Remember that old The Avengers game that was in development at the now-defunct THQ before its cancellation?

　　Well, thanks to gaming history channel PtoPOnline, we can now check out an early build running on Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. According to the YouTuber, the footage was recovered through an old hard drive via the Obscure Gamers portal.

　　As we can see below, The Avengers was meant to be a first-person brawler game with a heavy emphasis on cooperative action, clearly inspired by Valve's Left 4 Dead franchise. The playable heroes, such as Thor, Iron-Man, Captain America and Hulk, would have had to rely on each other's skillsets to perform stuns and finish off their foes. In addition to the aforementioned four, other heroes such as Black Widow, Hawkeye, the Fantastic Four and Ant-Man were meant to be unlockable in-game.

　　While the goal was to ship The Avengers pretty much alongside the movie in 2012, it wouldn't have been a tie-in. The developers had opted for an original story inspired by the Secret Invasion narrative arc, which means players would have had to face Skrulls with abilities modeled after those of heroes like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers themselves.

　　However, as THQ started encountering the financial troubles that ultimately led to its closure, the Australian division that was working on The Avengers was shut down after Marvel refused to fund the development themselves, and the game was officially cancelled in 2011.

　　Now, Earth's mightiest heroes will soon have a chance at redemption with Marvel's Avengers, the new third-person action game in development at Crystal Dynamics (with the help of Eidos Montréal). The title is now scheduled to hit PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia on September 4th, though a beta test should happen before that date.

　　Publisher Square Enix recently announced plans to reveal more details later this month.