What genre best represents superhero based video games?

[videogamersadvocate]

Getting into Freedom Force has opened me up to a new way of experiencing superhero games. I never imagined that it would work so well in the real-time tactical format but it really does. What the series does, it does very well. But is real-time tactics the best way to play a superhero game?

Personally, I really think that the MOBA genre could be a top genre to represent epic superhero battles. As I was playing SMITE this week, all I kept thinking about was how the Marvel and DC characters with their abilities would fit so well in that type of game. I know League of Legends and DOTA 2 are considered to be more pure MOBA, but what I like about SMITE is its third person approach where you have more control over your character's actions like an Action RPG. Speaking of Action RPG, the X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance games are pretty fun and incorporate the superheroes and their powers very well. Fighting games like Injustice are excellent in putting superpowers on display and I feel beat em ups like Captain America and The Avengers can bring some good times. Then there's open world action games like Marvel's Spiderman and the Batman Arkham series that are universally loved.

Which do you all prefer?

[SickAlice]

I just like comic books and generally that theme is patterned over an existing game engine type. Most properties can be used that way but the gameplay experience I think is dependent on the engine itself and what an individual enjoys playing, not what licensed property is in use. Fighting games with superheroes are a standard example of that method and generally are directly a pattern over the companies popular engine. However for recreating the actual experience of the comic character I find open world seems to lend itself best if they work to recreate the physics and dynamic properly. The two you listed as well other games like some of the Ninja Turtle ones strike me in that manner. Of course games fall short and I think all that is an artform still very much in it's infancy with enough agreed upon awful examples of. MOBA and else to me seems more to candor of the idea of collecting figurines that move themselves and recreating the setting in which one would play with toys as opposed to the experience of reading a characters adventures so that in itself is a good thing as well. Also an example of forms that are either still discovering themselves and/or a pattern over an existing engine depending the direction the creators went with it. I think a "true" comic to game has yet to emerge but in the same hand I feel in spite of all the great advancement the video game itself is still relatively young and has many places to grow and go yet. Half-baked answer I know but given the plasticity of the subject the best I can really come up with on short notice. Personally I would play a karting game with my favorite comic book characters and be just as pleased regardless of how it actually represented them.

[videogamersadvocate]

You make some very good points. There is definitely a lot of growth to be had and more innovation to come in the future in how comic book characters are depicted in video games. Definitely like your idea of a superhero kart racer. That would be very fun.

[naitvalis]

Okay i want to say something to about what kind and how a superhero game could be better then  this times, free roam games are very nice but a lot of times in this kind of game you just go around and punch things, i like comic books and basically in the kind of comics we are talking they finish with some kind of fight, but the story around it keeps you interested, how to transfer a comic book world in a game?  do the fighting simulation very well, but if i could have another simulator for the events and the stories around the characters i create, i mean you create the universe x with the background s for your characters then this universe start the simulation and you are called to solve the things, ex: the villain A have discovered the identity of your hero B and...this sort of things evolve your whole universe x, I don't really know if i have explained myself, something like a menu with the world events and your choices about them, and then a tactical map ala  . Something that let you say " oh let me see my hero sim events today what happened to my recently created Righteous League of America" ...

[detourne_me]

I really enjoyed Telltale's superhero games, Guardians of the Galaxy and Batman, going back to other comic book games, Fables, The Walking Dead, and even Bone.
The story is the main reason why I love superhero comics, and Telltale style games are definitely focused on the narrative.
Also, you don't get the issue that a lot of action games have, a million thugs or minions to beat up.
I like it when the stories are a lot more personal, and you only have a few villains. When Batman takes damage in the Telltale games, that actually means something. He doesn't just rampage through a million guys only to have trouble with a boss.
Don't get me wrong though, I absolutely love the Arkham games, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, and the open-world Spidey games. It's just the gameplay loops aren't as fulfilling for me in those games as they are in the narrative-driven telltale games.

[videogamersadvocate]

Yes, we can not forget that the stories are vitally important when it comes to why so many of us enjoy comic book characters. The super powers are cool and all but the stories are what make the characters wielding the super powers stand out. I have three Telltale games in my library that I want to eventually get to: The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Back to the Future. If anything I'll probably do Back to the Future first since the three movies are my favorite of all time.

[detourne_me]

Those are all great games!  The Back To The Future games are really fun, and quite a bit different from The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. The BTTF Game is closer to their roots of old-school point and click adventures, like Sam N' Max. With Walking Dead Season 1 and Jurassic Park, Telltale's games took on a more cinematic tone, kind of closer to David Cage's games (Heavy Rain, Indigo Prophecy, Detroit: Become Human).