Top 10 Hardest Superhero Games
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Toughest Superhero Video Games!
#10: “The Wonderful 101” (2014)
The 10 HARDEST Final Fantasy Games To Complete
“The Wonderful 101” is in a weird spot because it isn’t necessarily difficult in terms of its gameplay. The game does a pretty decent job at maintaining its difficulty level even if it is kind of the oddball in developer Platinum Games’s catalog. No, the biggest hurdle you’ll have to face is the controls. “The Wonderful 101” demands a full understanding of the game’s mechanics. It’s a game where everything will either just click with you or not, and if it doesn’t, well, you might find yourself struggling to understand what exactly you need to do.
#9: “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” (2023)
10 Things We Want to See in Marvel's Spider-Man 3
You could just set the game to the easiest difficulty, but in doing so, you kind of miss out on the full “Spider-Man 2” experience. We won’t lie, though - “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” is one of the toughest games Insomniac has ever made. While upgrading Peter and Miles will make you more formidable in battle, it isn’t going to solely carry you. Powers and abilities are now tied to cooldowns rather than ammunition, forcing you to use them a bit more strategically. And the bosses? They hit hard. Really hard.
#8: “Deadpool” (2013)
Much like “Spider-Man 2”, you can play through “Deadpool” under the easy or normal difficulty with very few problems. But when cranked to Ultra-Violent - the hardest difficulty - you have to start playing it differently. Not only do enemies hit harder, but some of them can end you with a single attack. To make things worse, your dodging is way more limited in the number of times you can use it. Many who played on Ultra-Violent have walked away frustrated. Those who stuck with it…still frustrated.
#7: “Injustice 2” (2017)
If you played “Mortal Kombat X” and found it to be difficult, well, you might struggle the same way here. “Injustice 2” wound up filtering out a lot of players, for better or worse. First off, the gameplay is just as fast as MKX, meaning much of your skill depends on incredibly fast inputs. Not only that, but some characters have moves that require weird inputs in order to execute them. It can all be very overwhelming, even for your average fighting game fan. It doesn’t help that some of the balance feels a bit whack.
#6: “Infamous” (2009)
“Infamous” can be a bit of a pain to deal with at times. For starters, the traversal here isn’t as refined as it is in later games in the franchise; Cole will sometimes grab onto things or fail to recognize ledges he can grab onto. Combat, on the other hand, can sometimes feel cheap in how certain enemies become bolt sponges, particularly the Dustmen and the significantly less-armored First Sons. We don’t say this to make a pun out of the developer, but be prepared to get sucker-punched on several occasions.
#5: “Batman: Arkham Knight” (2015)
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 vs Batman: Arkham Knight
“Arkham Asylum” can be spent in Detective Mode for most of the game, and “Arkham City” is really only hard when you go for the New Game Plus playthrough. “Arkham Knight”, though? Easily the hardest of the “Arkham” games. This installment gave enemies even more weapons to use against the Dark Knight, forcing players to counter through other means and play more carefully during stealth missions. And god help those of you who may not be great at driving games during Batmobile sections. The challenge maps were equally brutal when going for all of the medals.
#4: “Marvel’s Midnight Suns” (2022)
Marvel Vs DC: Which Games Are Better?
If you haven’t grabbed “Marvel’s Midnight Suns”, you absolutely need to give this a shot! Here, the difficulty is what makes the gameplay truly shine. On the surface, the game might seem as oppressive as “XCOM”, given the limited actions you can do. However, once you find ways to KO enemies, save on your Card Plays, and maximize your damage output, “Midnight Suns” becomes incredibly satisfying to play. Just make sure you aren’t playing cards recklessly the second you think “Oh, this one card can do a lot of damage now!” Think more resourcefully.
#3: “Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety” (1995)
Now, most of the entries we’ve gone over have been hard because you need a firm understanding of their mechanics. For “Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety”... there isn’t anything in the world to prepare you for this. This game takes the difficulty from its predecessor, “Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage”, and breaks it. The entire game is loaded with nonsensical hitboxes and potshots against the player. Really, Venom should not be dying so easily and taking cheap shots this often. Spidey, sure, maybe. But not Venom.
#2: “Viewtiful Joe” (2003)
“Viewtiful Joe” is a game that will either make or break you. You can’t really play this the same way you would with classic arcade beat ‘em ups. You need to find a balance between darting around the stage and pummeling the crap out of your enemies. Bosses will test your patience, and it is important that you experiment to figure out how to counter enemies. So long as you jump in knowing this isn’t another run of the mill brawler, you might love “Viewtiful Joe” no matter how many times you die.
#1: “Silver Surfer” (1990)
To this day, “Silver Surfer” on the NES is the cruelest superhero game you could ever play. How so? Well, the game forgets that you are, you know, a superhero. Just about every little thing in this game can kill you instantly from a single hit from an enemy to accidentally running into something that looks like it was a part of the background. It is all absolutely B-S, and no matter what comes out in the coming weeks, months, years, or decade, “Silver Surfer” will always be the hardest superhero game in the most negative way possible.
Which superhero game did you find the most difficult to play? Did it make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to WatchMojo for more gaming videos everyday!
