- 4 months ago
Not every superhero game can be a hit. 🕷🛑
In this countdown, we revisit the Top 20 Marvel games that failed to impress. From clunky gameplay to missed potential, these titles are remembered for all the wrong reasons — but they’re still a part of Marvel gaming history.
📌 For entertainment and commentary purposes only
🎮 No gameplay footage with copyrighted music — fair use clips and discussion only.
In this countdown, we revisit the Top 20 Marvel games that failed to impress. From clunky gameplay to missed potential, these titles are remembered for all the wrong reasons — but they’re still a part of Marvel gaming history.
📌 For entertainment and commentary purposes only
🎮 No gameplay footage with copyrighted music — fair use clips and discussion only.
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GamingTranscript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the worst video games to use
00:13the Marvel license.
00:14Number 20. Marvel's Avengers You know things are about to get rough when one of the most
00:28disappointing superhero games is only at the bottom of the list.
00:31While the combat of Marvel's Avengers was fine, nothing to write home about, but relatively
00:36inoffensive altogether, it was nearly everything else that dragged it down.
00:40My father asked for a gift to save his dying nation, but the Black Panther said they had
00:51no vibranium to give.
00:53The live service structure and monetization didn't belong in something like this, and
00:57rubbed almost everyone the wrong way.
00:59And even though mechanics were decent, gameplay got repetitive quickly, with little variety
01:03in enemy types and mission design.
01:06Simply put, it was boring, and a huge letdown for one of pop culture's most recognizable
01:10superteams.
01:11And I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you.
01:18Number 19.
01:19Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge Publisher LJN is notorious for having produced
01:25some of the worst licensed games.
01:27First up, a terrible Spidey and X-Men team-up.
01:29Now, it sounds like a great idea, sure, having iconic characters band together to escape deadly
01:43obstacles.
01:44But then you actually play it.
01:45While tons of games at the time were notably hard, this is on another level of unfairly difficult.
01:51They shoot from off screen, and death traps appear out of nowhere.
01:55There are even things that will instantly kill you for the slightest mistake.
01:58And without any checkpoints, you have to start every single level from the beginning each
02:02and every time you die.
02:04Run out of lives, and it's back to the beginning of the entire game, which is understandably
02:08very, very maddening.
02:19Number 18.
02:20Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal
02:23Technically only half a Marvel game, I guess, since X-O Manowar comes from Valiant Comics.
02:28Heavy Metal is still more than earns its inclusion here.
02:31The crossover launched on several different platforms, but no matter where you played
02:35it, the results weren't good.
02:44It featured the most basic gameplay a side-scrolling action game could have, making it extremely
02:49repetitive.
02:50This was its greatest sin, but it was also both a pain to look at and even listen to.
02:55Visuals were poor compared to other games of the time, and the grading soundtrack and
02:58sound design would quickly make you want to put the TV on mute.
03:09Number 17.
03:10Spider-Man the Sinister Six
03:12While this MS-DOS point-and-click adventure game is mostly forgotten among all the other
03:16Spider-Man games out there, it still deserves some ire.
03:19How dare you question my credibility?
03:22I'd love to engage in a formal thing, but I have criminals to catch.
03:27The rotoscope visuals seem nice for the time, but that's as much praise as we can actually
03:31give it.
03:32Playing the game is painfully dull, to say the least.
03:34When controlling Peter Parker, you can only talk to people, not move around or examine
03:38objects like others in the genre.
03:40And when you are talking, it's usually over completely static images that will lull you
03:44to sleep.
03:45When you're in costume, you're at the mercy of controls and mechanics so janky you'll
03:49long for the monotony of the scenes that actually preceded them.
03:52That's sick, even for you, Oc.
03:55Number 16.
03:56Marvel's Avengers Battle for Earth
03:58Another stinker for the Avengers, Battle for Earth was released by Ubisoft in late 2012,
04:03the same year the team made history in the MCU.
04:05Needless to say, this was a far cry away from what they achieved on the big screen.
04:09Released on the Wii U and Xbox 360 Kinect, the fighter poorly utilized motion controls.
04:22Combat grew tiring and unfun the longer you played it, and it looked completely awkward
04:26on screen, with characters standing in a single spot, only moving forward when you did the
04:31right motion.
04:32With fights taking place in 3D arenas, it's pretty darn baffling to see Earth's mightiest
04:36heroes fight so stiffly.
04:42Number 15.
04:43Wolverine
04:44LGN rears its ugly head once again on our list with a truly enraging action platformer
04:48starring one of Marvel's most popular mutants.
04:51While it isn't as bad as some of the company's other releases, what makes it infuriating is
04:56a profound misunderstanding of what would make Wolverine just so fun to play as.
