Top 20 Worst Marvel Games

#20: “Marvel’s Avengers” (2020)

You know things are about to get rough when one of the most disappointing superhero games is only at the bottom of the list. While the combat of “Marvel’s Avengers” was fine, nothing to write home about but relatively inoffensive, it was nearly everything else that dragged it down. The live-service structure and monetization didn’t belong in something like this, and rubbed almost everyone the wrong way. And even though mechanics were decent, gameplay got repetitive quickly with little variety in enemy types and mission design. Simply put, it was boring, and a huge letdown for one pop culture’s most recognizable super teams.

#19: “Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge” (1992)

Publisher LJN is notorious for having produced some of the worst licensed games. First up, a terrible Spidey and X-Men team up. It sounds like a great idea, having iconic characters band together to escape deadly obstacles. But then you actually play it. While tons of games at the time were notably hard, this is on another level of unfairly difficult. Enemies shoot from off screen and death traps appear out of nowhere. There are even things that will instantly kill you for the slightest mistake. And without any checkpoints, you have to start every level from the beginning each time you die. Run out of lives, and it’s back to the beginning of the game, which is understandably maddening.

#18: “Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal” (1996)

Technically only half a Marvel game, since X-O Manowar comes from Valiant Comics, “Heavy Metal” still more than earns its inclusion. The crossover launched on several platforms. But no matter where you played it, the results weren’t good. It featured the most basic gameplay a sidescrolling action game could have, making it extremely repetitive. This was its greatest sin, but it was also both a pain to look at and listen to. Visuals were poor compared to other games of the time, and the grating soundtrack and sound design would quickly make you want to put the TV on mute.

#17: “Spider-Man: The Sinister Six” (1996)

While this MS-DOS point-and-click adventure is mostly forgotten among all the other Spider-Man games, it still deserves some ire. The rotoscope visuals seem nice for the time, but that’s as much praise as we can give it. Playing this game is painfully dull. When controlling Peter Parker, you can only talk to people, not move around or examine objects like others in the genre. And when you are talking, it’s usually over completely static images that will lull you to sleep. When you’re in costume, you’re at the mercy of controls and mechanics so janky, you’ll long for the monotony of the scenes that preceded them.

#16: “Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth” (2012)

Another stinker for the Avengers, “Battle for Earth” was released by Ubisoft in late 2012, the same year the team made history in the MCU. Needless to say, this was a far cry away from what they achieved on the big screen. Released on the Wii U and Xbox 360 Kinect, the fighter poorly utilized motion controls. Combat grew tiring and unfun the longer you played it. And it looked completely awkward on screen, with characters standing in a single spot, only moving forward when you did the right motion. With fights taking place in 3D arenas, it’s baffling to see Earth’s mightiest heroes fight so stiffly.

#15: “Wolverine” (1991)

LJN rears its ugly head again on our list with a truly enraging action platformer starring one of Marvel’s most popular mutants. While it isn’t as bad as some of the company’s other releases, what makes it infuriating is a profound misunderstanding of what would make Wolverine fun to play as. You see, whenever you pop his claws, it drains your health. And whenever you’ve defeated enough enemies, you’re automatically put into a Berserker mode that’s incredibly hard to control. Couple all this with unfair enemy placement, and you’ve got one hell of a frustrating game.

#14: “X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse” (1997)

“Ravages of Apocalypse” is a conversion mod of the original “Quake.” But where that game is fun, this is a chore. You’re tasked with defeating evil clones of popular “X-Men” characters. The weapons you’re given to do this with are severely underpowered in comparison to your enemies. Who wants to deal with a slow-firing gun against a healing Wolverine? Or stumble upon Iceman without a fire weapon, the only way to kill him? Or get shot through a wall by Bishop, whose blasts ignore physical barriers? It doesn’t help that its maps were completely lifeless with horrendous layouts, making it easy to get turned around.

#13: “Captain America in: The Doom Tube of Dr. Megalomann” (1987)

We’d like to be more lenient given the time it was released. But even in 1987, people could tell that this was trash. It follows Cap as he navigates the base of the evil Dr. Megalomann, a villain made up for this game. Don’t know why they couldn’t have used Red Skull, but we’ll move past it. The entire base is essentially one big tube of chambers, hence the name. So, every single area you go winds up looking exactly the same, and it isn’t as if the visuals were strong even by 1987 standards. Gameplay was also tedious and repetitive, making it a dull slog to experience all around.

#12: “The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga” (1997)

Many games have failed to capture what would make the Hulk a fun character to play as in a video game. “The Pantheon Saga” is one of the worst offenders. Released on the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, it follows Hulk trying to escape after being captured by the Pantheon super team. And it was slammed for basically every aspect. Repetitive gameplay made it way too easy, as did the shoehorned-in puzzles outside of combat. This added to the boring level design, combining for something completely lifeless, an adjective we should never use with the Hulk. It was also awkward to control and looked terrible even in 1997.

#11: “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” (2007)

Many movie tie-in games have a reputation for being lazy. And with games like “Rise of the Silver Surfer,” it’s easy to see why. You’d think the developers would have avoided the pitfalls that the first movie’s tie-in fell into, but you’d be wrong. It was still a haphazardly thrown together mess. Visuals looked like they hadn’t been updated from the previous gen, making for ugly character models and bland environments. But the gameplay, my god the gameplay! It’s never a good sign when players grow bored mere minutes into your game. As the simplest, most uninspired brawler around at the time, that’s exactly what happened with this utter disappointment.

