Guinness World Records 2018

MOST OFFICIAL SUPERHERO

COSTUMES IN A VIDEOGAME

As of 14^ Mar 2017, US-based developer

Gazillion Entertainment had released

462 superhero costumes for its Massively

Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

(MMORPG) Marvel Heroes

2016 , with each

outfit officially adapted from either a

comic^ book or movie source. The full list

includes 24^ outfits for Iron Man, 21

for

Spider-Man and 11

each for Storm and

Jean Grey. The MMORPG was first released

in^ 2013, before its rebrand in Jan

2016.

VIDEOGAMES

SUPERHEROES

First text adventure

with a licensed

superhero

Questprobe featuring The

Hulk was released in 1984

across seven platforms.

Two sequels followed – one

featuring Spider-Man, a

second with Human Torch

and The Thing – before

developers Adventure

International went bust.

First superhero

created for a videogame

Released in 1986 for the

ZX Spectrum, Redhawk

let players transform into

the mighty hero using

the magic word “Kwah!”

Typed commands triggered

actions that appeared in

an animated comic strip

at the top of the screen.

First Batman videogame

The Dark Knight made his

videogame debut in 1986’s

Batman (right), published

by Ocean Software for the

ZX Spectrum, MSX and

Amstrad CPC. The devious

isometric platformer

was created by just two

people: programmer

Jon Ritman and artist

Bernie Drummond.

The first Batman

villain introduced in

a videogame is

Sin Tzu. The evil

warlord, created by

writer Flint Dille and

artist Jim Lee, first

appeared in Ubisoft’s

Batman: Rise of Sin

Tzu in 2003. Tzu has

rarely appeared in

the comic series since.

First superhero

first-person shooter

X-Men: The Ravages of

Apocalypse was released

for the PC in 1997. Players

took the role of a cyborg

created by Magneto,

hunting down evil cloned

versions of the X-Men.

Published by Marvel, the

game was a conversion

of id Software’s Quake

(1996), and required that

game to run.

First videogame set in

the Marvel Cinematic

Universe (MCU)

As of 4 Jan 2016, there had

been 14 movies released

as part of the Marvel

Cinematic Universe. The

first videogame was SEGA’s

Iron Man, released in 2 008.

Longest-running

superhero MMO ever

NCSOFT’s MMO City of

Heroes ran for 8 years

300 days before closing

services on 30 Nov 2012.

The longest-running

superhero MMO

(current) is Champions

Online. Based on a table-

top game and developed

by Cryptic Studios (USA),

it had run for 7 years

194 days as of 14 Mar 2017.

MOST PROLIFIC COMIC-BOOK

TEAM IN VIDEOGAMES

From DC Comics’

Justice League of America

to Marvel’s Avengers

, superhero teams have

long been a popular comic-book staple.

But none has headlined more videogames

than the X-Men. As of 1

Mar 2017, Charles

Xavier’s super-mutants have starred in

27

of their own videogames, with a further five

solo games fronted by their iconic linchpin

Wolverine. Only Spider-Man and Batman

have enjoyed more dedicated games.

FIRST OFFICIAL

SUPERHERO VIDEOGAME

Designed by John Dunn (USA),

Superman was initially released

for the Atari^ 2600 in Dec

1978

to coincide with the film of

the same name. Players had

to capture Lex Luthor before

returning to the Daily Planet

as

quickly as possible.

Superman^

was the first game written for

the Atari 4K ROMs.

The first Batman videogame

(see inset above) set players

the task of hunting through

isometric rooms to locate the

superhero’s partner Robin,

solving puzzles and picking up

items along the way. (See left.)