It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

[DarkwingChuck]

A good Superman video game? Could it really be possible? After reading an extensive feature about EA's upcoming Superman Returns in Game Informer, I'm actually thinking it will be a great game. I assume most of the impressive things they highlighted might only be in the 360 version though. But who knows the PS2 & XBox ones might be just as good. I doubt the DS/PSP games will really have much to offer though.

[marcus]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Despite the fact that Ultimate Spiderman and Hulk Smash Em or whatever it was called were actually good games, the trauma caused to my psyche from the NES superman and superman 64 will NEVER be healed. Unless the game is being based directly off the comic book just like X-men Legends and The Punisher and not the new movie, I can't help but feel the game will be terribly generic... and traumatizing.

Just please, tell me they did away with the rings. NOTHING WAS MORE STUPID in a video game that having your ultimate enemy craft a virtual world consisting of flying... THROUGH EVIL RINGS WITHIN A 3 SECOND TIME LIMIT. Ugh, brain hemorhage

[Crimson Knight]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

I never expect a good game from EA, much less a good Superman game. It's kind of sad how no one managed to make a good Superman game, when the way to do so is right under our noses.

[marcus]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

If they follow the same formula they did for that Hulk game then it's impossible to fail. We all love Superman because he's... well, SUPER. You're supposed to feel INVINCIBLE while donning the blue tights. I want to pick up buildings and smash people with them. I want to use laser eye rays to blow up tanks and stuff. I want to travel across the entire map in a few seconds with a cool ripple effect behind me. I want to see through walls. Why is this so hard to implement in a game when we've seen much more complicated stuff than this before? Just throw a legion of cliche villains, super robots, weird aliens from other dimensions, and ambiguosly homosexual anti-supermen from BIZARRO WORLD and you have the makings of a good superman game.

All superman games make you feel weak and powerless and give you really crappy missions that Superman just wouldn't do. Superman's a dick, he's going to be spending his time burning father's day presents from Jimmy Olsen and smacking around Lois Lane; not flying through HOOPS AND RINGS and keeping his hair curl well ironed and oiled.

[Crimson Knight]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Well the thing is, having all those powers would make you INVINCIBLE, which pretty much kills the purpose of playing such a game. I do have an idea though.

We could have it like say, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, where you can do pretty much anything you want, but at the start give Superman only a few of his powers that are pretty weak. Then as you save people, kill baddies and what not, your powers get stronger (visually and statistically, like for example, the heat vision being sunlight through a glass at first, to the optic beam in Marvel vs Capcom 2) depending on which ones you use the most. New powers like freeze breath, X-ray vision or even unique powers to the game can be learned through points in the story, which can be accessed as long as you're able to get through it and maybe some possibilities for multiple endings based on which story points you access. This in turn, would make a great, deep game that can be played over and over.

A Superman game can really be something if thought was actually put into it.

[marcus]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

I do agree. I want to see the gradual growth in powers so I can be GOD at the end of the game and rock everything. Besides, Superman pretty much dies immediately when in the presence of kryptonite... why no one just makes a body suit out of kryptonite is beyond me.

I think I remember hearing about a alternate superman story where Batman kills (or really, really beats up) Superman by forging a pair of gauntlets out of kyrptonite. We need a good batman game as well...

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Unless the game is being based directly off the comic book just like X-men Legends and The Punisher and not the new movie, I can't help but feel the game will be terribly generic... and traumatizing.

It's going to be a combination of the two. Everything from the movie will be in the game but they're also putting in as many of Superman's other villains and situations from the comic book as they can fit. The movie sections are only supposed to be a fraction of the whole game.

Just please, tell me they did away with the rings.

Free flying throughout New Troy and the surrounding terrain. The explorable environment is supposed to be huge.

You're supposed to feel INVINCIBLE while donning the blue tights. I want to pick up buildings and smash people with them. I want to use laser eye rays to blow up tanks and stuff. I want to travel across the entire map in a few seconds with a cool ripple effect behind me. I want to see through walls.

All those powers were mentioned in the article and they all sounded like they were being executed wonderfully. All Supe's powers and you're able to use them just about anywhere. Of course articles written about games while they're in development tend to be a bit too ambitious sometimes but it shows they at least have the right idea.

Well the thing is, having all those powers would make you INVINCIBLE, which pretty much kills the purpose of playing such a game.

The thing is, Superman pretty much is invincible. Unless there's kryptonite around or he's kept away from the empowering rays of the yellow sun. Both of those dynamics will be a part of the game. Aside from that horrible Death of Superman storyline it's pretty well established that Superman should be unbeatable. So how do you make the game challenging? Well apparently, rather than focusing on keeping Supe's alive the game will track collateral damage. The challenge will be in defeating huge, super-powered enemies without getting the people of Metropolis killed. When you think about it, it makes more sense than having Superman with some stupid health bar.

