1. Spider-Man
So, this almost seems unfair. The original PlayStation and PS2 days were filled with Spider-Man. But let's face it… Spider-man makes for awesome open world gameplay and the Spider-Man video game haydays are pretty far behind us now. So much so that the team that could now do him justice wasn't working on the same kind of games at the time.
I propose a Spider-Man game created by Ubisoft, borrowing from the Assassin's Creed engine. It already has sprawling rooftops, fast paced traversal and parkour built in. Just tweek it to work with web-slinging and you've got a pretty solid game. The webslinging is important though, as it can make or break a Spider-man game. The other important aspect though would be the tone. In the PS1 days, developers weren't afraid to have fun, which is what made the old Spider-man games so great. Silly quips and eye-rolling puns are what spidey is all about. Personally, while I'd play any of these games I've mentioned so far, this one seems to be the easiest translation and I'd play it in a heartbeat.
2. Superman
OKAY WAIT! Don't close out of this, I know it probably gave you flashbacks to Superman 64, but we're in good hands these days! It's okay! Even before Superman 64, they handled the Boy in Blue pretty well (by the way, did you know that Blizzard had a hand in making the Death asnd Return of Superman? That was long before I knew about them).
Anyway, Superman, by Rocksteady. Yep, the guys who did the Arkham games.
When Superman isn't shooting eye lasers, he's throwing punches and grappling, something Rocksteady has been about for the past 4 games they've made. The stakes may need to be a little higher as Superman is OP, but Rocksteady is also good at pulling out some cool supervillians from the stockpile.
3. Green Arrow
Okay, yes. I picked Green Arrow for this list.
I know CW's Green Arrow is basically Batman, but it's his arsenal that makes me think he's make a great game. Batman has his utility belt. Most of his tools can be pretty much anything you can conceivably fit on a the waist. Green Arrow's tools tend to be arrow-related: Stun arrows, tracker arrows, exploding arrows, foam spray arrow… boxing glove arrows? Whatever kind of arrows we're talking about, it forces a bit of creativity that would fit well in puzzle solving for a video game.
Plus, over the past few years, bows have been pretty popular, and for good reason. They're pretty awesome! This may lend itself to an entirely different top 5 list, but while bows are sometimes featured in games, they never seem to be the focus. I'd love for a Green Arrow game to be focused entirely around ways to utilize a bow.
I'm thinking Sniper Elite meets Arkham City; Sniper Elite being the extreme focus on the weapon, and Arkham City being the "stopping crime in the city" aspect.
4. The Incredible Hulk
So The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was an awesome game. Big, destructive, explodey, and just focused on fun.
Ultimate Destruction included destroying a city, using the environment and just being as destructive as possible. I was even thinking about who could make it: Platinum Games
Platinum has made games such as Transformers Devastation, Bayonetta, and Metal Gear Rising. Platinum is known for their fast, destructive games and Transformers showed their ability to make these thing on a large scale.
If you think about it, The Hulk doesn't think too much, he pretty much just smashes stuff. Having a story would be great, but it isn't required, heck, it doesn't even have to be too deep.
This one had to make the list based on its simplicity. Who wouldn't want a 3D Rampage game staring the Hulk?
5. Iron Man
Okay, so they tried this with the aptly named Iron Man in 2008 and… well, it was terrible. Like, really bad. Like, who made this… hmm… Secret Level… Artificial Mind and Movement… Okay, yeah. First of all, three different developers for different systems, and non of them I've ever heard of… Safe to say, this was a cash grab. In fact, it was mostly based on the movie instead of trying for something more creative.
I don't think the industry quite understood what they had at the time or for some reason thought people would think this pile of garbage would suddenly be fun because it had Tony Stark's face on it.
So let's take a minute here and explain something: If by some stroke of luck a video game developer watches this video and thinks "I should make that game": DO NOT BASE IT ON A MOVIE!!
Super heroes have YEARS of content to pull from and movie-based games ALWAYS perform badly! Just no! Stay away! Don't do it!
Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice came out this weekend and regardless of the reviews, it all begs the question: Where are my super hero games!?
The oringal PlayStation days were full of them! Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Legends, the various Spider-man games, and a lot more off-the-wall ones like Iron man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal. But all these games were before comic book franchises exploded like they did after the release of the first Iron Man movie.
Sure, today we have the Arkham series but… what else? Marvel Heroes is fun, but it's almost devoid of any personal story. The LEGO super hero games are also great, but they serve as a spoof of the source material.
We want real, focused super hero games today on Gamezone's Top 5 of the Week.
