20 Comic Book Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

19. Batman: Arkham Asylum

The game that changed it all. Not only did Rocksteady's unassuming success catapult them into the upper echelons of gaming's finest developers overnight, but the rhythm-based combat system they designed has since been implemented into every major action title from Sleeping Dogs to Shadow or Mordor, Hand of Fate to Mad Max. Arkham Asylum itself hit the ground sprinting. Opening with a brilliant setup of Batman taking Joker into the titular asylum, all hell breaks loose after the latter springs out and imprisons him there. After that, it was pure fan-service time. The character model of Batman himself was a towering behemoth of muscle and dominance, not phasing for one second due to his current predicament - instead implementing a variety of upper hand-gaining moves, from programming the Batmobile to assist him in taking down Bane, to venturing underground and surprising even the player with a secret Batcave. The game's levels unfolded with a Metroidvania-like intricacy ensuring you were never short of somewhere new to explore. Every major villain played a memorable role in the overarching narrative, and the voice acting especially was top-notch, reuniting Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and Joker respectively, for the first time since the legendary Animated Series first made its mark.