2. Hellboy
Hellboy's a demonic superhero who works for the Bureau For Paranormal Research And Defense. His day-to-day responsibilities include the usual paperwork... as well as repeatedly punching a variety of monsters in the face - everything from vampires and werewolves, to Nazis and Baba Yaga has been on the receiving end of Hellboy's mighty right hand, and his adventures have taken him from snow-capped mountains, to crumbling castles. It doesn't take a genius to see the potential in a game starring the globe-trotting demon and there have been two attempts so far - one in the early noughties, and the other towards the end of the decade. So where did they go wrong? Well, in the case of the former, the character was so nerfed that you would have been better off playing as a crippled dwarf (and that's without mentioning the innumerable glitches), and as for the latter: it was the perfect example of the ingredients being there for a kick-ass adaptation - Mignola/del Toro's involvement, Ron Perlman's gruff voice work, etc - but for everything the game did right, there were a slew of questionable design choices to balance things out. So how do we get it right this time? Well, for starters: think big. Give us exotic locales, give us globe-spanning missions. Give us a combat system that allows for a seamless transition between face-smashing melee carnage and fast-paced gunplay. Give us a character-swapping function that bounces between Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien on the fly. And, last but definitely not least - give us big, ugly monsters to beat up. The comic's pulp/Lovecraftian roots presents so many narrative/gameplay options that it's baffling that previous attempts have failed so miserably. With supernatural threats ranging from Cthulhu-like gods to witches and Japanese spirits, and a story spanning decades - from the twilight days of WWII to the 21st century - the possibilities are endless.