5) Gotham City Impostors

Gotham City Impostors

When Gotham City Impostors arrived on the scene, many of us gazed upon the weird creature and in one perplexed voice questioned, “Why?” Fortunately, we were wrong. The marriage of the Batman license with Monolith Productions’ sense of humor and eye for detail elevated what could have been a throwaway Call of Duty clone into the best multiplayer experience of 2012.

Thanks to the aforementioned similarities to gaming’s giant FPS franchise, the controls were fluid, responsive and familiar. Anyone who had picked up the sticks of a first-person shooter in this generation would be completely comfortable jumping right into Gotham City Impostors and doing just fine. Couple that with the over-the-top presentation, the unique gadgets and the near limitless customization afforded to the die-hard player and it turned out to be one of the best shooters on the platform. Ever.

The issue with Gotham City Impostors, like most multiplayer-centric titles on Xbox Live Arcade, is one of community. Simply put, the first barrier of entry is the price tag, and until you’ve got a good word-of-mouth buzz going, it can be difficult to build a player base varied enough to support a title of this nature. However, thanks to the hours and hours of content packaged inside the slapstick facade, players are still hanging around in the lobbies, grinding out the 1000 levels and tricking out weapons in every way imaginable. But if there was ever a game that could have benefited from a free-to-play structure, Gotham City Impostors was that game.

With so much content, so much customization and the goofy items that have you saying, “I need to own this because it’s just ri-damn-diculous,” a free-to-play sequel would ensure the streets and alleyways of Gotham City would be buzzing with gang warfare for years to come.