The Death and Return of Superman
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. Fortunately, that storyline plays well in The Death and Return of Superman. The story which originally took 47 comic books to tell naturally had to be condensed a lot for the game, but the spirit of the story remained. Even though Superman and Doomsday kill each other early on, the plot continues with the additional characters that came in later in the comic arc including Steel, Eradicator, Cyborg, and Superboy. After too many Superman games with no plot, it's great to find a game that provides a narrative impetus to proceed.
Of course, having a good plot based on great source material means nothing if the game isn't fun, and this one is for the most part. Taking cues from Konami's Batman Returns, The Death and Return of Superman is a simple side-scrolling beat-em-up. The controls are simple to grasp, and the fighting is largely satisfying. There's a balance between the risky-but-powerful melee brawling and the safe-but-weak projectiles, and the game encourages using both. Each of the playable characters has their own moves, but they largely play the same. It's not like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat-em-ups which gave each character a distinct feel. There is some environmental interaction with throwing boxes and motorcycles, but more could've been done to spice it up. The biggest issue is that the stages get a little too long, and when you die and continue, you start the stage all over again. There should've been a few checkpoints along the way. However, I do have to give bonus points for the inclusion of Gradius-style shooting levels to add some variety.
While not the best-looking 16-bit game there is, The Death and Return of Superman still looks solid. The character sprites are large and well-animated. The locations look fine but are largely uninspired. They just look like generic cityscapes and laboratories. The sound effects and music are equally generic. I would've expected more bombastic music when Doomsday showed up.
The Death and Return of Superman is not the best beat-em-up I played on the Super Nintendo; I personally prefer Batman Returns. However, it's easily one of the best Superman games I ever played. The story was told well if a bit rushed, and the combat is satisfying if a bit uninspired. The members of Blizzard should be considered gods among men. If they could make a good game revolving around Superman, then they can pretty much do anything!
