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It’s a good time to become an X-Men fan. The stellar first season of X-Men ’97 We just finished, Insomniac Games is working on a Wolverine game for the PlayStation 5, and mutants are (one day) coming to the MCU.

But it’s been a while since there have been good options for X-Men fans looking to play in that universe. Gone are the days of multiple X-Men arcade games and fighting games to choose from or movie tie-ins. There have been a lot of disappointing X-Men games (looking at you, X-Men: Destiny), but what about the good ones?

The staff at Polygon has rounded up the X-Men games that have been really good since the dawn of the mutant age games even up to a few recent releases that revive the X-Men games. Most are no longer available to play, but still live on in our hearts.

X-Men (1992)

Ideally, you will play X-man on an original arcade cabinet alongside three strangers, the four of you are thrown together into a makeshift family as you step into the shoes of Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Colossus, Nightcrawler or Dazzler. It won’t take long to beat – maybe 30-45 minutes, like a great TV episode – and you’ll walk away victorious after taking out the Sentinels and other classic baddies by the time you get to Magneto, who has kidnapped Xavier for some reason ( although if you have seen X-Men ’97perhaps you can think of some good reasons).

This game is an all-time classic for a reason; each character has different special abilities, just like the characters they’re based on, and as simplistic as the combat mechanics are, it’s still one of the most accurate and fun adaptations the X-Men have ever had in a video game. Oddly enough, this version of the team is actually based on the failed 1989 cartoon X-Men: Pride of the X-Men this has one pilot episode and no more, but the X-Men have such a distinctive visual design that this part never really mattered. —Maddie Myers

X-Men 2: The Clone Wars

This may shock you, but there are few better looking Genesis games than X-Men 2: The Clone Wars. It’s shocking how richly detailed its 16-bit graphics are and how fine-tuned its action is. Headgames’ side-scrolling platformer has a number of flourishes uncommon in licensed games at the time, from a cold open that drops you into the game as a random character the moment you start it, to a surprisingly involved story ripped from the recently packaged ” Phalanx Covenant ” comic book arc. What else, Clone Wars beat X2 until one of his big twists – midway through the game, Magneto joins the team and looks sick as hell. —Joshua Rivera

X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

Image: Raven Software/Activision

Both X-Men Legends the games were squad-based action RPGs that leaned heavily on the team-based nature of the X-Men, allowing you to take four of the mutants on missions at once. The battles in both games were simple yet emotional and successfully drew on the varied abilities of the various X-Men. The roster was also pretty extensive—the first game had 14 playable characters (plus Professor X on specific missions), and the sequel added some of Magneto’s Brotherhood of mutants.

The main reason these games feel like such a good fit for the X-Men franchise to me is the team nature, an essential part of the whole X-Men deal. And they were even more fun co-ops – I have very fond memories of playing and replaying these games (or even just the Danger Room missions) with my brother growing up.

Additional kudos to the also pretty fun Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, the successor to those games from Raven Software and Activision, expanding into the wider Marvel universe. —Pete Wolk

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Image: Raven Software/Activision

For most of the short history of video games, a licensed game based on a good movie has rarely been very good. A licensed game based on a horror? Silly task. As the kids say, X-Men Origins: Wolverine it had no business going so hard. In an unusual move, Raven Software’s flagship version of Wolverine for PS3 and Xbox 360 was an M-rated game significantly more violent than the film it was based on, resulting in God of War-inspired bloody hack-and-slash adventure combining the film’s storyline with an expanded original plot. The result was a brutally satisfying video game, and sadly the end of Raven’s excellent tenure on Marvel titles, which began with X-Men Legends. After a few short years, the studio would end development of its own games entirely as well, moving into a new role as a Call of Duty support studio. —junior

Marvel vs. Capcom 2

Image: Capcom

Starting with X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996) and crash landing Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite (2017), the X-Men/Capcom crossover fighting game series has had its ups and downs, and even as I write this recap, I’m questioning my own attempt to pick the best of the entire series. Several entries have strong points in their favor (not to mention Endless). But you can’t no vote for Rogue’s iconic diving kick that she performs for the first time X-Men vs. Street Fighter and which is distinguished by its final form through Marvel vs. Capcom 2. It’s such a beloved move that it got the nod X-Men ’97. If you want to not only see but be A crook when he turns out people’s lights – and who doesn’t? — you can’t do better than Marvel vs. Capcom 2. —MM

