Since Marvel's Avengers dropped last week, I figured I'd slap together my opinions on my top 5 Marvel games. Since there have been some quality games over the years, I think it's only fair I start by running off a list of honourable mentions too.
Honorable Mentions: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, X-Men Legends, Ultimate Spider-man, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Captain America and the Avengers, X-Men (Mega Drive/Genesis), Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, The Punisher (Xbox/PS2), X2: Wolverine's Revenge
#5. X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse
Man, this game was good. I remember going out for drinks with a girl on the launch date of this (without knowing it was the launch date) and subsequently running into Game mid-date to pick up a copy for the PlayStation 2. I then spent most of the date longing to get back to my place so I could boot up X-Men Legends 2 and see the X-Men and the Brotherhood team up to take on the threat of Apocalypse and I was not disappointed. This game also included both Deadpool and Iron Man as unlockable hidden characters (Iron Man's armour was in pieces throughout the game and if you found the lot then old shell head would join in the fray).
#4. Marvel Ultimate Alliance
The first of the Ultimate Alliance games followed on from X-Men Legends 2 and had the same gameplay model - you play as a team of 4 heroes with unique abilities and can switch between the 4 at will. The opening level saw you play as Wolverine, Spider-Man, Thor and Captain America - letting you know just how awesome the game's roster was straight put of the gate. The game took you on a tour of the Marvel Universe and had four costumes for every character - including some alternate skins for similar characters such as Julia Carpenter's Spider-Woman under Jessica Drew's alternate looks - and is that addictive that I've owned it on the PS2, PS3 and am currently half way through it on the PS4 (I've also owned it on the 360 and Xbox One too!)
#3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Man, how did such a terrible movie spawn such a fantastic video game? Origins loosely followed the movie's plot but also put it's own twist on it. It was probably also the most goriest comic book game to come out at time of writing. Rather than a traditional health bat system, poor Logan would simply get ripped to shreds and gradually heal up (the was a health bar display too but it could easily be ignored). This game was brutal and gave you full control of everything that made Wolverine, well, Wolverine. You could use your heightened senses to sniff out secrets and claws to eviscerate anything that stood before you. The game also allowed environment kills which were a delight. We were also treated to a much better take on Gambit, so there's that.
#2. Spider-Man (PS4)
There has been a lot of good open world Spider-Man games - Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man 2 - but since they were mainly film tie-ins, they didn't have the freedom that the 2019 PS4 title did. The combo is smooth, the free-running and web-swinging is great and the amount of side quests make the game interesting and fun. Plus the sheer volume of comic-accurate unlockable costumes is a massive bonus for any fan of the source material. The storyline is original and unique and it's world is that great that it's been accepted into main Marvel continuity as of the Spider-Geddon event which saw the PS4 game version of Spidey team up with the main Marvel comic universe version as well as several alternate world ones too.
#1. X-Men 2: The Clone Wars (Sega Mega-Drive / Genesis)
I loved both the 90s X-Men Animated Series and the Sega Mega Drive growing up, so this game has a very special place in my heart. I had the first X-Men Mega Drive game too, but that one was nowhere near as great as this. The game had some of the greatest sprites commited to a side scrolling game at that time. It also featured Magneto as a playable character! Enough good things can't be said about this game. I spent countless hours on this. It also had the unique thing of allowing you to pick your X-Man or Magneto prior to a level starting and each mutant would have their own lives so if Wolverine ran out of them that would be it for Logan for the rest of the game and you'd have no choice but to play as another character such as Psylocke or Cyclops. Overall this was probably my favourite game on the Mega Drive as well as my favourite Marvel video game.
So that's my list, thanks for taking the time to read it and please let me know what your top 5 are in the comments section!
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