Why There Aren't More Truly Great Superhero Games

4. DC's Rise

It didn’t help, either, that in 2009 WB showed superhero fans just what they'd been missing out on when it released Arkham Asylum into the wild. While it’s difficult to imagine now, it cannot be overstated how much of a surprise Rocksteady’s game was at the time, but it took the publisher a lot of trial and effort to get there.

Not facing the same kind of crisis in the ‘90s as Marvel, WB continued to work with a multitude of different publishers and developers on their superhero tie-ins. That didn’t necessarily make them better though; it was clear that these releases were still afterthoughts, and even the very best - like Batman: Vengeance and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu - weren’t exactly blockbusters in terms of sales or production values.

In fact, some of the very worst superhero games were born out of WB letting anyone have a crack at their properties, with terrible Superman tie-ins in particular becoming emblematic of the lack of quality associated with the genre. Hell, it's one of the few times Activision has looked good in comparison.

Perhaps knowing they could do better, just as Activision started to cool on Superhero properties, WB embraced them, publishing their own titles rather than giving total control to other companies. Their first attempts were a bit wobbly, with Watchmen: The End is Nigh and the ambitious-if-flawed Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe both failing to inspire confidence.

But then Arkham Asylum happened...