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

[PACOX]

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.

I would play something like this.

A game where you're the people are bent on holding you accountable for the destruction you cause.

The only thing that makes Superman interesting is when his humanity is questioned or when his faced with moral dilemmas. You have to choose between being a 'boy scout' or 'whatever it takes'. Both have their pros and cons. Maybe a system where if you're too 'good' it's exploited as a weakness. If you go the 'whatever it takes' route you lose the support of humanity and maybe they even reject/hunt you.

Hell, to keep it simple you make it open. Create a story where Superman slowly loses his humanity as people demanded more from him/he grows jaded. Or you start off as a Superman who must regain the trust of the people because he caused some catastrophic event or something.

[WintersLegion]

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.

Yeah to me that is the best way to create a superman game.

[Surfd]

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.

Except that Supes has ALWAYS been crazy op. It isn't a matter of turning him down from some insanely "cranked to 11" version that might have ran in the comics at their most insane. Even at his most basic Supes has been in a category of his own compared to like 95% of the DC universe.

It's like trying to say you could realistically do Goku by tuning him down from Super Sayian God level to only around basic Super Sayian level 1, when the rest of the world is still dealing with power levels that barely break double digits on Vegeta's scouter. Either way you slice it, he is still a God compared to 99% of the rest of the general population.

[Nihilist74]

It's true. He is too strong. It is like playing a game with a god mode cheat.

[Amnaught]

Wouldn't people whine if he can't do those things?

Regular-legs kicking his ass in Injustice 2 was just totally gamebreaking right?

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It's true. He is too strong. It is like playing a game with a god mode cheat.

And yet those cheat exist. Theyre fun.

Basically, if you've ever watched One Punch Man, that's exactly what I'd expect from a Superman game. Mindlessly kick the ass of dozens of non-threats, and then get to the boss and be like "What? This guy can hurt me?" and make the focus of the game be about fighting those uber-powerful bosses trying to nuke the planet or whatever. Have a lineup of DC villains all powered up with Kryptonite by Lex Luthor, make the combat interesting, make the threat as massive as the hero

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

Um, excuse you, Spider-Man 2 for PS2 was the greatest superhero game of all time, period, thank you very much

[Shelly]

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?

I don't mean to knock it too much since it's so iconic but the entirety of Superman 2 is a product placement for Marlboro cigarettes. Also it ends with an amnesia kiss and cellophane S-shield?

It gives us Zod but it's super contrived and entirely slavish to the campiness of the medium and resulted in comic book movies being terrible for almost twenty years because studios wouldn't look at the stories seriously.

Anyway, I think you'd have to do a Superman game four ways - possibly a combination of all four:

1) New Genesis and Apokalips. Superman gets ass blasted by a boom tube and sent to Apokalips. Let him sort it out from there going between the New Gods and the like as he attempts to return home.

2) Man of Steel, City of Paper. Fully powered from the get-go. Entire game is more about strategy, how do you attain your goals without killing anyone or knocking down buildings. The anti-Snyder game.

3) Red Sun Rising. Either shoot him into the future or get him dosed with a huge amount of red sun radiation while off-world. It's a combo stealth combat game where if he can find a yellow sun radiation canister he can use that as a power up to have access to his full ability suite for a short period of time, otherwise he's trying to sneak around a dark and foreign world. (I actually think this combined with the first idea could be pretty cool.)

4) Superman Saves the World. Superman is literally a god. Constantly bombard your character with people asking Superman to save him. Sort them out, triage things, when do you use super-speed halfway through a rescue because suddenly the president is screaming that Luthor has a nuke? Include morality gauges of some sort.

[Sliske]

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.

Issue: Superman is impervious to all damage but kryptonite. He is also able to travel at the speed of light, punch down buildings and so on.

You: JUST MAKE HIM NOT BE SUPERMAN, AS IN, JUST MAKE HIM NOT BE ABLE TO TRAVEL AT HIS NORMAL SPEED LOOOL, JUST MAKE HIM WEAKER LOOL, JUST GIVE HIM NEW WEAKNESSES OR GIVE EVERYONE KRYPTONITE LOOOL

?????????????????

[Lothaeryn]

Superman could literally be done with the Metroid formula:

1. Have an insanely overpowered character with powers that would one shot most creatures.

2. Use any narrative reason to depower said character for gameplay purposes

3. Allow said character to run around depowered slowly rebuilding their arsenal of powers until end game.

In Metroid, its either never explained or Samus has her suit damaged like in Metroid Prime 1 that causes her suit to lose her upgrades.

In a superman game, he could be ambushed and injected with some sort of non-lethal dose of kryptonite, that prevents him from using all of his powers at once. You can either make it that he chooses specific powers to "focus on" limiting his godhood, or make it that you slowly create a broken antidote from resources you get from each boss, slowly regaining your powers such as heat vision and flight as you continue the story. You could even make it canonical that the serum "wears off slowly" as Superman is fighting the clock to save metropolis or the world and his powers are recovering over time in the story.

Boom, Superman game 101.

[Logwyn]

Issue: Superman is impervious to all damage but kryptonite. He is also able to travel at the speed of light, punch down buildings and so on.