[Shard]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Personally, I wouldn't dig a Superman game where I only got full access to his powers at the very end. I don't want to play Superman Lite. The trick with this character is trying to find situations that challenge him when he's basically indestructable and a nice guy. The origin of his powers is our yellow sun and his one great weakness is kryptonite, as has been stated, so you either take him away from the sun to power him down, or stop by your local Ace Hardware store and pick up some kryptonite.

As neither of those things seems particularly easy to accomplish, I think the way you put him through the wringer is by striking at those he loves, manipulating him to do your bidding, and so on. I don't want to power him up, gaining skills, gaining levels...blah, seen it and done it a hundred times. Give me excuses to be creative with the skills he has, give me moral quandaries where I have to worry about doing evil or losing someone I care about. For god's sake, make an evil mastermind live up to the damn moniker.

[marcus]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

I never thought about it like that; make the health bar the citizens of Metropolis. It's kind a unique way of thinking to make up for all of your Godly abilities. Superman may be able to create a hurricane with a puff of his lungs, but you can't use it in a crowded area with hundreds of people going about their business. I have to admit it does sound cool... if the citizens actually comment on your presence (doing the trademark finger point and LOOK UP IN THE SKY) then I'll probably be hooked to it. I like it when games add little things like that.

[John Mora]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

You said you read this in Game Informer.

Stop right there.

[Magus]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Yeah, I can't remember the last time a game featured on Game Informer's cover did well. Except maybe Res Evil 4...? Riddick?

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Personally, I wouldn't dig a Superman game where I only got full access to his powers at the very end. I don't want to play Superman Lite.

I agree. I didn't like having to gain abilities on SpiderMan 2. It would have made sense in SpiderMan 1, as Peter was learning new ways of using his powers. But by the time of 2 it didn't make sense for him to start off slow and not knowing how to half the moves he did before. But buying new ablilites at the store wouldn't have made sense in any context.

You said you read this in Game Informer.

Stop right there.

Their previews and early and/or exclusive info is usually good. Other than that it's a worthless mag but I just wanted the Gamestop discount card since there aren't any small local game stores around here, every game store will be a Gamestop within a few months. There is an insane abundance of Gamestops in Charleston.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Bah to Gamestop and all its sister stores.

[Crimson Knight]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Personally, I wouldn't dig a Superman game where I only got full access to his powers at the very end. I don't want to play Superman Lite.

True, that's why a sandbox type deal wouldn't be too bad. An easy fix would be to play as Clark in his teens.

The trick with this character is trying to find situations that challenge him when he's basically indestructable and a nice guy. The origin of his powers is our yellow sun and his one great weakness is kryptonite, as has been stated, so you either take him away from the sun to power him down, or stop by your local Ace Hardware store and pick up some kryptonite.

Then there's a good chance of going through repetitive msissins.

As neither of those things seems particularly easy to accomplish, I think the way you put him through the wringer is by striking at those he loves, manipulating him to do your bidding, and so on. I don't want to power him up, gaining skills, gaining levels...blah, seen it and done it a hundred times. Give me excuses to be creative with the skills he has, give me moral quandaries where I have to worry about doing evil or losing someone I care about. For god's sake, make an evil mastermind live up to the damn moniker.

You can do all that with the character growth, which would make it even better and also keep the line from going slack, so to speak. The thing is, games that give you a character who's already pumped up and just does missions doesn't allow for much growth. It's also a good incentive to keep playing. It's cool to give players the ability to be good or bad but uh, we've seen that a million times too. You also don't want the game to rely on creativity too much, then the game isn't as fun anymore. A good example would be Alundra. It had a great mix of action and puzzles, but most of the harder puzzles will stall you for a long time(I could do without the ice wand puzzle or the stacking puzzles). Then, the player will forget what they were doing.

Making a Superman game that caters to the casuals as well as the hardcore will be a taxing, but easily workable task.

[Shard]

Re: It's a bird. It's a plane. No it's...

Clark in his teens would depend on which history you want to follow...if you're basing it off the original mythos, he'd still have all his powers. The point I was really driving at was creativity in the situations I, as a player, am confronted with. I'm all for character growth in the literary sense, when I say moral quandaries I'm not asking for the chance to be good superman or evil superman, I want good superman to have to make hard choices.

Superman has a very diverse set of powers, perhaps more diverse than any hero who isn't of the power-leech type. I would hate to see him confined to a smash crap up, then shoot things with beams, then smash more crap up style of gameplay. I'm not going to go into great detail of the various scenarios you could set up as a game designer, the point is, that variety is available and should be used.

Here's a hackneyed, off-the-cuff version of what I'm thinking...Jimmy Olson is kidnapped, strapped to a bomb, the bomb is linked to the city's power grid...to free Jimmy you have to shut off the power...but this gives evil mastermind X free reign of the city to attain whatever the hell he's after, and unleash something terrible on the city, or your friend gets splattered. You might have several different ways to get to the ending, with different results accordingly. The point is, the goal wasn't to go punch evil mastermind X until his HP ran down to 0.

As for casual v. hardcore fan, it doesn't matter that much to me how closely it follows the mythos so long as it's internally consistent. I'm just tired of generic beat 'em ups banking on the name recognition of a franchise.