05:06You see, whenever you pop his claws, it actually drains your health, and whenever you've defeated
05:10enough enemies, you're automatically put into a berserker mode that's incredibly hard
05:14to control.
05:15Couple all of this with unfair enemy placement and you've got one heck of a frustrating game.
05:27Number 14.
05:28X- The Ravages of Apocalypse
05:30Ravages of Apocalypse is a conversion mod of the original Quake, but where that game
05:35is fun, this is a chore.
05:36You're tasked with defeating evil clones of popular X-Men characters.
05:46The weapons you're given to do this with are severely underpowered in comparison to your
05:50enemies.
05:51If he wants to deal with a slow-firing gun against a healing Wolverine, or stumble upon
05:55Iceman without a fire weapon the only way to kill him, or get shot through a wall by Bishop
06:00whose blasts ignore physical barriers, it doesn't help that its maps were completely lifeless,
06:05with horrendous layouts making it easy to get turned around.
06:09Number 13.
06:14Captain America in The Doom Tube of Dr. Megaloman
06:24We'd like to be more lenient given the time it was released, but heck, even in 1987 people
06:29could tell that this was trash.
06:31It follows Cap as he navigates the base of the evil Dr. Megaloman, a villain made up for
06:35this game alone.
06:36Don't know why they couldn't have just used Red Skull, but we'll have to move past
06:40it this time.
06:41The entire base is essentially one big tube of chambers, hence the name.
06:45So every single area you go winds up looking exactly the same, no surprise, and it isn't
06:50as if the visuals were strong even by the 1987 standards.
06:54Gameplay was also pretty tedious and repetitive, making it a dull slog to experience all around.
07:04Number 12.
07:05The Incredible Hulk The Pantheon Saga
07:07Many games have failed to capture what would make the Hulk a fun character to play as in
07:11a video game.
07:12The Pantheon Saga is one of the worst offenders.
07:23Released on the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, it follows Hulk trying to escape after being
07:27captured by the Pantheon super team.
07:30And it was slammed for basically every single aspect.
07:33Repetitive gameplay made it way too easy, as did the shoehorned in puzzles outside of combat.
07:38This added to the boring level design, combining for something completely lifeless all around,
07:42an adjective we should never use with the Hulk, let's be honest here.
07:45It was also awkward to control and just looked terrible even in 1997.
07:58Number 11.
07:59Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer
08:00Many movie tie-in games have a reputation for being lazy, and with games like Rise of
08:05the Silver Surfer, it's easy to see why.
08:07You'd think the developers would have avoided the pitfalls that the first movie's tie-in
08:12fell into, but you'd be wrong.
08:13It was still a haphazardly thrown-together mess.
08:17Visuals looked like they hadn't been updated from the previous gen, making for ugly character
08:20models and some bland environments.
08:22But the gameplay, my goodness golly the gameplay.
08:34It's never a good sign when players grow bored mere minutes into your game.
08:37As the simplest, most uninspired brawler around at the time, that's exactly what happened
08:41with this utter disappointment.
08:49Number 10.
08:50Spider-Man 1982
08:51Try to get up there in time, Spider-Man!
08:54Watch me clean my web, goblin!
08:56Watch yourself, fool!
08:58There were so many terrible games released on the Atari 2600, along with the likes of E.T.,
09:03Spider-Man is one of the most notorious.
09:05The game isn't anything too complicated.
09:07Just climb a building and avoid obstacles.
09:09Sounds pretty easy, right?
09:10Well, not if every little thing is constantly knocking you down.
09:14And to make matters worse, the game demands pixel-perfect precision.
09:17Also, why wouldn't Spider-Man just climb up the wall instead of webbing his way up?
09:22Number 9.
09:23Thor God of Thunder
09:26Joining the rest of the horrible movie tie-in games for Marvel is Thor God of Thunder.
09:42And sadly, it won't be the last.
09:44Despite releasing around the same time as the first Thor movie in the MCU,
09:48Thor God of Thunder was simply not worthy of wielding the Maya Mjolnir.
09:51The game displays some of the most boring combat we've ever seen, lacking any oomph to our hits,
09:56as well as being just visually dull all around.
09:58Mix that in with an assortment of glitches and repetitive gameplay,
10:02and God of Thunder will prove disappointing to any fan of Thor.
10:06Sleep, father.
10:08Sleep and I will do what is necessary.
10:12For Asgard.
10:15And for Loki.
10:16Number 8.
10:16X-Men Destiny
10:24You've got it.
10:25Don't forget to breathe.
10:27This was about as big of a mess as X-Men Origins Wolverine.
10:30X-Men Destiny was on a path to be one of 2011's greatest titles,
10:34giving players the ability to create their own hero and fight alongside their favorite mutants
10:39in a narrative where your decisions actually impact the world.
10:42Instead, it became one of 2011's biggest disappointments.
