Marvel's Avengers have featured in dozens of video games over the years, and while Hawkeye - either Clint Barton or Kate Bishop - isn't as popular as Captain America or Iron Man, they have appeared as a playable character in quite a few of them. An ex-thief who possesses deadly accuracy with a bow and arrow, Barton has been the Avengers' main archer since joining the team in The Avengers #16 in 1965, and has remained an important member since. He might not hog the spotlight in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it's clear from both the character's comics and his appearances in other media that Hawkeye is an integral Avenger, and one with a reasonably solid track record when it comes to video games.
Of course, Hawkeye has never led his own video game the way Spider-Man and Wolverine have. The character doesn't possess the same kind of reach as those two figures, and it's true that the vast majority of his video game appearances have come in the wake of Jeremy Renner's portrayal of Clint Barton in the MCU. That said, that doesn't detract from the fact that the majority of the games Hawkeye has featured in as a playable character are actually reasonably acclaimed. Barton and Bishop may never be the focus, but it's still a highlight when they show up.
Due to Hawkeye's association with Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the vast majority of the character's playable appearances in video games have come in titles related to the Avengers. Some of these appearances also came via DLC, with the character having not made the cut for a game's initial roster on two separate occasions. Hawkeye still has a respectable resumé in the gaming medium though, and one that features some of the best Marvel video games ever released.
Hawkeye's first video game appearance came courtesy of Spider-Man, somewhat bizarrely. Clint Barton and Peter Parker have of course interacted in the comics, but he's still a bit of a left-field choice to have as a playable character in a Spider-Man video game. Maybe not as left-field as Namor the Sub-Mariner - who also appears in this 1991 arcade game from Sega - but one could be forgiven for thinking Hawkeye's first video game would've boasted a stronger link to the Avengers than Marvel's webhead.
Spider-Man: The Video Game was an arcade game that let players assume the roles of Spider-Man, Black Cat, Hawkeye, and Namor as they take on some of Spidey's most iconic villains, with Kingpin, Green Goblin, Venom, and more Marvel villains in the game's levels. Hawkeye employed a mixture of ranged and close-quarters attacks to defeat enemies in the arcade title, helping Spider-Man to eventually foil Doctor Doom's plans, and keep New York safe.
A month after the release of Spider-Man: The Video Game, Data East released Captain America and the Avengers, which featured the eponymous Steve Rogers as a playable character, as well as Iron Man, Vision, and Hawkeye. The game pitted players against the Red Skull, Crossbones, and the Mandarin, among others, and featured similar gameplay to Spider-Man: The Video Game, with players employing a mix of ranged and melee attacks to defeat enemies. Hawkeye's appearance in Avengers featured his classic outfit, as well as his trademark bow.
Captain America and the Avengers launched as an arcade title, but was also ported to the Sega Genesis and SNES, marking Hawkeye's debut to the home console market. Sadly, this wouldn't set the character on a path towards solo video game stardom, as it would take a further 15 years for Hawkeye to appear as a playable character in another Marvel title (and even longer for him to be reunited with the Avengers in a video game dedicated solely to the team). But Captain America and the Avengers provided another solid depiction of Barton, and the Avengers more generally.
After perfectly introducing Marvel's mutants in the X-Men Legends series, Raven Software turned its attention to the wider Marvel Universe with Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Many of the most iconic Marvel heroes were playable in the game, including all of the Fantastic Four, as well as several key Avengers, X-Men, and various other heroes like Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Blade. However, despite featuring some of the then most well-known Avengers across all of the original MUA's iterations, Hawkeye was originally only playable in one of them - the PSP edition. This changed with the release of the game's first DLC, which brought Clint Barton to the Xbox 360 along with Hulk, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler.
Hawkeye was a welcome character addition to Marvel Ultimate Alliance, as together with Hulk, he enabled players to craft a different kind of Avengers line-up. Assembling a team comprised of Hawkeye, Iron Man (in his War Machine costume), Moon Knight and Spider-Woman would grant a "West Coast Avengers" bonus - a callback to the group he led in the 1980s. His attacks made good use of his bow, and as with every character in MUA, he came with a decent selection of costumes pulled from his comics history for players to use, ranging from his classic purple outfit, to the Ultimates look that would later inspire the costume seen in the MCU.
Hawkeye did not appear in Treyarch's Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, either in the base game or in a DLC add-on. He did, however, appear in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order for the Nintendo Switch. He wears an outfit inspired by the design featured in Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth's 2012 Hawkeye comic, and is one of many Avengers to feature as a playable character.
After not featuring in either of the first two Marvel vs. Capcom games, Hawkeye was finally added to the series with the release of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in 2011, an updated version of Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds which was released earlier that same year. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 introduced new unlockables and addressed many of the issues with the original Fate of Two Worlds game, as well as adding several new characters, including Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider on the Marvel side, and Phoenix Wright and Frank West on Capcom's. Hawkeye also appeared in the launch edition of 2017's Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, boasting a more modern look than the classic masked appearance he sported in the previous entry.
In terms of gameplay, as with most ranged characters in fighting games, Hawkeye excelled when it came to zoning enemy players. However, he was just as competent up close as he was with his trademark bow-and-arrow. The character is famous for his ranged abilities, but having been trained by the Swordsman prior to becoming an Avenger, Hawkeye is almost as deadly hand-to-hand as he is from a distance.
Before its servers were taken offline in 2017, Hawkeye was a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, a multiplayer game based on Marvel Animation's cartoon of the same name. The game featured the same cutesy art style seen in the animated series and toyline, with various Marvel characters and locales being rendered in cartoony form. Players were able to explore several iconic locales from the Marvel Universe - including the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building, and Thor's own Asgard - as various Marvel characters, including Hawkeye.
