Comic Book-Based Video Games: A Top Ten List

[zuludelta]

Was cleaning out my closet when I found my old copy of the PS2 game X2: Wolverine's Revenge, what should have been a fine game (with Wolvie voice-acted by Mark Hamill) if not for a bunch of game-breaking bugs that mind-bogglingly made it past the game-testers. Anyways, finding that old disc got me thinking about the best comic book-based video games I've played over the years. But before we get to my list, I've elected to write down the games that I didn't consider.

The Notable Exceptions

Freedom Force/Freedom Force vs the Third Reich: A sentimental favourite of mine (and I'm guessing yours, too) but despite being an almost note-for-note evocation of what was good about Silver Age Comics, the fact remains that it isn't actually based on a previously published comic book. I had to draw the line somewhere, or else I would've opened up the list to any number of games that can claim to have been inspired by, but are not actually based on, pre-existing comics. And no, the fan-made mods of Marvel and DC characters don't count.

City of Heroes/City of Villains: See my reasoning above for excluding FF/FFv3R

The Marvel vs Capcom series of 2D fighting games: Great games that combine the Street Fighter engine with Capcom-styled renditions of some of Marvel's more popular charcters. Still, for most people, at least half of the appeal of the game is because of the playable Capcom characters, so I don't think it's entirely fair to put it on the list.

Any games based on manga: There are just too many games based on Japanese comics that they probably deserve a "best-of" list of their own.

Justice League Heroes: Never played it.

Sam and Max: I've heard good things about this game, but again, never tried it.

With that out of the way, here's my list, in reverse order:

Zuludelta's Picks for best comic-book based video games

10. XIII: based on the Belgian comic book of the same name, this first-person shooter is a straight-up adaptation of the first five volumes of Jean Van Hamme and William Vance's excellent conspiracy/noir saga. The gameplay is pretty standard for an FPS, but what really makes this game stand-out is how the developers were able to nail down the visual style of the comics with their use of cel/toon-shading techniques. Even the comic book sound effects have been incorporated into the game... at one point, you can track the motion of a guard hidden behind a wall by watching out for the the text sound effects of his foot steps fading from view and decrease in font size as he walks away from your character. An excellent game and it's a shame it didn't get more exposure when it was released.

Platform(s): Playstation 2, XBox, GameCube, Windows PC, Macintosh
Miscellaneous details/trivia: David Duchovny and Adam West play prominent roles in the voice cast   

9. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter: perhaps the most popular FPS on the Nintendo 64 console and undoubtedly one of the best-selling N64 games in North America. Turok cements its place in console gaming history by being one of the few third-party developed games for the N64 to receive critical and popular acclaim on both sides of the Pacific (it debuted in Japan as the #1 selling N64 cartridge, virtually unheard of for a stateside-developed game). Perhaps the biggest criticism I have for this game (comic book-wise) is that it makes no reference to its comic book roots (the game itself is almost devoid of a backstory outside of a few, dialogue-less cutscenes), which is suprising since the game publisher (Acclaim) actually owned the character's comic book publishing rights at the time. I wouldn't be surprised if most people who played the game had no idea that the title character was featured in a comic book, much less that he has a long publishing history in comics that dates all the way back to 1954.   

Platform(s): Nintendo 64, Windows PC
Miscellaneous details/trivia: The game was originally conceptualized as a third-person action game in the mold of the popular Tomb Raider games.

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: There was a time in the late 1980s when the Ninja Turtles were probably the most famous comics-based properties worldwide, rivaling the popularity of mainstream comics icons such as Superman and Spider-Man. The historical significance of the TMNT was that creators Eastman and Laird proved that independent comic creators could achieve breakthrough commercial success, and this NES game (released in 1989), arguably the most high-profile comics-based game of the 8-bit era, was further validation of that success. I haven't played this game in ages but the one thing I remember was that it was one of the hardest games I'd ever played. In fact, I don't think I ever beat it.

