Gaming
Games
10 Superhero Games Everyone Should Play
Here are 10 Superhero games that you need to know about.
How many of these games have you played?
© Tan Zi Wei
Comic books and video games go together better than chocolate and peanut butter. Ever since the early days of the Atari 2600, when Superman was released in 1978 and featured nothing more than a collection of blue and red pixels trying save Metropolis (which itself was a collection of white, grey, and black pixels), gamers have stepped into the shoes of their favourite comic book characters. Not every comic book video game is going to be a winner (X-Men on the original NES was atrocious, and just one of many, many examples), but when there’s a really good one, it can make a gamer feel like a hero. Here are ten superhero games everyone should play.
1. X-Men: The Arcade Game
Six can play at once, but who has so many friends?
© Marvel Entertainment/Konami
Quite possibly one of the greatest games of all time (no qualifiers), Konami’s side-scrolling brawler featured six playable X-Men (Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Dazzler, Cyclops, Storm, and Colossus) battling against various sentinels and evil mutants in levels as diverse as the Savage Land, the Hellfire Club, and Asteroid M. Most of the game was simple beat-em-up action, but each character could also unleash their mutant powers and clear and entire screen of enemies. Cabinets can still be found in better arcades around the world, and that’s the only way to play this amazing game until Sony and Microsoft put the port back on their online stores (it was delisted three years ago on both stores).
2. X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
Bet we’d get a bigger bonus if we were all bald.
© Marvel Entertainment/Activision
A pair of action role-playing games featuring more mutants than you can shake a stick at. Players can take four characters on missions where they gain experience points to strengthen their powers and abilities. Characters can also gain experience in the X-Mansion hub by visiting the Danger Room and training. In the first game, only heroic mutants are playable, but in Rise of Apocalypse, some villainous mutants are made available (and Iron Man, for some reason), as the threat of Apocalypse is too much for the X-Men to handle alone.
3. Deadpool
Another Everybody Loves Raymond rerun? Sigh.
© Marvel Entertainment/Activision
If you loved the movie, but thought there should have been more fourth wall breaking, this is your game. With a ridiculously awesome plot that sees Deadpool coercing High Moon Studios to make a game about him, Deadpool does suffer from somewhat repetitive gameplay, but that is easily overlooked thanks to the over-the-top shenanigans Deadpool is now known for the world over. Even though Deadpool was removed from console stores for a little while, it’s come back thanks to the movie, so download it now before it’s taken down again.
4. Batman: Arkham series
Where was that awesome taco place again?
© DC Comics/Rocksteady Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Easily the games that best capture the feeling of being the Batman, Rocksteady’s series put players in the iconic suit in increasingly larger maps with increasingly more villains. Batman’s distinctive fighting style and deductive abilities let the player work his or her way through Arkham Asylum, the much larger Arkham City, and finally the entirety of Gotham in Arkham Knight. There were a few handheld and mobile games in the series, but those can be ignored in favour of the console games. While not as good as the core games, the WB Games Montreal-produced Arkham Origins was a fun addition to the series and should still be checked out.
5. Injustice: Gods Among Us
Nipple plate countermeasures… activate!
© DC Comics/NetherRealm Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Not happy with how the battle in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice ended, or how many characters it featured? Then Injustice is just what the doctor ordered. With over 20 characters to choose from and a pretty great story mode (a rarity in a fighting game), players can pit Batman and Superman against each other again and decide once and for all who should really win that fight…. At least until the next time.
6. LEGO Batman series
Joker, that better not be your hand…
© DC Comics/Traveller's Tales/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
For more light-hearted fare featuring DC characters (which is unfortunately in low supply these days), the LEGO Batman games are not only legitimately fun, but they’re quite hilarious to boot. The first game hews quite closely to the Batman side of the DC Universe, but from the second game onwards, Traveller’s Tales lets players play in much bigger worlds with a very deep roster of DC heroes and villains, from the most recognisable to the most obscure (Music Meister, really?). The third game’s DLC includes two levels that let the players unlock TV’s Arrow characters and the upcoming Suicide Squad members (most of them, anyway).
7. Todd McFarlane's Spawn: The Video Game
Someone had to have been fired for that 6+ rating.
© Todd McFarlane Productions/Acclaim Entertainment
Lest you think I have no love for non-DC/Marvel games, I give you this little-known gem from the Super Nintendo era. While Spawn the comic book seems to cater to only a select few, Spawn the video game is fun for the whole family (as long as the whole family doesn’t mind a hellspawn as the hero). While the beat-em-up and platformer elements are nothing new, Spawn really shines in its magic system, which depletes your life meter when used. Players can never rely on the immensely powerful special moves because there might not be enough life left to actually use them.
8. Captain America and the Avengers
Maybe interpretive dance just isn’t for you, Cap.
© Marvel Entertainment/Data East
In a much simpler time, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and the Vision fought alongside each other against the Red Skull and his villainous henchmen. They ran across arcade screens throwing shields and shooting energy beams. Once in a while they called in some friends like Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch to help them out in short bursts. But that was a much simpler time. That was in 1991. That was before the Civil War that ripped them apart.
9. Marvel vs. Capcom series
You’ve blinked in your last photo, Shuma-Gorath!
© Marvel Entertainment/Capcom
Speaking of heroes fighting heroes, the Marvel vs. Capcom series (which started life as X-Men vs. Street Fighter) is possibly one of the best superhero fighting games of all time. Featuring not just Marvel characters both well-known (like the Avengers and X-Men) and obscure (Shuma-Gorath, anyone?), it also contained some of the best Capcom characters to fight with or against, including Ryu, Morrigan, Jill Valentine, and Captain Commando. Never mind civil wars, this game lets you have universal wars in which Shuma-Gorath will eat your reality if you’re not careful.
10. LEGO Marvel Superheroes and LEGO Marvel Avengers
Why do we keep inviting MODOK? He smells awful.
© Marvel Entertainment/Traveller's Tales/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
And we end with another entry from Traveller’s Tales LEGO games, this time with Marvel minifigures running around a LEGOfied Manhattan. While the second game, Avengers, features more and larger free play areas, levels based on various Marvel films, and players’ first crack as Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange (thanks to some upcoming DLC), the first game, Superheroes, is a more fun entry thanks to the inclusion of more comic book versions of the heroes, including a ridiculous amount of X-people who like to hang out at the X-Mansion.
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