10 WEIRD Superhero Games You Forgot About
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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're looking at odd and forgotten superhero video games,
00:13whether they were based on an existing property or not.
00:22Before we begin, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:27the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:31Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal.
00:43While this action side-scroller may not seem all that weird, retroactive evaluation is
00:47certainly baffling.
00:49Because we all know who Iron Man is, but most non-comic readers have likely never heard
00:54of X-O Manowar.
00:56If you're thinking he's an obscure Marvel hero who was more popular at the time, you'd
01:00be wrong.
01:01He comes from Valiant Comics, which was purchased by publisher Acclaim the same year this game
01:06was released.
01:07Marvel itself wasn't in a great state financially at the time, and Iron Man was far from the
01:12superstar he is today.
01:14Still, it's strange to see him star in a game alongside a hero he had no previous history
01:19with, and one from a different comic universe.
01:22It also sold and reviewed poorly, ensuring it would stay mostly forgotten.
01:30Pepsi Man.
01:38The 90s were a very odd time for product placement in video games.
01:42Pepsi's Japan branch created a superhero mascot who gained powers by drinking something
01:47called Holy Pepsi, whatever that is.
01:50And he became popular enough to star in his own video game.
01:53Released solely in Japan for the original PlayStation, Pepsi Man is an endless runner,
01:58where the hero must avoid obstacles to reach someone in dire need of a soft drink.
02:02In between levels, you'd get live-action cutscenes of a typical American guy drinking the soda
02:07and offering words of encouragement to the player.
02:10It is clearly ridiculous, but that has actually led it to having a bit of a cult following
02:15after selling poorly.
02:22Gotham City Impostors.
02:31This digital-only FPS is so far removed from Batman, it may as well have had a different
02:36name.
02:37Gotham City Impostors is a team-based shooter where one side dresses like wannabe Dark Knights
02:42while the other styles themselves after the Joker.
02:45You can still customize your character, including their guns, size, and clothing.
02:49But it's extremely straightforward, getting a lot of Call of Duty comparisons at release.
02:54Clearly, the DC license wasn't necessary, but it was likely the biggest reason players
02:59gave at the time of day.
03:00The concept is pretty out there, especially having a bunch of guys dressed like Batman
03:05ignoring his no-kill policy.
03:14Superhero League of Hoboken.
03:20In this futuristic world, various disasters and a mass increase in pollution have resulted
03:25in most people becoming mutated.
03:28And if X-Men has taught us anything, mutations equals superpowers.
03:32Superhero League of Hoboken is an RPG released on PC in 1994.
03:37It naturally follows a group of heroes in conflict with supervillains, but the powers
03:41are what's strange about it.
03:43Instead of the standard collection, characters have sillier abilities, such as Crimson Tape's
03:48power to make organizational charts or Tropical Oil Man's ability to give people high cholesterol.
03:54Although, being an RPG, you can also give them new powers by consuming special drinks.
04:00No matter who you're playing as, though, expect the unexpected.
04:08X-Men The Ravages of Apocalypse.
04:17Speaking of the X-Men, the mutant team was everywhere in the 90s.
04:22They received a ton of video game adaptations, both on console and in arcades.
04:27However, The Ravages of Apocalypse has been lost to time for most players, though for
04:32good reason.
04:33As you can tell, it's a first-person shooter, a strange style to go with for any superhero
04:37game.
04:38The player is enlisted by Magneto to stop Apocalypse, who is building an army of mutant
04:43clones.
04:44Cut to you running around blasting everyone from Psylocke to Iceman with futuristic guns.
04:50In one more layer of odd, it was also built in the Quake engine, requiring the game in
04:54order to play before it became freeware nearly a decade later.
05:03Swamp Thing In all honesty, Swamp Thing isn't that different
05:12from other superhero side-scrollers of the era it was released in.
05:16Other than that, it's bad.
05:17But it's weird it got made in the first place.
05:20It was based on the character's cartoon series, which only ran for five episodes.
05:24Clearly, Swamp Thing has never been one of the bigger heroes DC has in its catalog, yet
05:29he still got his own solo game before the likes of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and
05:34Aquaman, major figures in DC Comics history.
05:37Even if the main character wasn't niche, awful controls and gameplay made certain it
05:42was forgotten by players not long after release.
05:50Captain Rainbow It's a shame this superhero Wii title never
05:59made it out of Japan, because it is absolutely bonkers in all the best ways.
06:04It follows the titular TV hero trying to reclaim his popularity by visiting an island where
06:09dreams come true.
06:11On said island, he can help other Nintendo characters reach their own dreams.
06:15All of them were redesigned, but these cameos range from the well-known, like Birdo from
06:20Super Mario, to the obscure, like Crazy Tracy from Link's Awakening, to the downright
06:25weird, like an overweight little Mac from Punch-Out who you help lose weight.
06:30Undeniably silly, it didn't sell well in the one country it was released in, and the only
06:34reason it's ever brought up these days is to talk about how bizarre it is.
06:44Booger Man A pick-and-flick adventure.
06:54With a title like that, it's not surprising in the slightest that this game is super weird.
06:59Released for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo in 1994, Booger Man is the most 90s, 10-year-old-boy
07:06type of game we can think of.
07:08It follows mild-mannered millionaire Snotty Ragsdale battling his way through the alternate
07:13dimension X-Crement as his superhero alter ego, and that's only the tip of the gross-out
07:18iceberg.
07:19Booger Man's abilities include damage-dealing burps, farts, and, of course, boogers, and
07:25every level is just as nasty as the last.
07:28Although it was a surprisingly decent action-platformer, the juvenile aesthetic, jokes, and lead character
07:34obviously stole the show.
07:41Quest Probe Series While most superhero games in the 80s tried
07:51to emulate the action, the Quest Probe series went the adventure route.
07:55Released by Adventure International from 1984 to 1985, there were three titles focusing
08:00on different Marvel characters.
08:02One for Spider-Man, one for the Hulk, and one on the Human Torch and the Thing.
08:07A fourth, focusing on the X-Men, was cancelled after Adventure International went bankrupt
08:11in 1986.
08:13All three essentially have the same structure, following each hero as they try to escape
08:17a place they are trapped in and deal with various villains.
08:21Although many Marvel fans may not know of these games, they hold some historical significance.
08:25Marvel initially agreed to a 10-year license, its first long-term one, and it marked the
08:30Hulk's first appearance in a video game.
08:34Supergran Unless you were a kid growing up in the UK
08:42during the mid-80s, this may be your first time hearing of Supergran.
08:46It was a live-action kids' show focusing on a grandmother who gained superpowers and
08:50used them to protect her town.
08:52As strange as the premise is, it's even stranger that this obscure series got not
08:57one, but two video games.
09:00The first, self-titled entry, was an action game for home computers while the second was
09:04a text-based adventure game.
09:07Both were produced by Tynesoft and both released the same year the series began airing, 1985.
09:13Neither of them were particularly good, but even if they had been, the obscurity of their
09:18IP means they probably would have been forgotten anyway.
09:22Know of any other obscure and bizarre superhero games?
09:31Share your thoughts in the comments and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great
09:35gaming videos every day.