Source: amazon.com

5. Biff! Bam! Pow!

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Arkham Asylum’s combat engine revolutionize third-person action games as we know them.

That one button to attack, another to counter combat style has been stolen and reused a million times by now. And there’s a reason: It feels great.

It’s so smooth and stylish and incredibly fun. It makes you feel like Batman to take on a roomful of thugs all at once. And, while additional games would make the system even better, most of it’s already there from the start. There are enemies you can’t counter, enemies you have to stun first, enemies who need to be flipped over when they charge, and more. Every brawl makes you think. You can’t just hammer the attack button mindlessly while looking away from the screen.

Timing your counters and moving around the room to clear out the most important targets is critical. And trying to keep the guns out of the hands of enemies by focusing on their locations adds a fun change of pace to the objectives of a fight. It’s just so elegant.