Superman

"A Cow Hit a Light Pole"

Every time I tend to look at a poor soul who happens to have this game in their collection, I always ask them, “How much did you pay for this excellent game?” Upon their finality, I usually do one of two things. If they said they got it for four bucks, then I tell them that they got a good deal. If they got it for sixty, then I fall down laughing. Two words: worst game ever. Or is that three?

One thing that gets on my nerves is when people make fun of SM64 for the poor level designs that it “Supposedly” boasted. If they were to truly take note, though, then they would see that it isn't that bad. It's what's placed in them that kills the game. Tedious challenges, boring hunt quests, the list goes on and on. The point is, the areas sport a rather large diameter when it comes to size, but it's presently never experienced.

Some, including myself, largely blame it on the fact that Titus was constantly trying to cut corners due to the money aspect. Others put the blame on the mechanics systems that were used. Either way, it doesn't change the fact that Superman controlled like a drunk hobo. Small problems that could have been missed become fully apparent when you start to see yourself taking twice the amount of time to do a simple maneuver. If Superman ever had to do that in a comic book, he'd likely be in the hospital.

As was mentioned earlier, the challenges that the game presents can get particularly boring quickly. From the first level, we are introduced to the interesting art of flying. Fine there. After taking a couple of meandering bouts around the city, we get our first challenge. Seems as though we have to fly through a couple of rings within a time limit. This is where the game gets annoying, because it's when the controls become apparent the most. If you by any chance “Miss” a ring due to a poor turn, you're in for a long circle to get back to the point you missed this way you can fly through a ring. Miss it that time, and it's likely game over.

For the amount of times you'll likely see that screen, the game never gives you a true feeling that you deserved it. Most of the time it's because you missed a time limit due to the controls. Other times it's because Superman doesn't move when you tell him to. Still yet, you're beaten by a couple of bad guys because the eye beams go right through them while they walk right up to you and immediately start to kill.

That alone could be enough to sink any game, but unfortunately, those were some of the small problems. Things get worse when the game starts to experience an extremely laggy graphical system. Pixel problems, frame rate slowdown, and more all plague this game like a dog on a mail carrier.

It's sad actually, because originally, the graphics where what was drawing in the crowds to play the game. Crisp, clean visuals accompanied by a solid frame rate engine were all what we originally saw. Months later, we get a game that looks almost completely different. What could be the cause of that? Money.

Money was the reason that this game is looked upon the way that it is. Money is the reason that they had to cut corners, money was the reason why they had to basically screw up probably one of the most waited upon games you could ever imagine. It's a saddening reality, a reality that never should have existed.

Speaking of reality, why don't we hit a virtual one? The story of Superman takes place in a virtual reality created by Lex himself to destroy our hero. He's trapped Super's friends, and he goes in to get them out.

Great, now we got another problem to deal with. Making me feel like I put a stick note up against my note board, the story was severely tacked on. Not good tacked on either, but the kind of tacked on that wants to make you take that board and pry the note off. Lacking depth, overall plot points, and more hurt it far to much for it to recover in the end.

In conclusion, I really felt that Titus had a great ambition when they went to make this game, but then things fell apart. Perhaps in the future people will look back at this game and thank God for the cookie cutter titles we get, because to be quite honest, it really adds another perspective. If all else fails, buy this game, only to see how blessed we really are.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/07