So Are There Any Good Super-Hero Video Games?

Entry posted by Rogmeister November 22, 2008

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The question is kind of rhetorical...of course, there are good super-hero video games. But it seems there are more bad ones than good ones. That seems kind of strange when you think that super-heroes and action video games ought to be a marriage made in crossover heaven...but it hasn't always been that way.

Batman has probably been the worst offender. Has any super-hero had more bad games than the big Bat guy? There was Batman: Dark Tomorrow and Batman Forever and so many others. There are also some (like a couple PS1 games) that I never got to play but which I never really heard good things about. But there are a few that I've played that I liked including a couple for the Super Nintendo. Batman Returns was actually only the second game I ever got for the system. Today many think of it as a glorified Final Fight-type game and perhaps it is, but it's still a great version of one with really nice music and graphics and fun gameplay. I also like The Adventures of Batman & Robin which was done in the style of Batman: The Animated Series. The Batman games since then have not exactly been winners...most were mediocre and a few were downright awful.

Superman is my favorite super-hero but he hasn't done as well as Batman because he doesn't really have one outstanding game with the possible exception of Superman for the Atari 2600. Since then? Ehhhh. The Death and Return of Superman had its moments on the SNES where you got to control 4 different versions of Superman. One main problem with that game was it had no saves so you had to play it from start to finish in one setting and that wasn't easy since it had about 16 levels. I've heard mixed reports on Superman: The Man of Steel (Xbox) and Superman: The Shadow of Apokolips (PS2, later ported over to the GameCube) but never played either. I never played Superman Returns, based on the movie, but maybe I should pick up an Xbox version of it now since they're dirt cheap. Of course, people to today consider Superman 64 for the Nintendo 64 one of the worst games ever made.

It seems Batman and Superman make up about 90% of the games based on DC Super-Heroes, though there've been a few others. There was a Flash Game Boy title which I had, played briefly and then quickly lost. Aquaman had one game by himself which was bad enough to be touted by many as a stinker of the year. And the Justice League has gathered together a few times...Justice League Task Force, a 2D fighting game for the 16-bit machines. I kind of liked that but wish it had more characters. And the XBox and PS2 got Justice League: Heroes in which you got to play as various members of the troupe. Now, of course, there's Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a team-up I'm not surprised to see...after all, didn't the Marvel guys fight the Street Fighter gang? If anything's surprising, it's that it took this long. Unfortunately, I'll probably never get to play it as I doubt it's coming to the PS2 and I don't have a PS3 or Xbox 360. Oh well!

I've talked about the DC guys mainly because that's always been my comic book company of choice but the Marvel heroes have had plenty of videogame adventures, too. Spider-Man may have fared the best of anyone with decent adventures on the Atari 2600, SNES, PS1, Dreamcast and GameCube/PS2/Xbox trio. The X-Men have gotten a few decent games, too, especially the X-Men: Legends games and The Hulk has gotten a few good games. Unfortunately, games for such other heroes as Iron Man, Fantastic Four (especially the PS1 game), and a few others have definitely been found wanting.

But there are a few good super-hero games out there. You just have to look for them.

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oesii 17

Posted November 23, 2008

My favorite was Spiderman 2 on the Gamecube. Really felt like Grand Theft Auto does superheros. It got a little repetitive towards the end but it was fun while it lasted.