Kryptonite for boredom: the 9 best superhero games

Rainer Etzweiler

25.7.2025

Translation: Julia Graham

Superheroes in games rarely go well. But when it works, it really works: from Spidey to X-Men, here are ten games that prove cape wearers can also thrive in pixels.

James Gunn’s Superman film is currently in theatres and the internet is currently losing its head over whether the film is good, bad or just OK. But for me, it’s made me want to become a superman myself. Even if only virtually, because anything else would be too exhausting. The only problem is that the history of superhero games is about as bumpy as Clark Kent’s first attempts at flying.

Since the early 80s, developers have been desperately trying to squeeze the magic of superheroes into playable form. The result? A cemetery full of failed ambitions. There’s Silver Surfer for the NES, for example, whose unfair game design even brought YouTuber The Angry Videogame Nerd to his knees. Or Superman 64 – a game so legendarily bad that, more than 25 years after its release, it’s still regarded as the poster child for miserable comic book adaptations.

Among all the digital rubbish, there are always exceptions which prove the point that superhero games aren’t automatically junk. From pixelated arcade smash hits to dark open-world epics and strategic surprise hits – here are nine games that show what happens when developers do their homework.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)

Square Enix’s Guardians of the Galaxy came out of nowhere. Just under a year earlier, the publisher had driven Marvel’s Avengers to the wall and thus squandered all trust, which is why fans’ expectations were low. This made the quality of the highly emotional space opera adventure all the more surprising.

Sure, the action is a bit repetitive at times and Star-Lord is a bit annoying, but the team spirit is spot on and the story has more heart than some MCU films. The constant bickering between the Guardians during the action is also comedy gold, and anyone who doesn’t let out a guffaw during the llama scene has no soul. A linear single-player adventure in 2021? In this economy?

Infamous 2 (2011)

Sucker Punch already understood what gamers wanted back in the PS3 days: a power fantasy without a guilty conscience. As in the debut, this is channelled in Infamous 2 by Cole MacGrath, an ex-bike courier who unexpectedly acquired superpowers. As Cole, you thrash and electrocute your way through a city that looks like New Orleans after an apocalypse. Whether you use your powers for good is entirely up to you.

However, the karma mechanics of the open-world game are more than just black and white. They influence how the city reacts to you, they open up or close off access to abilities and ultimately determine which of the two endings you get to see.

They both hurt. Because Sucker Punch dared to do the outrageous and let Cole die (yes, spoiler alert –  but come on, the game is almost 15 years old), which was pretty brave at the time.

Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (2005)

Speaking of destruction, I may be too simple-minded, but I think every second that Hulk is on screen and not breaking something is a waste of time. Developer Radical Entertainment also shares this idea, and the best game with the green bundle of rage to date is based on this ethos.

You can surf flattened cars like skateboards, abuse skyscrapers as climbing walls and cause as much chaos as you want. The destruction engine was ahead of its time – practically everything was destructible, and spectacularly so. Hulk: Ultimate Destruction condensed the eponymous hero down to the essentials: raw, uncontrollable power. No complicated skill tree, no dating sim with Betty Ross, no depressed Bruce Banner. Just «HULK SMASH!»

It’s a shame there was never a worthy successor, but at least for Switch 2 owners there has recently been an alternative. In Donkey Kong Bananza, you can give free rein to your destructive rage with a lot of Nintendo charm as the cherry on the top.

X-Men Legends (2004)

Before Marvel Ultimate Alliance watered down the superhero brawler formula, Raven Software showed how to properly implement a comic licence with X-Men Legends: an action RPG with the mutants that feels like a playable comic series from the early 2000s.

For the gameplay, developers made generous use of Diablo, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and other games of this genre. It’s not particularly imaginative, but who needs innovation when you can trigger the «just one more level» addiction instead.

The story is a typical cheesy comedy, but in the best sense. Magneto, Sentinels, Morlocks – the greatest hits of the X-Men mythology. Combined with the varied levels and the great dubbing (including Patrick Stewart as Professor X), this is one of the best superhero games ever.

Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018)

Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank, Sunset Overdrive) doesn’t serve up a rehashed origin story, but goes straight into medias res. Peter Parker is no longer a nerdy teenager, Uncle Ben has long since been buried and Mary-Jane is also an ex – presumably because of too many botched dates due to spontaneous superhero missions.

Based on this story, Marvel’s Spider-Man delivers the best game with the web-slinger in the title role as well as providing one of the best action-adventure games of the last console generation.

Manhattan as a playground is lavishly detailed, from real neighbourhoods, recognisable landmarks to Marvel references hidden everywhere. The swing mechanics are absolutely perfect with that feeling of gliding through Manhattan, doing tricks and running along skyscrapers. It’s pure poetry in motion. Meanwhile, the boss fights are interactive comic double-page spreads. The combat system is fluid and the finishers Spidey uses to get rid of his opponents are just as satisfying even after the hundredth time.

Its successor has been available for almost two years and does a lot of things right, but unfortunately doesn’t achieve the brilliance of this epic.

X-Men (1992)

«WELCOME TO DIE!» If this sentence means anything to you, now is probably the time to start taking your omega-3 tablets. A good 30 years ago, Magneto greeted players in Konami’s arcade cult hit, simply called X-Men, with this exclamation in ridiculously bad English.

The slot machine can be played by up to six players at the same time and delivers an endless pixelated mob to run through in beat’em’up style. Run from left to right, fight, despair at the level of difficulty – that’s it. Those were simpler times.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (1991)

Speaking of the 90s and Konami, a year earlier, the Japanese developer made the dreams of all turtle video game fans come true with the simple yet entertaining Turtles in Time.

Strictly speaking, the New York reptiles aren’t superheroes. But such details blur in the face of the timeless thrashing classic that brings Saturday morning cartoon vibes into our living rooms. An unofficial sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, was released in 2022. This also deserved a place on this list, but it’s getting out of hand anyway.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns (2022)

On paper, a turn-based tactical RPG with card mechanics and dating sim elements sounds like a terrible idea. However, the developers at Firaxis (X-Com series) were talented enough to turn the absurd premise into a surprisingly great game.

This is mainly thanks to the entertaining gameplay loop, which combines social activities with tactical battles. You hang out with Blade during the day or argue about films with Iron Man whilst saving the world by night. Its combat system is sophisticated, with each hero equipped with a deck of cards with attacks, skills and a range of special moves. The positioning of the characters is crucial and requires you to always have a complete overview. A bit like chess, just with more lasers.

Squad selection is also surprising. As well as familiar faces such as Iron Man and Captain Marvel, Nico Minoru, Magik and other deep cuts for true comic connoisseurs are also included.

Batman: Arkham City (2011)

No list of the best superhero games would be complete without a part on Rocksteady Studios’ Arkham trilogy. All three titles are good, but Arkham City is peak Batman. The perfect middle ground between the claustrophobic Asylum and the bloated Knight. An entire city section of Gotham as an open-air prison, Hugo Strange as puppet master and a poisoned hero fighting against the clock. The city itself is the star with Penguin’s Museum-Fortress, Joker’s Funland and Two-Face’s Courthouse. Its verticality is revolutionary. I FEEL like Batman, a shadow that catches criminals out of the darkness.

The revamped combat system is a lot quicker than in its predecessor and I still have fond memories of some of the boss fights. Anyone who also despaired of Mr Freeze back then knows what I mean. Also unforgettable: Mark Hamill’s Joker performance, with an ending that – if I may say so – had balls.

Unfortunately, Rocksteady was recently condemned to make Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a live-service shooter that literally murdered Batman. From the architects of the best Batman game ever to henchmen of gaming industry greed – if that’s not a villain origin story, I don’t know what is.

Have I missed any games off this list that you’d have included?

Rainer Etzweiler

Freelance Editor

rainer@rockstar.ch

In the early 90s, my older brother gave me his NES with The Legend of Zelda on it. It was the start of an obsession that continues to this day.

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