The Fall of Superman

As I mentioned when I reviewed his Atari 2600 game years ago, Superman is one of the hardest characters to get right in video games. The difficulty that comes from trying to make an interesting game revolving around a near-immortal demi-god results in games that either get too easy or royally screw up the character. However, even with those inherent difficulties, there should still be some gameplay standards, and the Superman game on the Nintendo Entertainment System doesn't even come close to those standards. The plot is bare-bones; it's more a set-up than a plot. Lex Luthor and General Zod are causing trouble, and Superman has to stop them. The stages are very random leading up to the big boss fights near the end. There is as little a narrative point to the game as the 2600 game. [READ FULL REVIEW]

I've mentioned on several occasions when I've had issues with a game's difficulty level. Most of the time, it's been because a game was just too hard to enjoy like the case with Chakan: The Forever Man and Power Golf. However, in the case of Superman: The Game on the ZX Spectrum, I experienced a very rare case of the opposite problem, a game that is just way too easy. As can be expected of a game from the tail-end of the second console generation, there is a set-up but no real plot. The premise is a showdown between Superman and Darkseid. They're thrown into a few blocks worth of Metropolis to shoot it out. Conceptually, it's about as simple as Combat on the Atari 2600, but there are a few wrinkles added to provide a little depth. The power and length of the heat vision ... [READ FULL REVIEW]

While licensed properties tend to be bad news when it comes to gaming, if there's one company that can be largely trusted to provide decent if not great games based on them, it would be Sunsoft. I already reviewed an excellent example of such in the form of Gremlins 2, but the best example would be the NES game based on the first Batman movie. With that record, I couldn't help but be cautiously optimistic when I learned they took on the Man of Steel on the Sega Genesis. Surely, they could beat the Superman video game curse, right? Not this time. Once again, like with the Superman games on the Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum, and NES, don't come into the Genesis game looking for a plot. The game just provides a series of levels in Metropolis and in space where you punch and use heat vision against an assortment of enemies. There are several recognizable foes that appear as bosses including Prankster, Metallo, and Mr. Mxyzptlk. [READ FULL REVIEW]

Remember when I reviewed the game based on The Flash which released on the Sega Master System? The biggest problem I had with that game was that, while it played fast, the levels weren't designed for playing fast. Now, imagine taking that game, cutting the player down to just one life and one continue, and making the protagonist as fragile and useless as a glass hammer. What you get is Superman: The Man of Steel on the Sega Master System. Like the other 8-bit Superman games I've covered, there is a set-up but no actual plot. Brainiac captured Lois Lane, and Metropolis is in chaos. Yadda-yadda-yadda. Is it REALLY that hard to come up with an actual story for these games??? I guess the reason the story thing irks me so much is that it would've made braving through this game more tolerable if there was a narrative pay-off at the end like with the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. [READ FULL REVIEW]

It seems like Blizzard can do no wrong. They own the action RPG market with the Diablo games. If you want to play one of the all-time best strategy games competitively, grab a copy of Starcraft. Of course, Blizzard will keep making money from World of Warcraft until the Internet collapses. It seems like everything Blizzard touches turns to mithril. To add further to that idea, they succeeded in doing the near impossible ... They made a GOOD Superman game! As I mentioned when I looked at his Atari 2600 game, the only Superman storyline that I found interesting was his fight with Doomsday. It was the one real time where it felt like he was in danger. [READ FULL REVIEW]

In the early to mid 90s, just about everything was getting turned into a one-on-one fighting game. After the runaway success on Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, fighting games became a very hot commodity, so much so that fighting games were being made for things that didn't make a lot of sense. Hell, Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft tried to turn Dungeons & Dragons into a fighting game! I guess making a fighting game revolving around characters from DC Comics' stable isn't the worst idea in the world, but Justice League: Task Force ... [READ FULL REVIEW]

