The relatively recent explosion (or satuaration) of super hero movies and plans that are under way by movie studios to extend storylines across multiple movies and decades, it got me thinking about my favourite super hero games of all time. There's nothing scientific or objective with this list, it's just 8 titles that have delivered on the fantasy of a being a suped-up guy or gal in tights and levelling hundreds of enemies with a single thunderous punch.
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| The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction |
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction loomed large in my gaming library for a long time. Long after the review was completed, I would dive back into this game on a monthly basis to
SMASH! things. For years, this was the benchmark game I compared against all super hero games because it had just about everything I like in a game: a giant sandbox world, incredible range of movement, a story to plow through with boxing gloves made from crushed cars, and a massive, no nonsense protagonist with easily discerned goals.
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| X-Men Origins - Wolverine |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was merely a better than average super hero action game, but it had a couple of hooks that dug deep into my gamer brain: it starred the greatest Canadian in comics (my apologies to
Captain Canuck) and it demonstrated what kind of damage Wolverine could take and dish out. Enemies were routinely minced into fine jelly and it wasn't uncommon to see Wolverine's skeleton poking through. Some of the platforming elements were cringe-inducing and winning a boss encounter felt like a dice roll sometimes because of a twitchy camera, but X-Men Origins: Wolverine remains a great showcase for the character.
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| Saints Row IV |
Some readers will question this choice because
Saints Row IV isn't overtly a super hero game but it doesn't take much of an examination to see how great an super hero game it is. Very quickly the player character is granted familiar super powers like super speed, telekinesis, phenomenol jumping, the ability to glide long distances, pyrokinensis, and so on. Admittedly the player only has these powers because they're living out a power fantasy inside a digital environment but I thought that just made it cooler as a game. You're playing a game where the character goes inside what is essentially a giant game world. Doors within doors!
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| Marvel Ultimate Alliance |
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is likely the only co-op game to rival the hours I put into the original ToeJam & Earl. The action was more or less a suped-up Gauntlet/Diablo hybrid but it featured a expansive roster of some of my favourite Marvel super heroes facing off against an equally large roster of villains. One touch that I really thought was great was that certain team-ups granted extra buffs and bonus. For example, putting together the Fantastic Four would net a health gain with every enemy KO. It was a little touch but it pinged my brain where good comic book memories lie.
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| Prototype 2 |
Brought to life by the same company that developed The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction,
Prototype 2 built on the framework of the original Prototype and eclipsed it in a number of ways. The revenge story line kind of fell flat, but just running around, bounding and gliding around,
splorting enemies and civilians alike, and still finding time to mangle military hardware... As a power fantasy with a protagonist that is basically a sentient viral blob with incredible shape-shifting abilities, Prototype delivered.
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| Batman: Arkham City |
Building on the success of the surprisingly great
Batman: Arkham Asylum, developer Rocksteady went whole-hog on
Batman: Arkham City by opening up the environment and honing to a razor's edge a combat system that has been lifted by the likes of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and
Sleeping Dogs. Besides being a graphical showcase, the game is steeped in Batman lore and features so many villains and interesting twists that it kept me interested from start to finish. And then being able to play some of the game as Catwoman? It was like a 2-for-1 super hero game!
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| City of Heroes |
It closed down for good November 30, 2012,
City of Heroes was the first MMO that I felt invested in, to the point where it felt like my day wasn't done until I'd played for an hour or two. The sequel, City of Villains, never grabbed my attention like the original did. Both offered great flexibility with character creation, interesting zones to battle through, world events, and the ability to form super groups and team-up with a more powerful player as a Sidekick. It stinks that I'll never be able to revisit this one.
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| Freedom Force |
Freedom Force was released wa-a-y back in 2002 by the disappearing/reappearing Irrational Games and featured a Silver Age style -- think Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko style and you'll know what I mean -- and a solidly built action/strategy/adventure game (even if do remember a lot of crashes) that starred the likes of Liberty Lad, Man-Bot, Mr. Mechanical, and Minuteman. It was a brilliant isometric homage to comic books from that era and I pine for the day that the Freedom Force franchise receives a remastered overhaul.
- Aaron Simmer
