17. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Before Batman: Arkham Asylum came along, superhero games had been mostly terrible for quite some time. As such, I really wasn't expecting this to be any good. I tried the demo out of curiosity, and was stunned at how good it was. All of a sudden, it became a game I had to buy, but I still had my concerns about whether they could make the full game into something special or if the demo was just a one shot wonder. As it turned out, they more than delivered. Here we have a game where the sense of being Batman was delivered spectacularly. You sneak through the shadows of the asylum, and then when you enter a room full of enemies, you can hide on gargoyles while planning a pattern of attack, before swooping down and taking them out one by one. Their growing sense of terror as their numbers dwindled just added to the immersion. The combat was simple yet satisfying, and the Riddler challenges added that little something extra to the game. The only flaw was that you never really got to use Batman's gliding capabilities for any extended period of time, but that's something that would be rectified a couple of years later...
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