Marvel: Midnight Sons

Marvel: Midnight Sons (Japanese: デビル メイ クライ) is an action-adventure game based on mystic and supernatural Marvel Comics characters, created by Mad Man Ninja and is primarily developed and published by Mad Man Ninja Studios. Its gameplay consists of combat scenes in which the player must attempt to extend long chains of attacks, avoiding damage and exhibiting stylized combat; this combat, along with time and the number of items collected and used, are considered in grading the player's performance. Across the series, new characters with unique skills are available.

The series alludes to Stern & Mignola's Triumph and Torment. The game was directed by Mad Man Ninja and writer Bingo Morihashi and announced during the 2021 Tokyo Game Show and was released on March 8, 2022 worldwide.

The main entries have sold several million copies and received Mad Man Ninja's Platinum Title award. The success of the video-game series has led to comic books, novelizations, an animated series, guides, collectibles, publications, and a variety of action figures. Critical response to the gameplay combos has been positive.

Its sequel, Midnight Sons 2: Highway to Hell, was released in 2023.

Gameplay
The gameplay in Midnight Sons consists of levels, missions, in which players battle enemies, carry out platforming tasks and solve puzzles to progress through the story. The player's performance in each mission is graded from D through C, B and A, with top marks of S and SS. Grades are based on time taken to complete a mission, the number of red orbs (currency obtained from defeated enemies) gathered, "stylish" combat, item usage and damage received. The games tracks stylish combat by an on-screen gauge, which is the performance of a series of attacks ("combos") while avoiding damage. The longer a player attacks without repetition and evades damage, the higher the score. The gauge registers "Dope" after a few attacks, progressing through "Crazy", "Blast", "Alright", "Sweet", "SShowtime" to peak at "SSStylish". If the protagonist receives damage, the style rating falls; if the gauge is "Crazy" or below, it will reset.

Team Trigger is a mechanic which enables the player's character to switch beetween three previously selected characters. This may alters the player's strategy, increasing attack and defense or speed, restores health and enables special attacks. It also allows a player to choose one of different combat styles; each style has a different focus and techniques. Many playable characters can switch between all four equipped weapons (two guns, two melees) on the fly, allowing for far greater combat freedom and variety.

Character selection is available at checkpoints and at the beginning of each level, each one with its specific style. The styles are "Trickster", for dodging and agility; "Swordmaster", with abilities for swords and other weapons; "Gunslinger", with firearms techniques; and "Royal Guard", which allows a player to repel attacks with a button press (storing energy for retaliation). Later in the game, two additional styles become unlocked: "Quicksilver", slowing enemies, while the character attacks at normal speed; and "Doppelgänger", which creates a shadow double who fights alongside the player. A second player may control the shadow double by pressing "Start" on a second controller. A two-player mode, similar to the Doppelgänger style, is accessible in a certain point of the game.

The Nintendo Switch version of Marvel: Midnight Sons added the ability to switch between any character (previously selected or not) at any point during combat.

Plot
Victor Von Doom was born decades ago to a tribe of Latverian Romani people under the rule of an unnamed nobleman called the Baron. Victor's mother was witch Cynthia Von Doom who died by Mephisto's hand while Von Doom was young. His father, Werner, was the leader of the tribe and a renowned medicine man who kept his wife's sorceress life quiet in order to protect Victor from a similar fate. Soon after Cynthia's death, the Baron's wife grew incurably ill from cancer and Werner was called to the capital to heal her. When she succumbed to illness, the Baron labeled Werner a murderer and called for his death. Werner escaped with young Victor, having realized the night before the woman would die. He goes on to die of exposure on the mountainside, cradling the boy in a final embrace and giving him his garments to keep him warm. Victor survived and, on return to the Romani camp, discovered his mother's occult instruments and swore revenge on the Baron. Victor grew into a headstrong and brilliant man, combining sorcery and technology to create fantastic devices which would keep the Baron's men at bay and protect the Roma people. His exploits attracted the attention of the dean of Empire State University, who sent someone to the camp. Offered the chance to study in the United States, Von Doom chose to leave his homeland and his love, Valeria, behind.

In his older age, Dr. Doom learns that his mother's soul was trapped in Mephisto's realm of pain and torment, and in an all-out effort to free her, he assembles a group of individuals to raid Hell itself. But what price must be paid before Mephisto will release it? And will Doctor Doom make the sacrifice?

Playable Characters

 * Dr. Doom: a scientific genius and also an accomplished sorcerer. The leader of the group.
 * Dr. Strange: serves as the Sorcerer Supreme, the primary protector of Earth against magical and mystical threats.
 * Moon Knight: chosen by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu to be his avatar on Earth to protect and avenge the innocent.
 * Nightcrawler: son of the demonic warlord Azazel, turned himself to the Catholicism. His primary power is the ability to teleport himself.
 * Blade: a dhampir, Blade has devoted his life to ridding the world of all vampires.
 * Brother Voodoo: possesses numerous mystical and quasi-physical powers derived from the Loa, the spirit-gods of voodoo.
 * Magik: she is the Sorceress Supreme of her Limbo dimension.
 * Nico Minoru: whenever she bleeds, a powerful staff emerges from her chest, called the Staff of One, allowing Nico to bend magic.
 * Man-Thing: transformed into a creature composed of vegetable matter through the synergistic interaction of mystical energy and mutagens.
 * Ghost Rider: became bound to the Spirit of Vengeance Zarathos after making a deal with Mephisto to spare his surrogate father.
 * Hellstrom: as a ruler of a dimension of Hell, Hellstorm commands virtually unlimited power in his own dimension.
 * Morbius: experienced a transformation by electrical shock treatment and chemical ingestion into a pseudo-vampire.
 * Wiccan: possesses an innate mystical ability which allows him to alter and manipulate reality at will.