Superman could also be broadly thought to be one of the best popular culture icons of all time, however there’s one space the place even the Man of Steel has struggled to fly. Why, after all these years, aren’t there any good Superman video video games? Where is Superman’s reply to Rocksteady Studios' Batman Arkham collection or Insomniac’s Spider-Man video games?
With James Gunn’s Superman film placing Kal-El back within the highlight, let’s take a step back to discover Superman’s extremely rocky gaming historical past, and why there nonetheless hasn’t been a great Superman game after all this time.
Superman’s Ugly Gaming History
In some ways, the issue with correctly depicting Superman in video games isn’t so totally different from motion pictures or TV and even the comics. He’s an extremely {powerful} character. Some would argue that he’s overpowered. When a man has this stage of power, pace, and invulnerability, to not point out all the opposite helpful powers like flight and warmth imaginative and prescient, it’s laborious to color him because the underdog. How do you build a game round a man who’s principally omnipotent and nonetheless create challenges for the participant to beat?
The Problem With Superman’s Powers
Some Superman video games have made the error of weakening Superman or walling off his powers. That downside dates all the best way back to the very first Superman game, 1978’s Superman for the Atari 2600. Like a lot of licensed video games on that system, you’d need to squint to even acknowledge the source materials in these blocky, primitive graphics. But that’s not the core difficulty with the game.
Superman tasked gamers with repairing Lex Luthor’s injury to Metropolis and capturing the villain and his henchmen in as short a time as attainable. Exposure to Kryptonite would trigger Superman to lose his powers, with the one treatment being a kiss from Lois Lane. Not essentially the most auspicious begin for the Man of Steel.
The NES game is the right instance of this irritating trend. Similar to contemporaries like Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the NES Superman featured a top-down overworld map that transitioned into varied side-scrolling action ranges. However, the game dedicated the identical sin as many superhero video games of the time by locking Superman’s varied powers behind limited-use particular meters. That, mixed with a usually obtuse and punishing issue stage, ensured the NES Superman was by no means a lot enjoyable to play.
When your flight, warmth imaginative and prescient, X-ray imaginative and prescient, and different powers are tied to quickly depleting particular meters, you don’t actually get the feeling you’re taking part in as Superman. It’s not as if he usually has to ration his powers within the comics and movies.
Superman’s Generic ‘90s Phase
The late ‘80s and early ‘90s saw a handful of new Superman games released, including the 1988 Superman arcade game from Taito and the 1992 Sega Genesis side-scroller. These games weren’t as egregious as their predecessors about walling off Superman’s powers. The downside during this period was more that Superman was relegated to generic side-scrollers and beat-em-up titles – the identical fare avid gamers had been being inundated with throughout the industry.
The most notable release on this crop is 1994’s The Death and Return of Superman. Based on the favored comedian ebook crossover, that game solid gamers as each Superman and his replacements from the comics like The Eradicator and Steel. It was principally DC’s reply to Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage, coming in an period when the prevailing knowledge for superhero video games was “when in doubt, make an arcade-style brawler.” Fine for retaining Superman within the public consciousness, however not for forging video games that really take benefit of his huge powerset. It’s powerful to actually really feel like a Man of Steel while you’re simply shifting left to proper and punching limitless waves of generic enemies.
The Infamous Superman 64
Superman’s gaming fortunes gave the impression to be on a gradual upswing within the ‘90s, only for the franchise to reach its nadir with 1999’s Superman: The New Adventures. Or as everyone knows it, Superman 64. Put merely, Superman 64 remains to be broadly thought to be one of the worst video games ever made, with clunky flying controls, irritating issue, and more bugs than even Superman’s warmth imaginative and prescient might hope to soften. It’s not precisely a looker, both.
Superman 64 highlights the difficulty that no game has actually nailed the artwork of controlling Superman in flight in a 3D surroundings. Superman 64 compelled gamers to steer a clunky Man of Steel via an limitless collection of rings and impediment programs in a fog-covered Metropolis. Much later, Superman Returns would emerge with a considerably higher and more intuitive system of flight control, however the lack of Superman video games since means no one has iterated on that design.
Fortunately, the franchise did bounce back a bit with the release of 2002’s Superman: Shadow of Apokolips on the PS2 and Gamecube. Compared to Superman 64, that game did a a lot better job of capturing the appear and feel of the animated collection. That mentioned, the gameplay by no means matched up to the manufacturing values. If that is usually thought of to be the most effective Superman game of all time, that’s nonetheless damning it with faint reward.
