Why do people claim that you can't design a good Superman game?

[Deathknightish]

Heard the argument "he's too strong" all the time, and by that it's impossible to create a good game because of it.

Just me who think that just sounds like a bullshit excuse? he doesn't HAVE to be able to fly at the speed of light across the world, he doesn't HAVE to be completely immune to normal punches and weaponry (just make some bullshit excuse that instead of dying he just "gets tired" or something and falls over).

OR! Just create a new kind of threat made up for the game, that doesn't exist in any other medium. Developers create their own stories with licensed characters all the time.

[Justpassing]

Wouldn't people whine if he can't do those things? I mean it doesn't have to be there but he could, so...

[Ascius]

I know it's a controversial thing to even mention smallville, but I'd say one of the most fun ideas with superman in a video game I can imagine would be a smallville type of game, an open world with a superman before he became superman, from learning his powers to exploring the world, fighting things, etc.

[cparle87]

Heard the argument "he's too strong" all the time, and by that it's impossible to create a good game because of it.

Just me who think that just sounds like a bullshit excuse? he doesn't HAVE to be able to fly at the speed of light across the world, he doesn't HAVE to be completely immune to normal punches and weaponry (just make some bullshit excuse that instead of dying he just "gets tired" or something and falls over).

OR! Just create a new kind of threat made up for the game, that doesn't exist in any other medium. Developers create their own stories with licensed characters all the time.

Isn't the Superman 64 game considered the worst N64 game and one of the top ten worst in history? Not counting the mass produced trash from the 80s, of course. You could fill a top 100 with those.

[Mic_128]

Isn't the Superman 64 game considered the worst N64 game and one of the top ten worst in history?

To be fair, that was just outright a bad game, not specifically a bad Superman game.

he doesn't HAVE to be able to fly at the speed of light across the world, he doesn't HAVE to be completely immune to normal punches and weaponry (just make some bullshit excuse that instead of dying he just "gets tired" or something and falls over).

Something like that however would make a bad Superman game.

The guys ridiculously Overpowered.

[Surfd]

Heard the argument "he's too strong" all the time, and by that it's impossible to create a good game because of it.

Just me who think that just sounds like a bullshit excuse? he doesn't HAVE to be able to fly at the speed of light across the world, he doesn't HAVE to be completely immune to normal punches and weaponry (just make some bullshit excuse that instead of dying he just "gets tired" or something and falls over).

OR! Just create a new kind of threat made up for the game, that doesn't exist in any other medium. Developers create their own stories with licensed characters all the time.

Let me ask you a question then: Who in their right mind would buy a Superman game where Superman wasn't Superman? If he can't (doesn't / won't) fly, isn't basically completely impervious to anything short of super technology, doesn't have most of his cool powers, then at that point, he really isn't superman now is he?

You can't really do an Arkham City / Spiderman style open city "hero" game with him, because street level threats that Batman / Spiderman would usually deal with in games like those are literally pointless against superman.

And you can't really do "realistic" threats against Supes without expecting a shitload of collateral damage or a lot of suspension of disbelief (oh look, lex luthor has sneakily dumped a hundred million rounds of kryptonite laced ammunition onto the black market so now every random gangbanger is a "threat"). You can't even really do "protect the city" instead of "fight the badguy" scenarios effectively easily either, cause again, Supes is so goddamned OP that basic threats are meaningless to him. Your mission is "Save the hostages from the Bank robbers?" Supes is nearly as fast as the Flash if he wants to be. He could bullet time into the bank, crush every single hostile's gun into a pancake, pants them, tie their shoelaces around their heads, and bullet time back out before most people even realized he had been there....

The problem from a game standpoint is that Superman is basically a god compared to 99% of the rest of the DC universe, which is really, REALLY hard to deal with realistically in a videogame setting.

Maybe if you had a really good creative writing team behind it, you could do a "God of War" style game based around superman, but most other game types just don't work well for him.

[Kumorii]

Probably because the character in of itself is a pretty boring character due to how OP he is. Only sort of game I think would work is maybe a telltale game, where it's more about a story focused game that talks about morality and what it means be human, yadda yadda. Gameplay wise I see no way to make it good while staying true to the character.

