Superhero films and TV shows have dominated the media and loads of fans are wishing for more games based on their favourite comic book characters. We’ve had a few in our time – and with massive titles like Wolverine on the horizon, we could be in for a very fruitful future! It’s a genre that lends itself perfectly to video games as there are so many things you can do and play around with. Superpowers are much easier to bring to life in this format than on the big or little screens, so many superhero games stay truer to the comics and provide an even better fan experience. 

Staying on this topic, we thought it’d be fun to go back through time and look at the best & worst superhero games ever made. Think of this as the ultimate list of titles to add to your wishlist or discard without giving a second thought. 

Worst Superhero Games Ever Made

We’ll save the best ‘til last, so here are the worst video game adaptations of your favourite superhero franchises: 

Marvel’s Avengers Online Slot

The world went Avengers crazy when the first film was released in 2012. It revolutionised the superhero genre and kickstarted the trend of massive cross-film franchises we’re still seeing today. With that in mind, it’s only natural for game developers to try and capitalise on this popularity, which is precisely what happened in the igaming world. 

The Avengers slot was developed by Playtech and received terrible reviews from everyone. It had the proper licence, but the graphics looked terrible. The sounds were nothing like those from the film and it was a terrible adaptation. Hardly any casinos stock the game anymore and it’s not like superhero slots can’t be successful. You’ll find loads of incredible slots at non-GamStop UKGC casinos at CasinoGam.uk, proving this can be done well. “The Avengers” fell flat, so it has to make our shortlist of the worst superhero games ever made. 

Iron Man

As a die-hard Iron Man fan it kills me to think about this game. Iron Man was the movie tie-in game for the original Iron Man film. There was a time when movie tie-in games were pretty dope. The original Harry Potter Playstation games were awesome, as were the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings ones. 

Sadly, Iron Man didn’t live up to expectations. 

It was a game with so much potential and we think developers should revisit the idea of a good Iron Man game in the future. This one sucked. The gameplay was weak, the graphics were poor and it was extremely short. You didn’t get the thrill of pretending to be Iron Man; most of the game was taken up by terrible cutscenes but hey, at least Robert Downey Jr. voiced the character in-game. 

Looking back at it, maybe they should’ve got someone else to do this as it probably destroyed their budget and resulted in the rushed and poorly produced game that came out. 

Superman 64

We’ve had a few Superman games in our time ranging from the excellent to the absurd. On the excellent end of the scale, we need to shout out Superman Returns. That was a great example of movie tie-ins done right and it made CBR’s list of the most replayable Superman video games ever. It’s not quite good enough to feature in our “best of” section, so we thought it deserved some kudos here. 

On the absurd end of the scale, you’ve got Superman 64 – also known as Superman: The New Adventures. It’s a Nintendo 64 game with some of the worst reviews known to man. And that’s not solely including superhero games; many experts put this as one of the worst games of all time. It’s full of game-breaking glitches, 90% of the game is spent flying around (poorly) and there’s no semblance of story at all. 

Best Superhero Games Ever Made

In fairness, the list of best superhero games could be much longer than the worst ones. We’ve been lucky to get loads of fantastic adaptations with gripping storylines, amazing mechanics and phenomenal fan service. Narrowing down our list to just three games was hard, so we cheated! 

Injustice

Both Injustice games are good enough to make this list so we’ve bundled them together! When the first game came out in 2013 it was a breath of fresh air. You had amazing combat in the style of Mortal Kombat with one of the best storylines in a game ever made. It was set in a different DC universe where Superman was bad and some of the bad characters were good. 

Genuinely, you can watch all the cut scenes in a row to make it a mini-movie and the second iteration followed up on this with improved graphics and a continuation of the story. Even if you don’t like fighting games, Injustice is worth playing just for the cool take on DC comics. It was so popular DC created an Injustice comic book series to go alongside the games – which is equally good and well worth a read. 

Insomniac’s Spider-Man

Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 burst onto the scene in 2018 and was quickly followed by Spider-Man Miles Morales and the recent Spider-Man 2. They’re all made by Insomniac Games and are three of the greatest superhero video games you’ll ever play. 

Genuinely, where do we begin with these titles? The graphics are extraordinary, the setting is magnificent and the web-slinging…my God the web-slinging is insane. You genuinely feel like Spider-Man and the introduction of different suits makes it incredibly enjoyable. Combat is immense too; there are no faults to the game. 

The latest version (Spider-Man 2) was released in 2023 and gave you two playable Spider-Man characters – Peter Parker and Miles Morales – along with an intense storyline. This is one of those franchises you must play if you’re a Spidey fan or a fan of great games in general. 

Batman: Arkham Series

Finally, we have the Batman: Arkham Series. As with all the games on this “best of” list, we cheated and went with a franchise rather than one title. It’s hard to pick one of these games – and it’s also not fair to list all of them as the other great games listed above would be missed! 

The full “Arkham Series” is made up of a lot of games from Rocksteady, but we’re mainly focusing on the core four: 

  • Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
  • Batman: Arkham City (2011)
  • Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)
  • Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)

All of these games are set in a typical Batman world with darkness everywhere, rainy Gotham streets and loads of crazy villains in Arkham Asylum. The combat makes this game excellent and we think it set the baseline for great superhero game mechanics. Of course, you get a sublime story across all four of these games – it’s like one long Batman movie, only you’re playing the starring role! 

This series is so good you can replay all of the titles today and they still hold up despite the first one being released some 15 years ago. It makes it an even bigger shame that the recent Suicide Squad game from Rocksteady wasn’t anywhere near as good as these. Sure, the bar was high, but it’s wasted potential in our view. 

Which one of these games is your favourite? Are there any titles you’d like to add to the “best” list – or maybe you’ve played a few superhero stinkers you want to put in the “worst” column? Comment below with your suggestions and thanks for reading.