One question has baffled game developers for ages, a question few have dared to answer: How do you make a great Superman game? Deville Louw writes.
James Gunn's DCU plans need to finally give Superman a proper gaming outing. By looking at the DC Comics lore, leaving Earth is the way to go for Kal-El.
The beginning of EAs Superman Returns was a good little side story that should have been explored more. Having to compete on War World was a great game level and could be expanded on even further.
As I have said before, there's zero reason why we can't have a good Superman game. Superman 64 proved this.
I feel like Gunn is prioritizing Superman this go-around. A game would make sense. Now more than ever.
When it comes to a making a solo Superman game, there are specific challenges and limitations developers face that make it almost impossible.
true that as a batman fan i am like ok dc that is enough can i get some other hero a static shock reboot? then a game. Heck a jessica cruz game
But at the end of the day beyond the swing animation the complexity of spiderman/batman games is way less then a superman game.
Fly combat/ground combat/undergrounf combat perhaps space combat each foe own set of powers each own move set bizzaro/lex/mettalo/leach guy drains powers then balance all the powers and map size to compensate speed.
Its just better to get a Crisis on Infinite Earths game together already where Supes is just one of many characters to play as ;) Or have one about Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman together. There is enough source material for a story with the holy triangle.
Or a truly Soulslike Superman game where kryptonite in the environment or the weapons /moves of the enemies plays a big role. DC has a ton of other more interesting character than Supües anyway. We never got a good Arrow game or even a Wonder Woman one yet. And where the hell is Lobo in the video game landscape?
Cause Batman has the money to pay off developers to make no good superman games. He needs to be stopped in the corporate world.🙂
It's hard to create a game around a person who's nearly indestructible, unless everyone in that Universe is nearly indestructible.
They can’t incorporate weaponized kryptonite? Or just make boss fights based off of attacks from the comics?
Same reason he can't get a decent modern movie.....no one really gives a shit about superman.
Because Superman is a poorly thought-out character. He's super fast, super strong, he can fly, he shoots literal rays of solar energy out of his eyeballs, etc. He's indestructible except for one single weakness. He's boring to play because the game is literally on god mode. The game can't take away his powers because players hate that. You can't do an origin story where he learns his powers because people have seen it a million times before. The character just doesn't work for video games.
This ^^^^^
He is just way to over OP as character to make a great game without stripping away what makes him so cool.
Batman and spider man are 2 of the goats for me because they are both very human and can be hurt and have people to lose, while also having very great villain list.
I pray we might get a great superman game but I doubt it.
Even before the games spider man and batman were my favourite comic book hereos just for there humanity and the realists they had to deal with.
It's problem that has always existed in comicbook writing, power scale. There are characters way more powerful than Superman in marvel and dc, like galactus, but they are much more interesting because of how they are written. Superman is great but he is not very interesting and he is not the most important comicbook hero, Spiderman is.
I get those points, but it's not even really that.
Even as an OP character it can still be done. The issue is there aren't many developers willing to put the effort and BUDGET into making the quality of game needed for Superman.
A Superman game needs a God of War level budget and production team behind it, and clearly there's only a handful of studios at that level for that genre of video game with the potential budget to do it, and maybe 2 - 3 willing to take the risk.
A good Superman game has to be a massive undertaking otherwise it'll undersell the character. So it either needs to be an intergalactic adventure, or a red-sun-based game with weaponized Kyrptonite to give a sense of urgency.
By following the example set by other successful superhero games, Warner Bros. could give the Man of Steel the modern AAA title he deserves.
superman gameplay is difficult and unique...there is a reason no one wants to try anymore. he can't brawl your average thug and making him vulnerable is a cop out.
I don't even give a crap about Superman. I think he's a pretty generic Superhero.
But you make him a god at virtually everything, then it's questioned why devs have a hard time building a good game around that fact.
Superman doesn't really work in the modern era IMO. He's basically a god.
Sure, there are some DC continuities where he's awesome, but that doesn't translate well to gameplay, and we've seen how poorly movie versions can be.
It'll be a goldmine if someone ever creates a fun tech demo of something resembling Supes. An Animated Series game that isn't Superman 64 could be amazing. I'm just not holding my breath it'll ever happen.
I feel like the only thing that would really work is an entire power fantasy game in the vein of Dynasty Warriors.
Superman is a character that is hard to make a game about. The guy is super strong, fast, indestructible, flies, and gets his ass kicked by a little green rock. And on top of that DC tends to micromanage and interfere when it comes to Superman that is how we got the memorable pile of shit called Superman 64. Superman can't kill, can't wreck the symbol on his chest, can't wreck his hair. Only one game came close to being a good Superman game and that was the Death and Return of Superman for the Genesis and SNES. I'd rather have a Lobo game over Superman I love DC but Superman isn't one of my favorite characters.
It would be easy to make a Superman game. I don't understand the argument that he's too strong when we have characters in games that are just as strong as he is.
Superman has all the tools for gameplay available, speed for a dodge mechanic, heat vision for a projectile weapon, freeze breath for an enemy slow down mechanic, super hearing which can be shown as an overhead map (which was done by EA), flight which has already been used in a lot of open world games...what exactly is the issue with translating him into a good video game?
He has more than enough enemies that can give him a run for his money, so that wouldn't be an issue. The whole "he's a god" shouldn't be an argument especially after coming off GoW's success.
I agree, I can think of several ideas for a superman video game that would be awesome. I think it would be easy to have him not kill anyone, just make pedestrians unkillable it's no different than Batman or Spiderman and like you say so many of his powers if done right could make for fun game mechanic.
I think NPCs should be killable, but make it to where it's collateral damage when fighting a major villain in a crowded populace.
This could be another mechanic in the game, defeat an enemy in a way that doesn't exceed a certain amount of damage and death, this will make the player think like a hero instead of just balls out GTA destroy everything.
I actually think EA did this in their Superman Returns game
why not go the ballsy route and make the player insanely overpowered for the normal fodder in the open-world, but then make bosses give you a run for your money?
It's not difficult to make a Super-Man game. You could even do a story that involves criminals getting access to kryptonite bullets or weapons if you really don't want to let Super-Man just be Super-Man until a boss shows up.
Superman is also vulnerable to high tech alien weapons and magic. Just give Intergang enemies alien tech to hurt him and also have him fight minions adapt at magic. Or even more simple fight magical aliens (ha!)
It cant be that damn hard. Seriously.
Superman is meant to save people, you can't have him fight a villain and destroy half the city. Have a superman game where he has all his powers but you, as a player have to figure out how to use them without destroying everything, You have to stop falling debris and lasers from wiping out innocent bystanders. Catch cars and put them down safely, save people. There doesn't have to be a villain all the time either. have a bus going over a bridge and an airplane falling from the sky at the same time, how do you save both? A bank robbery and a sinking ship and a mysterious force from luthercorp behind it all that you have to prove as clark kent. This type of gameplay and game shouldn't be that difficult. Stop having Superman blowup and break everything he's supposed to be the hero that inspires us all to be better.
And maybe next time I should read the article before typing all this out.
Only decent Superman game I can think of is Death and Return of Superman a beatem up on the SNES and Genesis. That's the only Superman game I liked even though you had normal people beating on Superman and his life bar goes down. I'd take a good Superman movie first over a game can't be that hard to make a good Superman movie. Only good Superman movies are the DC animated movies hope Rocksteady is working on Superman they did a great job with the Bat.
Still waiting on that good Superman game
Only way a Superman game is gonna work with all his powers running unchecked is not to make it on earth. That saves the game being uncomfortable to the bleeding hearts and fellow superman boy scouts. Think planet hulk without the arena. Go nuts.