As the era of Superheroes hitting the big screen with bombastic, big-budget, often quite serious movies has been embraced by the wider public in the late 2000s and 2010s, mostly due to the rise of Marvel Studios, other areas of pop culture began to take notice. While Superhero games have been around for longer than these grounded takes on superheroes in cinema, there has been a great uptick in demand for alternative takes on characters than what movies can offer, especially as there is only so much you can do with a character over two hours.
This is a massive reason why we enjoy Superhero games. Many people grow up idolizing the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and more, and the opportunity to take up their mantle anytime they want, saying the famous “I’m Batman” line or coming up with their Spider-Quips when beating up bad guys is often fun to do even if, in hindsight, not every game is your favorite.
With that in mind, we've ranked the 15 best Superhero Games of All Time.
15. Marvel’s Avengers (2020): PS4/5, Xbox One/X|S, Stadia, Windows
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While nowhere near perfect, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal’s Marvel’s Avengers game was a beat-em-up game that let its players play through an exciting Avengers story that felt similar, yet different to the MCU in a way that hit for some, but not everyone. It accomplished one thing in introducing a wider audience to Kamala Khan, something that this writer is especially grateful for. Still, the game found itself bogged down by buggy menus, a game-as-a-service loot box component, horrible online servers, and iffy character models.
Despite its flaws, the game was praised for its voice work, combat, and campaign. After costing Square Enix an estimated $63 million in 2021, which was a major reason why the developer underwent such massive structural changes, it was essentially dead in the water, and support for servers was eventually discontinued in September 2023.
14. Marvel SNAP: (Mobile, MacOS, Windows)
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Next is the mobile game Marvel SNAP, released in 2022. A card-based game that started out giving you your matches at random, but has since expanded to include private games with friends, the game featured 170 Marvel Characters at launch and has again expanded with both new characters and skins that are simply different from their character’s base card.
The game has been praised for its free-to-play aspect, while game modes have expanded and changed since its release. The game was announced with Nick Fury himself, Samuel L. Jackson, finding that the Avengers had all been turned into the cards that you see in-game. Gamespot said in its 9/10 review: “The vast majority of cards are clever… expressing famous power sets inside (the game)’s mechanics.”
While Marvel Snap is not the only card-collecting battle game out there, its connection to Marvel comics makes it fun, while the F2P aspect makes it easy to play and succeed.
13. DC Universe Online: (Windows/Nintendo Switch/PlayStation/Xbox)
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DC Universe Online was originally launched in January 2011 for PC, but the Free-To-Play MMO would be launched across multiple platforms in the following years. The story has had many chapters since its first release, with the main plot revolving around a post-apocalyptic world where Lex Luthor leads an army of supervillains against the Justice League, eventually opening up a Paradox event that leads to other “episodes” in the story. What makes the game tick is that it is set in the world of DC and players can create their own hero or villain to take part in the story.
It’s great playing as Batman or The Flash, Harley Quinn or The Joker, but who doesn’t want their own powers? IGN gave the game a 7/10 at launch, with a further 8/10 for its PS4 release, showing marked improvement. The PC version was praised for its combat, but the entrance of the story and being convinced that you’re a goodie or a baddie was seen as a hindrance (There is a difference at the beginning of the story depending on which you choose). The PS4 release was further praised for its crafting technique, home base mechanic, and smoother combat style than its PS3 launch.
The “Hack and Slash” companion game to the otherwise universally panned movie of the same name came with a Mature rating, reportedly taking influences from God Of War and Devil May Cry. Taking influences from the film and incorporating an original story, players can play as the grumpy mutant through events of the movie as well as a blend of some of his comic book origins.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of this game were rated M, as the DS and Wii versions were watered down, with IGN giving it a 7.8 and praising the combat (Particularly the Quick Kill feature) and guilty pleasure violence.
Unfortunately, you can’t play this game while you’re (ahem, I’m) waiting for Insomniac’s upcoming Wolverine release to release. Activision’s licensing deal for Wolvie ended in 2014, and the game was removed from digital storefronts on January 1. Still, if this serves as a base for the Insomniac release, we might be in for a good time, bub.
