Our Ten Best- Episode 13:Comic Book-Inspired Video Games

10535HulkSince video games became prominent in homes all over the world in the late 70s, publishers have wanted to create games based on already established characters in comic books. While many of them haven’t measured up well, there are a handful that have been fantastic, spectacular and uncanny, all at the same time, making us feel connected to these characters in ways that the written world could never measure up with .

In this list, we chronicle the best games based on our favorite super heroes.

10- X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Say whatever you want about the lackluster movie, but this game is fun. Featuring great visuals and a solid combat engine, this game makes you forget the horrible “Wolverine: Admantium Rage” that was released on the Super Nintendo and Genesis in the mid ’90s.

9- Marvel Super Heroes: Possessing the engine that would eventually become “Marvel vs Capcom”, this game is a comic book fans dream come true. A mega hit in the arcades and later of the Sega Staurn and Sony Playstation, the game features over a dozen of your favorite Marvel characters and was much better than the decent Justice League fighting game DC released around the same time. A feast for the eyes, the game still has a hug cult following to this day.

8- Spider-Man: Released on Playstation in the late ’90s, this game was based on the popular animated series of the same name and at the time, was the first game to truly capture the essence of everyone’s favorite web head. With great graphics, a ton of characters and unlockables and an even crazier story that had you fighting Doctor Octopus after he’s been affected by the alien symbiote as a final boss, it’s easily one of the best adventure/beat-em-ups of its console generation.

7- X-Men Legends: Taking a page from popular games like “Champions of Norrath” and “Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance” this game tells a huge story that takes over 40 hours to complete and rewards the gamer with an extensive level-up system, which allows them to customize their favorite characters. What more could you ask for?

6- Justice League Heroes: Much like “X-Men Legends,” JLA Heroes takes the majority of its core gameplay mechanics from the action/rpg genre and adds in an excellent and equally as deep story. Both excellent games, JLAH ends up being the better one due to better voice acting, graphics and character abilities.

5- Spider-Man 2: Combining elements from the first game in the series released on the Playstation 2 with the uber popular Grand Theft Auto series, “Spider-Man 2” is the first game to make the gamer feel like they are actually a webslinger. Allowing you to travel through a virtual New York City, this open-ended game is arguably the best Spider-Man game of all time.

4-Batman: The Animated Series: A product of great overall design from Konami, this game features an excellent soundtrack and a tough as hell story mode that mirrors the television show its based on to a T. Despite the fact that it hasn’t aged very well and turns some gamers off due to its difficulty, it was the standard barer that all comic-inspired games looked to be and sometimes still is.

3- X-Men: Easily the best-looking game of its time on the Genesis, this title was also incredibly tough and provided hours of fun. Allowing gamers to play as some of their favorite X-Men and actually see what they were doing was a treat too, especially after the miserable top-down view X-Men game that was released on the Nintendo in the ’80s.

Editor’s Note- That NES incarnation X-Men was so bad that Review Fix Cult Movie Editor Anthony Benedetto threw it in the garbage after buying it.

2-Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Take the successful formula of “X-Men Legends” and add in the entire Marvel Galaxy, with better graphics and a bigger story. ‘Nuff said.

1-Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction: Never before has a game completely captured the essence of a character the way this one does. Sure, the first game released on the Playstation 2, Gamecube and X-Box in conjunction with the first movie was solid, combining stealth and action elements, but it was no where near as enjoyable as this game. Home to an excellent physics engine, Hulk UD is a one of a kind game because virtually everything in the environment breaks, allowing you to unleash your inner monster and be as bad as you want to be. Throw in an excellent story that encompasses the entire Hulk universe and a level up move system, this is a title for the ages.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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