Do you remember the old Marvel Comics Presents comic books from the 90s? A rotating feature of 2 main stories and 2 one shot stories. If Marvel had something like this, an hour long cartoon show with 4 15 minute segments more or less, would you watch it?

The reason I ask is because if something like this was available, I wonder how much interest VS could garner from it.

Would it be in UDE's interests to pursue a joint venture with something like Cartoon Network or some other company to explore something like this? Can you imagine how awesome it would be to see new face every week at hobby league, excited about the new spider friends deck they built using that guy from this morning's cartoon?

So, as people already interested in VS, would you watch the cartoon as well?

Obviously the media product tie in has been very good for Yu-gi-oh and other such gaming properties in attracting new players and driving continued excitement in existing players. However, as I understand the demographic breakdowns, it benefits initially from a younger age group being interested in the TV series and manga, who then wish to act out there interest in the card game that is played on the TV show and in the manga. As they get older they are more interested in the social interaction at a Hobby Store which leads to tournament play as a main level of satisfaction as they get even older. I am not sure that such a tie in can accomplish the same thing for VS. Granted those that enjoy Marvel Comics may enjoy an alternate way to experienc and enjoy their comics, that may not be a real reaction to VS if it were to parallel promoted with the animated Marvel features and series on TV. Any exposure would be good, and anything kept in the mind all the time is always better than nothing being done to advertise and promote and idea. But are the same dynamics in play here as with other franchise tie ins? The comics don't actually play a card game built into the story as does say Yu-gi-oh. They are more context and character driven as they should be. Secondly, the age group is much older and do not typically act out their excitement for a TV show in a card game. Most in this demographic are usually attracted to the game if they have that interest in mind, for more direct reasons such as they want a card game to play and prefer selecting one that fits their style, interests and mechanics. The flavor of the game, in other words comic based characters is an obivious tie in and has a direct relationship, but the older crowd is motivated for different reasons in my opinion than the yu-gi-oh or other properties.

Long winded story shortened, I believe I would watch the Marvel productions on TV if they were good, and if I had not been already associated with VS and it was regularly promoted in conjuction with the TV series, I would look into it. Certainly there does not seem to be any consistant or wide spread advertisements to promote VS in the television community, so this would be a major improvement.

Whether the return on cost of investment would justify the envolvement of UDE with Marvel on such a venture remains to be seen, but putting cost justifications aside, it would in my opinion attract more players.

Bortrea hit the nail on the head. Yu-Gi is effectively a 27-minute commercial for the card game. Young kids are taught you can save the world by playing this game, or at least pretend to save the world.

A Marvel cartoon written in the same fashion would probably do more to alienate longtime fans than it would bring in new ones. It would be great to see some commercials for VS in say, the new upcoming Spider-Man cartoon though.

The idea was a general Marvel Universe cartoon that would feature ads for VS system products, not an exact copy of YuGiOh made into a VS commercial.

I think it might work better if, instead of MCP and the 4 15-minute mini-episode format, they went with a JLU-approach. Call the series "Avengers Assemble!" or something like that. Practically every Marvel U member has been an Avenger. It would work off of the same principal as the JLU cartoon did. Have a core group of Avengers [Cap, Iron Man, Wolvie, Spidey, Storm... like in the Marvel Adventures Avengers title?] and have them team up with a more obscure Marvel hero or two every episode, fighting enemies from throughout the Marvel Universe.

And, of course, advertise the crap outta VS and comics in the commercials for it.

Justin is much closer to my original thinking here. I say Marvel Comics presents, because back in the 80s and early 90s there were a few cartoon gems that featured a rotating assortment of cartoons. Being for Marvel, my thinking is that instead of outright copying DC's Justice League, perhaps instead the rotating stories idea might work out, allowing lesser known characters a few moments in the lime light.

I'd love to even see a 'Spider-man and his Amazing Friends' redo where every week Spider-man is teamed up with a new hero or maybe even villain every now and then for something special.

I'm not a Spider-man fan, at all, really ( damn you clone saga. damn you to hell!!!) But I'd love to watch something like this. And my son would love it. As would likely every other youngster in the world. And that would allow commercials to really be maximized I feel.