11. Lego Marvel’s Avengers: (3DS, Wii U, Playstation, Xbox, OS X, Windows)
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Part of the fun of the Lego game Franchise is that you can play through the world and have a good time. Lego Marvel’s Avengers is an easy way to spend time romping around the MCU while giving yourself a good laugh along the way.
PlayStation Lifestyle noted that the game is “Good, clean fun” and praised its detailed story, but noted the possibility of glitches and hiccups during the game.
PlayStation Plus users like myself can build and destroy their way through the game to see what they like about it. The game has a 4.35 score on the PlayStation store.
10. Spider-Man (2000): (PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast, Windows, Mac OS X)
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While Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man and its sequels are the talk of the town these days, the webhead is no stranger to Video Game adventures. In 2000’s wall-crawling adventure, developed by Neversoft and distributed by Activision, saw Spidey in a blocky 3-D adventure taking on some of the rogues we all know and love such as Dr. Octopus, Venom, Rhino, and more.
A Beat-em-up romp, the game uses the same engine as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and is a secret playable character in that game, which is alluded to during Gameplay. Our hero has to deal with a not-so-reformed Doc Ock for most of the story, and it sets the scene for three sequels, an indirect one in Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six, a more direct Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, and the standalone Game Boy Color Title, Spider-Man: Mysterio’s Menace.
While each version of the game got different scores based on individual gameplay, the PlayStation version was generally well received, with IGN stating that the game does “Almost all the right things” and enables you to “Do everything Spider-Man can do.” while also criticizing the ease of gameplay and lamenting camera angles.
While a game from 2000 may not necessarily hold up today, there are quite a few playthroughs and retrospectives on YouTube, and to this day it is remembered fondly by the Spidey fandom.
9. Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy (Xbox One, X|S, PS4/5, Switch, PC)
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It seemed that Eidos had learned a few lessons from Marvel’s Avengers when they released Guardians Of The Galaxy. The studio reportedly explored a multiplayer mode in the development of GOTG, but focused on the narrative this go-round, while also only allowing players to fully control Star-Lord, another hiccup of the previous game for a lot of users, making the player dole out orders to his teammates.
The changes saw the interstellar effort bring home the award for Best Narrative at The Game Awards 2021, among others including an award for its soundtrack and praise for its banter, something that the MCU also brought to the forefront, and many fans came to expect from the planet-hopping band of miscreants.
GameInformer gave the Action/Adventure title an 8.5 rating, praising its narrative, world design, and characters, while also saying that the combat can take a little bit of getting used to. Like Lego Avengers, GOTG is currently available on PlayStation Plus.
8. Mega Man X. (SNES, MS-DOS, Windows, Mobile Phone)
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Mega Man X is widely regarded as one of the best games ever made and has been ported to many other consoles throughout the years. While it uses the same run-and-gun mechanic as its predecessors as a 2D platformer, finishing the introductory stage gives you access to a stage selection screen, unlocking eight boss characters who, upon beating them, you can use their signature power.
The game was praised for its more mature tone and launched the massive popularity of Zero. It has been included in many Best lists of all time, including Nintendo Power’s 100 Best Nintendo Games of All Time, coming in at #58. It was then honored with #103 in the same publisher’s Top 200 Games list in 2006. It spawned seven direct sequels, and Mega Man Zero, which gave the titular character his release on Game Boy Advance.
7. Batman: Arkham Origins: (PS3, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360)
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Arkham Origins was the third release in Rocksteady’s Arkham series and served as a prequel to the events of the first two games. Though there was much praise for the introduction of the way Batman interacts with his rogues gallery from Destructoid, the same review said that the game felt like a “rushed, incomplete, cash-grab” that failed to live up to its predecessor’s name but wanted to piggyback on its success.
That is a harsh criticism to take, but even still, the game was the best-selling game in the UK across all platforms in the UK in its first week and earned two Game Critics Awards nominations. Voice-acting dynamo Troy Baker was also praised for his performance as the Joker, having taken over from Mark Hamill.
6. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4/5)
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Released as a PS5 Launch Title in November 2020, first announced as an “Expansion and enhancement on the first game” by Sony’s Simon Rutter, it was then confirmed to be a standalone game, while shorter than Marvel’s Spider-Man and likened to Uncharted’s Lost Legacy title. The game is set at Christmas time, obviously in the same world as the first game in Insomniac’s Spidey series, but offers a bit of a change in mechanics and feel to fit the differences in Miles’s powers compared to that of his mentor.
Like its much-lauded predecessor, the game was praised by PlayStation Universe for its story, noting that it is much more culturally aware than the first game, and also giving Miles his unique voice. It also includes different suits and skill trees.
Why is this game listed so low, you ask? Don’t worry, we’re getting to that.
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, Switch, PC)
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Arkham Asylum, and in general, Rocksteady’s Arkham series as a whole, remains one of the best-reviewed Superhero games of all time. Featuring the iconic Kevin Conroy as the titular character, Mark Hamill as Joker, and Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn, truth be told, all you need is a passable story.
What you get is a Bat-thriller for the ages, where Joker takes over Arkham Asylum and the Bat must fight his way to the top to beat his arch-nemesis, who is aided by the Bat’s other escaped Rogues. The game was praised for its narrative pretty much across the board, and was also praised by Eurogamer for its ease of use in that combat controls could be utilized with two buttons, making it much more accessible than most other brawlers of a similar nature.
The game has spawned 3 sequels, which have then added sequels within sequels. Technically, the most recent release in the series is Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, though this, as the title suggests, is not a Batman-centric story.
4. Infamous (PS3)
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An action-adventure that set the tone for many Superhero games to come, IGN described Infamous as “one of the best games the PS3 had to offer” upon release in 2009, which garnered callbacks to the Spider-Man series that began in 2000.
The game puts the player in control of Cole, who wakes up from a near-apocalyptic blast with electricity-based powers. Everything within the setting of Empire City is scalable, and you have the choice to become a hero or, you guessed it, Infamous.
While setting the bar for everything Superhero games would go on to be, the game was praised for its ease of play and how difficult the defining choices were made to be, which some developers still have issues with.
3. Batman: Arkham City (PS3/4, Xbox 360/One, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, Windows, OS X)
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Arkham City expanded on the world of the Arkham series both in scope and gameplay and was perhaps even better received than its prequel, with multiple outlets in the gaming industry giving it a perfect 10/10, once again praising its voice cast, story, and saying that the overall experience surpassed that of Arkham Asylum in every way.
The story begins with the knowledge that Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison are no longer fit for purpose, with an area of Gotham now shut down by new mayor Quincy Sharp, becoming a mega-prison that the Bat has to navigate to apprehend the game’s big bad, Hugo Strange.
2. Marvel’s Spider-Man: (PS4/5, PC)
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While we wound down this list, some games above have been stated to set the bar for Superhero games at their times of release. In this fashion, Insomniac Games set the current bar with Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2018.
Offering a fully traversable version of Manhattan, and topping it off with best-of-its-kind accessibility features, the first in what will end up being a trilogy of Spidey releases from Insomniac gave players both new foes to fight and new looks at some of their favorite characters, both good and evil.
Widely acclaimed across the board, it racked up awards for its story and voice cast, leaving fans begging for more. It was no surprise, then, that Miles Morales was announced shortly after its release, whetting that appetite for more before the game was remastered for PS5 and PC, which led to the release of its sequel.
1. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (PS5):
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Continuing the narrative adventure from Spider-Man and Miles Morales, this sequel brings everything from those games, expands the story, and adds different elements not in the first game. The sequel introduces Venom, who, in a bit of inspired casting, is voiced by horror legend Tony Todd. It perhaps takes cues from the mods in the PC version of the original game, adding different skins to playable suits, a different gadget system, skill trees for both Spider-Men and even more accessibility features.
The lack of a New Game + option was criticized by fans upon completion of the campaign, though that was added in March of 2024. Still, the game was listed, like the ones that came before, amongst or atop many 2023 Game Of the Year lists, with VG247’s review calling it the “Best Superhero Game (They’d) ever played”.
And so, we have come to the end of our list of the best Superhero games of all time. Is there a game you would have added? A game that you were surprised made the list? Tell us more in the comments.
