My oldest love: comic books. I've been reading them since I was about 5 years old. As I followed the ways of nature and became a video gamer, I never lost my love for comic books. So, when I see a video game featuring my favorite fictional creations, I jump on it. I don't care what the reviews say. I don't care what my friends say. I don't care what the common-sense voice in my head says. I must have/play all the comic book games. And I've played almost all of them. So here are the 5 Best and the 5 Worst Comic Book Games I've ever played.
#5 Best - The Punisher (Xbox)
Boy, was I ever suspicious when I picked this game up. Still terrorized from my youthful, ill-fated foray into Punisher on the NES, I hesitantly purchased this game pre-played from a local video store for $5.00. To my great surprise, I had a blast playing this game. It's not messing around - it is badass, pissed-off Frank Castle all the way through. The storyline is fun and the creative ways in which you can interrogate/dispatch of scumbags really makes the game entertaining. Good comeback, Frank Castle.
#5 Worst - The Punisher (NES)
Sitting on the opposite end of the spectrum from Xbox's Punisher is Punisher for the NES. What a crapfest. No music (with the exception of the random saxophone guy), clunky gameplay, repetitive villains, and general boredom. That about sums it up. When there were pretty good games in the same style available (Operation Wolf), there's no excuse for this turd.
#4 Best - X-Men Legends II (PS2)
A very nice, well-executed gaming experience for all the X-fans out there. This game, along with it's preceding X-Men Legends, showed the world that comic book games could be really good. It also showed that they could be good games, not just for comic book geeks, but all gamers - and still throw in awesome stuff for the nerds too! Without this one, we wouldn't have greatness like Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I wonder if that'll be on this list anywhere?
#4 Worst - Spawn: The Eternal (PS1)
This is the first time that I can remember just quitting a game after about 20 minutes of play and never going back. It looks bad. It plays bad. It's boring. The puzzles are stupid. I'll usually punish myself and play through crap just to say I beat it, but in this case, I may never let it enter my Playstation again.
#3 Best - Marvel Superheroes (PS1)
Finally. Ever since the success of games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, all of us comic nerds could talk about was a badass superhero fighting game. Would one ever get made? DC gave us an average fighter with Justice League Task Force on the Genesis, but we needed more. Marvel Superheroes is a great fighting game that offers you smooth, fun gameplay with the heroes and villains you always wanted to see. I'll certainly give a nod to X-Men: Children of the Atom for paving this road, but for a pure superhero experience, you have to check this one out. Plus it led to awesome genre mixes like X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom.
#3 Worst - Uncanny X-Men (NES)
This game just feels like work. Bad graphics, even for the 8-bit era. You can barely tell who the hell your character is. Their powers seem kind of irrelevant. The stages also look like crap. There's nothing interesting about this game. Nothing. I would rather have played a game called "Senator Kelly's Mutant Registration Act" where I do all the paperwork to get a bill passed through Congress.
#2 Best - Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS3)
Video game greatness. The perfected formula for making a comic book video games for comic and non-comic lovers alike. It's just great. For a better rundown on this game, check out my review.
#2 Worst - Superman (N64)
F--k this game. The whole reason I bought the N64 was so that I could get Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye, and this piece of crap. Thus, proving what my wife already knows. I know what the hell I'm doing about 66% of the time.
#1 Best - Spider-Man (PS1)
Glorious. I'm sure that a lot of you gamers out there disagree with my choice for number one because it's an older game. Old doesn't necessarily mean it's inferior. Don't get me wrong, I think Ultimate Spider-Man is a sweet, sweet game, but I just like this classic better. Why? Because it's the first time that they ever got it right. This game is everything that Spidey is about. It's fun. It provides a variety of gameplay, battles, villains, and locations. Spider-Man looks and moves well. The controls are fantastic. The ability to unlock a variety of Spidey costumes, including the Fantastic Four outfit with the bag over the head, is just the level of nerdery required to keep gamers like me enthralled. Awesome game. Pure and simple.
#1 Worst - Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis (GameCube)
I'd rather take a punch in the face than discuss this game ever again. Check out my review of this horrid thing.
