Superheroes have been appearing in video games since Atari 2600 owners wondered where the Man of Steel needed to go in 1979’sSuperman. Some of their games have even become classic must-play games, likeSpider-Manon the PS1, theBatman: Arkhamseries, andUltimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3. While others have become notorious, likeSuperman 64andAquaman: Battle for Atlantis.
Still, the best superhero games are often easy to grab hold of, as they’re still up on digital storefronts, or as physical copies in shops, bargain bins, and more. However, they’re not immune to being delisted or pulled from sale. Unless players got lucky with their online searches, or bought them while they were still available, these are somesuperhero games that are no longer available for purchase.
Iron Galaxy made their name porting classic fighting games, like their Online Edition ofStreet Fighter 3: Third Strike. FollowingUltimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3’s success, Capcom brought them back in to port the classicMarvelgames to a new audience on then-modern consoles. Well, some of them anyway.Marvel Vs Capcom: Originsended up containing justMarvel Super HeroesandMarvel Vs Capcom 1, since they didn’t feature the X-Men so heavily compared to the other games in the series.
Disney didn’t own the film rights to the group at the time, so they didn’t want to promote them by featuring them over the Avengers. The collection did have online play, filters, and challenges, but without the other games (especiallyMarvel Vs Capcom 2), it felt anemic. The game was delisted in 2014 after Capcom’s Marvel license expired. So, players better get the upcomingMarvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection,complete with the missingX-Mengames, while they can before it disappears too.
7Doodle Jump DC Super Heroes
Batman-Themed Platformer Runs Out Of Time
Mobile games have a much shorter shelf life than their computer/console counterparts and are often much fiddlier to emulate. But emulators are the only way players can fire upDoodle Jump DC Super Heroes. The license ran out, leading to the game’s delisting in 2017. Like the regular game, players had to guide a little creature called the Doodler along endless platforms while dodging enemies and hazards.
Only this time, they were dressed up as Batman, fought enemies based on his rogues' gallery, and used The Dark Knight’s equipment as power-ups. The player could also upgrade the Doodler’s gear with crystals, which, in freemium fashion, could be obtained with either repeated playthroughs or real cash. At least the regularDoodle Jumpgame can still be played for free on browsers.
Fans who wished they could get more of Nolan North’s Deadpool back in the day must have set off a monkey’s paw, as he got his own game in 2013.Deadpooluses the Merc with a Mouth’smeta 4th wall-breakingto put himself in his own game, where he has to stop a plot by Mr Sinister. The game is packed with plenty of gags, references, cameos, and other wacky features — like getting an achievement for getting an achievement.
However, the gameplay was comparatively dry. It offered basic hack ‘n’ slashery with some gunplay and many annoying difficulty spikes. The game was pulled from digital stores in 2014 after Activision’s Marvel license ran out. Then, it somehow returned again via a remaster in 2015 for current-gen consoles — likely to capitalize on the (at the time) upcomingDeadpoolmovie — before disappearing again in 2017. As of this writing, it has yet to make a second return.
Based on Raven Software’s popularX-Men Legendsgames, theMarvel Ultimate Alliancegames let players create their own hero teams to take down Dr Doom, the Masters of Evil, and (inMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2) each other as per theCivil Warevent comic. Both games received ports to all playable platforms in the 2000s, but Zoë Mode brought the games back to the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2016.
Their re-release was based on the Xbox 360 version, which featured more characters and levels. However, they were delisted just two years later, in 2018. Unless players already got them previously, the only way to play them now is tofire up an old console(or its emulator). Their popularity did gain them a sequel,Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, which (as of this writing) is still available to buy since it wasn’t made by anyone under Activision’s thumb.
The Activision Marvel license shenanigans were also whySpider-Man: Shattered Dimensionsgot delisted in 2014, relisted in 2015, then delisted again in 2017. It’s a shame, as it’s a surprisingly influential game. It saw Spider-Man work with Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, and Ultimate Spider-Man (with the Venom symbiote) to retrieve the Tablet of Chaosfrom their villainsand restore balance to the multiverse.
If that sounds vaguely similar to theSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Versecomic…or its movies…orSpider-Man: No Way Home…or any multiverse thing involving Spider-Man and/or other superheroes in the past few years, then there’s a reason for that. Dan Slott was a writer for the game and used its multidimensional premise to write the comic, which in turn inspired the movies. It wasn’t the first Spidey story to do it (as viewers of the 90sSpider-Mancartoon can attest), but it was one of the best.
The last 3 words in the title alone give away what happened here. Telltale Games is famous for their choice-based adventure games, likeThe Wolf Among Usand their versions ofBack to theFutureandThe Walking Dead. However, they were beginning to show their age by the mid-2010s, with their later entries likeGame of ThronesandBatmanbeing weaker in the story department.
When the studio fell apart and reformed, it lost a lot of goodwill and IPs. TheirBatmangames are still available via Athlon Games, but theirGuardians of the Galaxytitle wasn’t so lucky. People with physical copies can still access the Guardians’ adventures with the Eternal Forge, as it’ll let them access the otherwise digital-only episodes beyond Episode 1. Everyone else lost their chance when it was delisted in 2019.
At leastSpider-Man: Shattered Dimensionshas its fans and made a mark on comics and movie history in its own little way.Marvel’s Avengersbecame more of a fiasco. It aimed to be anUltimate Alliance-esque game where players form their own Avengers to fight off AIM, complete with co-op support, customization, and other neat features. But its fun factor was offset by its frequent bugs, repetitive, grind-heavy gameplay, and its Gaas (games-as-a-service) approach.
Microtransactions for free games were bad enough, but doing so for expensive AAA games was another, less palatable option that has doomed similar games. The game saw its player base dwindle rapidly. The Embracer Group later acquired developer Crystal Dynamics, leaving the Marvel license behind in March 2023, when it was delisted shortly afterward.
1X-Men: Destiny
It Fought The Law (And The Law Won)
Marvel’s Avengerswas a mess, but it was still pristine compared toX-Men: Destiny.X-Men: Destinywas an action game, having players pick one of 3 new mutants and, depending on their choices, help the X-Men forge peace between mutants and humanity — or help the Brotherhood of Mutants turn what’s left of San Francisco into a mutant-only city state. It was also a short, dull game with stodgy combat where the playable newbies were a significant downgrade compared to the NPC heroes.
Fans and critics at the time couldn’t believe it was made by the same people behindEternal Darkness.Except by then, Silicon Knights was in trouble — especially when it turned out both it andSK’s other game,Too Human, used code from Unreal Engine 3 without permission. Epic Games sued them and won, leading to both games being pulled from stores and their physical copies destroyed.X-Men: Destiny’s few surviving copies may become valuable over time, but only as collectors’ items.