Platform(s): NES
Miscellaneous details/trivia: Konami also created a strictly side-scrolling arcade game of the same name. This was repackaged for the NES and released in 1990 under the title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game.

7. Ultimate Spider-man: based on the comic book of the same name, this game featured a story by regular USM scribe Brian Michael Bendis with cel-shaded game art based on Mark Bagley's work. The game was promoted as containing a canonical, in-continuity story, and even features the first official appearances of Ultimate Beetle and Ultimate Silver Sable. The game allows players to free-roam a recreated version of Queens and Manhattan and in certain stages, players also take control of the villain Venom.

Platform(s): Playstation 2, XBox, GameCube, Windows PC
Miscellaneous details/trivia: The game also features the first appearance of the Ultimate version of Adrian Toomes, the civilain alter-ego of the supervillain known as Vulture.

6. Marvel Superheroes: The second Capcom fighting game based on Marvel characters (the first being X-Men: Children of the Atom), this game is probably more remembered for what it led to (the hugely popular Marvel vs. Capcom series of arcade games), as opposed to any actual contributions to superhero video-gaming. Capcom again used the same formula it employed with X-Men: CotA, combining a simplified version of its Super Street Fighter II Turbo gameplay mechanic with stylized renditions of popular Marvel characters. An excellent 2D fighter in its own right, but largely overshadowed by its more frenetic successors. Most video gamers today probably dismiss 2D fighters but you have to be at an arcade to fully appreciate the competitive nature of these types games... the noise, the crowds, the trash-talking, the wagers, guys (and girls) lining up to unseat the current champ, it's too bad the days of the dedicated video arcade are probably numbered, what with the home console revolution and all. 

Platform(s): arcade, Playstation, Sega Saturn
Miscellaneous details/trivia: Wolverine was voiced by Cathall Dodd, the same voice-actor who portrayed Wolverine in the 1990s Fox X-Men Animated Series.

5. X-men Legends 2: Raven Software's second attempt at a tactical RPG starring Marvel's merry mutants is a far more polished affair than the first X-Men Legends game, which was plagued by a long list of bugs. One of this game's major breakthroughs is the addition of an online multiplayer component, which serves to lengthen the game's lifespan and makes it even more popular. The game is no slouch in the visuals department either, although understandably, details are limited in a game that can feature upwards of 30 onscreen characters at a time. The most striking visual feature of the game, however, are the excellent, feature film-quality cutscenes by Blur Studios, a large improvement over the cinematics from the first game. They're almost worth the price of the whole game by themselves.
 
Platform(s): Playstation 2, XBox, Gamecube, Windows PC, PSP
Miscellaneous details/trivia: Actor Lou Diamond Philips (Young Guns, Stand and Deliver, La Bamba) voiced the non-playable character Forge.

4. Spider-Man 2: Treyarch's second game based on the Spider-Man movies, this one based, logically enough, on the second Spider-man film (this game is not to be confused with the earlier Playstation game, Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro). One of the most memorable gameplay aspects of this game is its introduction of the web-swinging mechanic: players can only webswing if buildings of appropriate height are within swinging range. A simplified version of this webswinging was utilized in Ultimate Spider-man. The game also features a painstakingly-accurate recreation of downtown Manhattan. The plot is an adaptation of the Spider-Man 2 movie storyline, albeit with some liberties taken to facilitate gameplay. A solid game, and still the best Spider-man video game you can play.
   
Platform(s): Playstation 2, XBox, Gamecube
Miscellaneous details/trivia: there was a bit of controversy with regards to the Windows PC/Mac "version" of the game. The Spider-Man 2 game for the Windows PC/Mac was actually an entirely different and significantly inferior game created by a different studio, but the branding was such that a good number of consumers bought the game thinking that it was a port of the home console version.