The now-defunct French software publisher Titus and licensed properties go together like peanut butter and escargot. Properties that should've yielded gold like RoboCop and Top Gun only provided coal. However, the license they royally botched was Superman. Even with the lousy track record with video games the character already had by the late 1990s, Titus still managed to bury him deeper with the much maligned Nintendo 64 game. If you were hoping that the much more low-key Game Boy game that they released would salvage things, you can just forget about it. There have been earlier Superman games that had a set-up but no plot. This one doesn't even bother to have a set-up. You are thrown into a collection of stages with absolutely no rhyme or reason. Even the Atari 2600 game gave something of a premise! [READ FULL REVIEW]

Though it's easy to say that all Superman games suck, that's actually not an accurate generalization. There had been peaks and valleys (LOTS of valleys) throughout the character's video game history. However, after the turn of the millennium, it looked like the quality of Superman games was starting to balance out. Then, thanks to Countdown to Apokolips, I was forcefully reminded that video games can still be kryptonite for the Man of Steel. Superman: Countdown to Apokolips at least has something of a plot. The main plot involves agents from the planet Apokolips teaming up with Metropolis' hoods to take down Superman. There are a few sub-plots involving Lois Lane being kidnapped and Livewire escaping from prison to flesh out the narrative. However, it doesn't come together into a cohesive whole. [READ FULL REVIEW]

I insist on giving the benefit of the doubt. I don't just jump on bandwagons when it comes to hating on something. When I reviewed both Pac-Man and E.T. on the Atari 2600, two games that often show up on lists of the worst games ever, I found that their reputations were worse than the games themselves (though the games were still pretty bad). I approached the infamous Superman on the Nintendo 64 with that history in mind. However, unlike those other examples, this game's reputation is 100% justified. Commonly referred to as "Superman 64", this game is based on the animated series that was on TV at the time. The plot at least tries to give an explanation for the boneheaded crap players would see in the game. [READ FULL REVIEW]

I should know better by now. How can I be disappointed by the quality of a Superman game when I've heard over and over again that they all suck? I guess it happens when there is actual potential on display that just gets defeated. Looking at the Nintendo 64 game, there was definitely no potential there anyway; so, I couldn't be surprised that it was a festering pile of crap. Superman: The Man of Steel on the Xbox wasn't like that. It got plenty right which made the stuff it got wrong hurt so much more than getting a headbutt from Doomsday. This particular outing takes its ideas from the comic books. In a futuristic version of Metropolis, Superman has to square off against Brainiac 13 who is out to steal technology to aid in his quest for world domination. Though that thin plot synopsis makes Brainiac sound more like the Borg from Star Trek, it works. The setting DEFINITELY works. The future Metropolis was extremely well-built, fully realized, and absolutely gorgeous by Xbox standards. I wanted to just fly around exploring everything. [READ FULL REVIEW]

Superman's reputation when it came to video games was already far in the gutter by 2006. When it was decided to make a Superman game based on the then-newest movie Superman Returns, that just seemed to be asking for trouble. How could combining the terrible reputation of Superman games with the abhorrent reputation of movie-based games NOT lead to a full-on atomic disaster? Thankfully. Superman Returns on Xbox is not the second coming of Superman 64 or E.T., but it doesn't clean up those bad reputations, either.

Superman Returns has one of the strongest plots of all the Superman games I've played which is understandable since it directly follows the movie it's based on. The main plot of Lex Luthor taking crystals from the Fortress of Solitude and trying to use them to create his own world is directly lifted from the movie as are the voices of the actors from the movie including Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, and Kevin Spacey. [READ FULL REVIEW]

I was waiting for this. When I started looking at the various games based on Superman, I knew going in that it would be difficult. Superman's reputation with terrible video games was already very well-known. I kept looking anyway, hoping to find that one game that managed to completely beat the curse on the character. While I didn't find an absolutely fantastic game revolving around the Last Son of Krypton, Superman: Shadow of Apokolips came damn close to it.

This game is based on the Animated Series. The plot involves an alliance between Lex Luthor and Darkseid to take down Superman. It's thin, but it works. What sells it is the look and sound. The cel-shading is used to great effect. It looks in every way like the cartoon boosted to three dimensions. The character designs are perfect, even for the small characters like Lex's valet Mercy. [READ FULL REVIEW]