10 Marvel Games Every Fan Needs to Play

After an initial founding as Timely Comics in the 1930s and a transition to Atlas Comics by the 1950s, the Marvel Comics Universe as we came to know it was officially set into motion in 1961, thanks to the iconic partnership between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. With Marvel having been around as long as it has, of course there have been games based on the Marvel Universe for as long as video games have existed as a medium of entertainment. But it wouldn't really be until the third and fourth console generations that these titles would really come into their own as doing justice to the characters and stories that people had grown to love, and the last decade has seen Marvel games explode in popularity thanks to the unprecedented success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Thanks to the advancements made possible by modern hardware, games based on the Marvel Universe are arguably the best they've ever been, with iconic characters like Spider-Man getting their best open-world games to date and an incredible-looking Wolverine game set to launch later this year from the same talented developer, Insomniac Games. With the recently announced Marvel MaXimum Collection from Limited Run Games, it felt like a good time to go back through the history of Marvel in video games and point out the best ones to ever grace our screens.

• Release Date — October 24, 2006
• Developer — Raven Software
• Publisher — Activision
• Genre — ARPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 83% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — Game Boy Advance, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One

While it wasn't the first Marvel-themed ARPG to come from Raven Software, Marvel Ultimate Alliance built upon the foundation laid by both X-Men Legends games to deliver something that fans hadn't experienced up to that point: a sprawling action RPG/beat 'em up hybrid featuring not just one team but an entire playable cast of heroes and villains from across the Marvel Universe. Marvel Ultimate Alliance would end up getting two sequels, with more than a decade between the second and third entries, but all these years later, it's the first game in the franchise that feels the closest in scope and gameplay to the excellent X-Men Legends games, albeit with a wider roster of iconic Marvel characters to team up with a friend and play as.

• Release Date — March 1992
• Developer — Konami
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Beat 'em Up
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Platforms — Arcade

With a name like the Marvel MaXimum Collection, you'd expect that it would be bursting with some of the best games to ever use the Marvel Comics license. Unfortunately, the contents of that upcoming compilation are a little lackluster, with one major exception: the inclusion of the Konami X-Men arcade game. X-Men is one of several incredible side-scrolling beat 'em ups that Konami released in the early 1990s during the heyday of the coin-op cabinet, and it might honestly be the best; yes, even better than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.

The roster of characters, all decked out in era-appropriate costumes pulled directly from the pages of Chris Claremont's legendary run on Uncanny X-Men, are all fun and unique to play as, and the game only gets better when four players are huddled around a single screen to try and take down Magneto. That we're finally about to get a playable modern port of this arcade classic (with the PS3 and Xbox 360 re-release no longer available) is cause for celebration.

• Release Date — October 22, 2013
• Developer — Traveller's Tales
• Publisher — Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Puzzle
• Review Aggregate Score — 83% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — Android, iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One

If you were to combine a classic Traveller's Tales Lego game with Marvel Ultimate Alliance, what you'd end up with is Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and it's just as great as that combination sounds. As far as depth and breadth of content go, Lego Marvel Super Heroes is one of the few Lego games that can stand toe-to-toe with Lego Star Wars, and it contains equally as fun puzzle, platforming, and combat challenges that make great use of the unique abilities spread across a dizzying roster of playable Marvel heroes and villains. You can readily pick this one up on sale for about $5 or less these days, and it's absolutely worth doing so, especially if you happen to have a co-op partner to play it with.

• Release Date — December 6, 2024
• Developer — NetEase Games
• Publisher — NetEase Games
• Genre — MOBA, Hero Shooter
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Even if you're not typically a fan of competitive multiplayer games or MOBAs, there's something that's hard to resist about Marvel Rivals. It's basically just "third-person Overwatch with Marvel characters", but for players who missed the old style of Overwatch gameplay and were looking for something with a low skill floor and high skill ceiling, Marvel Rivals is it. It doesn't hurt that the roster of characters features some of the coolest heroes and villains from across the Marvel universe, all of whom can be fully decked out in some pretty iconic cosmetics that reference their storylines from the comics. That it's all free-to-play and has a thriving online community is just the icing on the cake.