[Deathknightish]

Let me ask you a question then: Who in their right mind would buy a Superman game where Superman wasn't Superman? If he can't (doesn't / won't) fly, isn't basically completely impervious to anything short of super technology, doesn't have most of his cool powers, then at that point, he really isn't superman now is he?

You can't really do an Arkham City / Spiderman style open city "hero" game with him, because street level threats that Batman / Spiderman would usually deal with in games like those are literally pointless against superman.

And you can't really do "realistic" threats against Supes without expecting a shitload of collateral damage or a lot of suspension of disbelief (oh look, lex luthor has sneakily dumped a hundred million rounds of kryptonite laced ammunition onto the black market so now every random gangbanger is a "threat"). You can't even really do "protect the city" instead of "fight the badguy" scenarios effectively easily either, cause again, Supes is so goddamned OP that basic threats are meaningless to him. Your mission is "Save the hostages from the Bank robbers?" Supes is nearly as fast as the Flash if he wants to be. He could bullet time into the bank, crush every single hostile's gun into a pancake, pants them, tie their shoelaces around their heads, and bullet time back out before most people even realized he had been there....

The problem from a game standpoint is that Superman is basically a god compared to 99% of the rest of the DC universe, which is really, REALLY hard to deal with realistically in a videogame setting.

Maybe if you had a really good creative writing team behind it, you could do a "God of War" style game based around superman, but most other game types just don't work well for him.

I mean, why not? He still has his powers. he can fly in space, he can shoot lasers from his eyes, he can smash through walls. He just can't take infinite amount of damage because of gameplay reasons. I'm no video game developer, but I'm sure they could come up with some reason for it to work.

[Ausr]

The only way you could make a Superman game is if he was to face equally powerful foes. Which is fine for boss fights. Not so much for the minion parts. "Just use the 'he gets tired' mechanic!" Unless Superman is somehow locked down in a red sun or just facing magical foes, he won't.

Which is why Batman works so well in his games.

[Shaiandra]

If the game isn't much about keeping yourself alive since Superman is nigh-invincible (except against bosses), what if it's mainly about keeping civilians alive? Not necessarily in a lousy escort quest type of way, but you could have all sorts of varied missions which might involve beating up bad guys, or rescuing people from some collapsing or burning building, or whatnot. Possibly have several events happening at once so you have to prioritize whether you go rescue some people in one country here, or in another continent there first, and the time you spend at one dictates how much time you have to handle the other as well, or so.

I haven't thought about the level structure or exact failure conditions, but I think there's a potential idea in this..

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Superman really wants everyone to like him. I propose you give him a popularity meter, and core gameplay revolves around you defeating assorted bad guy plots without turning civilians against you.
Good job superman, you saved the day but wiped out half of metropolis. Game over.

[StrawberryZebra]

Funamentally, the issue lies with Superman as a character. It's never a question of if Superman can save the day, the answer is always yes. Of course he can, he's god damn Superman! The struggle Superman tends to have is if he should, and capturing that kind of internal struggle in a video game doesn't really work in a way that would portray Superman.

A game that accurately captures just how stupidly powerful Superman is would end up being a straight up power fantasy game - Which doesn't really capture who superman is and what he's about the way it does with someone like Dante from Devil May Cry or Kratos from God of War. You're missing out on the internal struggles that come along with Superman as a character.

A game that captures the internal struggles that come along with having Supermans level of power would be one that would have to seriously curtail your use of said power in order to tell a convincing story, or else having mechanics that would seriously hinder you in well... Being Superman.

A game that does Superman justice on one front would be one that's selling him short on another.

