Video Games Starring Superman

There are a number of Video Games out there where you can play as Superman. Unfortunately, they all have one thing in common: they are average at best or spectacular failures at worst.

Why? Well, I think the number one issue is that Superman is Cursed with Awesome. What a lot of people need to know is that writers have struggled for over 70 years with tweaking with Superman's power level. If they make him too powerful, he's a Game-Breaker with Story-Breaker Power. If they make him too powerless, it goes against the idea of a Superman. Nobody's been able to agree with what an acceptable power level should be for Superman. Unfortunately, CWA carries over to Video Games where you play as him.

I'd like to point out that I've played the game Death and Return of Superman for the SNES. Okay, it's not what I would call classic, but it was fun beating up chainsaw-wielding thugs and creatures. You only play three levels as Superman. He can actually be hurt by the chainsaws, but I like to think that the chainsaws contain Kryptonite. You spend most of the game playing as the Cyborg, the Eradicator, Superboy, and the Man of Steel. It's just too bad that by the end of game where you play as Superman again, he gets Overshadowed by Awesome. It's scary when OBA happens to Superman of all characters!

So, I guess the question is if it's possible to make a Video Game starring Superman that could be called a classic!

edited 13th Sep '12 8:11:11 AM by TiggersAreGreat

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There was a Gamecube game called Superman: Shadow of Apokolips or something. I've never played it myself, but apparently it's considered a good game.

@OP: Rocksteady Games actually said that his supposed overpoweredness was the reason they don't want to make a Superman game, even though I fully believe they could if they put their heart and soul into it.

edited 13th Sep '12 8:47:03 AM by WaxingName

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Is he really that OP?

My only real exposure to Superman, outside of the films, is the Justice League cartoon and he was getting his ass kicked frequently. Not just to Kryptonite, generic alien soldiers with laser beams were causing him to fall back in pain.

edited 13th Sep '12 4:15:42 PM by ShadowScythe

He's only overpowered if you use the silver age version, and/or restrict him to hanging around Metropolis fighting muggers and purse snatchers.

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The only Superman game I've played is the Sega Genesis sidescroller by Sunsoft, which is depressingly bad, especially coming from the same people who made the awesome Batman NES game. The main issue is that the hit detection for punching is horrible, and Superman can fall to his death in a bottomless pit like any other platforming character, even though that makes no sense for Superman.

As crazy as it sounds, the Superman 64 people might have had a decent concept in the idea of a race against time. After all, if the devs cap his speed, getting from place to place could be a challenge, providing the obstacles are fun and not just frustrating. Too bad that game was rushed out the door.

Yeah, the DCAU Superman is much weaker than the comic-book versions.

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Superman's power-set doesn't really translate to video games very well, either. His ability to fly effectively prevents anything like the Arkham games. His invulnerability has him knocked around by baddies, but never really hurt by the non-kryptonite wielding ones. His super speed would be difficult to nearly impossible to control without egregious slow-mo used on the enemies. Superman is a difficult hero to make a game for, especially if he's bound to a city.

Really, some heroes just don't translate to the medium very well. I imagine many of the DC and even a good number of Marvel heroes would be incredibly difficult to accurately portray in the medium in a playable form.

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Maybe a side-scrolling Shump would be the best fit for his powers. Since he flies and shoots beams out of his eyes, and all.

Pit him against a magician and summons: Supes is vulnerable to magic.

Put thugs with guns in bonus stages.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

...Supes isn't really invulnerable though, even without Kryptonite. People like Darkseid, Doomsday and Zod are perfectly capable of hurting him. And not just knocking him around.

...Normal humans don't stand a chance of course.

edited 14th Sep '12 1:42:27 AM by unnoun

And it's not like you have to stick to only Superman villains (or villains in general). Batman had Solomon Grundy in Arkham City and he's originally an Alan Scott (Green Lantern) villain *

. Toss in villains like Black Adam or have misunderstandings with other heroes like Swamp Thing or something.

This is why I liked the old-timey version of Superman. He wasn't invincible, he wasn't able to shrug off nuclear explosions, he couldn't even fly.

But, I think the good folks at Rocksteady could make a very solid Superman game if they chose the right bad guys and just worked really hard at it.

edited 14th Sep '12 5:48:35 AM by Talby