Who doesn’t love an anti-hero? Of all the Spiderverse’s heroes and villains, few are quite as awesome as the ravenous alien symbiote, Venom.

Venom’s exciting to encounter, whether you’re teaming up with him as Peter Parker, battling alongside fan-favorite host Eddie Brock, or tackling Venom in a Big Bad Boss Fight.

Let’s dive in and see the best games Venom has attached himself to throughout the Spider-Man franchise.

10 Marvel: Contest of Champions

Weirdest Venom Variants

This mobile fighting game cracks onto our list for one simple reason: Marvel Contest of Championsfeatures weird new variants of the symbiote. Namely, Venompool and Venom the Duck!

If you’ve played way too much Marvel Vs. Capcom and want a different fighting-game take on Venom, Contest of Champions is worth checking out.

The touch-screen controls can be a bit jank, inevitably, but it’s still a fun way to kill time with a favorite franchise.

9 Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Tactic: Hungry Alien

In this X-COM-style approach to superheroes, Venom’s endless hunger provides your team with a potent damage-dealer.

He can be a bit tricky to use, since Venom’s Ravenous passive increases your damage when he hasn’t been fed. With the right team and setup, though, Venom’s burst damage is brutal.

Despite being present in the base Marvel’s Midnight Suns game, Venom only becomes playable with the Redemption DLC. I love it when Venom flip-flops sides—showing off his truly alien mindset—but it would have been great to play with him in the base game, too.

8 Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage

OG Playable Venom

This 90s cult classic features Venom’s first appearance as a playable character. Based on a comic book series by the same name, Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage stands out as one of the most faithful reproductions of a comic storyline into a video game.

It even features comic book pages directly in the game! Combined with gameplay letting you switch between Spider-Man and Venom freely, it’s no wonder this retro beat ’em up has kept a fanbase for decades.

7 Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Best Venom Boss Fight

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows It may not be the greatest Spider-Man game, but you know what it does have? A freaking amazing Venom boss fight.

As New York City gets increasingly infected and overwhelmed by copies of the Venom symbiote—including battles against other Venom-enhanced heroes like Wolverine—the game comes to a climax as you battle an enormous multi-headed Venom from atop the S.H.I.E.LD. helicarrier.

This slugging match, as you whittle down giga-Venom’s extra heads, is a tense battle which, in my opinion, is probably the best fight against Venom in any Spider-Man game.

6 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

Villainous Team-Up

In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 you’re forced to pick a side during the Civil War comic story arc. Whether you’re Pro- or Anti-Registration, however, Venom’s still a playable option!

This action-RPG sticks out because it gives us a playable Venom while also ramping up his “villainous” side.

Initially presented as a supervillain antagonist, even when Venom joins your team he’s not exactly a “nice” guy. He’s just eating your foes … for now.

5 Spider-Man 3

Corrupting Alien

Just like Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, this movie tie-in game is all about the relationship between Peter Parker and the Venom symbiote. Featuring the “black suit” version of Spider-Man as a symbiote-fueled power-up, this game emphasizes Venom’s role as Parker’s “alter ego” akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

For die-hard Spider-Fans of the Raimi trilogy, Spider-Man 3 stands out due to voice acting by the film’s original actors. (Which is good, considering J.K. Simmons is the “one true” J. Jonah Jameson in my book!)

Yet, like most tie-in games, this game’s quality really depends on whether you like how the film presents Venom more like a “force” than a “personality.”

4 LEGO Marvel Superheroes

Power And Flexible Utility

Venom’s breaking blocks and collecting studs in this LEGO take on Marvel! Naturally, this iteration does tone down the violence for its kid-friendly audience, but the LEGO games’ classic satiric humor still lets our favorite Friendly Neighborhood Symbiote shine.

And shine, he does! Venom’s one of the best characters in LEGO Marvel Superheroes because his diverse moveset blends the mobility of Spider-Man with a “Big-Fig” option for super strength like Hulk.

Add in special symbiote walls hiding secrets throughout the game, and Venom’s a great inclusion on your mission roster.

3 Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

All About Venom

One of the best stories about Venom in recent years comes from the easter-egg filled latest installment in Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man series.

Despite similarities to other Venom storylines, this one stands out due to its deft juggling of the symbiote as both a corrupting influence and a villain in its own right.

The combination of both themes really helps capture the nastier side of our favorite alien menace. Add in a few more symbiotic characters—like Anti-Venom—and our color palette stretches beyond Venom’s classic all-black for some entertaining and surprising variety.

2 Marvel Vs. Capcom

Iconic Fighting Game Masterpiece

The third Marvel Vs. Capcom game saw Venom take the fighting stage for the first time. While initially restricted to arcades, this enduring classic has been ported, updated, and reworked repeatedly to keep it freshly available for fighting game enthusiasts.

Venom is in a number of fighting games—including the most recent entry in this series, Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite, as a DLC character.

He really stands out in the classic game, though, for how “monstrous” his playstyle feels. With webs, tentacles, enormous fangs, and more, 1998’s Venom truly felt alien in a way difficult to match at the time.

1 Ultimate Spider-Man

Amazing Comic-Style Action

The Ultimate Venom, perhaps unsurprisingly, is also the Ultimate Spider-Man! The best of Treyarch’s Spider-Man titles, Ultimate excels by successfully evoking the feeling of its comic source material through gameplay and visual style, rather than merely emulating it.

Despite an early boss battle with Venom, the symbiote is playable early and throughout much of the game. Constantly-depleting health echoes the alien’s hunger, forcing you to feed or perish and setting an interesting contrast against Venom/Brock’s anti-hero tendencies.

A strong, faithful story combined with ravenous alien battles? Hard to top!