It's not a bold statement to assert that most video games based on movies are pretty awful. They almost always suck. But it was still surprising to see that one of the biggest movies of the year (and one of the biggest movies of all-time), The Avengers, didn't have its own video game.

The truth is, The Avengers did have its own video game, you'll just never get to play it. We look back at The Avengers: The Video Game - the first-person, co-op game that was scrapped by Marvel and developer THQ in 2011

Marvel has long known they were making an Avengers movie, which gave the game developers something they rarely have with movie tie-ins: ample lead time. THQ Australia had been working on the Avengers game for Xbox, PS3 and PC for about 18 months when in the summer of 2011, the studio was shut down. The reason was primarily financial and had little-to-nothing to do with the content of The Avengers game which, unlike most, looks like it was actually really good.

Some “pre-Alpha” (the development stage, when no testing has been done on the gameplay) footage from the game has made its way online and it shows your ability to control Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor in a cooperative environment (Black Widow and Hawkeye aren't shown but it's possible they were still playable characters).

What's interesting is that the game's big bad appears to be Super Skrull, a character from the comics. If you'll remember, there were rumors for years that the alien force in 'The Avengers' would be the Skrulls only to have that repeatedly denied. It would appear that at least at some point, the Skrulls were involved in The Avengers before they were shifted to The Chitauri. (Also curious is the Super Skrull in “X-Men” mode, an interesting expansion in the Marvel universe.)

In any event, given the massive popularity of the franchise, it's too bad Marvel and THQ weren't able to see this game to the finish. The opportunity to Hulk smash in first person, looks like too much fun to pass up (keep an eye out in this footage around 2:45 in, for when Hulk puts the Super Skrull in a headlock and almost rips his head off).