8 Best Superhero Video Games That Didn't Come From DC Or Marvel
A hero can be anyone - even a fat kid dressed up as a squirrel.
When gamers are asked to name the best superhero titles, they always cite the Batman Arkham trilogy thanks to its groundbreaking combat, mature storytelling and AAA production values ‘revitalising’ the genre.
After Rocksteady's finest efforts, it's onto Marvel and DC's Lego games, the online MMOs, and Spider-Man 2 (aka the greatest game ever if we're going off peoples' fond and nostalgic memories).
Batman, Spider-Man, Superman etc. are always spoken about first, thanks to their celebrated stature as cultural icons. Everybody including non-comic book fans know of these figures, in no small part due to their cinematic cash-cows.
However, while ‘being the Batman’ in the award-winning Arkham trilogy is undoubtedly great, and swinging into buildings in New York at an uncontrollable speed in Spider-Man 2 is fun, a lot of the best and overlooked superhero games don’t belong to the Marvel or DC family.
They are instead rebels who parody, innovate, and go against the norm, proving that not every saviour of the world has to be a man in tights with a forever prominent brand attached to them.
8. Prototype 2
After losing his wife and daughter from a pack of zombies during a viral outbreak in America, former US Marine Sergeant James Heller subsequently blames their deaths on Prototype’s hooded anti-hero Alex Mercer.
Prototype 2 is full of the superhero genre’s most recurring clichés: deceased loved ones, a desire for revenge, and an idiotic villain who gifts the hero with god-like powers. It is also an emotionless blockbuster: A one-note story of vengeance in which you decapitate everyone in the Big Apple as a 21st century Kratos.
Although Radical Entertainment’s story is unoriginal, the gameplay is exhilarating. With a wheel of five different powers, you can leap from buildings, glide past skyscrapers and take pleasure in consuming hundreds of innocent employees and civilians - it doesn’t matter what you do, you’ll always be revelling in a city of explosions and fountains of blood.
Despite only being remembered for its black and white trailers, Prototype 2 is one of the more enjoyable superhero games on the market.