Best Superhero Games

Why it's here: Two Spider-Men share one New York, and switching between them mid-swing is the point: Peter's symbiote rage and Miles' bio-electric precision play differently enough to change how a fight opens. Whether the denser, smaller city is a refinement or a retreat is the argument worth having.

Why it's here: The game that solved superhero movement. Swinging here is a physical skill with a rhythm you genuinely improve at, and the campaign spends as much time on Peter's rent and his relationships as on the mask. For anyone starting the superhero shelf from scratch, the only question is whether to begin here or skip ahead.

Why it's here: Arkham combat and predator rooms at their most refined, wrapped around a Gotham you can finally drive. The Batmobile is the whole fault line: a genuine third pillar of the design for some players, an intrusion that keeps interrupting the stalking for others. Rated Mature, and the darkest entry in the run.

Why it's here: Deliberately short, a winter's worth of story rather than a hundred hours, and the tighter scope is why it lands. Venom strike and camouflage make Miles fight nothing like Peter, and Harlem gives the city a neighbourhood instead of a skyline. Whether shorter reads as focused or slight depends on the buyer.

Why it's here: The best case here for an original superhero, no comics required. Delsin absorbs powers from what he touches, so smoke, neon and video each rewrite traversal and combat wholesale, and the karma system asks early whether to be feared or admired. Seattle is small by open-world standards, which is either tidy or thin.

Why it's here: Only Star-Lord is ever under your hands. The rest of the crew is commanded, argued with and talked down mid-fight through a huddle that pauses a losing battle for a pep talk, so the writing carries the combat rather than the reverse. It ends properly, which on this list is rarer than it sounds.

Why it's here: Two full games for the price of the argument they start: Asylum, one tense night inside a single building, and City, the district-sized sequel that opened it up. Playing them back to back is the clearest way to watch free-flow combat and predator rooms take shape. The remaster's lighting is what players still dispute.

Why it's here: Neon alone, spun off into a single evening. Fetch runs up buildings at light speed, making this the fastest-moving game here, and the whole thing finishes before an open world would normally stop introducing itself. Whether one power set with no karma system justifies its own release is the open question.

Why it's here: A DC fighter that hands out loot. Matches drop gear that changes stats and silhouette, so the roster becomes a wardrobe and solo play gains a grind most fighting games refuse. Serious competitive matches switch the stats off entirely, which tells you exactly who the system was built for.

Why it's here: An original Marvel story rather than a film adaptation, with a roster that reaches past the Avengers to Howard the Duck. Drop-in local co-op is the real feature: an adult and a seven-year-old can play the same campaign without either being held back. Rated E10+, and funnier than the format suggests.

Why it's here: The only game here built for Tuesday night rather than a campaign. Team-Up skills mean specific hero pairings unlock combined abilities, so the squad is half-decided before the match starts, and the maps come apart as you fight. Free to play, which is both why the queues fill and why the tone runs hot.

Why it's here: The game that made a fighting-game story mode worth finishing, handing you a different fighter each chapter of an authoritarian Superman arc. Stage transitions still throw opponents through several buildings. The combat is stiffer than its sequel, so the question is whether the campaign alone earns the slot.

Why it's here: Superheroes as playground politics, with a properly good tactical RPG underneath the joke. Combat moves onto a grid where positioning and knockback decide fights, a real step up from the last one. Rated Mature and merciless about it: this is the show, so the discomfort is deliberate rather than incidental.

Why it's here: Superhero tactics dealt from a deck. Every ability is a card, and between missions the game becomes a friendship sim where you hang around the Abbey with Blade and Ghost Rider. Those two halves are the whole debate: the tactical layer is widely admired, the downtime is what players either love or skip.

Why it's here: The DC roster taken off-planet, chasing Brainiac across the Lantern Worlds with a cast running far past the Justice League. Co-op and the sheer character count are the draw. What it gave up was the open Gotham of the previous game, and whether space is a fair trade for that is the split.

Why it's here: Build your own hero instead of borrowing one, then work Gotham and Metropolis alongside the characters who own them. Free to enter and more than a decade deep in content, which cuts both ways: the customisation and lore are extraordinary, and the monetisation is what players argue about. Rated Teen.

Why it's here: The only entry here more interested in Bruce Wayne than in Batman, opening by dismantling everything Gotham believes about his parents. Fights resolve through timed prompts rather than skill, so anyone arriving from Arkham should recalibrate. What it offers instead is a choice about which identity solves the problem.