The game came to an end in 2017 some six years after its release, following the cancellation of the Super Hero Squad animated series and the Hasbro toy line of the same name. This wouldn't be the last time Hawkeye would appear in an MMO, however. Another title developed by the Super Hero Squad Online developers that had a more mature approach to the license was released in 2013, although it too was taken offline in 2017.
Although Marvel Games has very much asserted itself on consoles again following the release of the open-world Marvel's Spider-Man in 2018, the majority of Marvel titles released over the course of the 2010s were either for mobile or social media. 2012's Marvel Avengers Alliance was one such social media title, being developed for Facebook to tie into Marvel Studios' The Avengers movie, which released just a few months later.
Avengers Alliance was fairly simple, featuring turn-based gameplay that enabled players to assume the role of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had to build their own team of superheroes. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Black Widow could all be recruited, along with Carol Danvers in her Warbird guise (as the game released just before she became Captain Marvel in the comics). Hawkeye himself was also present, once again in his classic purple costume.
One of the lesser-known Marvel games to have been developed prior to Marvel's Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales was Ubisoft's Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth, which released on the Xbox 360 and Wii U in November 2012. The game took major inspiration from the Secret Invasion event comic (which saw many Marvel heroes replaced with Skrull imposters), and employed the use of the Wii U's motion-controls and the 360's ill-fated Kinect device. Hawkeye appears as both a playable hero and as a Skrull imposter to battle.
Following the release of Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, developers Gazillion Entertainment set to work on another free-to-play Marvel MMO, this time with a more traditional approach to the license. The end result was Marvel Heroes, which underwent a number of different reinventions before it was taken offline in 2017. Players could take control of a number of different Marvel superheroes and unlock new abilities and costumes - Hawkeye being one of them.
TT Games has developed three LEGO Marvel Super Heroes games over the last 10 years, with LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, LEGO Marvel's Avengers , and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 all garnering solid reviews. The LEGO video games have always featured gigantic rosters for players to utilize, and TT Games was sure to make full use of the Marvel license in its LEGO Marvel series, spotlighting the more famous Marvel heroes as well as more obscure ones.
All three LEGO Marvel games featured the Clint Barton incarnation of Hawkeye, with Kate Bishop joining her mentor in LEGO Marvel's Avengers, before returning in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. Both characters possess the same move-set and employ their trademark bows in combat.
Marvel Contest of Champions was another mobile Marvel title from the 2010s, taking a similar approach as the mobile video games for Batman: Arkham Origins and Injustice: Gods Among Us by being a fighting game. Players can pit various Marvel heroes and villains against each other, and unlock new cosmetics for their fighters. The game continues to be updated seven years on from its release, with Eternals characters Sersi and Ikaris being added after the film's premiere.
Marvel Future Fight is a 2015 Marvel mobile game released by Netmarble that features beat em' up-style gameplay. There are over 200 characters for players to choose from, ranging from Asgardians like Angela and Thor, to more Earthly heroes like Black Widow and Hawkeye. The game includes both of Marvel's Hawkeyes, with Clint Barton and Kate Bishop appearing with similar skill-sets.
Marvel Puzzle Quest is a free-to-play puzzle title that takes inspiration from the Bejewled series. It features one of the biggest Marvel video game rosters ever, with a combined total of 248 characters to play as. With that many being in the game, it was to be expected that Hawkeye would also make the cut, with both Clint and Kate getting their own unique depictions.
Marvel Puzzle Quest is far more than just a generic puzzle game, though. The title's story took inspiration from the Dark Reign event, which saw Norman Osborn assume control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and rebrand it as H.A.M.M.E.R., complete with its own twisted version of the Avengers. That, combined with the litany of other comic book references and underused Marvel game characters included within Marvel Puzzle Quest, illustrates how fully Demiurge Studios utilized the Marvel license.
An ambitious Marvel title developed for the Occulus Rift, Marvel Powers United VR was released in 2018 and gave players their first virtual reality taste of the Marvel Universe. It had a unique art style and a decent selection of heroes, with Hawkeye (Clint Barton) making the cut. Multiple players could team up in a session of Marvel Powers United VR, but the game was delisted from the Occulus Rift store in 2020 and taken offline shortly afterward.
Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics' Marvel's Avengers didn't include either Clint Barton or Kate Bishop in its initial lineup, but the two Hawkeyes did become a key part of the game's post-launch content. The main story of Marvel's Avengers is set five years after the devastating events of "A-Day", which saw Taskmaster and other villains unleash a devastating attack on San Fransisco, and the Avengers blamed for letting it happen. Kamala Khan eventually reassembles the Avengers, which is where the post-game kicks in.
Kate Bishop and Clint Barton were added to Marvel's Avengers in its first wave of post-launch content, with both Hawkeyes featuring their own unique playstyles and gameplay. The story sees Kate trying to track down her old mentor, who is now seemingly in the employ of Scientist Supreme, the leader of A.I.M. What follows is an ambitious time-travel storyline that sees Barton officially rejoin the Avengers and come up against Maestro, the future version of Hulk from the comics who became a tyrant.
Marvel's Avengers may have gotten a lot wrong, but its two Hawkeye packs, Taking A.I.M and Future Imperfect, provide the most detailed depictions either character has seen in the medium thus far, exploring the pair's relationship while ensuring each has their own unique style of gameplay. It would be nice if both characters could receive more attention in video games other than Marvel's Avengers going forward, especially now that Marvel Games is pursuing more AAA console titles. For now, though, players will have to make do with Hawkeye's previous video games, the majority of which have done a fairly admirable job of portraying the character.
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