You: JUST MAKE HIM NOT BE SUPERMAN, AS IN, JUST MAKE HIM NOT BE ABLE TO TRAVEL AT HIS NORMAL SPEED LOOOL, JUST MAKE HIM WEAKER LOOL, JUST GIVE HIM NEW WEAKNESSES OR GIVE EVERYONE KRYPTONITE LOOOL

?????????????????

Superman is also vulnerable to magic. Enchanted weapons and magical spells affect Superman as easily as they would a normal human. See Superman #171.
High pitched sounds also affect him. Also, his good nature is a weakness. Virus X says hello too. Psionic attacks also work well against him. There are also those strong as or stronger than Superman that can hurt him by punching him.

Don't forget the famous Muhammad Ali has knocked him out by just throwing punches!!!

[beanman12345]

Superman could literally be done with the Metroid formula:

1. Have an insanely overpowered character with powers that would one shot most creatures.

2. Use any narrative reason to depower said character for gameplay purposes

3. Allow said character to run around depowered slowly rebuilding their arsenal of powers until end game.

In Metroid, its either never explained or Samus has her suit damaged like in Metroid Prime 1 that causes her suit to lose her upgrades.

In a superman game, he could be ambushed and injected with some sort of non-lethal dose of kryptonite, that prevents him from using all of his powers at once. You can either make it that he chooses specific powers to "focus on" limiting his godhood, or make it that you slowly create a broken antidote from resources you get from each boss, slowly regaining your powers such as heat vision and flight as you continue the story. You could even make it canonical that the serum "wears off slowly" as Superman is fighting the clock to save metropolis or the world and his powers are recovering over time in the story.

Boom, Superman game 101.

I'd play it. Im a sucker for these types of games.

[Halicia]

Superman could literally be done with the Metroid formula:

...

Boom, Superman game 101.

From the game perspective, I think that works fine. IMO, though, the problem with Superman has always been the story.... and I think for a superhero game to be "great" nowadays, they need have a cinema-quality story to go along with it.

Are there any Superman comic arcs with a compelling story ? I mean, Superman always seems to fix things in matters of black and white, it'd be interesting if he were posed with morally ambiguous problems where overwhelming force only exacerbates the issues.

[Captain N]

I suppose you could design a game around the Injustice story-line. I'm sure you could do a whole lot with an Open World Evil Superman.

[Tech614]

I didn't think there would be a good Spiderman game ever ...

Then you haven't paid attention or been a fan of Spider-Man for long, both Maximum Carnage and Spider-Man 2 are both cult classic games.

[Kokolums]

I always felt that Superman and Batman complimented each others strengths and weaknesses. Batman was just a normal person who no superpowers, but had a lot of cutting edge equipment and was a brilliant detective. Superman had no equipment but had super powers and was basically invincible, but he was no detective and could be tricked.

A superman game would be something like Missile Command where the threat is not being killed but those you are protecting being killed. In Missile Command, you are trying to protect cities from being nuked and the nukes keep coming faster and faster. So a Superman game might be the Earth is being attacked by Darkseid and Superman is trying to protect the Earth as the attacks come in. Its not so much about killing Superman but instead Superman figuring out when and where the attacks are and how to stop them.

[Sevyvia]

Superman is boring personality-wise, and invincible. That's why.

[notanmmmonewbie]

Let Superman keep his powers so that players will get to use those powers...then just change who he has to fight.

I only watched the original Superman movies 1-4, havent watched any of the new stuff didnt read comics. So my lore is not up to the same level as other people here. But there's gotta be enemies he can fight that (1) plentiful so he has a lot of them to beat up and (2) are not as low as street thugs but not as high as supervillians like Lex Luthor or General Zod who in a game i would consider boss type characters. Doesn't General Zod have followers? a lot of a few? i didnt watch the recent SM movie with General Zod. I know he had some named followers but why not give him an army too? if he didnt have an army in the comics or movies then give him one for a game. In Superman 2 Lex Luthor cooperated with General Zod (a bit unwillingly but whatever) right? In Superman 4 (yah it was terrible but whatever) Lex makes a Superman of his own with some Kryptonian DNA. Those could be the foundation of the army that is able to fight Superman. General Zod and Lex Luthor join forces, Lex makes a bunch of soldier clones for Zod and in return Zod makes Lex the mayor of Antartica or whatever. Now you have a bunch of super soldiers that could serve as the cannon fodder that supes gets to beat up and because they are Kryptonians under Zod they can still deal minor damage to Superman. Better to do that then have a regular person doing damage to Superman with a tire iron or having everyone he fights be a supervillian tier mob.

[Itori]

superman is one of those characters that it really is too hard to create a game for because you're either shitting on your fanbase by not making the man of steel as powerful as he is, or you're shitting on them by throwing in some silly gimmick like "the world is covered in kryptonite dust" and on top of that, there's not too much stuff he can't do, hardly any weaknesses other than his attachment to friends and kryptonite. Imo he's just...not that interesting, he's like a true Gary Stu, they'd be better off making a game where you play as one of his villains trying to take over the world and defeat superman.

[Vineri]

Then you haven't paid attention or been a fan of Spider-Man for long, both Maximum Carnage and Spider-Man 2 are both cult classic games.

Sort of .. Maximum Carnage was the sole decent Spiderman game for the cartridge era .. SpiderMan 2 was .. just OK .. (meh, personally, just a figure and an IP to back em), not impressed.

So many other Spiderman games just never made any sort of grade. They were terrible.