While we can't say that all of the games on this list are truly "great" games, they are games that we enjoyed a lot. It's what we would generally consider the best of the comic book games, and are things we would recommend checking out to our fellow comic geeks.
The rules are pretty simple: the game must be based on a character or franchise that existed as a comic book before becoming a video game (so no Gears of War or Halo or Mass Effect since those were video games that were turned into comic book properties as well). This also excludes games focused on super humans, like inFamous or Saints Row. And most importantly, they're games that we had to have actually played! But that one is probably a given. (So, sorry DCU Online and X-Men Legends, we just have had time yet!)
10. JUSTICE LEAGUE: HEROES (2006 - PS2, XBox, PSP, Nintendo DS)
Justice League: Heroes is a dungeon crawl game Warner Brothers put forward, largely to ride on the coat tails of the more successful X-Men Legends series from Marvel. The strength of X-Men Legends is that it allows you to pick from pretty much the entire team on any given level. Heroes opts to take away that choice for most of the game. The story causes the team to split up, and often forces your teams without your say so. The powers are pretty fun to use though, and the Justice League seems based on the popular animated show of that time. Frankly, this game is pretty much interchangeable with Marvel Ultimate Alliance which came out a week after. Ultimate Alliance has a better team, but Heroes, in our opinion, looks a little better and is a little bit more fun.
Main reason we like it: Fun character powers.
Metacritic Score: 68
Metacritic User Average: 8.5
9. THE INCREDIBLE HULK: ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION (2005 - XBox, PS2, GC)
There's something about the Hulk that makes him really difficult to translate to the big screen, but Ultimate Destruction highlighted what makes him such a fun character to use in video games. An open world game, players control the Hulk and can just pretty much do whatever. Or rather, can just destroy whatever. The story is penned by Paul Jenkins, a former writer of the comic, so it feels as much like a Hulk story as it can. While the battles can get a little stale and tedious after a while, it's still just tons of fun running around and being the Hulk - something that hasn't really been captured since.
Main reason we like it: Free roaming destruction of whatever you want!
Metacritic Score: 83
Metacritic User Average: 8.7
8. INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US (2013 - XBox360, PS3, PS4, PSVita, Wii-U)
Fighting games can feel pretty repetitive. They can also get really frustrating for players unfamiliar with them, as it can very quickly turn into little more than button mashing and hoping for the best. Injustice isn't ultimately much different in that regard, but it does feel a bit tighter than a lot of 2D fighting games. A solid roster and interactive environments helps make the game feel a little less generic. Fans of the comics will probably just have a lot of fun. We're admittedly not big fighting game fans, but we had a blast playing. As usual with these games, it's more fun to play with friends than the single player experience, which has a pretty "meh" story, but then, no one really plays these games for the plot.
Main reason we like it: Great beat 'em up combat.
Metacritic Score: 81
Metacritic User Average: 7.9
7. SPIDER-MAN: WEB OF SHADOWS (2008 - XBox360, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii)
Spider-man games have had a bit of a checkered history. Sure, they've never been as terrible as, say, Superman games. In fact, a lot of them have actually been pretty fun on some level! But they've never quite felt much like Spider-man games, really. Things started to change after the Sam Raimi films, and Spider-man 2: The Video Game really opened up what was possible. That game, in reality, is terrible, but it paved the way for future Spider-man games. While its story isn't exactly the best (not that it's the worst either), Web of Shadows is perhaps the most complete Spider-man experience to date. Set in the Marvel universe, players are treated to a variety of cameos from other popular characters. Combat is very fun and rewarding. There's this cool element too where you get to choose how often you're in the symbiote suit, and that impacts the game. Most importantly though, swinging around the city actually feels awesome, giving you a more detailed and entertaining New York City sandbox to play in. While not our favorite Spider-man game, this would be the one we describe as the most definitive web-slinger experience yet.
Main reason we like it: Most accurate Spidey experience we've encountered.
Metacritic Score: 68
Metacritic User Average: 8.6
6. MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2 (2009 - XBox360, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Nintendo DS)
Marvel had seen success with its X-Men Legends series, and even carved out a place in the dungeon crawl market with its own Ultimate Alliance. The sequel isn't too far of a departure from that formula, but it mixes in enough new elements to make it superior. Apart from just looking better and including more characters (although not necessarily better, per se), the game also includes a pretty distinct choice early on. The story is loosely based on Marvel's big crossover event Civil War, and as such, you essentially have to choose which team of heroes you want to play as. Much of the time is then spent fighting other heroes, as well as traditional villains. Ultimately, it doesn't give the game that much replay value, as the differences aren't great, but it's always fun to go back and play as the opposite team. What's even more awesome about the game though is that it allows for four players, so it's a great party game.
Main reason we like it: Fusion attacks, which have team mates combine powers.
Metacritic Score: 74
Metacritic User Average: 7.1
5. SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010 - XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network)
If the comic (and subsequent feature) are heavily built on video game nostalgia, the video game adaptation takes it to a whole new level. Scott Pilgrim is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up game in the same vein as most of those classic arcade games you can think of. Or, really, of those earlier days of superhero video games. Each character has their own unique moves, and gain experience, giving it a bit of an RPG feel to it. Players earn coins during battle, which they can spend on upgrades at shops. It plays a bit differently from most beat-'em-ups as a result. Co-op play is fun, and it has - as one might expect - a killer soundtrack. It's every bit a love letter to those retro games, while being just as fun.
