Electronic Arts has announced that its Chicago studio is developing a new superhero beat-'em-up using Marvel characters. The game will be launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360 next year.

EA is remaining tight-lipped on details, but promises “an authentic Super Hero fighting experience that has been promised for years but never truly been delivered”. Those sound like, erm... fighting words to SPOnG.

“We looked at past comic-based games to find out what was missing and what was needed to successfully translate the intensity, excitement and fiction from comics into fighting games,” says Kudo Tsunoda, general manager and VP (aren't they all?) of EA Chicago. “We’re challenging ourselves to make a game that delivers on the Super Hero promises of past top-tier fighting games”.

Super hero fighting games of the past include EA's own Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects and the Marvel Vs. Capcom series.

“Featuring a great all-star line-up of Marvel Super Heroes and Super Villains with incredible powers that are authentic to the fiction, huge environments and a living world that keeps the gameplay fresh, every battle will be unique; every battle will be like a first edition”, Tsunoda added.

EA Chicago is no stranger to the beat-'em-up genre, having worked on the likes of EA Sports Fight Night series and Def Jam: Icon.

“This is a game that will deliver to both comic book fans and to fighting game diehards”, said Justin Lambros, VP of Interactive, Marvel Entertainment. One of the main problems with comics-based beat-'em-ups in the past for the afore-mentioned “comic book fans” has been that having Magneto squaring off against Spidey doesn't quite level up, so SPOnG's hoping EA has something up its sleeve to resolve the problem.