10:45The game provided templates for players rather than intricate customization,
10:49totally just undercutting the main selling point of the game.
10:52As for the combat, well, we hope you like button mashing because really that's all it is.
10:57Oh, and the story that supposedly affects your decisions?
11:00Well, yeah, it's brutally bad.
11:01And your actions are basically just meaningless all around.
11:04Well, it looks like there's another storm coming as bad as what we just faced.
11:10Maybe worse.
11:15It's good to know we'll have you with us.
11:17Number 7.
11:17Silver Surfer
11:18A few goes that this will make you never take a health bar for granted again.
11:28Silver Surfer is one of the most unnecessarily demanding games you could ever play.
11:32Every level is a literal guessing game of what can and can't kill you.
11:36A couple of bullets is understandable, yes, but even the walls are a hazard, which is strange.
11:41Basically, this is a game for those who want to experience paranoia. The music may be great, yes,
11:46but that is not enough to make us slog through the many game overs that we've endured in this game.
11:55Number 6. The Incredible Hulk
11:59Poor Hulk hasn't had a great outing in the world of video games since way back in 2005 with Ultimate Destruction,
12:14but the worst of them has to be the 2008 movie tie-in game. The graphics are truly awful and almost hard to look at,
12:21but the real problem is in the extremely repetitive combat. Smashing stuff is fun and all,
12:25but the game falls into a routine of punch the bad guys, trash the place, roar, and repeat over and over again.
12:31There's just no satisfaction in causing destruction in this game, and the game does nothing to actually
12:36capitalize on Hulk's ungodly strength. Overall, it's a game that exists solely because of the movie.
12:41Number 5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
12:50The guy I'm after. Unless you had a tattoo removed.
12:53Nah, man, nah, nah. I'm afraid of needles. And heights!
12:58If The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie didn't disappoint you enough, then its tie-in game certainly will.
13:03The graphics aren't as dreadful as the other games on this list, but it's not enough to compensate for its other noticeable flaws.
13:09In addition to the unsettling character models, the writing and voice acting is about as cringy
13:14and campy as Batman in the 60s, and we don't mean that at all in a good way.
13:18What's so disappointing about this was that its predecessor was actually a solid game,
13:22especially for a movie tie-in game. With this, you can almost tell things were just sorta cobbled together.
13:27Number 4. The Punisher No Mercy
13:40For a character as powerful and fully loaded as The Punisher, you'd think making an awesome video game would probably be a shoe-in.
13:46Well, it's been a mixed bag for the guy, but the absolute worst was The Punisher No Mercy.
13:51The game was an absolutely boring experience from the insanely short single player mode to the lackluster
14:04and laggy as heck online mode. The visual presentation was about as lifeless as The Punisher's many victims,
14:10and it failed to do anything at all special to distinguish itself from other first-person shooters.
14:15As you might expect, fans could not find any reason to stick around.
14:18Number 3. Fantastic Four
14:24For a long time, superhero games were nothing more than a standard beat-em-up starring your favorite characters.
14:36Fantastic Four was one of them, and it was the absolute worst of the bunch.
14:40While you can choose between five playable characters, you're not going to get any enjoyment at all, no matter which one you choose.
14:46Pulling off moves takes way too freaking long to actually pull off,
14:50and the environments are so lifeless and bland with just a bunch of reused assets.
14:54Needless to say, Fantastic Four is miles and miles away from being fantastic,
14:59and considering the time it was released in, the same year as Final Fantasy VII and Crash Bandicoot 2, mind you,
15:05this one was one of the worst games in 1997.
15:08The Incredible Hulk wasn't the only superhero movie to get a horrible game.
15:20Even Iron Man fell victim to the curse, and it was somehow worse than our green friend.
15:24Coupled with bad voice acting and appalling visuals, Iron Man is so easy and tedious that
15:29even those looking for a power fantasy will fall asleep from boredom.
15:39Every fight is easily conquered with a laser beam and a couple of missiles.
15:42You really don't have to be all that accurate to even hit your targets,
15:45making each level a breeze to get through. You'll be done before you actually know it,
15:49and you'll most likely even forget this one existed.
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16:111. The Uncanny X-Men
16:22Now, when you think of the X-Men, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
16:25Wolverine's sharp claws? Cyclops' heated laser beams? Storm's vicious weather powers?
16:30Well, the developers of the Uncanny X-Men imagined a top-down shooter.
16:34Yeah, I know, we don't actually get it either. Even by NES standards, the graphics are abysmal,
16:39making it hard to discern where you go. As for the multiple playable characters,
16:43you're selecting no more than an alternate color palette,
16:45as every character plays almost completely identical to each other.
16:55So, have you played any of these terrible Marvel games?
16:57Are there any other horrid experiences that we left off?
17:00Be sure to leave your thoughts and share them down below in the comments.
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