Name Your Favourite Superhero Game

Name Your Favourite Superhero Game

Posted on Wednesday December 8, 2010, 15:50 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives

You may have forgotten (and, in the majority of cases, who could blame you?) but comic books have offered fairly frequent material for video games over the years. Superman, Spider-Man, Batman and even blooming Aquaman have been replicated in various amounts of pixels since the late ‘70s.

Something recently occurred to me during my second playthrough of the sublime Batman: Arkham Asylum – a game that allows my penchant for detective work, gadgetry and martial arts to thrive within the haunted corridors of fiction’s most infamous madhouse*. This could be the truest video game adaptation of a comic book ever. It’s certainly the Dark Knight’s most accurate representation to date. It’s an exemplary title among the hefty pile of dreary efforts that plagued bygone consoles for years (yes, I’m looking at you Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu and Batman: Dark Tomorrow) that have left the Caped Crusader’s reputation as tattered as half of Two-Face’s jacket. The bad half.

But amongst the long, long list of stinkers, titles like Arkham Asylum have broken through the genre confines to become truly classic games. So it begs the question: what is the best superhero game of all time?

First taking flight on the Atari 2600 in 1978, Superman was (of course) quickest off the mark in bringing some of the world’s most beloved costumed vigilantes to the furious fingers of fans. While that archaic-looking interpretation of the Man of Steel may as well date from a century ago, the idea of hopping into a phone booth and flying off to thwart another dastardly scheme by Lex Luthor remains an irresistible prospect and a distinct thrill so perfectly encapsulated over thirty years ago.

It’s a feeling that Batman has had more luck emulating, as the pointy-eared night rat mastered the art of the movie tie-in early on with Burton’s gothic caper Batman getting a NES makeover in 1989. While the use of batarang, batdisc and grappling hook may seem basic, they were all welcome additions that elevated this above just a routine brawler. Subsequent games based on the Caped Crusader have also proved promising, with the Mortal Kombat inspired Batman Forever and the block-buster Lego Batman giving a taste of the years’ varying bat droppings. Gotham’s infamous vigilante has always held something to offer different demographics.

However, it’s Spider-Man who has been crowned supreme for many years, with the one of the defining gaming experiences of the last generation Spider-Man 2. Developed by Treyarch (Call of Duty: Black Ops developer; unfairly branded as Infinity Ward’s ugly sister), Spider-Man 2 took Spidey into an open-world New York, allowing players to swing around the city with unparalleled freedom. Treyarch also developed the criminally underrated Ultimate Spider-Man game, a canonical tale straight from the comics, retaining the signature art style of the series. However, some (by which I begrudgingly mean older) gamers may be more inclined towards the Playstation/Dreamcast original Spider-Man offerings that, while restrictive, certainly nailed the tone of the animated series.

But what is it that makes a superhero video game perfect? Is it the environment which they inhabit? New York City fuelled exploration in Spider-Man 2, while the gameplay-stunting Metropolis was Superman 64’s Kryptonite. Other titles have triumphed and failed based on the inability to grasp what makes their heroes so, well, super. On a basic gameplay level, the recent Iron Man titles never took flight, whereas Hulk: Ultimate Destruction provided enough puny human pummelling to satisfy a (console) generation of pent-up players.

I’ll always return (perhaps with an over-indulgence of rose-tinted nostalgia) to Blizzard’s The Death and Return of Superman. Few titles have managed to encompass such an innovative angle on an iconic character, adapting one of the most beloved of Superman’s adventures while making the side-scrolling beat-‘em-up instantly endearing with its faithfully moody visuals and polished gameplay. If any superhero game deserves a next-gen upgrade, then I can’t think of one better suited.

So what’s your favourite video game based on an iconic superhero? Arkham Asylum? Spider-Man 2? Maybe you can’t resist kicking the adamantium out of each other, courtesy of X-Men: Mutant Academy or Marvel vs. Capcom. Heck, maybe you even braved the creaking monstrosities that were the two recent Iron Man games. Whatever your excuse for getting into your virtual underwear-over-tights combo, let us know below.

*I’m prepared to be corrected on that one...