Superman

"A Luthor plan to make Superman look bad?"

After entering my local game shop one day, one of the clerks told me that the new N64 Superman game had come in...these guys know I like comics and Superman and Batman. Without looking at it or asking about it I picked it up. If anyone has played Superman on the Gameboy then you and I know I should have at least thought about it before picking the game up because both the N64 and Gameboy games were made by the same company, Titus. I didn't own a N64 at the time and my friend said I could stop by her house to play the game. After about 5 minutes of watching me play, she asked me why Superman had to fly through all the rings and laughed at the fact that the controls were so bad it looked like Superman was drunk because I couldn't control his flying. Eventually she got bored and went to do something else. There are so many problems with this game from a gamers point and a comic geek point. From a comic geeks point, Superman has to ''obtain'' his powers by picking up the appropriate icons for them, he has NO invulnerability, and the fact that you can run out of a power seems odd. From a gamers point, the controls are pretty difficult to get used to, not bad but not exactly the most user friendly, and the game can get frustrating and not...FUN.

Graphics: 5
Not the worse graphics I've seen but It seems like it could have been better. I mean I can tell it is Superman and stuff but when you look at it, it reminds me of something that wasn't quite finished ''rendering'' if people who understand that know what I mean.

Sound: 3
I kinda liked the sound of Superman taking off or flying but nothing really stands out and it loses big time points in the fact that there doesn't really seem to be and ''Superman'' themes to be found. I may be wrong and missed them but till now I haven't heard any.

Gameplay: 2
This is where the game really hurts. It isn't fun...Flying through the rings can get frustrating and cause you to want to quit before you get very far in the game. The missions can be very frustrating and hard and...it is hard to think of something to say in a nice way about it but this is the worse aspect of the game that really kills it! I could have played the game if the graphics weren't great (I don't mind the graphics) or the sound wasn't perfect or anything but it just is NOT FUN!!!

Being a Superman/Batman fan, I was suckered into buying another game based on the title, probably will continue to and hope for the best. You would think though, that a company with DCs resources would be able to get a better company to do their games and merchandising...perhaps DC should look at hiring a new marketing manager because the current one isn't doing his job!

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/01, Updated 05/02/01