Not too long ago, I wrote a list centering on what I believe are the ten best video games based on a comic book. There are most certainly other such games that are great; so many that there’s not enough time to name them all. But just as there’s a bad day for every good day, there’s a terrible comic book game for every good comic book game. Here are the ten worst comic book video games—the ones that, no matter how much you like the character or characters involved, you should probably avoid like the plague.
10. X-Men: Destiny
Our happy list starts with the Uncanny--or in this case, Unfortunate--X-Men. Players get to create their own mutant, develop that mutant’s powers, and side with either the heroic X-Men or Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil. Any semblance of greatness is then thrown out the window thanks to a shallow story and the most watered-down gameplay mechanics you can imagine for an action-RPG. So boring, repetitive, and mindless is this game that it led to a pretty sour reception across the board. It then resulted in not only the closure of developer Silicon Knights, but also to a court order decreeing that all new copies of the game must be destroyed. The only mutant power this game possesses is the power of wasted potential.
9. Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
If you haven’t heard of this one, it’s because it was a massive failure of a marketing plan that Marvel and developer Electronic Arts had back in the day. The premise sees the titular, forgettable Imperfects launching a plan to conquer Earth and battling the Marvel U’s heroes; if not for the presence of Marvel characters, this story would not even be worth a glance. Gameplay wise, what we’ve got here is a fighting game that not only fails at being a game worthy of competitive and balanced play, but also fails at being a casual fighting game a la the original “Super Smash Bros.” Some characters are way better than others--I’m looking at YOU, Paragon--and others, like Daredevil, really feel underwhelming. There are good fighting games with Marvel characters out there--cough Marvel vs Capcom cough--and this game is not one of them.
8. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ “Watchmen” is quite possibly the greatest graphic novel around; its 2009 movie counterpart, while not perfect, is solid and does a great job of translating the material to the screen. “The End Is Nigh,” however, does nothing for Moore and Gibbons’ perennial work. While the plot is interesting, following the exploits of main characters Nite Owl and Rorschach prior to the events of the graphic novel, everything else is unappealing and dull; from the shoddy textures and character models to the extremely unwieldy combat system. Given the graphic novel and film’s mature and thought-provoking approach toward superheroes, you’d think the game would be sophisticated and engaging; unfortunately, somebody thought it’d be better to make the game a sloppy beat-‘em-up that even fans of the genre would turn away from. Do yourself a favor and read the graphic novel and/or watch the film instead of wasting time with this.
7. Silver Surfer
The auto-scrolling shooter is a type of game that is popular and fairly easy to do; just see shining examples such as Konami’s “Gradius” for proof. “Silver Surfer,” on the other hand, apparently didn’t get the memo. The game is infamous for its insane difficulty, with our titular cosmic hero being as fragile as a vase and the game design favoring cheap enemy and hazard placement over a fair challenge. The game is overly demanding too, forcing players to keep even the slightest pixel away from instant-death borders, which are not readily identifiable, as well as projectiles and obstacles that come on-screen at a speed faster than the player can possibly move . When it’s nigh-impossible to know what’s ahead unless you’ve died and replayed levels many times and it’s even harder to simply sidestep danger, you know your game is in a bad spot.
6. The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga
A game based on the Hulk should involve plenty of action and destruction; something that “The Pantheon Saga” does attempt to do, but fails at hard. The action I speak of is not very pretty to look at, given the game’s painful aesthetics. I don’t even think it’s accurate to say there’s “action” in the game thanks to its monotonous gameplay and severe lack of variation. The sound design is an abysmal affair with apparently no quality testing or check-ups involved. Even though it does have a story that adheres to an existing Hulk storyline, it isn’t enough to make up for the 99% of the game that is completely uninteresting. “The Pantheon Saga” is so bad it would have Hulk rage-quitting in a heartbeat.
