The Batman Arkham trilogy is widely considered as one of the greatest gaming franchises ever made, with Arkham Asylum revolutionizing the video game genre when it came out in 2009.

When Sony released Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2018, it challenged the legacy of the Arkham series by offering a new yet familiar take on the superhero genre.

Since then, fans from both sides have argued about which series is best. Whichever side you may support, I will be going over all aspects and deciding once and for all which superhero gaming franchise is the best.

8

Story

Batman Arkham Trilogy

From the hunt for the Joker in Arkham Asylum to ultimately protecting Gotham and taking on the full roster of Batman villains in Arkham Knight, the franchise offers a masterclass of storytelling.

While each Spider-Man game has a marvelous story, its pacing feels like a drag, especially in the first half. The MJ sections from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2018 were easily the most hated segments of the game, and the same issue persists in Spider-Man 2.

Meanwhile, the Batman games manage their story pacing near flawlessly. In addition, the Arkham trilogy puts Batman in a race against time, creating a sense of urgency.

Batman hallucinating about the Joker in Arkham Knight and slowly losing his sanity and control over his body was never done before. In Arkham City, you had Hugo Strange doing live broadcasts on how much time is left for the launch of Protocol 10, as you are trying to figure out what it even is.

7

Characters

Marvel’s Spider-Man

While the Arkham trilogy is superior in terms of the story, it falls a bit short in terms of character development and arcs.

The game’s stories are written in the same fashion as the classic Batman stories. Each game has Bruce taking on his gallery of villains and doing the impossible by simply being himself.

Bruce is an already established character, and for the most part, we don’t see his character or any other characters drastically transform. They more or less remain the same character you expect them to be.

It’s not a bad thing, but the focus is more on fulfilling the Batman fantasy instead of covering character arcs. These are intense stories that can be very exciting and engaging.

Although taking on a rogue gallery of villains is true for Spider-Man as well, it has a heavier focus on character dynamics. Peter’s relationships with Doctor Octavius, Miles, MJ, Yuri, Harry, and the symbiote transform throughout the games, making them more relatable.

6

World and Atmosphere

Batman Arkham Trilogy

This may come down to personal preference, but I’d prefer exploring a dark, gothic, crime-ridden city in the dead of night over swinging through a bustling New York filled with pedestrians in Spider-Man any day.

The atmosphere of each Batman game does a fantastic job of bringing its set-pieces to life and making you feel like Batman as you creep your way through the dark corridors and shadows.

Of course, we can’t really do a visual fidelity comparison between the two franchises, as the first Spider-Man game from Insomniac came out three years after Arkham Knight. The last entry in the trilogy pushed the Unreal Engine 3 to its limit, and it is still an amazing-looking game.

5

Combat

Batman Arkham Trilogy

While it’s no secret that the Spider-Man series took inspiration from the Batman Arkham trilogy while trying to improve on it. Unfortunately, the combat in the Spider-Man games lack the shine that gave the Arkham trilogy its identity.

Rocksteady succeeded in making players feel like Batman as you control the pace of every enemy encounter. The fight starts off slowly with you building up your combo, and as that increases, your damage, speed, and room for error increase with it.

In terms of gadgets, Arkham City and Knight offer a much greater variety that you’re encouraged to use during combat. Whenever a thug starts charging towards you, you can throw a batarang, instantly downing them.

In the Spider-Man series, the pace of each fight feels static, to the point where it starts feeling repetitive, especially in the endgame.

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Most enemies in Spider-Man are damage sponges as you keep mashing the same button to take them down, which sometimes feels like an eternity. Alternatively, you can take the quick approach, which is to bring the enemy into the air, web them up, and then throw them to the ground. This gives you a very anti-climactic instant KO.

4

Traversal

Marvel’s Spider-Man

In terms of traversal, there is simply no competition. Insomniac knocked the traversal aspect out of the park, with it being the best iteration of the swinging mechanic in Spider-Man games.

Where the Arkham games offer a simple glide and grapple traversal, Spider-Man 2 offers you wall climbing, swinging through the New York skyline, performing tricks mid-air, and even gliding if you start missing Batman.

The swinging itself is so relaxing and addictive that you end up forgetting that the game has a fast travel mechanic.

While Rocksteady did add the Batmobile in Arkham Knight to make traversal quicker, it did more bad than good, as the Batmobile is the worst part of Batman: Arkham Knight.

3

Side Content

Batman Arkham Trilogy

This is a category where the Arkham trilogy’s superiority is very evident, as the Spider-Man series offers very bare-bones and lackluster side content.

Spider-Man only offers side content like finding collectibles, completing challenges, and a few side missions that require you to swing somewhere and beat up a few thugs.

It is so underwhelming that I tend to solely focus on the story missions while playing Spider-Man and only do side content when I need materials to upgrade something.

On the other hand, besides Arkham Asylum, the Batman trilogy is jam-packed with side content containing mysteries and unique stories.

Batman: Arkham Knight is where the side content really shines the most (besides the Batmobile missions), as the Perfect Crime, Heir to the Cowl, and In From The Cold side stories alone knock all the side content offered by the Spider-Man series out of the park. And this is also barely scratching the surface of all the side content that Arkham Knight offers.

2

Boss Fights

Marvel’s Spider-Man

If Batman: Arkham Origins was included in the comparison, then it would’ve been a tough battle between the two franchises, as Arkham Origins has the best boss fights in the series.

But since we are sticking with the Rocksteady trilogy, Spider-Man is the clear winner here, as nearly all other Arkham games besides Origins fall very short in the boss fight aspect.

It’s almost like Rocksteady stopped trying, because even though Arkham Knight tried acknowledging this and added a few interesting boss fights, the majority required you to use your Batmobile in some way, which is the worst aspect of the game.

My disappointment was immeasurable when the game was hyping up Deathstroke so much, and it ended up being a tank fight.

On the other hand, Spider-Man 2 starts off with one of the most fun set-pieces and boss fights in the superhero genre. The Sandman boss fight really caught me off guard, as I didn’t expect the game to start off that strong.

1

Winner

Batman Arkham Trilogy

This was not an easy decision to make because I love Spider-Man. Besides the Insomniac games, I have also played the Spider-Man games based on Sam Raimi’s trilogy, the Ultimate Spider-Man, Web of Shadows, and even the Amazing Spider-Man games.

While both characters are very close to my heart, both franchises have reached the pinnacle of the genre and do justice to each of their respective characters. The bottom line is that both games excel in their own ways.

One can even say that Batman and Spider-Man are two sides of the same coin. You have your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, making quirky jokes and being lighthearted, versus a hardened vigilante, stalking his prey in the dead of night. Both franchises offer their unique take on the superhero genre.

In the end, the Arkham Trilogy wins the battle as the best superhero video game franchise of all time. This may change, however, as we will most certainly be getting more Spider-Man games from Insomniac in the future. Until then, Batman can rest easy knowing that he won’t be getting dethroned any time soon.

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Batman Arkham City

Released

October 18, 2011

ESRB

T for Teen: Alcohol Reference, Blood, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Tobacco, Violence

Developer(s)

Rocksteady Studios

Engine

Unreal Engine 3