From arcade games to RPGs, and third-person action-adventure titles, the X-Men have had a long history in gaming. With the X-Men '97 series receiving high praise for its revival of the classic '90s animated show, and the characters gradually being reintegrated into the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe, the mutant superheroes seem to be having a resurgence in mainstream media lately. 2i2y63

While the Winter Soldier is now a popular Marvelhero, the cyborg supersoldier was basically an entirely different character in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which marked his first video game appearance. Captain America's young sidekick Bucky Barnes first appeared in the pages of Marvel Comics back in 1941, while his modern identity as the villain-turned-hero Winter Soldier didn't feature until 2005. The 2006 video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance let players face off against the Winter Soldier as a boss, but the game features a bizarre version of the cyborg warrior.

With around 30 movies along with several interconnected series, the scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is staggering, but for video game fans who are bored with the MCU there is fortunately decades’ worth of gaming options that predate the modern cinematic vision of Marvel. The MCU’s 14 years of content is impressive, but video games based on Marvel Comics characters have a 40-year history. The quality of these titles varies, as most licensed games from early gaming generations were low-effort cash-in products, but veteran gaming fans fondly those that rose above that trend as timeless classics. Even the most diehard Marvelites are unlikely to defend games like the terrible Iron Man and X-Manowar in Heavy Metal crossover game. True Believers still have reason to say Make Mine Marvel when recalling the polished arcade brawlers, fighting games, and action RPGs that all carried a distinctly different feel from the modern, homogenized MCU.

Marvel's Spider-Man may be one of Yuri Lowenthal's most recognized performances as Peter Parker, but the actor had played Marvel's webhead on numerous occasions before Insomniac's acclaimed take on the character. His performance in Marvel's Spider-Man has been highly praised since the game first released in 2018 with a take that shows Peter Parker in his early 20s, navigating life as both a superhero and a recent college graduate, and this version of Spider-Man soon went on to be a fan favorite. Despite this, many fans may be unaware that he had been appearing as Spider-Man across a variety of games for nearly a decade prior to Marvel's Spider-Man's release.

This year celebrates 60 years since the first appearance of Marvel's Spider-Man, and over that time the character has appeared in a wealth of media alongside an extensive line-up of iconic foes such as Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Venom - some of whom have been playable in games. These characters are no strangers to the world of gaming, appearing in games that span from 1982's 8-bit Spider-Man: The Game on the Atari 2600 through to the recent Marvel's Spider-Man series on PlayStation consoles and PC. Due to the popularity of Spider-Man's villains - who often get voted as some of the best in comics alongside Batman's rogues gallery - it's unsurprising that players would want to take control of the sinister foes and take advantage of their varied power sets.

Marvel's Black Panther is one of the comic book juggernaut's most recognizable superheroes, leading to prominent appearances in numerous video games. As the ruler and protector of Wakanda, King T'Challa serves as both a leader to his people and a defender of the entire world. The hero's highly advanced African nation is also one of Marvel's most beloved settings, with Black Panther and Wakanda almost always appearing hand in hand. Rumors recently suggested that an open-world Black Panther video game is currently in development, but the hero has already appeared in many interactive Marvel projects.

Marvel's Wolverine is the next Marvel game to focus on a hero from the X-Men, but it will likely once again ignore the X-Men's most underutilized character in video games: Beast. While it is possible that Marvel's Wolverine could lead to an X-Men game eventually, X-Men games have had a history of either leaving Beast out or relegating him to the sidelines as a minor NPC character. This is somewhat surprising, considering Beast's prominence in the Marvel Comics, both in and out of the X-Men. Debuting in 1963 in X-Men #1, Beast is one of the five original of the X-Men (alongside Cyclops, Angel, Iceman and Jean Grey), and has remained a vital part of the team through many of the X-Men's biggest and most prominent storylines, including his vital role in X-Force during Jonathan Hickman's Dawn of X run.

Moon Knight, a long-standing but often overlooked Marvel Comics character, has accrued a surprising number of video game appearances over the years. The superhero, who was first introduced in Marvel Comics' Werewolf by Night in 1975, has been a regular fixture of the Marvel Universe for several decades. Moon Knight's popularity is set to take another upward turn once his eponymous MCU series debuts on Disney+ later in 2022, which sees Oscar Isaac in the role.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 boasts one of the most impressive casts of playable Marvel heroes in gaming, but there were some strange omissions to the roster that really deserved to be included. From the time that the Nintendo Switch exclusive Marvel Ultimate Alliance threequel was first announced, gamers and longtime fans of the series were trying to guess what Marvel Heroes would make the cut on the new roster. Previous games in the series brought in a cast of characters from every corner of the Marvel Universe, though it tended to focus mainly on characters that were popular in mainstream media, having appeared in popular live-action films, animated cartoons, or high-profile Marvel Comics storylines.

While Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 proved to be very successful with its story revolving around Thanos and the Black Order, a potential sequel should embrace a popular trend in Marvel films and television and incorporate a multiverse-themed storyline. Released in 2019 as a Nintendo Switch Exclusive, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 followed the series' trend of focusing its story on characters and events that were popular in both Marvel Comics and in Marvel films at the time. Since the game released just months after Avengers: Endgame, Team Ninja's title had a story that focused on Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, and included characters that were popular in the MCU. In this spirit, a potential Marvel Ultimate Alliance 4 would benefit greatly from focusing on the multiverse.