While new generations of video game fans wait patiently for recently announced next-generation superhero games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales or Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, it’s easy to forget how far these types of games have come in just a few years, despite the fact that superhero games have been on the market almost as long as video games have been made.
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Looking back over the last two decades of games, it might be surprising to see which games and superheroes came out on top as much as twenty years ago that may have been forgotten with time. Thankfully, Metacritic‘s rankings allow fans to take a trip down memory lane to explore some of the best superhero games from the first decade of the new millennium.
10 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006) – 82
2006 saw the release of the first game in the fan-favorite Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series that brought together the various heroes of the Marvel Universe on a four-team squad controlled by the player, with more than 22 playable characters and unlockables.
Activision and Raven Software developed the first game that featured an original story that placed the Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man and others against Doctor Doom and his allies, which inspired two follow-up sequels over the next few years.
9 The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (2005) – 83
While fans had seen quite a few games that starred the unstoppable jade giant known as the Hulk, it wasn’t until 2005’s The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction that players really got to step into the torn pants of the gamma-powered monster.
Ultimate Destruction dropped players into a destructible open-world as the Hulk is dealing with a group known as the Division and his own dark alternate personalities. Intriguing storyline aside, there aren’t too many games even today that let players Hulk-out quite like Ultimate Destruction.
8 X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005) – 84
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance followed in the earlier success of the X-Men Legends franchise, which featured the same four-character gameplay that brought a wide selection of Marvel’s mutants to life in an original storyline that was heavily influenced by the Ultimate X-Men comics.
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The sequel introduced even more characters and allowed players to control members of both the X-Men and the Brotherhood while further refining the gameplay features of the first game, making it one of the best X-Men games that have ever been released.
7 City of Heroes (2004) – 85
Players first stepped foot in Paragon City in 2004’s City of Heroes, an MMORPG that allowed players to create their own heroes and fight crime alongside other players, with the game expanding immensely with the City of Villains update.
The fan-favorite PC game introduced superheroes into the usual fantasy-based MMO format and gave gamers the chance to explore their own superhero stories alongside other fans for years until the servers were inevitably shut down in 2012.
6 inFAMOUS (2009) – 85
Sucker Punch Productions released inFAMOUS in 2009, which introduced gamers to Cole MacGrath as he gained powerful abilities from a mysterious explosion to become a Conduit, which launched a number of sequel games.
The game resonated with fans due to its well-scripted story and beautifully created world that players could easily traverse while exploring Cole’s new abilities and choosing the path of a hero or a villain, which would drive the later sequels and protagonists as well.
5 Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000) – 85
The fourth game in the popular Marvel vs. Capcom fighting series was originally released in arcades in 2000 before moving to consoles in North America over the next few years and would become recognized as one of the best fighting games ever, despite its awful soundtrack.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes featured an insane roster of over 50 playable characters from both the Marvel and Capcom universes, which would continue to release new games up to the most recent Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite in 2017.
4 Spider-Man (2000) – 87
While fans got to play more advanced games featuring Marvel’s wall-crawler like 2004’s Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in or 2008’s Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, 2000’s Spider-Man game still stands tall among a packed decade of Spidey games.
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Spider-Man was developed by Activision and featured an original story that was inspired by the comics that featured a number of collectible costumes while also introduced fans to the unique “Doctor Carnage” amalgamation of Carnage and Doctor Octopus that was unique to this game.
3 Freedom Force (2002) – 90
Irrational Games developed 2002’s Freedom Force, which was a real-time tactical role-playing game featuring original superhero characters that were inspired by classic Marvel and DC characters that proved to be popular enough for a sequel in 2005.
Freedom Force followed a group of new heroes as they gained powers and abilities from a mysterious alien, Energy X, and players navigated each character through a series of missions that further developed the world and characters in a beautiful and fun tribute to the classic comics.
2 Viewtiful Joe (2003) – 90
Capcom and Team Viewtiful released the crazy and entertaining beat’em up side scroller Viewtiful Joe in 2003 and instantly won over fans with the dynamic and original story and beautiful 2D/3D animations.
While Viewtiful Joe may fall more in line with typical tokusatsu stories than modern comic books, it’s undoubtedly still a superhero game that was challenging, fun to play, and beautiful to watch as players entered the action-packed world of Movieland.
1 Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) – 91
Most superhero gamers will agree that one of the best of the best is without a doubt 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum from Rocksteady Studios, which featured the Dark Knight as he takes on some of his greatest criminals after the Joker takes over Arkham.
Like Spider-Man, Batman had starred in quite a few games over the years, though Arkham Asylum put players in control of Batman like never before, with advanced gadgets, detective mode, and a new combat system that would influence the next decade of superhero games.
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