Five Undeniably Stellar Superhero Games From This Generation

My love for comics is deeply rooted, and my love for video games is well established, so you can only imagine the size of my smile when the two merge and make beautiful music together. The problem is, this is a rarity because most licensed games suck, and are just cheap attempts to milk money from the udders of whatever franchise it is brutalizing. But, there are rare occasions when a video game and a comic book (or comic book character) just mesh up perfectly, and you go from feeling like a gamer, to feeling like a full-on superhero, suddenly capable of doing things his mind only dreamt about as a child.

Here are the five games from this gaming generation that I feel best capture the feeling the license they were using, and the character they were representing. And to anyone curious, Marvel Versus Capcom is not on the list in any form because it isn’t solely a comic book inspired video game. Though we can all agree, it is pretty awesome.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Series)

The graphics are aging as gracefully as Val Kilmer.

Though you play it now and it begins to show its age, and even though it is a dungeon crawler with a slick coat of Marvel paint, it still worked for me, if for no other reason than the sheer amount of Marvel characters you could play as, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways they interacted with each other. You could lumber around a stage, playing as Hulk, and just leveling everything. Or you could go through as Spiderman, and be far more defensive, leaping off walls and using a web shield. And just the fact that, across both games, you got to play as some cult faves (like Deadpool before his fame surge and recent subpar game) and Ghost Rider (before Nic Cage LITERALLY peed on the franchise). For a grown up fanboy like msyelf, that was enough to sell the series.

Plus, what nerd DOESN’T wanna play Diablo as Wolverine? Speaking of Wolverine, was anyone else pleasantly surprised by…

Wolverine: Origins

“Mom, watch me dive! “

Now presenting, the game that the movie SHOULD have been.

I think I could easily write an 1000 word article about this game, alone, and everything it did right. Honestly, there are very few games I play through more than once, and Wolverine Origins is one of those games. Truthfully, outside of the Arkham games, which I will speak of later, this is the game that pretty much encapsulates what it would feel like to be a badass, marauding superhero. Rarely does the game get tough, but that subtle touch is genius, because rarely does Wolverine ever face a real challenge, and the idea here was to make you feel like him. Like you could slaughter anyone, like you could take damage and heal. Like I said, every single note it hit was perfect, and all fans of the character owe it to themselves to play this game and let it replace the memory of the AWFUL two films from your mind. Yes, I said awful TWO films. I have seen both, and both suck so intensely, I thought they were produced by Dyson.

Also, this game features my proudest achievement in a 360 game ever, Threading the Needle.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz8Whwl8es8

I did that shit first try, and I still remember feeling exhilarated. Man, I’m a fucking nerd.

Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions

And yes, the many skins and costumes you could find were pretty badass, like this Tony Stark designed Iron Spider.

Erase whatever it is you think about Spiderman 2 being the best Spiderman game. Yes, it was awesome because it was one of the first games to EVER actually make us feel like the superhero the game was about, but if you gave it a chance you’d see, Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions was a much better game, start to end. Not only a better game, but a game I would say is easily one of the 20 most under-appreciated games of all time. Yes, I just said that. Now hear me out.

Shattered Dimensions was, for all intents and purposes, four games in one, and each one was better than the last. Amazing Spiderman was the funny, fast talking Spiderman you grew up reading (and finally gave me a fight with Kraven the Hunter). Also, in The Amazing version, Spidey was voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, and it was as awesome as it sounds. Ultimate was the new universe, black suited Spidey, a little more gritty and tougher, with some cooler enemies to boot (the Deadpool level is THE BEST REPRESENTATION OF DEADPOOL EVARZ!!!!!!!!). Spiderman 2099 is set in the future, with a different man wearing the spandex (a cool, Spanish dude I think) and A LOT of vertical combat (falling levels rule). And last, you had the crowning achievement. Spiderman Noir, which was pretty much stunning. It was black and white, set in the nineteen forties, and played like the Arkham games. Seriously, look at this shit:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFUQlWaTXR0

Yes, it played even cooler than it looks.

You got all that, four games with interlocking stories, all the best Spidey villains, and all for the price of one game. The fact that everyone doesn’t gush about this game is odd to me. I think it a conspiracy, and I blame Norman Osborn.

Batman: Arkham Games

In the DLC, “Purrring Conspiracy”, they have a love scene you can control. Really hard to find, though.

First off, to set things straight, I liked Arkham Asylum more than Arkham City. I know that seems screwy, but I thought it was easier to keep the story tighter with it all contained in one place. Though the scope and execution was jaw dropping in City, it overwhelmed me at times, and I felt like I missed some things I may have not missed were it more linear. That disclaimer out of the way, these games are, honestly, perfection.

They took a perfect license, matched it up with perfect gameplay and storytelling. They FINALLY gave the character the adaptation he deserved, and you needn’t even be a fan of the core material to realize you were playing something perfect. I know I keep using that word, perfect, but honestly, does any other fit? The Arkham games are the games that will be forever held as the high water mark for licensed video games (and video games in general) and though the following may get me in some shit with you guys, I am a bit hesitant about the new game.

Yup, I said it.

By a third game in a series (examples for me, Dead Space, Gear of War, Resident Evil) unless you do something MAJOR to change the gameplay, I tend to start losing interest. The new game looks to add nothing new to the series, and it seems like they have already tapped the well dry of the best Batman enemies, so now they are using new ones (I do like Black Mask in the comic) and some altered villains as well (no comment about how they turned Copperhead into a lame Harley Quinn and Catwoman hybrid) so time will tell how well the series stacks up, but for now, City and Asylum are game changers, pun intended.

Scott Pilgrim Versus the World

I am seriously bringing this shot to Kinkos and having them blow it up so I can hang it over my couch.

Bam, no one saw this coming, huh? Like an evil ex from the past, it strikes with blind vengeance. Though not a superhero in the “I can fly” sense, he is super, and he is a hero, so he is here!

Scott Pilgrim for the PSN and XBL was, much like the above games, perfect. Not only was it an old school brawler (which was a huge inspiration for the original books), but it made nods to video games within a video game, it had brutal difficulty that old school games used to have at times, and the hand drawn graphics and chip tune music was exactly how you would imagine it would be, if an old school video game came BEFORE the comic. But that reality is, it came afterwards, seems like it came before, and is all awesome. I will admit, unlike the above games, you WILL appreciate this game that much more if you read the original comics the material is based on, which is one of my fave graphic novel (series) of the last decade.

And when you are done catching up on all these games, go read some shit about serial killers. Seriously unsettling stuff from your resident weirdo, Remy.