The Best Marvel Games In History

Like many licensed properties, Marvel has had a mixed relationship with the video game world. From questionable early Commodore 64 games to some cash-hungry mobile games in recent years, not every Marvel game is worth remembering. But amid some duds, we’ve been treated to several excellent releases over the years, many of which still hold up to some fun play sessions to this day.

Arcade Fun

A cavalcade of Marvel video games hit home computers in the 1980s, including properties as varied as the Fantastic Four and even Howard the Duck. However, for many fans, the first great Marvel comics games didn’t arrive until the early 1990s, helping to heighten the spreading popularity of side-scrolling brawlers. Data East’s Captain America and the Avengers (1991) went a long way toward establishing the potential for a big multiplayer comic game. The arcade title was especially notable for the broad range of allied Avengers and enemy supervillains that showed up. In addition to playable versions of Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Vision, we also are treated to the appearance of other contemporary superheroes like Wasp, Wonder Man, and Namor. Bad guys included Living Laser, Klaw, Ultron, the Mandarin, and ultimately, the Red Skull.

If Captain America and the Avengers established the potential of a comics-based brawler, X-Men fulfilled it. The incredibly popular arcade cabinet hit in 1992, and rapidly found its way into various bowling alleys, bars, and kids’ restaurants. While multiple versions of the game were available, the most impressive is a massive six-person affair that included two side-by-side monitors to create the effect of a widescreen theatrical display. Cyclops, Colossus, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Wolverine took on lead duties. The large, well-animated onscreen characters help to accentuate the explosive action, and each character has his or her own distinct super-powered mutant ability that could be triggered. 

Arcade cabinets, Super Nintendo, Genesis, and later, PlayStation, played host to a number of middle-of-the-road action titles throughout the '90s, including titles like The Punisher, Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, and X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse. However, the next universally praised Marvel title wouldn’t show up until 2000, with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. Still fondly remembered as one of the great fighting games, MvC 2 allows for a mishmash of favorite comic characters like Magneto and Storm, and Capcom mainstays such as Ryu and Jill Valentine. By allowing for a mix of three distinct characters on your team, the fighting game encourages myriad strategies for victory, and its insane special moves had the tendency to overwhelm the entire screen. 

Coming Up Next: The action games of the 2000s...

Embracing Action

By the mid 2000s, Marvel was working with multiple licensing partners to bring its characters to the gaming screen. This same period also began to see the explosion of silver screen Marvel treatments, including X-Men, Daredevil, and Spider-Man, and as expected, the gaming world often followed suit with connected games. Few of these titles had much to offer, but one of the rare exceptions was Treyarch’s 2004 Spider-Man 2. Based on the movie of the same name, the action title capitalized on the recent trend of open-world gaming and crafted an impressive version of Manhattan to explore. While the fighting system effectively evokes Spider-Man’s acrobatic tendencies, the most striking aspect of the game is the innovative web-swinging experience. By letting players swing freely through the whole city, Spider-Man 2 provides a sense of freedom unmatched in other contemporary games of the period. 

In that same year, X-Men Legends released to the gleeful cries of mutant fans, who had wanted something similar for years. The game taps into the isometric action RPG vibe of games like Diablo, but translates the action over into a modern-day comic setting instead of a fantasy one. Four players can all hop in together to confront Brotherhood members, Sentinels, and Morlocks. X-Men Legends is notable for its broad selection of playable characters, from familiar mainstays like Cyclops and Wolverine to lesser known heroes like Magma and Beast. X-Men Legends also allows for some fun upgrade options, encouraging players to customize their mutant abilities. 

X-Men Legends was so beloved by its fans that it spawned a sequel, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, the following year. However, most fans agree that the crowning achievement of the franchise didn’t come until 2006 with the release of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. By this time, Raven had polished its formula to a smooth and highly enjoyable grind. Ultimate Alliance expands the roster to include hero characters from across the Marvel comics spectrum, and further grows that roster through subsequent DLC characters. The game also let players either form their own superhero teams or slot in characters from well-known teams like the Fantastic Four and Defenders. 

2005 saw the release of another clear favorite: Radical Entertainment’s The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction doesn’t skimp on its title’s promise. The game mixes a huge open world of both urban and desert wilderness locales with the ability for Hulk to tear through the environment all around him. At the time of release, few games – comic-based or otherwise – had offered such a comprehensive suite of skills built to destroy. The effect is a potent power fantasy, in which players control a green goliath that can smash cars into boxing gloves and survive collapsing buildings. 

Coming Up Next: Modern Marvel games explore new genres...

Modern Experiments

Recent years have seen Marvel experimenting with new game platforms, genres, and game styles. As has always been the case, some of these experiments have failed to hit the mark, but a few standout titles rise above the rest. 

You’d be hard pressed to find too many vocal defenders of 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine film, but the same can’t be said for its accompanying game. The X-Men Origins: Wolverine adventure proved unafraid to look beyond licensed games for inspiration, and found a desired style and feel in Sony’s God of War series. Like the rage-fueled Kratos, Wolverine eviscerates his enemies in bloody swaths. By embracing a Mature rating, Raven Software gave fans the Wolverine game they deserved. Thankfully, the hefty violence quotient isn’t the only thing the game has going for it. Cool set-piece moments and strong cinematics bring life to Logan as a character, and potent third-person combat remains entertaining throughout. 

After years of other franchises getting the Lego treatment, Marvel finally got in on the action in 2013. While on the surface, Lego Marvel Super Heroes appears to be a game targeted to younger players, the title ultimately reveals a lot of depth and replayability. A large open world allows for endless wandering, individual characters have distinct abilities to affect the world, and amusing side missions are guided by the merc with a mouth, Deadpool. With 150 playable characters to gather, Marvel’s first foray with the Lego video game world kept a lot of players busy for a long time. 

While it’s been a slow burn to match fan expectations, Marvel Heroes continues to grow into a highly engaging MMO/Action-RPG take on the Marvel universe. The game takes a surprising tack, letting each player build up a stable of their own favorite Marvel characters and then deck them out in any number of different costumes, instead of crafting their own heroes from scratch. While this strategy means that you sometimes see multiple Iron Man heroes walking around the world, the reward is a broad array of playable favorites that grows with each passing month. The Marvel Heroes 2015 relaunch has proven itself to be both accessible and fun, and content continues to be added quite regularly, including the option to now engage in raid activities with friends. 

In recent years, Marvel has also invested heavily in moving into the mobile space, with varying degrees of success. However, several titles shine through as strong contenders. Marvel Puzzle Quest takes the popular match-three gameplay style and adds in some solid RPG layers. Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past offers a rarity in mobile gaming: a strong action/platformer with a fun story and great visuals. And Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon provides a cutesy take on the spacefaring team using the familiar tap-and-attack style popularized by Battleheart. 

It’s great that Marvel has found some success in the mobile space. But for longtime Marvel gaming fans, the strangest absence in recent years has been larger console titles. Especially given the roaring popularity of the movie brands, it seems strange that we haven’t seen a more focused superhero game from Marvel on the way. Here’s hoping we’ll have more big games to add to this list in the coming years.

What Marvel titles are your favorites? And which games would you like to see announced in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments below.