#10: “Spider-Man” (1982)

There were so many terrible games released on the Atari 2600. Along with “E.T.”, “Spider-Man” is one of the most notorious. The game isn’t anything too complicated; just climb a building and avoid obstacles. Sounds easy right? Well, not if every little thing is constantly knocking you down! To make matters worse, the game demands pixel-perfect precision. Also, why wouldn’t Spider-Man just climb up the wall instead of webbing his way up?

#9: “Thor: God of Thunder” (2011)

Joining the rest of the horrible movie tie-in games for Marvel is “Thor: God of Thunder.” And sadly, it won’t be the last. Despite releasing around the same time as the first “Thor” movie in the MCU, “Thor: God of Thunder” was simply not worthy of wielding the mighty Mjolnir. The game displays some of the most boring combat we’ve seen, lacking any “oomph” to our hits as well as being visually dull. Mix that in with an assortment of glitches and repetitive gameplay, and “God of Thunder” will prove disappointing to any fan of Thor.

#8: “X-Men: Destiny” (2011)

This was about as big of a mess as “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”... “X-Men: Destiny” was on a path to be one of 2011’s greatest titles, giving players the ability to create their own hero and fight alongside their favorite mutants in a narrative where your decisions impact the world! Instead, it became one of 2011’s biggest disappointments. The game provided templates for players rather than intricate customization, totally undercutting the main selling point of the game. As for the combat, well, we hope you like button-mashing because that’s all it is! Oh, and the story that supposedly affects your decisions? It’s brutally bad, and your actions are basically meaningless.

#7: “Silver Surfer” (1990)

A few goes at this will make you never take a health bar for granted again. “Silver Surfer” is one of the most unnecessarily demanding games you could ever play. Every level is a literal guessing game of what can and can’t kill you. A couple of bullets is understandable, but even the walls are a hazard! Basically, this is a game for those who want to experience paranoia. The music may be great, but that is not enough to make us slog through the many game overs we’ve endured.

#6: “The Incredible Hulk” (2008)

Poor Hulk hasn’t had a great outing in the world of video games since 2005’s “Ultimate Destruction,” but the worst of them has to be the 2008 movie tie-in game. The graphics are truly awful and almost hard to look at, but the real problem is in the extremely repetitive combat. Smashing stuff is fun and all, but the game falls into a routine of punch the bad guys, trash the place, roar, and repeat. There’s no satisfaction in causing destruction, and the game does nothing to capitalize on Hulk’s ungodly strength. Overall, it’s a game that exists solely because of the movie.

#5: “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” (2014)

If “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” movie didn’t disappoint you enough, then its tie-in game certainly will! The graphics aren’t as dreadful as the other games on this list, but it’s not enough to compensate for its other noticeable flaws. In addition to the unsettling character models, the writing and voice acting is about as cringy and campy as Batman in the 60’s, and we don’t mean that in a good way. What’s so disappointing about this was that its predecessor was actually a solid game, especially for a movie tie-in! With this, you can almost tell things were just cobbled together.

#4: “The Punisher: No Mercy” (2009)

For a character as badass and fully-loaded as the Punisher, you’d think making an awesome video game would be a shoe-in. Well, it’s been a mixed bag for the guy, but the absolute worst was “The Punisher: No Mercy”. The game was an absolutely boring experience from the insanely short single-player mode to the lackluster and laggy as hell online mode. The visual presentation was about as lifeless as the Punisher’s many victims, and it failed to do anything special to distinguish itself from other first-person shooters. As you might expect, fans could not find any reason to stick around.

#3: “Fantastic Four” (1997)

For a long time, superhero games were nothing more than a standard beat ‘em up starring your favorite characters. “Fantastic Four” was one of them, and it was the absolute worst of the bunch. While you can choose between five playable characters, you’re not going to get enjoyment no matter who you choose. Pulling off moves takes WAY too freakin’ long to pull off, and the environments are so lifeless with reused assets. Needless to say, “Fantastic Four” is miles away from being fantastic, and considering the time it was released in (same year as “Final Fantasy VII” and “Crash Bandicoot 2”), this was one of the worst games in 1997.

#2: “Iron Man” (2008)

“The Incredible Hulk” wasn’t the only superhero movie to get a horrible game. Even “Iron Man” fell victim to the curse, and it was somehow worse than our green friend. Coupled with bad voice acting and appalling visuals, “Iron Man” is so easy and tedious that even those looking for a power fantasy will fall asleep from boredom. Every fight is easily conquered with a laser beam and a couple of missiles. You really don’t have to be all that accurate to hit your targets, making each level a breeze. You’ll be done before you know it, and you’ll most likely forget this even existed.

#1: “The Uncanny X-Men” (1989)

When you think of the X-Men, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Wolverine’s sharp claws? Cyclops’s heated laser beams? Storm’s vicious weather powers? Well, the developers of “The Uncanny X-Men” imagined a top-down shooter. Yeah, we don’t get it either. Even by NES standards, the graphics are abysmal, making it hard to discern where you can go. As for the multiple playable characters, you’re selecting no more than an alternate color palette, as every character plays almost completely identical to each other.

Have you played any of these terrible Marvel games? Is there another horrid experience that we left off. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments!