Superman may be widely regarded as one of the greatest pop culture icons of all time, but there’s one area where even the Man of Steel has struggled to fly. Why, after all these years, aren’t there any good Superman video games? Where is Superman’s answer to Rocksteady Studios' Batman Arkham series or Insomniac’s Spider-Man games?
With James Gunn’s Superman movie putting Kal-El back in the spotlight, let’s take a step back to explore Superman’s incredibly rocky gaming history, and why there still hasn’t been a great Superman game after all this time.
Superman’s Ugly Gaming History
In many ways, the problem with properly depicting Superman in games isn’t so different from movies or TV or even the comics. He’s an incredibly powerful character. Some would argue that he’s overpowered. When a guy has this level of strength, speed, and invulnerability, not to mention all the other handy powers like flight and heat vision, it’s hard to paint him as the underdog. How do you build a game around a guy who’s basically all-powerful and still create challenges for the player to overcome?
The Problem With Superman’s Powers
Some Superman games have made the mistake of weakening Superman or walling off his powers. That problem dates all the way back to the very first Superman game, 1978’s Superman for the Atari 2600. Like a lot of licensed games on that system, you’d have to squint to even recognize the source material in those blocky, primitive graphics. But that’s not the core issue with the game.
Superman tasked players with repairing Lex Luthor’s damage to Metropolis and capturing the villain and his henchmen in as short a time as possible. Exposure to Kryptonite would cause Superman to lose his powers, with the only cure being a kiss from Lois Lane. Not the most auspicious start for the Man of Steel.
The NES game is the perfect example of this frustrating 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 various side-scrolling action levels. However, the game committed the same sin as many superhero games of the time by locking Superman’s various powers behind limited-use special meters. That, combined with a generally obtuse and punishing difficulty level, ensured the NES Superman was never much fun to play.
When your flight, heat vision, X-ray vision, and other powers are tied to rapidly depleting special meters, you don’t really get the sensation you’re playing as Superman. It’s not as if he normally has to ration his powers in the comics and films.
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 problem during this period was more that Superman was relegated to generic side-scrollers and beat-em-up titles - the same fare gamers were being inundated with across the industry.
The most notable release in this crop is 1994’s The Death and Return of Superman. Based on the popular comic book crossover, that game cast players as both Superman and his replacements from the comics like The Eradicator and Steel. It was basically DC’s answer to Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage, coming in an era when the prevailing wisdom for superhero games was “when in doubt, make an arcade-style brawler.” Fine for keeping Superman in the public consciousness, but not for forging games that truly take advantage of his vast powerset. It’s tough to truly feel like a Man of Steel when you’re just moving left to right and punching endless waves of generic enemies.
The Infamous Superman 64
Superman’s gaming fortunes seemed to be on a slow upswing in the ‘90s, only for the franchise to reach its nadir with 1999’s Superman: The New Adventures. Or as we all know it, Superman 64. Put simply, Superman 64 is still widely regarded as one of the worst games ever made, with clunky flying controls, frustrating difficulty, and more bugs than even Superman’s heat vision could hope to melt. It’s not exactly a looker, either.
Superman 64 highlights the issue that no game has really nailed the art of controlling Superman in flight in a 3D environment. Superman 64 forced players to steer a clunky Man of Steel through an endless series of rings and obstacle courses in a fog-covered Metropolis. Much later, Superman Returns would emerge with a somewhat better and more intuitive system of flight control, but the lack of Superman 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 much better job of capturing the look and feel of the animated series. That said, the gameplay never matched up to the production values. If this is generally considered to be the best Superman game of all time, that’s still damning it with faint praise.
Superman the Protector
Some of the more modern games have veered in a different direction by making Superman himself invulnerable but centering gameplay on rescuing civilians and protecting Metropolis. In some ways, that feels like a step in the right direction. The key to understanding Superman is realizing that, as powerful as he is, he can’t save everybody. He does have limits.
For example, the Xbox got its own Superman game in 2002 courtesy of Infogrames in the form of Superman: The Man of Steel. Based on the comics rather than the animated series or movies, this game pitted Supes against Brainiac. While the game succeeded in giving players control of a wide variety of super-powers, the lousy controls and emphasis on protection missions served as a one-two punch of doom.
Then there’s 2006’s Superman Returns, a game with interesting ideas but subpar execution. The game featured most of the cast from the film reprising their roles, along with other iconic Superman villains like Bizarro and Metallo for good measure. To its credit, the game didn’t put many limits on Superman’s abilities as it introduced an open-world version of Metropolis. In fact, the Man of Steel himself was effectively invulnerable, with Metropolis itself having a health meter. But between the poor controls, equally bad graphics, and the fact that the game’s final boss was a literal tornado, Superman Returns was ultimately panned.
Building a game around rescuing innocent bystanders (like Superman: The Man of Steel) or protecting Metropolis itself (like Superman Returns) can be an exercise in frustration. Protection missions in games are always a tough sell. Without fine-tuned controls and an NPC AI smart enough not to be actively fighting against the player at all times, these missions can be aggravating at best and downright rage-inducing at worst.
How Should the Superman Franchise Move Forward?
Shockingly, that’s it for Kal-El’s gaming career. It’s been almost 20 years since the release of Superman Returns, and the Man of Steel has yet to star in another dedicated game. His subsequent gaming appearances have been limited to Justice League-centric series like Injustice: Gods Among Us and LEGO Batman. Superman is also playable in Fortnite, but there he’s basically just a dude that flies and shoots lasers. At some point, developers seem to have given up trying to crack the Superman code.
The gaming world has yet to deliver that satisfying Superman experience that embraces all his incredible powers while still creating a sense of danger. What’s the key? Do you load up enemies with Kryptonite weapons? Do you follow the example of the Injustice games and create a super-strength-bestowing MacGuffin that levels the playing field?
Maybe there’s a better question to be asking. Does a Superman game even really need combat in the first place? Certainly, Telltale found success with the Batman franchise in an adventure game setting. Could Superman benefit from a similarly narrative-driven approach? Is a full-blown Superman point-and-click adventure game the way to go? Maybe, but there are other ways of downplaying action in superhero games.
We’re seeing modern AAA games like Death Stranding start to deemphasize combat in favor of other mechanics (some would argue the Death Stranding games would be better if they eschewed combat entirely). Maybe the key is to pivot away from a traditional action game focus in favor of finding other ways to explore and utilize Superman’s powers.
2005’s Shadow of the Colossus offers another possible path forward. That game isn’t devoid of action, but it does break the traditional mold by focusing on exploration and limiting combat to the battles with a handful of massive boss characters. Maybe that’s the key to getting Superman right. Rather than pitting him against generic goons like Parademons or Intergang agents, perhaps the goal should be to focus on a handful of epic, prolonged boss battles. Picture Kal-El’s fight with the kaiju in James Gunn’s Superman movie and you’ll have some idea of how a Superman game could play out.
Ultimately, flight, not combat, is the most important component of a Superman game. Flight in Superman games is really as key to the overall success as web-slinging in Spider-Man games. Activision nailed that element in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, paving the way for Insomniac to cut loose in their Spider-Man games. We can’t say the same for Superman. Without more modern Superman games to take risks and explore the possibilities, the character has completely stagnated in this medium.
It’s probably going to take some trial and error before a developer hits upon the perfect, Arkham-esque formula for Kal-El. And that requires DC to prioritize Superman in the video game arena once more. With any luck, James Gunn’s Superman movie will be a major success, thereby serving as the catalyst the character needs in the gaming world.
For more, check out Wolverine's clawful history in video games and the long road to perfecting Batman in games.
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