Marvel Contest of Champions adds two more niche characters and makes our little world a bit brighter

When I saw the latest two Marvel Contest of Champions characters, I scoffed. Mr Knight and Silver Samurai, thought I, they are running out of good choices. Then I realised no, I was being far too cynical. This is one of the things that games do best: introduce you to whole new universes. 

Let's use Contest of Champions as an example; seems fair. How many Marvel comic books are there? Far too many for most people to read. Whether that be through time or money. I only follow about five series myself, and a trip to the comic book store is always expensive. 

The point is, it is not feasible for one person to meet every character in comic books. Enter video games. This update gives us a way to experience, say, Silver Samurai. Learn a bit about them, maybe enjoy their design or style. Then, off we pop to the internet to find the most recent comic book featuring them.

A video game is where my love of Deadpool began. Back in the GameCube days, he was a secret character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. I unlocked him, enjoyed the way he played and his dual-wielding, and went to the shop. There, I picked up an issue of Cable and Deadpool, then the fandom began. 

Video games also got me into a lot of anime. I never watched Sword Art Online until I played a badly translated version of Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment on my friend's PSP. Or Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories, or Pokémon. The examples are endless, but the message remains the same.

Whether it is a title wholly dedicated to the series, or Contest of Champions adding the smaller heroes, video games do us a great service. So, next time they add a hero I never heard of, I won’t scoff; I will instead take a minute to look them up.

Our favourite hobby is a fantastic doorway into an infinite amount of other ways to enjoy time, and I love it for that.