With Arkham Asylum coming out in three days, I decided to look back at some of the finer games to come out based on comics. This list is not only Marvel/DC, but also from other independent comic books/comic strips.

Honorable Mentions
Marvel vs. Capcom
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
X-Men: Children of the Atom
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness
X-Men Legends II: Reign of Apocalypse

Haven't played yet, but want to play
Lego Batman
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
Spider-Man 2 (film based)
Batman (NES version)

ARGH this is frustrating
Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge

Bad games that have no shot at this list
Superman 64
Batman Returns (Sega Genesis version)
Justice League: Task Force
Ghost Rider
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects

I wish this were based on a real comic, so I could rank it @ #1
Comix Zone

I'd kill for a game based on this
Calvin and Hobbes

On with the list...

15. X-Men Mutant Apocalypse


14. Ultimate Spider-Man


13. Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage


12. X-Men Legends


11. Spider-Man (PS1 - 2000)


10. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction


9. Marvel Ultimate Alliance


8. The Death and Return of Superman


7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES version)


6. The Adventures of Batman and Robin


5. Captain America and the Avengers


4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2


3. Batman Returns (SNES)


2. Little Nemo: The Dream Master


1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game


Comic-based games have come and gone, but I consider these to be the cream of the crop, while others either missed the list by either an inch or a mile. Here's to hoping Arkham Asylum lives up to the hype! I'll find out next week!

So yeah, I realized recently that I made this account for almost nothing, because I haven't put it to good use lately. A lot of gaming has been done between my last blog and now; however, I looked at my list of games I looked forward to, and well... not much to say. The following "once-upcoming" games were from my previous blog...

Ninja Gaiden II - This game lived up to my expectations and then some. Well enjoyable on all fronts and one of the 20 best titles of 2008.

Gears of War 2 - Believe it or not, I passed on this game. For now at least; maybe if the price goes down or if I feel like renting it. Dunno how to explain it; I enjoyed Gears of War when I first acquired it in 2006, but I got bored with it after a few playthroughs.

Saints Row 2 - Finished this a month ago and actually enjoyed it more than Grand Theft Auto IV. Enjoyed the story and the activities you could do in this game.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - Felt more like a letdown than anything else. Thankfully, Tales of Vesperia had come out a few months prior and blew it out of the water.

Metal Gear Solid 4 - My favorite game of 2008. Nothing else necessary to add here.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice - Good game, but nowhere near the quality of the first two Disgaea titles.

Soulcalibur IV - Good game, though I enjoyed III more. Arcade mode and Tower of Souls are great, while Story mode is a letdown. Create-a-character is more-or-less the same as it was in III.

Still haven't played Lego Indy or Lego Batman. And now have no intentions of playing Alone in the Dark.

So what have I been playing lately?

Secret of Monkey Island (Xbox Live Arcade) - I loved Escape from Monkey Island, and this finally gave me the chance to go back and try the game that started it all. Very challenging, and I'm determined to beat the game without any hints or guides.

Shadow Hearts (PlayStation 2) - One of the finer trilogies on the PS2, Shadow Hearts has one of my favorite protagonists and one of my favorite battle systems in any RPG. Like Monkey Island, I'm determined to finish this too, just so I can finally play Covenant.

Need for Speed: Pro-Street (Xbox 360) - I've had this for over a year now and just want to finish it and be done with it. I enjoy Need for Speed for being a good street-racer (even if Midnight Club and Burnout are both better than it), and Pro-Street being anything but street-racing just makes it unmemorable.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS) - I take my DS to work, so this game gets good progress at least 3-4 days a week. Not even close to being my favorite in the SMT series, but Devil Survivor is a treat.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie's Double Trouble (SNES) - I've beaten this game at least twice, but I felt like going old school for a bit, so there you go.

I hope to be on this more often for the rest of 2009. Happy reading everyone!

While the first half of 2008 brought us No More Heroes, Brawl, GTAIV, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, the second half also looks to be promising as well. Here's a list of games coming out later this year that I'm looking forward to...

Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360)



Without a doubt, one of my finest moments in gaming was beating Ninja Gaiden Black. Hell, looking back, I might consider that to be my favorite game on the original Xbox (it's either that or KOTOR). Ninja Gaiden II looks like it's going to take everything from the NG/Black/Sigma title before it and make it even better. What makes it better is the fact that it comes out next month! ^_^

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)

I loved the first Gears of War game to death and almost put it over as my 2006 GOTY (that honor went to Okami). In fact, the first game was the reason I wanted to get a 360. There isn't much heard about this outside of tech demos and videos from Gamespot, but if you were to ask me, I'd like to see slightly-better co-op and a longer single-player mode. Gears' biggest flaw was being too short of a game to enjoy. Here's to hoping Epic gives us a sequel worth waiting for.

Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)



I may be in the minority when I say this, but I enjoyed the first Saints Row more than some of the older 3D GTA titles (and by that, I mean III and maybe Vice City). I'm not expecting Saints Row 2 to dethrone GTAIV... hell, I'll still probably be playing GTAIV when this hits shelves in August... but I expect Saints Row 2 to be just as good as the first title, if not better.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Nintendo Wii)



I remember having a pretty bad day at work a few months ago, but later that night, someone left a Nintendo Power by the register and this game was on the cover. Needless to say, I forgot about everything else that happened that night. Tales of Symphonia four years ago was my 2004 GOTY and one of my favorite Gamecube games overall. From what I've seen in screenshots, this has huge potential to be better than its predecessor. Fall can't come any sooner.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3)



One of the two biggest reasons I got a PlayStation 3. I've been a huge MGS fan since playing through the first game in one night at my cousin's house in 1999. I didn't like Sons of Liberty at first, but the more I played it, the more it grew on me. Snake Eater was a pretty solid game as well, but along with Sons of Liberty, I still didn't enjoy it much as the first MGS game. Guns of the Patriots looks to be as promising as ever, and as I type this, we're officially a month away from seeing the game hit shelves.

and finally, for now...

Disgaea 3 (PlayStation 3)



Once I heard this was coming over to the PS3, I knew buying one was inevitable. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is one of my five favorite games ever made. I remember putting 65+ hours into it four years ago. Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, though just slightly inferior to Hour of Darkness, was still 50 different kinds of awesome. The biggest reasons I enjoyed both games were the storylines, and the fact that there was so much you could do in both Disgaeas as well. Right now, this game is set for release in August, and hopefully, it'll make me glad I purchased a PlayStation 3.

Other games that I want to play, just not as much as the ones mentioned above

Soul Calibur IV - My girlfriend got me back into playing Soul Calibur III two weeks ago. With SCIV right around the corner, this might not be a bad thing after all. Probably going to buy the PS3 version, since I'm more used to that controller for fighters (and because I <3 Vader more than Yoda >_>).

Alone in the Dark - Hopefully Atari manages to make us forget about the movie that came out three years ago.

Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman - Legos are awesome, and so are Indy and Batman. Only way they could make this better is if they put Indy and Batman in the same game together. Chances are, the universe would implode because of too much awesomeness in one disc.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Looks very promising at the moment. Hopefully it's on the same level of greatness as KOTOR is.

(all photos acquired via Gamespot)

I'm new to this website, but in due time, I feel I can blend in.

I'm a 22-year old gamer who enjoys almost anything except sports and The Sims series. I currently balance myself between 4 consoles and 1 handheld (2 if you count the PSP, but I only play Crisis Core for the time being). When I'm not playing games, I'm either reading, working a mediocre retail job, or doing homework during semesters well spent at Western Carolina University.

But enough of that. I'll go into small details on what I've currently been playing.

Playstation 3

I borrowed The Simpsons Game from my cousin, and I'm surprised at how it turned out. Certainly not the best Simpsons game ever, that honor goes to the arcade version; but this game is better than I thought it would be.

Along with that, I'm still in the midst of playing Folklore, and the occasional Virtua Fighter 5 every once in awhile.

Wii

I might use Summer to get back into Metroid Prime 3 and No More Heroes. Other than that, just finishing up Zack and Wiki.

X-Box 360

At the moment, I'm shifting back and forth between Grand Theft Auto IV and Need for Speed: Pro Street. Pro Street is fun, and GTA4 is everything I thought it would be.

DS

Having high hopes that I can finish Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles before too long. Glad I didn't pay for it, to say the least.

Anyway, not much else to say here.