• Release Date — September 20, 2005
• Developer — Raven Software
• Publisher — Activision
• Genre — ARPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — GameCube, Mobile, PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox

More than 20 years later, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is both the best X-Men game ever created and one of the best ARPGs of all time — can we please get a proper Steam release?! Lack of an available modern port aside, X-Men Legends II still holds up all these years later because of some tried-and-true hack-and-slash/beat 'em up gameplay, rewarding loot, and a surprisingly compelling story pulled directly from the pages of a selection of iconic X-Men books during the Claremont run. X-Men Legends II is also the first of Raven Software's run of Marvel-licensed ARPGs to let players assume control of the villains, and there's something so incredibly cool about dusting up bad guys as a team that contains Cyclops and Magneto fighting side-by-side.

• Release Date — October 26, 2021
• Developer — Eidos-Montréal
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 80% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Most Marvel games place a premium on gameplay and let their stories take a backseat, which is odd for a property that earned most of its fans through some high-quality storytelling (both on page and on the screen). The one game that bucks that trend is Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a serviceable action-adventure game with some fun setpiece moments, but really shines as an exemplar of how video game narratives can match the quality of some of the best films Hollywood can produce. The Guardians of the Galaxy game is just as good as the three great films from James Gunn, all while utilizing an original vision of those characters that lands somewhere between their film adaptations and the comics. If you've never played this, you're in for an absolute treat and one of the best Marvel stories told across any medium.

• Release Date — December 2, 2022
• Developer — Firaxis Games
• Publisher — 2K
• Genre — Turn-Based Tactics, Social Simulation
• Review Aggregate Score — 83% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

As a fan of turn-based tactics games and a lifelong reader of Marvel Comics, I was thrilled to see that Jake Solomon and Firaxis were working on a TRPG set in the Marvel Universe. But when Marvel's Midnight Suns finally arrived, nothing could have prepared me for how different a game it would be from the likes of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2. While there are traces of the XCOM DNA present in Midnight Suns, its use of a unique deck-building combat system, along with a greater emphasis on positioning and momentum, transforms its combat into something that honestly feels more dynamic and interesting. If you could strip out the unnecessary plodding social sim segments in between missions, Midnight Suns would be a perfect TRPG.

• Release Date — December 1, 2025
• Developer — Tribute Games
• Publisher — Dotemu
• Genre — Beat 'em Up
• Review Aggregate Score — 81% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Despite having only just been released at the end of last year, Marvel Cosmic Invasion has already claimed a top spot on any list of the best Marvel games, thanks to it being perhaps the greatest beat 'em up to ever use the Marvel license. Tribute Games knocked it out of the park yet again, following up its excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat 'em up with its own take on the classic beat 'em ups featuring Marvel heroes and villains, and it's yet another accessible and fun brawler that places an emphasis on flashy combos and easy-to-execute attacks over mechanical depth, allowing players of all skill levels to just hop in and enjoy an incredible hero-swapping campaign with plenty of unlockables.

• Release Date — March 23, 2000
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Fighting
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — Arcade, Dreamcast, iOS, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360

There are plenty of Marvel fighting games that have come out throughout the years, yet none of them can even come close to the all-time classic that is the Dreamcast version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. After a stint in the arcades, MvC 2 first came home via a Dreamcast port before eventually making its way to PS2 and Xbox (and, later, a digital release on PS3 and Xbox 360), and none of those later releases were as close to the original coin-op cabinet as the Dreamcast release. Thankfully, we now have the original, arcade-perfect port of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 available as part of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection. Between its roster of playable characters, depth of unlockables, and wide range of versatile strategies, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is more than just the perfect Marvel fighting game. It's one of the best 2D fighters ever made.

• Release Date — September 7, 2018
• Developer — Insomniac Games
• Publisher — Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5

You could easily point to Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham trilogy as the foundation for what makes Insomniac's Spider-Man so great, but that's only half the equation. The other half is Insomniac's understanding of what makes the Web-Slinger such an endearing and enduring character throughout more than half a century of pop culture, and that the studio was able to tap into the fantasy of becoming Spider-Man while also delivering a game that so fully nailed all of its mechanics is practically a miracle. Yes, Spider-Man 2 is maybe the better game thanks to its expanded combat sandbox and better story, but the original Spider-Man game on PS4 was a technical marvel (pun intended) for its time that delivered one of the most awe-inspiring moments a game could: letting you swing through a painstakingly recreated New York City as Spider-Man.