"Amazingly complex for a 1979 Atari game (it's pretty good, too)"

I've always liked this one. I'm a big Superman fan. Sadly, most video game adaptions failed to capture the essence of the comics. Seriously, besides this there's the arcade version, and MAYBE The Death and Return of Superman for Genesis and SNES. That's it. The NES version was just plain awful, the Genesis version (not the previously mentioned "Death...") was simply mediocre, and the SMS version (not released in the US) was just a worse version of the Genesis one. It's pretty amazing that the first Superman game is also possibly the best. Even more amazing is that Atari put this out in 1979, before the 2600 really hit it big with Space Invaders. This wasn't a simple, one-screen affair, either, this thing was pretty advanced for the time.

Story (8/10)- The story itself isn't anything amazing, but the fact that it's actually shown on the screen is. Starting out as Clark Kent, you see the Metropolis Memorial Bridge destroyed by Lex Luthor and his gang. You quickly change into Superman and begin rounding up the gang and rebuilding the bridge. And, of course, Lois Lane is never far off.

Gameplay (9/10)- I got a real kick out of the gameplay. There is a timer, but that's only used to beat your old times. There's no scoring, otherwise. You can take as long as you want. You fly around, avoiding Kryptonite while trying to capture Lex's gang and rebuild the bridge. The game takes place all over the city, and to a first-time player, it will look confusing. The trick is to use the subways that are located throughout the city. Learn which ones lead where, and you should have no problem. I only use two, one that leads to near the bridge site, and one that leads to the jail.

To better locate enemies or bridge pieces, you can use your X-Ray vision, which basically lets you see the next screen in any direction. Not only is it helpful, it saves time if you're trying for a record.

You can walk on the ground, but you'll spend most of the time flying. Collecting items or enemies off the ground and flying can be tricky at first, but quickly becomes second nature. Don't stop holding the joystick in whichever way you want to go, and you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

If you're touched by Kryptonite, you'll lose your powers. You can only be revived by Lois Lane. There's also a helicopter flying around that can either be helpful or annoying. It can pick up pieces of Kryptonite, and keep them from bothering you, or it can take pieces of the bridge. I didn't find the helicopter to be too big of a problem, however.

Once all of the gang is in jail and the bridge has been rebuilt, you must turn back into Clark Kent, walk across the bridge, into the subway, and to the Daily Planet, at which point the game ends. A beginning and an ending in a game this old? Pretty cool if you ask me.

Graphics (9/10)- Oh, they won't look like much today, and there are better looking games on the 2600, but for being from 1979, this game looks outstanding. All of the characters are multi-colored, and animated decently (for the time). Lex even flies around using a heli-pack. Things do flicker pretty badly when there are more than a few things on screen, but that can be expected. Atari went all out with this game, something that should have been done with the NES Superman.

Sound (6/10)- The 2600 wasn't known for great sound, and this game won't change that. But, there are a lot of them here. Most everything has a sound effect to go with it. There's no music to speak of, except for a brief tune when you beat the game. You shouldn't expect great music or sounds in a 1979 Atari game, but even then, it's a little disappointing. There were other games on the system that had really great sound for the system.

Replay (7/10)- There's not much change between games, aside from item placement, but it is fun trying to beat your old score. This game is always fun to play for a few rounds, but probably not for a few hours.

Final- This is one of the earliest licensed video games (if not the earliest), and it turned out great. Besides some bad flicker, there's not much to complain about. With high profile games like this, it's easy to see why the 2600 was able to gather some steam ahead of the Intellivision and Odyssey 2 before Space Invaders. You'd be hard pressed to find a better game based on Superman, except for the arcade version, which was never ported to any console or computer to the best of my knowledge. This game is fairly easy to obtain cheaply, and should be in any 2600 collection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/27/04