This past March, one of our guest writer’s made a strong and, more importantly, factual statement about the superhero side of Clark Kent: “When you think of comic books, you think of Superman.” No one can argue with that, right? Of course not. So why is it, then, that the man in blue cannot get a good console game to save his life?
As any gamer with a fondness for Superman knows full well, everything really started going downhill for him in 1999. That’s when the monumentally terrible Superman 64 was released for the Nintendo 64 with tons of hype and beyond-awful gameplay. One could argue that the console – any console at that time, really – couldn’t handle what comes with a Superman video game, such as the ability (and need!) to fly and ever-expanding environments. What we got, of course, was a hot mess, but here’s the thing: it didn’t end there! Not by a long shot.
Ensuing console titles weren’t quite as bad as their N64 counterpart, but on the whole they weren’t very good either. Far from it. Case in point: Superman Returns for the Xbox 360 (and several other systems). As seen on review aggregator Metacritic, the game has an average score of 51 (urgh!) and an overwhelming majority of scores were either mixed or downright negative. Would you want to play something described as “an empty gaming experience that needs tuning, heroics and a conclusion worth fighting for”? Definitely not. One borderline-bright spot in Superman’s console gaming history arrived in 2002 with Shadow of Apokolips, though the reviews weren’t necessarily glowing there either. To be fair, the average score of 64 is considerably higher than its contemporaries – but as we all know, that’s still not the greatest score.
Basically, it’s come down to the fact that everything other than consoles are getting some solid and rather impressive Superman-related offerings. The Man of Steel game available for iOS users (on Apple products) has received numerous accolades and, of course, downloads since its release in July 2013. Additionally, there’s the Superman slot game hosted at InterCasino, which allows players to either throw down real cash or fake funds to take the Last Son of Krypton through his world-saving adventures.
So what’s the deal here? It just doesn’t make sense that Superman continues getting the short end of the gaming stick. But who knows, maybe the tides will turn in his favor when his next film, tentatively titled Superman Vs. Batman, gets closer to its release date. Just get the Arkham series team involved and we’ll be good to go. Make it happen, Rocksteady Studios!
