Poll: Can there ever be a good Superman game?

[Ampersand]

The mans too damn powerful. Batman's limits give him an edge

I agree a hero with no weakness, well, one that's incredibly rare, Just isn't that interesting. A game has to have more then dumb ai that's just there to be knocked down.

Boring in a comic? definitly. Could be awesome in a game though. This is the reason i loved prototype so much. It's fun to be a god among men sometimes.
Also think of how excelent it would be to tare up a big distructable cityscape while battling doomsday or darkseid or one of supermans other stupidly powerful enemies.

Actually on that thought someone should really make a game out of world war hulk

 

[migo]

The Superman Returns game showed where the potential lies. Having Metropolis as the health bar gives the game an experience that you don't really get anywhere else. All it needs is to be designed as a game up, rather than around a movie. If it starts giving you moral quandries in terms of two simultaneous threats and you have to decide which one to address, and why, it would get pretty cool. Batman AA works well because it was quite linear, Superman could work very well with continually branching missions. If the game is also designed to really simulate superman's feel it would also work well - allowing you to go into superspeed where you're much faster than everything else, but creating situations where you're still really challenged to solve it. Rather than making it just any sort of enemy that any superhero could beat, make the game about challenges that only Superman can solve.

 

[Arawn]

It's been said, but I'll repeat: Superman is too powerful, and lacks threats. Superman has two real weaknesses; Kryptonite and Magic. Those two aside after alot big beating from any bruiser or intergalactic evil he can go toe to toe without too much fear. Super speed, strength and flight alone make him a force to be reckoned with. So the list of villains to give Supes trouble in a solo game are few. Or perhaps there are many, but the threat level isn't up there. The other superhero games mentioned have power progression. Spider-man learning new techniques while he fights is somewhat believable. Batman's power progression was kinda stupid, why wouldn't he carry all his weapons on him from the beginning? And he learns how to use kung-fu. Didn't he already master it? What it comes down to is reducing the full known abilities of the hero aka 'nerfing'. How exactly can you nerf someone that flies, picks up tanks, shoots lasers from his eyes, and breathes arctic winds? Making him learn new attacks seems silly overall, he punches something it breaks. Empowered (a very funny comic I suggest people read) pokes fun how most super strong heroes don't have to worry about fighting styles; thus are as skilled as a 3rd grader. Imagine if Superman knew kempo, judo, or even capoeria. Instead he'll learn a ground strike some silly machine gun like punch. Make him too weak and people will complain, or it seems too strange. Perhaps they could make a superman prequel like they did with that show Smallville. Then it would make more sense.

 

[Xiorell]

I voted the "hell no" option but then I was thinking...

I aint played any Superman games so I dunno if they did this, and I aint read ever post on here so don't know if it's been said...

What about making it a bit more of a puzzle game???
As in, Superman DOES have to go kick the shit outta , but in the mean time, said villain had captured a load of innocent squishy civilians and put them in to various death traps which will kill them if superman doesn't rescue them in a certain time limit, but, he has to disable deathtraps in intellegent ways using his powers rather than just "rip door off, let everyone go" else deathtrap self destructs.

Kinda like the traps from the Saw movies, except obviously without the gore and in this case Superman disables the traps with being super 'n all, not the captured people.

 

[Numb1lp]

I honestly hope so. Oh, and I remember playing Superman as a kid on the 64. Thank God it didn't ruin me for gaming.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

I'd love to see a 'Superman: Origins' game where you start off on Krypton and go through the life of Clark Kent as he's gaining his superpowers and traveling the world trying to discover himself.
It'd make for some decent story telling and give reason as to why 'Superman' really isn't all that 'super' yet.

I think that's the way I'd do it. Start as a 5 year old where your just a very strong child, run around at super speed and jump tall buildings in a single bound as young teen...You could have a whole game revoling around the evolution of a child to a god.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

There was a good Superman game. For the Gamecube.

I doubt it got a lot of attention, but it was about the closest thing to a true Superman experience I ever played. Flying around an open city, beating up criminals, plugging up exploding dams, the works.

Well, at least I had a lot of fun with it.

 

[cpu64]

I was working part time at tiburon, testing Superman for the 360. I basically got fired because I tried to tell them the game was going to bomb, that and my supervisor wanted the artist position I was trying to apply for...
(little ghetto skank I hope she chokes on her kingdom hearts toys)

 

[titaniumChampion]

Never say never. Superman Returns: The Game was on the right track with it's open world and freedom to use Superman's powers without a load of bullshit restrictions. The problem was that game looked awful, had no story, and was repetitive as hell. If that game was polished and refined then it could be great.

You speak the truth! I loved Superman Returns, and with a good load of polish this game would be incredible. It would be cool if they explored the other Earth's in the Multiverse. Play one where Superman and Lex team up to rule the world. Another could be the War of the Supermen, and recreate some of the battles like what happened at Coast City between Henshaw and the Eradicator.

Until then, I'll fly around the city looking for cats. -_-;

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Same problem as above, rendering all Supes' powers is hard and you can't have a challenging game when you're virtually invulnerable. I like the idea of starting out as a less-invincible teen Clark Kent though- I never liked Smallville the show but it must have had some success or it wouldn't have gone on for 8+ Seasons.

Perhaps a Superman game would benefit from having more objective-based gameplay. He's all about saving lives, less aggressive towards potential foes than the Batman but more capable. You're invincible, but everyone else around you isn't, so your life meter actually represents how many innocents can die before you hang up your cape in depression. Even with all those powers, keeping casualties and collateral damage to a minimum during a big slug-fest with some robot or acid-bleeding mutant is not easy. Then occasionally you'd get Kryptonite users or Godly foes such as Darkseid who can actually hurt you.

Speaking of the combat, Justice League got it right most of the time. Have every punch capable of destroying walls or sending weaker foes flying. It could work.

 

[Altorin]

The Doomsday SNES game wasn't that bad.

But in general, Superman doesn't make a good game for the same reason he doesn't particularly make a good comic book super hero.. he's way too powerful. He has one weakness and it just becomes contrived to see the lengths the writers have to go to to see superman in any real peril.

So what, every enemy has Kryptonite laced bullets? How do you make a video game where superman can lose?

 

[BlumiereBleck]

No, there is no such thing as a good superhero game....(excluding Spider Man 1)

 

[Infinatex]

The whole idea of superman in a game is pointless because he is too overpowered. Also his image is too 'good' for current times. They need to roughen him up a bit to work in todays society.

No, there is no such thing as a good superhero game....(excluding Spider Man 1)

Arkham Asylum..? That was pretty good. Also Marvel vs Capcom games are beyond awesome!!

 

[thethingthatlurks]

How about this: you get a Superman model for one of the Jedi Knight games, and turn on Godmode. Flying? Well, you can jump really far, or just turn on noclip. Superstrength? Teh Force! Laz0ar eyes? Force lightning. That weird superbreath thing? Force Push. Super Speed? Yep, force speed. What else could you want?

 

[Tanis]

The Doomsday SNES game wasn't that bad.

But in general, Superman doesn't make a good game for the same reason he doesn't particularly make a good comic book super hero.. he's way too powerful. He has one weakness and it just becomes contrived to see the lengths the writers have to go to to see superman in any real peril.

So what, every enemy has Kryptonite laced bullets? How do you make a video game where superman can lose?

Um...MAGIC!

Seriously, does everyone forget this?
Superman is weak against MAGIC, and lets not forget 'red radiation/stars'.

Make the game start out where some uber-villain (Lex?) changes the Sun's radiations to red.

Throughout the game you'll do your best with severally weakened powers, however there will be gaps in the 'red net' that allows you go to Super-Superman (think of it as a 'Devil Trigger) or even things like a light/power source that helps to give you back some of your super-dooper powers back.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

To make a decent superman game you'd have to make the game more about saving people and taking on very unique bosses then about combat. superman is nearly invunerable so naturally the only way your going to get a challenge without gimping him is to make protecting the humans the prority...the problem with that is you have to be damn good at your job or the game will end up sucking. In otherwards it can't be a series of escort missions.

 

[Jimson]

I think the think we need to notice, is that all you really need to do with a super man game, is making him really really amazingly, bad ass, Seriously, No one wants to play as superman if you have restraint, just make it like GTA You fly around, and beat the shit out of bad guys, None of this he needs a weakness, Nah, the greatest thrill of playing as Superman is how much ass you can beat and how fast you can do it, not avoiding kryptonite, flying thru rings, and pretty much being Lex Luthors little *****.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

No, there is no such thing as a good superhero game....(excluding Spider Man 1)

Spiderman 2 was WAY better than Spiderman 1, which was just ok.


I mean seriously, how can the first game beat 2's swinging?

 

[dragonslayer32]

The only thing wrong with the last one is that you had to do missions when they popped up, if you didn't, the city would be destroyed. If the made it more like spiderman 2's gameplay, it would have been an epic game.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

To make a decent superman game you'd have to make the game more about saving people and taking on very unique bosses then about combat. superman is nearly invunerable so naturally the only way your going to get a challenge without gimping him is to make protecting the humans the prority...the problem with that is you have to be damn good at your job or the game will end up sucking. In otherwards it can't be a series of escort missions.

That'd be one way to do it. Assuming everytime Superman punches something it dies it would be best to make a game less about your own safety or even beating the bad guys to a pulp, it's about do it in a way that means as few people as possible get hurt. Each of Supermans powers could be atool to use to get the job done for each situation without putting people in danger. But your right it would be hard to do, if done right it could be excellent.