While we were assembling our list of the best comic book games we noticed some strange patterns. For one thing, Spiderman or the X-men are in pretty much all of them. Isn’t it odd then that the Spiderman and X-men game kind of sucked? And why can’t DC make a good game for once?

We’re hoping the upcoming DC Universe Online for PC and PS3 changes all that, but we’ve been burned before so we’ll reserve judgement for now. On with the list!

10. XIII: PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

XIII is a study in style over substance. It’s short, it has a very limited arsenal and it’s hard to differentiate amongst the different baddies you’ll be facing. Yet somehow, despite all it’s shortcomings, XIII was a lot of fun.

It used a cell shaded design style back when cell shading was still unique and it broke all the FPS rules by attempting to motivate the player with an actual story rather than the promise of bigger guns and more aliens to shoot around the next corner. The controls were tight and the game never felt repetitive. That may be because it was only a few hours long, but we’re trying not to nitpick here.

Our biggest complaint? What’s up with that cliffhanger ending? No sequel? What a tease.

9. Justice League Heroes: PS2, Xbox

“Are these guys trying to rip off X-men Legends?”

That’s what we all thought when this game was announced. Luckily, those of us who were able to look past the game’s lack of originality were treated to a more than decent action RPG.

Snowblind Studios didn’t include 4 player co-op in this game which was odd because all their previous dungeon crawlers did support 4 players. Despite this glaring omission, Heroes was a brief yet enjoyable ride.

It featured a diverse cast of DC heavyweights and lots of interesting environments to do battle in. For fans of DC’s emerald trio, the Green Arrow, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter it’s still the only place to go to get your hack and slash fix.

8. Ultimate Spiderman: PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

Ultimate Spiderman is just fun. There was nothing revolutionary about it. The game plays very similarly to Treyarch’s other Spiderman games, but for a few key differences.

In Ultimate, players have the option of using Spiderman or Venom. It features a cool cell shaded art style that really helps to achieve a comic book look. Maybe it’s because Treyarch wasn’t under any pressure to get this one out in time for a movie release. Whatever the reason, Ultimate just nails it.

The combat may be a little shallow, but the game makes up for it with varied missions, refined swinging mechanics, tons of cool cameos and a decent storyline that’s very faithful to the comic series. It’s easy to waste hours on end in this one just swinging around the city.

7. Shadowman: N64, PS1, Dreamcast, PC

Shadowman was one of the first games to get targeting and camera controls right in a third person shooter for consoles. The creepy, voodoo inspired shooter was also one of the first games early Dreamcast owners would use to impress their friends with last gen machines.

It may look and play a little bit dated now, but at the time no other game could really match it as far as atmosphere goes. It was creepy, it looked amazing and the sound was spectacular. If you want to see where most of the ideas in modern third person shooters come from, put that copy of Tomb Raider down and go play some Shadowman.

6. X-Men: Genesis

This game probably ate up more of my time as a pre-teen than any other game out there.

It featured four playable characters, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Gambit. It had great co-op play and lots of classic villains from the X-men universe. It was released way back when the X-men cartoons were still dominating the Saturday morning airwaves so young fans were quick to snap this one up. The combat is balanced, the 4 characters all play completely differently from one another, the levels are varied and the difficulty manages to hit that sweet spot between hard and just plain frustrating.

One thing I’ll never understand is why just having Wolverine’s claws out would drain your mutant power meter. In X-men 2 (also stellar) they fixed that problem and changed up the cast of characters a little. Both games are great examples of how an action sidescroller should play.

5. Spiderman & Venom: Maximum Carnage: SNES, GEN

Spiderman again! Why is it most comic book games boil down to moving your character from the left to the right, while beating up endless waves of generic baddies? Maximum Carnage didn’t exactly take any risks, but what the game does, it does extremely well.

The single player storyline offered players branching paths by giving us the option to play as either Spiderman or Venom every few levels. In two player mode, Spiderman and Venom would pay through the whole game together. The graphics were awesome for a console game, both characters had a wide array of moves for a brawler and they managed to break up the monotony by including a few unique wall crawling levels and awesome boss fights. I can’t quite explain why, but this game is pure win.

Fans should also check out the lesser known sequel Separation Anxiety.

4. X-Men: Arcade

If you were lucky enough to live close to a large arcade in the early 90’s you probably had the pleasure of playing one of the first and only 6 player arcade games. X-men took the traditional beat ‘em up mould and expanded on it by adding more players into the mix and granting each character a mutant superpower you could call on at any time. The graphics were awesome, but the story and voice acting left a lot to be desired.

I laughed my ass off the first time Pyro burst through the wall and informed me in his poorly compressed, extremely shrill voice that “Your powers are useless against mine”.

The choice of characters was a bit questionable too, I mean who really wants to play as Dazzler? Still, X-men arcade remains an awesome game to this day. Too bad we never got a decent console port. Guess that’s what Mame is for.

3. Sam & Max – Hit the road: PC

Oh Sam & Max. The twisted adventures of a fedora sporting dog detective and his psychopathic rabbit-type-thing of a partner. I honestly didn’t even know this one was based on a comic until recently.

The challenge with this game wasn’t just to beat it. The challenge was to beat it without looking up a strategy guide online. I failed the challenge. Good god those old adventure games could be frustrating at times. Still, despite the occasional frustrating puzzle, Sam & Max proved to be one of the best Lucasarts adventure games. The animation was amazing for it’s time. It looked like you were playing through a Saturday morning cartoon. The designers fostered this illusion by removing the inventory bar seasoned adventurers were so accustomed to seeing at the bottom of the screen. Somehow they managed to do so without removing any of the functionality of the tried and tested SCUMM system.

We loved Sam & Max for it’s twisted sense of humour, it’s amazing animation and it’s clever puzzles. If you aren’t familiar with the duo, we recommend checking out their newer episodic adventures. The fifth episode “Abe Lincoln Must Die” is freely available here. Remember, no FAQs or online guides allowed.

2. Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction: PS2, Xbox, GC

Nothing quite beats the feeling of playing as the Incredible Hulk.

You can stop a truck dead in it’s tracks, break it in two, then use the crumpled up remains to pummel the crap out of a giant Hulk Buster mech. You can flatten a bus and ride it around the city streets like a surfboard, leaving a path of destruction in your wake. You can destroy entire skyscrapers, catch missiles and throw them back to their point of origin, pick up a tank and use it as a shield before smashing more tanks with the remains or simply spend some time jumping from rooftop to rooftop while trying to avoid the strike force that’s inevitably going to come after you.

Sound like fun? If you said no then there’s clearly something wrong with you. This game should still be easy to find. Go buy it. You won’t be disappointed.

1. X-Men Legends: PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

Too many X-men games? We think not. Legends is a Diablo style hack & slash game featuring Marvel’s classic super hero team that managed to strike an excellent balance between customization and flat out action.

Legends has a huge cast of characters from the X-men universe with tons of moves available for each one. Up to four players at a time can hack their way through waves of enemies in a variety of environments. The cut scenes are great, there are tons of unlockables and players can drop in and out of campaigns anytime. Not only is Legends probably the best comic book game ever, it may just be the best console hack & slash game out there.

Legends 2 and the spin off, Ultimate Alliance were both quality games, but they weren’t quite as memorable as the original. Ultimate Alliance 2 should be out soon. We only hope they can at least match the original with this next one.

Well there you have it. Casualty Gamer’s top 10 comic book games. Honorable mentions go to the Punisher for PS2 and Xbox and Turok for N64. Punisher was a mostly boring Max Payne clone, but in my book any game that let’s you chrome a guy’s head deserves a little recognition. As for Turok, there was a lot wrong with the game, but it helped establish the FPS as a viable game type for consoles. That was no small feat back in the 64’s day.

Do you have a favorite we left off the list? Maybe you would have changed up the order. Let us know. Just remember that the TMNT games were all based off the TV show, not so much the comic books. And yes, we love Comix Zone too. Unfortunately there wasn’t an actual comic behind it.