Main reason we like it: Super retro.
Metacritic Score: 77
Metacritic User Average: 7.8
4. THE WALKING DEAD (2012 - XBox360, XB1, PS3, PS4, PSVita, Ouya- because that was a thing...remember that thing? It was a thing once, I swear)
Telltale Games have a nice little thing going. Telling narrative-driven games with limited gameplay, but built entirely on player choice allows for some interesting things to happen. At some point though, it stops being particularly fun or interesting and starts feeling tedious. Still, for all the problems that exist within it's overly simplistic game engine, The Walking Dead really transformed what people thought of these sort of "choose your own adventure" games. Broken down into "seasons," each with five episodes, it plays out a lot like the comic. You play for a while, get to some crazy cliffhanger moment, and then you have to wait for the next episode! This can get frustrating for a lot of people, but comic book readers should be used to that by now, especially for The Walking Dead. The first season is extremely flawed, rendering your choices clearly meaningless from the get-go. This is a huge flaw in a game entirely built on the idea of player choice being the only game mechanic. Even with that though, it still managed to pack an emotionally compelling story - with some of the best character development and emotional punches in the entire Walking Dead license! The second season does a much, much better job covering up whether your choices make much of a difference. While perhaps not as emotionally potent, the overall experience of the season two is substantially better, to the point where it might have very well saved the Telltale formula from collapsing in on itself.
Main reason we like it: The feels...oh...those feels...
Metacritic Score (Season 1): 89
Metacritic User Average (Season 1): 8.7
Metacritic Score (Season 2): 80
Metacritic User Average (Season 2): 8.2
3. BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY (2011 - XBox360, PS3, Wii-U)
Gliding around a sizeable chunk of Gotham (or rather, a prison in Gotham) creates perhaps the definitive Batman experience. The strength of City is how it fits its narrative and sidequests into this dark, dreary sandbox. Even when distracted by side villains, you never stray too far from the central story of the game. It works in Batman's villains seamlessly, all while never clogging your to-do list with too many tedious and time consuming chores - as can be the case in open world games. Combat doesn't feel all that different from the first game in the franchise, but it's still fluid and extremely fun. Boss battles have been a little tricky for the Arkham franchise, but they actually feel pretty solid here. Frankly, it was kind of a toss up on which installment to put here. Most people would probably rank City over Asylum, and it's not hard to see why!
Main reason we like it: Feeling like the Batman, gliding around the city.
Metacritic Score: 96
Metacritic User Average: 8.6
2. SPIDER-MAN: SHATTERED DIMENSIONS (2010 - XBox360, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS)
Listen, it might not be the best Spider-man game, and we can totally see why some people won't be into it, but we're admittedly big fans of the alternate reality Spider-men. The story involves traversing different dimensions, giving the player control of four different versions of Spider-man. There's classic Spider-man, Ultimate Spider-man in the symbiote suit, Spider-man Noir, and Spider-man 2099. While the story is that inherently silly kind (which itself is actually a lot of fun), it connects to gameplay. By throwing the player to these different versions of the character, the gameplay is regularly changed up. Some people might not be into it, but it can be really interesting and engaging to get various styles of play. Each Spider-man has his own unique abilities, which forces the player to play differently in each world. It spices it up. (And really, we'd absolutely buy a Spider-man Noir game on its own!) Far from a particularly accurate Spider-man experience overall, we found this to be one of the most fun Spider-man games we've played. It's maybe not a great game, but it's great fun.
Main reason we like it: Different worlds with their own style of play. Spider-man Noir is especially fun.
Metacritic Score: 76
Metacritic User Average: 7.6
1. BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM (2009 - XBox360, PS3)
Let's just be real here: Arkham Asylum opened up what the comic book game could be. It's innovative and extremely satisfying combat system has been cloned time and time again. It blended practically every era of Batman into one thing - incorporating elements of the Nolan movies and the comic books with elements of the animated series and even the Burton films. Even people who aren't particularly huge Batman fans can appreciate this amalgamation (and yes, non-Batman fans do exist). A lot of folks might bemoan the linearity of the game, especially compared to later installments that focus more on open world environments. What's great about Asylum though is how it works that into its narrative and gameplay. The whole story takes place in this one mental institution. The series of tight spaces and linear corridors creates a claustrophobic atmosphere that really makes it feel like this is a crazy house. When engaged in combat, it adds a sort of desperation, as you don't often have a ton of room to maneuver. Caught in a group too big? You can't really just flee. Certainly, the bosses in the game are disappointing, but overall, we still every so slightly prefer this to City. How much of that is just because it came first is up for debate.
Main reason we like it: Super satisfying combat system.
Metacritic Score: 91
Metacritic User Average: 8.7
When trying to pin down a list here, it became clear that comic book video games have really seen a ton of improvement in the last ten years. Maybe it's that the technology is finally at the point where you can translate comic book worlds to video games, or the characters and their powers to consoles, or maybe it's just that so many people grew up with these characters at this point that there's more care in getting it right. To be sure, there are always terrible games. A lot of those comic book movie based games just feel like cash-grabs (X-Men Origins: Wolverine being the lone exception, where more care seemed to be given to the game than the film). Otherwise though, it really does seem like original comic book based games are trying harder to get it right.
For us comic book nerds, it's pretty exciting times.
Looking back on the list, it seems like a lot of these games could easily swap positions. Don't think of the rankings as particularly permanent, especially since it's been a while since we've played some of these. What do you think are the best comic book inspired video games?
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