[Leyre]

Because superman its a flawed character, the only reason superman has a rogue gallery its because he holds back as to not kill them, lets say you put superman infront of a door that requieres some god damn secret mumbo jumbo, supes could easily blast the damn door away but for gameplay reason, the game will have you do some boring task to achieve your objective

[Inukashi]

If you can't design a good game with him you are just uncreative. There's many things you can do with a superman game
-Beat everything up just for fun, enjoy that you are super strong
-superman has strong enemies from krypton or if he gets near kryptonite
-there's challenges where strength just doesn't matter, like do this and that in time or riddles
-you can do it for the story, like many telltale games do
-you can play superman just for fun like 'save someone here' and 'stop the thief there'

You could also make superman weak with a lot of kryptonite or stuff like this, but I think this would defeat the reason why you would make a superman game.


People play a super strong hero in nearly every game.
You are the dragonborn
You are the chose one with the artifact weapon
You are a wargod in ancient greek

I think the reason why I wouldn't enjoy a superman game is, because I think he is a boring character.

[dope_danny]

If you rebuttal to 'he is too powerful' is 'just not make him superman' and thats your argument for "why do people claim that you can't design a good superman game?" then you already answered your own question.

Superman is a symbol for adults, a 'you can't make ME go to bed' total power fantasy for children. Neither makes for a fun videogame since you are playing a character with moral fibre made of steel. It works for the hulk because he is a raging child when you get down to it. The reason we can't get a good superman game is the reason people were uncomfortable with man of murder/steel. You cannot construct a game where conflict, challenge, struggle and overcoming that is the key companonents to make a game a game when you play a literal paragon of a man with unflinchable morals, invulnerability and planet moving strength. You start cutting away at superman to make him fit a mold than hes not superman. Hes synders personal jesus.

[beanman12345]

The best game I played with Superman was Lego Batman 2 should tell you everything.

[Kraddark]

People who call superman "too powerful" aren't familiar enough with his lore. The dude goes up against people just as strong as him on a weekly basis. A character is only "too powerful" if his environment no longer provides any kind of challenge but Supes routinely gets his butt kicked.

We'll get a good superman game as soon as the tech is there for it to work. Flying through a massive city and throwing people through buildings at super speeds is hard to get right. They finally got Spiderman to work so Supes is just on the horizon.

[Sunseeker]

Superman has two problems:
1: He doesn't have a very engaging personality. He's not an asshole. He's not on some grand quest. He doesn't have particularly strong opinions on anything. He's just a nice guy who is ridiculously hot but somehow can't get laid. So, he's basically every white-male nerd's power fantasy.
2: He's OP. Like, he can do everything if he bothers to use his powers to their fullest extent. He has this massive suite of powers that can pretty much do anything. It's difficult to make a game around that.

Here's my two cents on making a game though:
We'd need a setting that would naturally limit him and we'd need some reason for him to actually stay in disguise. So we'd need two base elements: an "energy" bar because yadda-yadda the bad guys blocked out the sun 23/24 hours of the day and he can only recharge in a tanning salon, or something. We'd need this in order for players to balance out the use of his powers. Does the player go nova because the situation calls for it, or is a little super here and a little super there more effective?

Second, we'd need to keep a strong reason for him keep his identity secret. Maybe we're living in a reverse-Injustice world where Evil Batman has turned the world to night and has eyes and ears on every corner. So we'd need the primary element to be Superman saving people who could become potential targets if he was revealed. Remember, Superman is the ultimate do-gooder. Like, Lawful Good to the extreme of Lawful Stupid.

So there we go, we'll call it "Superman: Darkest Knight" with some cool Evil AU Batman v. Superman cover artwork.

So there you go. It's a video game! It's a movie! It's already better than Batman v. Superman!

[Vineri]

I didn't think there would be a good Spiderman game ever ... but there was an awesome one last year...

Poor Superman.

A shame because the original Superman 1 & 2 movies ran circles around "any" SpiderMan flick. I guess it just comes down to what little kids watch, and get bombarded with advertisements, so they "know" what is cool. /rolleyes.

Is it any wonder why Hollywood is dead?

[UnluckyAmateur]

Have it be a bossathon like shadow of the colossus with only majorly strong characters that can actually hurt him. Or make all the enemies magical.


Seriously though, you don't have to make a superman game about pre-crisis superman where he could pull entire solar systems through space and punch holes in the dimensions. Just casually tone him down so he's a tad strong but not stupidly so like they do with DBZ games.