10 Best Video Games Based On Comic Books
It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while, a video game based on a comic is pretty good!
Video games have been around for about half as long as comic books, but the two mediums have merged into a natural symbiosis. Gaming offers a real-world way to enter into your favorite comic book universe and play as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or any of thousands of characters.
While the two mesh together well, not every video game based on a comic book is a killer game. The sad truth is, there are far more worse games than there are masterpieces. When the fates do align, and a game based on a comic is fun and entertaining, it stands apart as something just about everyone loves.
This list highlights the best video games that are based on comic book properties, and they run the gamut from arcades to console systems, PC, and anything else that can bring a comic book character to life digitally. If you’re a fan of comics and video games, odds are you’ve played more than a few of these titles.
Granted, finding the right pick for the number one slot requires looking into the game as a whole, and how well it takes from the source material to become a game worthy of everyone’s attention.
10. X-Men (1992)
Back in 1992, Konami coded one of the best side-scroller beat-em-up video games of all time with its X-Men arcade game. This wasn't just another four-player button-masher; it added two slots, making it playable by six players at a time! That was all but unheard of at the time — especially for an arcade game.
The cabinet was a huge, split-screen deluxe model, and it was awesome. Each player would feed some quarters into the cab and choose to ply as either Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, or Dazzler. All of the character models were based on the 1989 cartoon X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men.
Players use their character's unique skills to beat the ever-living snot out of Magneto's goons as they continue through a plethora of enemies. Sentinels are all over the place, but they're joined by mutated crocodiles, Reavers, and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, including Blob, Pyro, Juggernaut, and more.
Arguably, the game can get repetitive after a while, though the difficulty does scale as play continued through the bosses. It's fun to play each of the characters to learn the different moves, which makes X-Men highly replayable, and that's precisely what an arcade should be.