldn't mind if you modified the Arkham combat system for a Flash game. Say whereas Batman would launch a single punch or kick when you hit a button, when you hit a button as Flash, he launches four or five hits on one target with one button press in the same amount of time as one hit from Bats, with the number of hits per press escalating if your timing is good and your combo rises. Imagine a combo counter going into the hundreds or thousands in a single fight.

As for special moves, perhaps one could be time freezes, and Flash stays frozen in place as well. For the duration of the freeze, you play as an afterimage moving even faster than Flash normally, and move around hitting guys, knocking their afterimages around. When the ability ends and time resumes, everything you did rewinds back to where it was when the ability started, and then you see everything replay from a normal time perspective, not Flash's slowed down view.

Or perhaps a brief buff that functionally increases the damage you deal, but visually causes Flash to stand still, then when you hit a button to attack, he darts off screen, then runs in from the opposite side of the screen and hits the target without stopping his run, very briefly freezing at the center of the screen for you to cue up another hit. Miss a press, and the ability ends. DON'T miss a press, and you can speedblitz an entire fight.

As for open world gameplay, while running around, you'll gradually speed up, until you eventually hit the max playable speed, at which point, you continue moving at the same speed, but the world starts slowing down, until it completely stops, giving the same effect as moving faster while keeping it playable. And on timed missions, the timer would of course slow down along with the world.

In other news: That New 52 Flash outfit in Injustice looks awful.

@thecannon: Thanks a lot!

Agreed!

@jldoom: What if they took the Arkham City idea of having two interweaving storylines? Like they could have you be Barry at some parts and Jay at others. Both characters would play more or less the same but with minor aesthetic differences like maybe when they enter super super-speed Jay could maybe turn around and run backwards to show off. He could also maybe take off his hat and use it as a weapon in some combos. If you want some gameplay differences between the two Jay could hit slightly better but it would be a smaller window to do the combo attacks in and when running at super-speed Jay could have quicker acceleration time but be a bit harder to turn and slow down but they both have the same top speed. Upon completion of the game you could maybe use Barry or Jay in all the levels and maybe some side missions can only be accessed by one or the other.

There could be a separate co-op mode where you have to race around town with one person being Barry and one person being Jay and there could be others racing to defeat the most bad guys in a certain time limit.

@tikhunt: That's an excellent idea as well. See, that's the great thing about a Flash game, there's so many things you could do with it.

Someone needs to pitch this idea to either Rocksteady or the people who made the Infamous series.

@jayskee: Definitely! I'd personally go with Sucker Punch, of Infamous fame, only because they have more experience with powers but both would be awesome!

@rustyroy: Haha, thanks a lot man. Too bad we're not getting this game until Flash gets a movie or his show or something.

@jldoom: Yeah, hopefully the Flash TV series will open up WB's eyes so we could get a Flash movie and a game.

Would love this, would be cool if you were able to attack your enemies so it looks like they are in slow motion just like from the flash series and even like quicksilver in DofP!

Rollerball Joystick: Experience

A video game only about the Flash sounds cool, but I don't mind games with Flash working with other superheroes like Arrow, Batman, and Wonder Woman --- perhaps against Brainiac and Nuclear Man.

It would be nice if X-Box reintroduced the rollerball joystick, which would give a Flash video game great all-around motion to complement the speed feature.

Alternative Joystick Model Listings

No on movement at superspeed. Been there, done that.

They need to slow the world down relative to you like Fallout's VATS or Jet effects, but allow you to keep moving full speed. This would be much preferred instead of speeding you up like on DCU Online. In that game I always run into walls and it sucks. Slow down the world relative to you as you move through the city. That would be sick.