Retrospective: Super Hero Games

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.

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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Review: Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes (PS3)

Besides offering hours of enjoyment for the kids, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes did something for me. It reminded me how much I enjoyed the likes of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (2005), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games (2006, 2009) and then plunged me into a hole of nostalgia eight miles deep reminiscing about Stunt Island (1992) but before I can really explain that it's worth quickly describing Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes.

Besides the actual game, the "starter pack" comes packed with three figures -- Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow -- two Toy Box Game Discs, and the Infinity base, which plugs into your PlayStation 3. To actually play the game, one need only put one of the plastic characters on the base; their digital reflections appear in the game and it's off to the races.

At least, for the kids.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (360)

Movie-tie in games should almost be treated as a separate entity since the quality level on them seems to naturally start off with a handicap. For every Goldeneye, we get an ET… with many more movie tie-in games being destined for the garbage dump than any Hall of Fame.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is no Goldeneye, and mercifully not an ET either.

Review: Deadpool (PC)

It's hard to walk two steps without tripping over a game or movie cashing in on the popularity of comic book heroes. Whether it's Iron Man, Superman, The Avengers, or a myriad of others, the eyes of game and movie executives the world over are seeing dollar signs from this sort of thing right now, and we are just getting saturated by it.  In the realm of gaming, Deadpool is the latest superhero to get tossed at us. It's a competent action-laden affair with plenty of crude humor and wacky hi-jinks, but the game is about par for the course for what one should expect from a hacky, slashy, shooty superhero game. Moreover, it's incredibly short which, despite it's relatively budget price tag, is very hard to ignore.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (360)

Amazing Spider-Man's biggest distraction as far as I’m concerned is that during the webslinging exploration parts of the game, the camera is far too close to Spider-Man. I’m sure there were reasons to opt to remain tight with Spider-Man throughout – trying to convey being there? – but it certainly doesn’t feel very good to have my view constantly blocked.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (PS3)

Following the immensely successful open-world Batman: Arkham City game last year, it isn't a surprise that the not-quite movie tie-in The Amazing Spider-Man would sling itself in the same direction: placing a popular superhero in an open world with the freedom to either follow the game's storyline or explore and free-roam through Manhattan, in search of side missions and collectibles.