Superman the Protector
Some of the more trendy video games have veered in a totally different path by making Superman himself invulnerable however centering gameplay on rescuing civilians and defending Metropolis. In some methods, that looks like a step in the fitting path. The key to understanding Superman is realizing that, as {powerful} as he’s, he can’t save all people. He does have limits.
For instance, the Xbox acquired its own Superman game in 2002 courtesy of Infogrames within the type of Superman: The Man of Steel. Based on the comics somewhat than the animated collection or motion pictures, this game pitted Supes towards Brainiac. While the game succeeded in giving gamers control of a wide range of super-powers, the awful controls and emphasis on safety missions served as a one-two punch of doom.
Then there’s 2006’s Superman Returns, a game with attention-grabbing concepts however subpar execution. The game featured most of the solid from the movie reprising their roles, together with different iconic Superman villains like Bizarro and Metallo for good measure. To its credit score, the game didn’t put many limits on Superman’s talents because it launched an open-world model of Metropolis. In truth, the Man of Steel himself was successfully invulnerable, with Metropolis itself having a well being meter. But between the poor controls, equally unhealthy graphics, and the truth that the game’s closing boss was a literal twister, Superman Returns was in the end panned.
Building a game round rescuing harmless bystanders (like Superman: The Man of Steel) or defending Metropolis itself (like Superman Returns) might be an train in frustration. Protection missions in video games are all the time a powerful promote. Without fine-tuned controls and an NPC AI sensible enough to not be actively combating towards the participant always, these missions might be aggravating at greatest and downright rage-inducing at worst.
How Should the Superman Franchise Move Forward?
Shockingly, that’s it for Kal-El’s gaming profession. It’s been virtually 20 years for the reason that release of Superman Returns, and the Man of Steel has but to star in one other devoted game. His subsequent gaming appearances have been restricted to Justice League-centric collection like Injustice: Gods Among Us and LEGO Batman. Superman can be playable in Fortnite, however there he’s principally simply a dude that flies and shoots lasers. At some level, builders appear to have given up attempting to crack the Superman code.
The gaming world has but to ship that satisfying Superman expertise that embraces all his unbelievable powers whereas nonetheless creating a sense of danger. What’s the important thing? Do you load up enemies with Kryptonite weapons? Do you comply with the instance of the Injustice video games and create a super-strength-bestowing MacGuffin that ranges the taking part in discipline?
Maybe there’s a higher query to be asking. Does a Superman game even actually need fight within the first place? Certainly, Telltale discovered success with the Batman franchise in an journey game setting. Could Superman benefit from a equally narrative-driven method? Is a full-blown Superman point-and-click journey game the best way to go? Maybe, however there are different methods of downplaying action in superhero video games.
We’re seeing trendy AAA video games like Death Stranding begin to deemphasize fight in favor of different mechanics (some would argue the Death Stranding video games could be higher in the event that they eschewed fight solely). Maybe the secret’s to pivot away from a conventional action game focus in favor of discovering different methods to discover and make the most of Superman’s powers.
2005’s Shadow of the Colossus presents one other attainable path ahead. That game isn’t devoid of action, however it does break the standard mildew by specializing in exploration and limiting fight to the battles with a handful of large boss characters. Maybe that’s the important thing to getting Superman proper. Rather than pitting him towards generic goons like Parademons or Intergang brokers, maybe the goal needs to be to deal with a handful of epic, extended boss battles. Picture Kal-El’s fight with the kaiju in James Gunn’s Superman film and also you’ll have some thought of how a Superman game might play out.
Ultimately, flight, not fight, is essentially the most important part of a Superman game. Flight in Superman video games is de facto as key to the general success as web-slinging in Spider-Man video games. Activision nailed that factor in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, paving the best way for Insomniac to cut free of their Spider-Man video games. We can’t say the identical for Superman. Without more trendy Superman video games to take dangers and discover the probabilities, the character has utterly stagnated on this medium.
It’s most likely going to take some trial and error earlier than a developer hits upon the right, Arkham-esque components for Kal-El. And that requires DC to prioritize Superman within the video game enviornment as soon as more. With any luck, James Gunn’s Superman film can be a main success, thereby serving because the catalyst the character wants within the gaming world.
For more, try Wolverine's clawful history in video games and the long road to perfecting Batman in games.