Superman
The Video
Game
Xbox 360
PS2
There are many things super in this world, noodles, markets, and models, but can they wear their underwear over their clothes??? No, only one person can do that, and I don’t mean you granny… that’s right… Superman! Those fetching blue skin tight stockings, tight little red Speedos and a big flappy cape, not to mention that big S on his chest, it’s like Halloween at Elton John’s house.
When you begin Superman Returns it all looks great and exciting as you drool at the prospect of ruling metropolis with an iron fist… um, I mean being its hero and saving innocent people. Either way, the prospect of having a vast city to explore and zip around is great. After some tutorial missions which capture the attention well, your precious Metropolis city is taken away and you journey into space in search of superman’s historic birthplace, Krypton. After you endure a slugfest with some intergalactic mussel brained baddies that are more frustrating than fun, you return to earth and begin the best part of the game, super-cruising around the city, which is without a doubt the games most enjoyable feature.
After flying around for a few minuets at super speed, bashing around a few baddies along with the odd civilian, and perhaps rescuing a few cats, yes I said Cats… you will start to realise that there’s not much else to do in the game, apart from the race against a leprechaun look-alike.
Experience points are earned by defeating a never-ending stream of repetitive baddies which are a bit limited and once you find the perfect way to defeat a particular class of enemy it soon becomes a yawn fest. Bosses pose the greatest challenge and at times are visually impressive like the massive Metallo when he gets super sized. There is also metropolises very own super village idiot ‘Bizzaro’ whom is basically a mentally challenged superman clone, and you cant help but feel it would be more fun to play as the dummy than to fight against him. Ultimately the bosses, just like their minions, become repetitive and systematic with little in long term enjoyment.
The other thing you will quickly notice is that this title ‘Superman Returns: The Video game’, has very little to do with the movie at all, just some nicely rendered cut scenes from the film, which are totally and utterly pointless and are thrown in just for cheep reference. And where’s Clark Kent?? And who told all the baddies that Superman hates Kryptonite?? …some secret!
The graphics are not too bad generally, player models look impressive enough with main characters very like their movie counterparts. Flying is fun and has a great sense of speed while Superman’s powers can be useful and look well. The size of the city is also impressive and is very well designed. From a distance buildings are realistic, but on closer inspection you will find that everything looks a bit blocky and dated being far from the next gen visuals you’d expect. Cars roaming the streets are very boxy and the people are mindless animated mannequins, it all begins to look the same where ever you go, soon becoming Super Dull - Super quickly.
Sound effects are standard with perhaps the flying effects being the best. The famous music from the movies is not well implemented, which is a shame. Voice overs are good and see the characters well represented despite the cheesy overtone.
Controls are easy to use at first but combos become over complicated and the fighting lacks any sense of weight or any ‘crunch’ factor. Throwing a truck feels like lobbing an empty box of corn flakes. The fighting system is seriously flawed and often unresponsive, always frustrating. Throw in on top of this a camera that has a mind of its own during battles making enemies difficult to see half the time and a targeting system nothing short of pitiful and the word ‘Super’ becomes ironic.
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You get the sense that this game had the potential to be really good… but unfortunately it failed! More than obvious is that this game is heavily influenced by titles like Spiderman 2 and the GTA series, unfortunately not influenced enough and these much older games put Superman: The video game to same.
Fly past this one, the only players that just might get some enjoyment from Superman are the little ones and only if their big fans. Poor old Soups just aint lucky in games, he might be able to save the world but he just cant save developers from putting him in bad title, better luck next time Clarkie. Is it a bird… is it a plane… no it’s a Super Dud.
Reapers Verdict: Dont bother! Fly past this game... perhaps one for the kids or achivment whores
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