My problem with this is that Marvel's track record with cartoons as of late has been spotty at best. It would hurt me if the chance was given for some of my favorite cult characters to show up on TV, only to get another Ultimate Avengers.

Ultimate Avengers wasn't horrible, but it wasn't the Avengers, per se, but instead it was the Ultimates. They needed name recognition so they used Avengers in the title. The cartoon ( part one) was mostly faithful to the Ultimates comic book. Mostly. Iron Man was a huge disappointment for me, but that's because I hate Iron Man and was looking for something stellar to make me like him again.

Ultimates 2 bothered me at first, and then, as the world's biggest fan of the Black Panther, even I came to enjoy the cartoon. I love alternate portrayals of characters when handled well. X-men movies, Spider-man movies and even Blade were handled fairly well. FF...well, they can't all hit it right?

But I get your meaning. It would suck to see another poorly handled attempt at bringing many beloved characters to the small screen only to have them disappoint and do more damage than good.

There has to be a way...

For me, Ultimate Avengers took something that was dumb fun, and then made it more dumb and took out all the fun.

Yes, lure the JLU writers over with Reese's Pieces.

lol

Think a trail of reese's pieces could do the trick? I'm just thinking that utilizing the air time of a cartoon about superheroes would be optimal for UDE to introduce more people to VS.

Well considering that the WB has 2 DC (The Batman & LoSH)cartoons and Cartoon Network has a Fantastic 4 cartoon coming back for a 2nd season. I would think running commercials for the game would help everyone out.

Think about it people Playing the game would Probly watch the Cartoons. Thus those that watch the Cartoons would be informed of the game bring more people to the game. Those that do both would Probly start reading Comics again(Thats why I started reading again after 7 years not picking up a comic).

I just don't understand why they don't run Commercials even if they ran them for say 2 months. If there was no sign that it was helping then stop running them. At least then they can say they tried to help.

The numbers on the commercials comes from where the prize money was coming from. The cash prizes were almost guaranteed to be pooled from the same source as the advertising funds. People talk about a game where they can win big money. Yu-gi oh gets commercials, but doesn't put up the same kind of cash by far, I'm sure. And even if it DID do it, the money is already well compensated, thanks to the cartoon being a long commercial.

If they added in 1 commercial for each cartoon, UDE could see the sales explosion they've been looking for all along.

You are correct. I like how you think man. I like how your mind set is on the possitive thing they can do instead of dogging them at every turn. keep it up man. I smell a revolution coming for VS.

I just want to see VS stick around for a really long time.

I played Rage, and still do. I played Star Wars CCG and still do. I played G.I.Joe and still do.

I play VS, and I don't want to ever have to say I play it and have it be a big deal that I play some game 6 years out of production.

VS has one of the best game systems around. VS is one of the most strategic games and has some of the best subject matter you could ask for. GI Joe has a lot of characters. Star Wars, too.

Marvel and DC Comics? The numbers comparison is laughable to say the least. There are enough comic characters to keep VS in business for another 20 years, especially if main characters continue to get re-featured.

Of caorse this game is the Best no dought in my mind too. I have to say that the Game does need a little air time just to get a buzz going. Like I siad even if they did it for 2 months and if they saw no increase in sale than stop but at least they can say they tried. Thay can't even say they've tried because they haven't. I just wish they could get some love like Yu-gi-oh & WoW does it makes me a sad little kitty to knw they could do this but don't.

Yeah. But with the money getting pulled from the Pro Circuit, I strongly feel that is their intention any way. Ad campaigns are expensive. Say, a few million dollars worth of expensive? I think the pro circuit this year got cut down by enough that after next year, it will go back up. 2 years of it being reduced, and being spent on an advertising campaign and the game will see more players, and will have the sales to justify moving away from tv spots to players again. Heck, even Yu-Gi oh had commercials for a stretch, right? Might still for all I know.

I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing commercial spots before the end of the year.

Cutting that many corners means they want to put money somewhere else, and this is the most logical as I see it.