Superman

"For goodness sakes, Lex must have some sort of serious ring fetish."

I been hearing it for so long. You see people talk about this game being the worst thing since moldy bread, but personally, this game is not the worst ever, but one of the worst on the N64 in terms of quality. I honestly kinda liked playing it, but don't get me wrong, it is not a very good game, especially for a N64 game that came out in 1999. A below average game were you have to deal with the most repetitive gaming formula in gaming history. Bad? No, but a very repetitive game that has 85% ring flying. I admit, flying through the rings was the best part of the game for me....for a while. I honestly wanted this game when I saw the commercial for it. I thought this was going to be one of the best games on the N64, but good thing I didn't get it back then. I would be bothered at the money wasted on this.



Graphics 5/10


Welcome to laziness on he developers part. This suppose to be 1999, but it looks like this was programed back in 1996. The graphics could have been better for its time, but its hardly passes on a D+ scale. This is due to the simple fact that the fog that is suppose to be kryptonite fog from what I read about, and it creates poor visibility, mainly during some of the indoor levels. Thanks to this fog, the draw distance is even the most narrow I seen in any game. You would think this game would have no slowdown whatsoever because of this, but no, that is not the case, and that is another story for later. The graphics looks like something out of a early alpha project, and this makes many playstaion games look graphically better at the time.


Audio 5/10


The music sets the right mood for the game, but it loops around :10-:20 from what I remember. The music is forgettable, the sound effects are decent, and the audio is crystal clear. This is the only thing they almost got right.


Storyline 4/10

O please. I can come up with better story ideas during a writers block caused by perfectionism that prevents me from coming up with anything. Some people think my fictional writing skills are bad? Well they had not played this game. Superman's friends have been captured by Lex Luthor, and the only way he can rescue them is by solving his maze. This maze is supposedly a simulation of Metropolis, but let me tell you, this has to be the most dull simulation of anything I have seen in a video game. The maze does not even seen to be much of a maze. All you do is fly through rings to get somewhere, and do a few random tasks, and fly through rings again for most of the game. What kind of maze is that? More like a ring fetish bonanza mixed in with a poor set of variety.


Gameplay 5/10

Its not the worst gameplay ever, but the game has too many problems that gets a bad name. Bam! Right there, you already have to fly through rings, without the chance of getting used to the controls. They have instructions on what to do at the pause menu, but many people like a hands on approach. You fly through these rings for a few minutes, and after that, you have to save a few people from getting ran over, fly through rings again, do something else related to the citizens of this false city. You got a set of indoor places that don't involve rings, but that is every other level in this game, and the indoor levels are not that much better due to slowdown, and how lame it is. For the whole game outside of these indoor levels, you have to fly through rings, and those ring levels gets longer too. Sadly, I liked the ring part because I didn't have to deal with the crappy combat system that I will get into in the minute. Its just pathetic that Superman has been reduced to puppet in a false world that he supposedly can't escape until he plays what Lex calls a game. The animation on the enemies are only a few frames, and because of that, its hard to suspend disbelief that you are part of the action like most games. The combat system is a disgrace to the "Man of Steel". He punches like he has mental problems, and most of the time, many of the punches don't register during certain fights. You get a set of super powers, but you don't use them too often in this game, and there's nothing special there. The slowdown in this game is pretty bad at times, and I shake my head in shame over the fact that there is slowdown in a game that has bad draw distance.


Controls 7/10

I admit, they work well for flying, but for landing and fighting it can be frustrating at times. I amazes me that people have trouble with the controls, but you can get used to them quickly. Flying through the rings can be easy once you learn to slowdown not to miss the rings, and understand that the time limit is there to mess you up. At least the game most of the time gives you time to recover from your mistakes during the ring flying segments. I just wish Superman didn't walk so damn slow without his super speed. Flying in an indoors level was so unnatural because of the fact that flying is faster way to get around once you ran out of super speed.


Overall 5/10


This game is not worth playing, so please don't try it unless you like a repetitive game formula that is not fun after a few levels. It might be the worst on the N64 like I said earlier, but if you want a true game that is claim to be the worst ever seen, then play Action 52 for the NES. What was Nintendo on that day for them to even let this game pass? "Seal of Quality" my foot.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/09, Updated 06/11/09

Game Release: Superman: The New Superman Adventures (US, 05/31/99)