5. Catwoman
Just like its film counterpart, this game is an endurance test for how much stupid you can handle, loaded with horrid game design and ugly environments and characters. Worse yet, the game expects players to use wall-scaling and platforming to get around at times, which would be fine if Catwoman didn’t control so poorly and stiffly. Lack of nimbleness isn’t the only thing the game gets wrong; the game gets the strange notion that it’s okay to rip off “Tomb Raider” with its supposed exploration features (trust me: you won’t want to explore a lame environment like this one) and also has a combat system that reeks of low effort. Getting scratched by a cat would hurt a lot less than trying to sit down and play this game.
4. Spawn: The Eternal
Spawn is a character that a video game would be ideal for; he’s a hell-spawned specter with supernatural abilities that fights demons and criminals using guns and magical weapons. “Spawn: The Eternal” takes advantage of approximately none of that groundwork, instead prioritizing awful graphics and gameplay that must be seen to be believed. Although the game was released for the PS1, a console that is quite outdated by today’s standards, the limitations of the hardware aren’t enough to justify the fact that everything is wrong with this game. PS1 standards are a little higher than the lifeless echo chamber this game is; the game has a mostly music-less atmosphere, the bizarre addition of 2D fighting game mechanics whenever an enemy is encountered, and a lazily-designed control scheme. Bad, unpolished, and not worth anybody’s money, “Spawn: The Eternal” can burn in a very particular place.
3. Batman: Dark Tomorrow
The Dark Knight strikes out with “Batman: Dark Tomorrow”: a textbook for everything a Batman game should not be. Annoying fixed camera? Check. Bugs and glitches galore? Check. A clunky, poorly tested combat system? Also check. A terribly written story? Double check. Disappointingly enough, this game almost wasn’t bad; when first unveiled in 2001, it was intended to be an open-world game allowing players to roam Gotham City as everyone’s favorite cape-and-cowl-wearing superhero. Unfortunately, that vision never came to pass, and what we got instead was a game that wouldn’t even satisfy Sega Dreamcast standards. Let it be known that this game is not the hero Gotham deserves…and really not the one it needs right now.
2. Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis
Ah, Aquaman: the one DC hero to be the butt of every superhero joke since the days of “Super Friends.” Let’s start with the graphics for “Battle for Atlantis." Short and to the point: they are unacceptable for the game’s release year of 2003. Considering great-looking titles like “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III,” and “F-Zero GX” also released that year, it’s simply inexcusable to have Atlantis look like a barren, blurry, boring wasteland filled with some of the most unimaginably horrid character sprites in a video game. Gameplay-wise, it’s even worse, as Aquaman’s movements are about as graceful as a drunken bear on a unicycle and his attacks are meaningless flails that hurt about as much as Magikarp’s Splash move. Look, Aquaman isn’t lame--go and read some of Geoff Johns’ work on the character--but this game certainly is, and if you already hate Aquaman, the game will make you hate him even more.
1. Superman 64
When you ask a gamer about the worst games ever, they’re most likely going to direct you to this abomination of a game. Much like the backwards Superman villain Bizarro, this game defies all logic and explanation, leaving one to wonder how it could have even been conceived let alone sold on store shelves. Players control Superman as he flies through a series of rings in order to beat each level--instead of, you know, flying around Metropolis and fighting supervillains. And that’s not the worst of it; this ring-hunting activity, which is really the only thing you do throughout the game, is not only boring, but it’s also ridiculously unfair due to stingy time limits and the worst flight control in a game bar none. It’s true that people have beaten this game to death, but the bewildering absence of all common sense, effort, and good ideas in this game justify all of the hatred. Every criticism you may have heard about this game is true; it is Kryptonite to every man, woman, and child on Earth. It doesn’t deserve to be in your game collection, and it certainly doesn’t deserve to be played.
There are plenty of other similar games I haven’t covered here, but the list has to stop somewhere. At the very least, I’ve provided the ten worst ones you should be dodging. The next time you read a bad comic book or see a bad comic book movie, take comfort in one simple fact: you weren’t playing one of these.