3. The Punisher: THQ's The Punisher has all the profanity and over-the-top violence of the Marvel MAX Punisher series. This shouldn't at all be surprising since the game's plot and script were written by current Punisher scribe Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti, who served as the inker on the Marvel Knights-imprinted Punisher series from a few years ago. This game garnered itself a fair bit of controversy because of the violence, and the game developers had to make some last minute changes for it to get published. A straightforward third person shooter somewhat reminiscent of Max Payne, this game's best attribute is how well it captures the mood of the comic it's based on: The Punisher is a relentless engine of destruction out for blood, the mob gangsters are hilarious stereotypes that almost border on the offensive, and the game's vision of New York, best summed up in the Punisher's opening monologue in the first mission, is just tone-perfect.   
   
Platform(s): Playstation 2, XBox, PC
Miscellaneous details/trivia: Nick Fury appears in the game, a bit of a nod to the side-scrolling Punisher arcade game from the 1990s, where Fury was a playable character.

2. Hulk: Ultimate Destruction: One of the better console games I've played in recent memory. A decent story written by Marvel writer Paul Jenkins, updating Hulk's Cold War origins for a more modern setting. The best thing about this game is that it allows you to take out all your frustrations on an unsuspecting city as the Hulk in free-roaming mode, great for relieving stress. It's also a bit tougher than your average action game, I actually wore out the springs on my control pad on this one, the first time in a long time that it's happened with a game not entitled Tekken. There are also some entertaining mini-games in addition to the main story missions: everything from kicking field goals with cars in place of footballs, to playing golf with boulders. The game also allows the player to "Hulk smash!" in any number of ways: cars can be used as giant metal boxing gloves, trucks and buses can be flattened and used as shields or even skateboards, and lampposts can be used to skewer opposing Hulkbusters.
   
Platform(s): Playstation 2, XBox, GameCube
Miscellaneous details/trivia: While the game is set in its own continuity independent of the comics, the Abomination's appearance in the game when the Hulk first encounters him is almost identical with the look of the Ultimate Abomination that appeared in Ultimates 2, which should be no big surprise since Ultimates artist Bryan Hitch also helped supply concept art for the game.

1. Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Of course, the main appeal of playing a comic book-based video game is the ability to play as one's favourite superhero, and a fundamental feature of the superhero experience is the ability to interact with as many denizens of the shared comic book universe as possible. For many comic book fans, the immersion in a shared universe is perhaps the most important aspect of the comic book video game, even trumping to some degree, gameplay. Raven Software further refines the tactical RPG system it developed in the X-Men Legends games in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which stars a good sampling of the Marvel Universe's most famous characters. Also returning in this game are the incredible cinematics created by Blur Studios (the Nightcrawler sequence set in Castle Doom, IMHO, is one of the best directed cutscenes on the PS2). The game doen't do anything particularly well, and one could argue that it really isn't that much improved from X-Men Legends 2. Still, the game offers a pretty comprehensive overview of the Marvel universe with missions set in Mephisto's hell and the far reaches of space, and various points in-between. Of all the games listed here, I think this one succeeds the most in immersing the player in a world populated by larger-than-life superheroes and devious supervillains. 
   
Platform(s): Playstation 2, Playstation 3, XBox, XBox 360, GameCube, Wii, Windows PC, PSP
Miscellaneous details/trivia: Invisible Woman is voiced by Danica McKellar, who is more famously known for her role as Winnie Cooper in the seminal coming-of-age TV series from the 1980s, The Wonder Years.

[captainspud]

The only change I'd make would be to move Spidey 2 to the 2nd slot. Hulk captured the feel of being hulky very well, but the actual game underneath felt a little hollow. Still a fantastic game, but it can't quite challenge the depth of Spidey 2.

[gengoro]

Id replace Spidey 2 and x-men legends2 with Spider-man from psx and X-men The Arcade Game. 