X-Men: Children of the Atom

Image: Capcom

Simply put: Children of the Atom he walked like that Marvel vs. Capcom he could run. The developer’s first entry into what would be a wildly popular Marvel fighting game series is barebones compared to the 3v3 spectacle that later games would be known for, but those bones are solid: it’s basically a maximalist version of Street Fighter circa 1994, with longer combos, super jumps, and new movesets that would continue to be refined as his characters appeared in subsequent Marvel fighting games. But his most significant achievement may be in his character designs: Loyal but idiosyncratic, the X-Men as presented in Children of the Atom are unmistakably Capcom designs, with just a hint of Street Fighter: Alpha’s anime inflection but also a perfect tribute to X-man artist Jim Lee. The proof was in the pudding: Arcade players could battle Street Fighter villain Akuma as a secret character, and console players could play as him themselves – and he fit right in.junior

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Image: Firaxis Games/Marvel Comics

I know what you’re thinking, “Is this an X-Men game?” Wolverine, Magik, and Storm are in it — plus Deadpool, who at least works with the X-Men often enough, and Scarlet Witch, who is sometimes a mutant depending on canon — so we let this one in. Perhaps more importantly, Marvel’s Midnight Suns there is atmosphere of the best X-Men stories. It’s a team-based strategy game, with super-powered heroes thrown involuntarily together in a strange mansion. In combat, they will trade pinches and one-liners; back home, they will romance and fight. If this isn’t the typical X-Men, what is? —MM

Creator of X-Men cartoons

Image: Knowledge Adventure/Vivendi Universal Interactive via /u 1auc377

Creator of X-Men cartoons it’s not so much a game as a sandbox for creating your own episodes X-Men: The Animated Series using character models, sound effects, and background images from the original show, plus a library of funky 90s instrumentals that mostly seem suited as backing tracks for fight scenes and dramatic confrontations (which the show was known for, of course) . Composing scenes and using the rudimentary cartooning tools do feel clunky, but the end results can be uniquely fun. Check out this painstaking artwork uploaded to YouTube by a die-hard X-Men Cartoon Maker fan for an example of what you can do. —MM

X-Men (1993)

Image: Western Technologies Inc/Sega

Some may argue with my inclusion of this 1993 Sega Genesis exclusive based on its grueling difficulty, but I’d like to make my case based on the attention to detail for each of the game’s four characters and its truly outrageous stunt at the end of the game. Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Gambit are present, and each comes with unique, character-appropriate powers. Cyclops does his laser blasts, Nightcrawler teleports, Wolverine nimbly tackles, and Gambit throws playing cards (sorry Gambit fans, it’s always been weird).

You play as these four X-Men trapped in the Danger Room, and your “lives” are simply the four playable characters. Since each has unique abilities, successfully completing this action platformer means carefully budgeting your approach to each level and boss. Which makes the end-game stunt even wilder: to end the Danger Room simulation, you have to “restart the computer,” which you’d think would be accomplished by pressing a button on the controller, probably “press F to pay respects style, doesn’t it?

no! You’re tapping the actual “Reset” button on the Sega Genesis! And if you press it too long, it actually resets Genesis and you lose all your progress. That was 1993! I salute the absolute sickos who turned this game into something out of the schoolyard, and I apologize to anyone traumatized by this memory. —Chris Grant

Marvel United: X-Men

Image: CMON

While many will know CMON for its action-packed co-op board game, Zombicidethe desktop publisher has a much newer series called Marvel United. The original game earned more than $2.8 million on Kickstarter in 2020, only to be followed by Marvel United: X-Men with nearly $6 million in funding.

This card-driven action game puts players in the role of X-Men mutants such as Wolverine, Jean Grey, Storm and Cyclops as they face off against Magneto, Juggernaut and others. The big draw here is the adorable chibi-style miniature characters. The big-headed characters are a real joy to draw, and at $34.99, the game is extremely affordable. —Charlie Hall