Licensed video games can often be a mixed bag, but the heroes of the Marvel Universe have a pretty good track record. Sure, there have been some famously bad games along the way, like X-Men: Destiny, or Silver Surfer on NES. However, there have been a lot of truly great ones released over the years. Unfortunately, most of those games have only received a single release, forcing newer players to search for emulators, or overpriced original copies. In some cases, it’s actually pretty shocking that some of these games haven’t made a comeback. ComicBook has compiled a list of five Marvel games that are in desperate need of ports and remasters on platforms like Steam, Switch, PS5, and Xbox.
5. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction– Following the commercial success of a game based on the Eric Bana Hulk film, developer Radical Entertainment began working on a sequel. Eventually, that project evolved into a game based on the Hulk comics instead, called The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Released in 2005, Ultimate Destruction gave the green giant an open world to explore, and the power to cause a whole lot of property damage. It also featured a storyline written by Paul Jenkins, with Bryan Hitch working on the game’s concept art and overall visual design. The game even featured alternate looks for Hulk, including an option inspired by Joe Fixit. As far as Hulk games go, this one was pretty much perfect, and it’s long past time that new audiences got a chance to play it.
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4. X-Men (1992)– In 1992, no publisher was making arcade brawlers quite like Konami. Following the success of Turtles in Time and The Simpsons, Konami released X-Men, an arcade game loosely based on the Pryde of the X-Men animated pilot. While the game was awkwardly released in the same year TV viewers were being introduced to a much different team of X-Men, that didn’t seem to hurt the game’s popularity. In the decades since, X-Men has been re-released through the popular Arcade1Up cabinets, and has even gotten Marvel Legends toys specifically based on the game’s Sentinels. Unfortunately, it hasn’t had a home release in more than a decade, and remains unavailable on current platforms. It definitely deserves another one.
3. Marvel Ultimate Alliance– After developing two well-regarded X-Men Legends games, developer Raven Software decided to expand the series to cover the Marvel Universe as a whole. The result was Marvel Ultimate Alliance, an action RPG that featured heroes like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and more. The game’s mash-up of elements from the Ultimate universe and 616 haven’t aged too well, but Raven Software packed the game with a metric ton of fan service, including a wide range of alternate skins for each character. The series got a strong new entry on Nintendo Switch a few years ago from Koei Tecmo, but it would be great to see the original given a fresh coat of paint, and made available on multiple platforms.
2. Thor: God of Thunder– When the first Thor movie arrived in theaters in 2011, it was accompanied by video games on all of the current video game platforms. Many of those proved largely forgettable, but the DS version was actually pretty good. That might come as a surprise to those that haven’t played it, but Thor: God of Thunder was developed by WayForward, the studio behind the Shantae series, The Mummy Demastered, and the recent Advance Wars remake. Thor: God of Thunder offered players an enjoyable sidescroller that took advantage of the system’s dual screens with boss fights against huge enemies. The game has been largely forgotten by players, and that’s a shame, because its sprites and character designs are excellent, and would look even better in HD.
1. Spider-Man (2000)– Spider-Man has been appearing in video games for more than four decades now, starting all the way back on Atari 2600. However, the vast majority of those games failed to make players truly feel like Spider-Man. In 2000, that changed with the release of Spider-Man on the original PlayStation. The Activision game was the first to allow players to web-sling in 3D, laying the groundwork for what players would eventually come to see in games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5. When compared to more recent games, Spider-Man is a little antiquated, but the game’s influence is undeniable, and there’s something really special about it. It also features a blast of a story with great voice work from Spider-Man alumni like Rino Romano (Spider-Man Unlimited) and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man: The Animated Series). It also has Stan Lee as the game’s narrator, and a great remix of the classic Spider-Man theme song.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy have shown that there’s a market for remasters of classic PlayStation games. It would be great to see Spider-Man and its PS1 sequel given a similar treatment. Honestly, even just a port would be nice!
What Marvel games do you want to see on modern systems? Are there any games you want to see get a port or remaster? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!