Almost since their invention, superhero comics have been source material for other mediums. Take Superman, who was created by Canadian artist Joe Shuster and American writer Jerry Siegel in 1938 and quickly expanded into newspaper comic strips, radio, cartoons, cinematic serials and TV.

This past decade, comic movies have taken over summer cinemas—a trend which kicked-off in 2000 by X-Men, hit a creative peak in with 2003’s X2 and went balls-out blockbuster with last year’s Oscar-winning Dark Knight.

But videogame adaptations have added bonus of not just seeing your favourite four-colour comics come to life, but also controling them yourself. Typically licensed games are lazy cash-ins—the nonsensical Superman Returns was embarrassingly bad—but X-Men has had a pretty illustrious run. It helps that the cast of characters is so deep and that mutant allegory operates on so many levels (race, sexual orientation or any outsider, really).

Then there’s the half-century of plotlines to draw from, like this month’s Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, the latest effort from Activision who made the uncannily awesome X-Men Legends games. MUA2 begins with an arc borrowed from the 2004 "Secret War" story during which Nick Fury launches an illegal invasion of Dr. Doom's old stomping grounds, Latveria. It then moves into the 2006-2007 “Civil War” crossover that turned "meta-human" heroes like Captain America and Luke Cage into veritable mutants in the government's eyes. After a superhero-related accident in Connecticut kills hundreds, the White House demands all capes register their powers and secret identities in an evolution of Marvel’s longstanding Mutant Registration Act storyline. Some refuse and the heroes wind up battling each other (hence the, y'know, name).

But that game involves pretty much every member of the Marvel universe, so let's take a look at the best X-Men-only titles over the years.

X-Men: Arcade (1992)
Though the first X-Men game arrived three years earlier on the original Nintendo, this arcade classic based on the then-current (and still-awesome) cartoon was the first to understand that the X-Men are about teamwork. This side-scrolling beat-em-up allowed up to six players to fight together (though there was inevitably infighting over who would play Wolverine) as you punched, slashed and eye-blasted your way through sentinels and supervillains to rescue Prof X from Magneto.

X-Men: Children of the Atom (1992)
This 2D fighting game pit Marvel’s merry mutants against Marvel’s less merry ones. Finally, a fighter where the special moves made sense! It was followed by X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Vs Capcom, the latter of which was recently upgraded to HD this summer for a re-release on Xbox Live Arcade.

X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2004-2005)
Built by the folks behind Baldur’s Gate, these co-op titles put the X-Men where they belong—in a role-playing game. The 3/4 top-down perspective, cell-shaded graphics and easy transition between playable characters (15 in the first game and many more in the sequel, where X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants join forces). Both offer impeccable fanservice thanks to a ton of X-arcana, ranging from Mastermold, Asteroid M and the Morlocks in the first game to a story-arc in the sequel that roams from Genosha to the Savage Land and involves fan-favourite Big Bads Mister Sinister and Apocalypse.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
The most popular X-man got his first solo game in 1991 and had a disappointing do-over in 2003’s X2: Wolverine’s Revenge. But the be-clawed anti-hero finally got a game worth its snikt with this year’s Origins, which was as visceral, bloody and action-packed as one could hope. In a rare reversal, it was also widely considered better quality than the blockbuster film it was based on.

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X-Men airs this Saturday on Showcase at 12:30am ET/PT, right after the 10pm broadcast of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer.