Ranked! The Six Best X-Men Video Games You Gotta Play!

The stars have aligned. The pleas of a legion of devoted, entertainment-starved fan base have reached the heavens and changed the order of things.

The latest episode of corporate consolidation, Disney, went ahead and bought a significant portion of 21st Century Fox assets for a whopping $52.4 billion.

What this means for anyone who’s not on their way to Wall Street right now, is that a lot of properties that were with Fox can now finally be brought into the Disney fold. One of the main benefactors of this acquisition would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which now finally gets…

That’s right. After a spate of bad X-Men movies (and the odd good one), everyone’s favorite mutants are now finally going to be in good hands.

I urge you, imagine, young grasshopper – a slew of X-Men movies helmed by Kevin Feige and crew! Oh, it is going to be glorious.

One more good thing that comes because of this acquisition, is that now we’re finally going to get more AAA X-Men games bankrolled by Disney’s overflowing coffers. But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves,

Let’s look back at some of the best X-Men games in gaming history

Here we will cover and highlight some of the best Super Hero Games.

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

In their heyday, Capcom had the side-scrolling formula absolutely nailed. The SNES had a slew of great games in this genre, and Mutant Apocalypse was one of them. You played as several characters from the roster including Wolverine, Cyclops and Psylocke among others on your way to foil the plans of some of the most notable rogues in the X-Men universe. The fighting style was crisp and included the ability to perform special moves for each character using Street Fighter style combos.

X-Men: Children of the Atom

This was another great Capcom creation, and the first fighting game to feature characters almost exclusively from the X-Men universe. The art style and each distinct appearance and move set made this a real blast to play. Based off ‘Fatal Attractions’ one of the major X-Men comic arcs of the 90s, this game featured a lot of great voice talent that really brought the characters to life.

If you’ve watched the 90s X-Men animated series, you’ll immediately recognize all the voices in this game. With a diverse playable character roster – Wolverine, Iceman, Psylocke, Colossus, Cyclops, Storm you will go up against some iconic villains – Omega Red, Magneto, Juggernaut, Spiral, Silver Samurai etc.

X-Men Legends was a landmark X-Men game.

It created a gameplay style that would eventually be used by Ultimate Alliance and other Marvel games. It had a fantastic story that could only have been created by true fans of the source material.

The cel-shaded graphical style was unique, and gave it a flair that set it apart from most other RPGs out there. You could play as over a dozen different X-Men, and the game featured a fun multiplayer mode where you and your friends could just pick up a controller and start punching some bad guys in the mouth. If you haven’t already, give this game a go.

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

While the original was a great game in its own right, X-Men Legends II took things to the next level. With Apocalypse as the main villain this time, it had never been more fun to combine two different character abilities to devastate your enemies.

As you would expect from a sequel, the roster of playable characters got a significant upgrade and included a ton of new artwork, Easter eggs and unlockables. While the game took away some characters like Emma Frost and Beast, what it added with Rogue, Scarlet Witch, Deadpool and Ironman among others was well worth it. New characters meant new hero power combinations and team bonuses. You could blaze into combat as the original X-Men team, or change things up and add a little Avengers flair into the mix for different bonuses.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine deserves special mention for being a great licensed game when the movie it was built for is truly one of the most atrocious comic book movies ever.

This game really gets Wolverine in a way that few other games have, and unleashes him to do what he does best – slaughtering an ungodly amount of people. The visceral and gory nature of Wolverine’s kills as he slices and dices enemies is electrifying. If you really want to experience what it would be like to be a super-healing, adamantium-wielding ball of destruction, this is the game for you.

That does it for our list of best X-Men video games

It was a tough call, and we’re sure we missed out on some great ones. Which X-Men games do you think deserve to be on this list? Let us know in the comments.

Until next time, happy gaming!