[Glitch Girl]

Oh yes, the Konami 6 player X-Men game, still the best Superhero Sidescroller ever.  Great looking graphics (for the time) and the six player option made it a major quarter sucker and near social activity at our campus.

[BatWing]

nick fury is in the punisher!!!?

[zuludelta]

nick fury is in the punisher!!!?

He fights alongside you in the Grand Nixon Island mission in the recent Punisher game, yes. In the old Punisher arcade side-scroller, the second player gets to control Nick Fury.

[BatWing]

can u use nick fury in the punisher?
like a secret character?

[zuludelta]

can u use nick fury in the punisher?
like a secret character?

No, unfortunately, although I think it should be possible to do something with the PC version (maybe the models or the textures can be swapped around).

[lugaru]

Great thread! I agree with Glitch that the x-men sidescroller was really impressive when It came out, and remained a threat to my wallet for a few years after. I hope they pick it up on gametap...

And speaking of gametap I highly recomend you get it so you can play the new sam and max games, at least see how far you can get on the free trial. I finished them and it's one of the only good adventure game experiences I've had in ages. The dialog ranges from great snappy one liners "My job is to give t-shirts out to the guy who aks the dumbest question of the day, but Im sorry, Im out of husky boy sizes..." to wonderfully obscure "I always considered RUSH to be the QUEEN of canada...".

[The Phantom Eyebrow]

Nice thread all right, I've always enjoyed your reviews ZD and I understand the reasoning for leaving out FF and CoH (two of the Daddies of computer games, nevermind the superhero genre).  I might have to keep an eye out for some of these other games you mention. 

[Jakew]

I used to love the superhero sidescrolling beat-em-ups in the arcade, particularly The Avengers, X-Men and spider-man (which I remember being insanely hard).

Also, there were two X-Men games I really loved ... one of Mega Drive (platformer) and one on Super Nintendo (beat-em-up). Can't remember the names, though.

[detourne_me]

I can't believe you don't have the Sega Genesis X-Men or X-Men 2 on the list.  Blasphemy!
not only did those games really kick butt, but they actually introduced innovative ways of playing the game.  like in the first one,  in Mojoworld you actually had to reset the genesis to keep playing!
and in X-Men 2,  it invented the notion of playing before you see the starting credits, and the best part about that was that it randomly selected an X-man that you had to beat the first level with before seeing the start-up credits and start screen.  coolest part was, if you didn't like the character (say gambit or psylocke) you just hit reset and a new character pops up :D

[zuludelta]

Never owned a Sega Genesis, so I never got to play those games til much, much later and by then, I'm sure the contextual significance of the games were pretty much lost on me.

[detourne_me]

heh,  thats alright!
i'm sure if i went back to them they wouldn't be that great.   but i absolutely loved them at the time!

[JeyNyce]

I like the list they have here:

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/788/788700p1.html

[thalaw2]

I like the list they have here:

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/788/788700p1.html

I definitely agree with adding the Avengers and Marvel vs Capcom.... these games sucked up many a quarter back in the day...truth be told I would be "happy as a lark" if I could still find a place to pay Marvel vs. Capcom.   I never saw the appeal of King of Fighters. 

[Viking]

Heh.  I'm familiar with most of the games listed here - either through observation or playing first-hand.  I just had to echo the sentiment - Konami's 6-player X-Men game was the coolest side-scroller ever.  What with the double-screen layout, and different animations for how different heroes would pound on a downed foe, and the different special mutant "kill lots of enemies" powers, it was an absolute blast.  My younger brother always claimed Wolverine, so I quickly defaulted to playing Nightcrawler.

[detourne_me]

...truth be told I would be "happy as a lark" if I could still find a place to pay Marvel vs. Capcom.   I never saw the appeal of King of Fighters. 

The Winnipeg Airport arcade has both Marvel Vs. Capcom and Children of The Atom.
the only reason why i didn't hang myself after having a 3 hour layover at the Winnipeg Airport.  :rolleyes: