The Death and Return of Superman

[sloan]

I wanted this for my SNES collection for a while and recently made the purchase. Not knowing anything about the comic series or the intended storyline, all I have to say is that the game play is a standard beat 'em up and I don't get the connection too the game title. What does Superman fighting his way through multiple levels of bosses have to do with his death and return?

Also, this IS Superman, so why does every hit and nick damage his health? Hardly the man of steel I always knew that could only be affected by kryptonite.

[Schiggidyd]

Dude! I got this recently at a flea market, and I feel the same way!
I was totally let down. The man of steel gets hurt by so much, the flying has no real purpose (you can barely trick anyone with it), and its just so average.
I don't know much about how it ties to the Death and Return plots though.

[Gameguy]

It's a Superman game so it has to suck by default. There hasn't been a good one that I know of.

[Greg2600]

Blizzard used this "engine" on Justice League Taskforce as well. It's decent, but in terms of Superman, it's at the top of a lowly gaggle.

[Edmond Dantes]

What does Superman fighting his way through multiple levels of bosses have to do with his death and return?

Superman dies early on in the game I believe. Then you spend much of the game playing as pretenders, then the real Superman comes back at the end.

There was a decent novelization, but the one time I tried to play the game I found it... poor. To be honest though, the whole story arc was kind of lame, nothing more than an attempt to generate sales using the shock of killing a beloved icon. The original comic story was also a crossover type thing so you had to basically have a PHD in comics to understand it (fortunately not a problem with the novelization, but it still sounds like its trying to be an entry point for newcomer comic collectors and is a poorly-told story overall)

[Kitsune Sniper]

The comic isn't even in canon anymore. Freakin' DC. :P

Yeah, the game fails at storytelling. The series is okay though.

[Spidey80]

It's a Superman game so it has to suck by default. There hasn't been a good one that I know of.

The arcade game was fun,although I didn`t understand why Taito didn`t put another DC character in as the second player instead of a recolored Superman.


Shadow of Apokolips for the PS2/GameCube was also very enjoyable

[Ryudo]

Batman has 3 good games.
Superman 0 It almost may have had a good one with Factor 5 cancelled game.

[Mitch]

Batman has 3 good games.
Superman 0 It almost may have had a good one with Factor 5 cancelled game.

Are you kidding? Superman for the Atari 2600 is pretty cool.

Mitch

[SparTonberry]

Also, this IS Superman, so why does every hit and nick damage his health? Hardly the man of steel I always knew that could only be affected by kryptonite.

I don't know anything about the comic, but I know if Superman couldn't get hurt, you wouldn't have much of a video game.

[Edmond Dantes]

They could've pulled a move similar to what SOTN did--you start out practically invincible but then have your powers taken away (such as, say, when Supes dies).

Then again, that was Konami, this is Acclaim IIRC.

[sloan]

Actually, Sunsoft is on the cartridge label.

[Ryudo]

Are you kidding? Superman for the Atari 2600 is pretty cool.

Mitch

Atari has aged like shit. I played it back then and was nothing great then either. It's even worse now by default for being on Atari. Nothing on it has aged well at all

[Superman]

I don't know anything about the comic, but I know if Superman couldn't get hurt, you wouldn't have much of a video game.

I can get hurt with a material called Kryptonite. I don't like to let people know about it though, as it tends to be bad for business.


But seriously, I'm not sure why the Superman games tend to be lackluster at best. If it is any consolation, this is the best Superman game. The graphics are good (it is certainly a lot better than Superman 64) and it plays ok.

[Mitch]

Atari has aged like shit. I played it back then and was nothing great then either. It's even worse now by default for being on Atari. Nothing on it has aged well at all

Whatever... I still play it fairly often and enjoy it.

Mitch

[XYXZYZ]

The comic isn't even in canon anymore. Freakin' DC. :P

It isn't? I never really read Superman.

I do have a copy of that "special edition" (limited to only 79,000,000,000 copies) white bagged comic, that's *still in the original unopened bag*, and is worth all of $0.50

[sheath]

The arcade game was fun,although I didn`t understand why Taito didn`t put another DC character in as the second player instead of a recolored Superman.


Shadow of Apokolips for the PS2/GameCube was also very enjoyable

Taito's Superman from 1988 doesn't seem like a bad game at all to me. They at least try to work with Superman's personal restrictions and super powers in the level designs. But yeah, the palette swap Superman doesn't make any sense. Sunsoft's Superman for Genesis does a very decent job of handling Superman's more normal interactions from the movies.

Death and Return of Superman is a bad beat-em up in the tradition of most licensed 16-bit beat-em ups like Batman Returns on SNES. There just isn't enough action to really legitimize the genre choice. The original Double Dragon was more action packed.