Batman got the Arkham love, what about the Man of Steel...?

Making a Superman game enjoyable shouldn't be that hard. Three things realistically hurt Supes: Kryptonite, magic, and lack of yellow sunlight. Make a game that shakes it up using these three things. Start the game where Lex Luthor or someone creates an artificial eclipse, or releases a gas that filters the yellow rays in a way that Superman doesn't benefit from them or something similar.

Using the eclipse angle, he starts off weakened, but the JL or an ally of Supes puts events in motion to move the artificial eclipse. BOOM, as the game goes on, he gets stronger, naturally as the eclipse begins to reveal more of the suns rays. He starts getting his abilities back one by one, or he has them all, and they get better and more refined as the eclipse passes. Not that hard, and not that far-fetched. With this method, you can STILL have timed rescue missions, or destruction meter missions. When you have Supes at full strength, introduce the evil magic swat team to crank up the difficulty.

It can't be THAT hard. Can it?
 
Easy, Golden Age Superman is the only one that has ever existed or will exist. Can't fly, only really strong, etc.

Occasionally questionable tactics allowed, like forcing gangsters to drink poison or causing a gun to backfire by sticking his finger in the barrel.

Pipe dream, I know. Just make the thing a retelling of the first several years of Action/Superman from 1938 on. Most people haven't read those anyway, so it'd be completely new for them.
 
shoplifter said:
Easy, Golden Age Superman is the only one that has ever existed or will exist. Can't fly, only really strong, etc.

Occasionally questionable tactics allowed, like forcing gangsters to drink poison or causing a gun to backfire by sticking his finger in the barrel.

Pipe dream, I know. Just make the thing a retelling of the first several years of Action/Superman from 1938 on. Most people haven't read those anyway, so it'd be completely new for them.
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I'd rather have something Marvel-related, Captain America, Daredevil or Fantasti Four.

As for Superman, they may find a working formula, since Superman flies and all they could make an open-world game.
 
I'd much Rather have a green lantern game in the style of Arkham Asylum or City. Superman is hard to do, and superman 64 was so bad that it has tainted video game versions of superman for 3 generations.
 
10k said:
I'd much Rather have a green lantern game in the style of Arkham Asylum or City. Superman is hard to do, and superman 64 was so bad that it has tainted video game versions of superman for 3 generations.
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Green Lantern is such a fantastic idea but it would need to be ambitious to allow as many constructs as possible otherwise it would feel....not right.
 
Would be cool if the focused on making a Superman game about saving people as opposed to just fighting villains. How awesome would it be to help a family stuck in a burning building? Or use your powers to stop a train from careening off the tracks?
 
How about instead of artificially making Superman weaker you design a game *around* his strength?

Superman isn't supposed to be challenged physically, that's sorta the whole point of the character.

Lex Luthor, his most powerful enemy, isn't threatening because he's physically strong, but because he's smart. The best Lex Luthor stories are the ones where everything goes according to his plan, even though at the time it seemed like Superman had agency.

I think what could broadly be described as a puzzle game would work far better.

Obviously you'd still have the action elements, but they'd be almost like an open world god game, where you easily toss the enemies around and there are very few genuine threats to the character you control.

It'd be a challenge to design it so that the element that was threatened wasn't the player character, but instead the city environment, or an individual, without it ending up like an annoying escort mission in most games, but I think with a talented team you could pull it off.

Arkham Asylum turned stealth on its head by making you feel *powerful* when employing stealth, instead of vulnerable like in most stealth games.

Wario Land II is another good example of a game that eschewed the conventional wisdom of its genre and made the main character invincible.

It can be done.

I think physics could play a major role in it, with Superman having to figure out how to save the day when faced with a particular scenario using the resources at hand, preferably with multiple solutions that arise organically.

Say you have a bunch of people trapped in a subway car underground while a fire rages. With a nearly fully destructible environment you could try to dig straight down and put the fire out with your breath, but that takes time. You could navigate the subway tunnels while flying which would take a certain amount of skill and the velocity of your arrival creates a gust of wind that puts the fire out.

And hopefully the engine would allow you to think big. You should be able to freeze a lake, pick it up, and throw it at a powerful enemy.

It'd also be fun if the game were really open world, and if you decided to get all destructive it becomes an essentially different game. They start tallying the number of people you've killed, and all the other super heroes try to stop you.

And all of this without falling back on using Kryptonite fog.
 
Nessus said:
How about instead of artificially making Superman weaker you design a game *around* his strength?

Superman isn't supposed to be challenged physically, that's sorta the whole point of the character.
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Except Superman is challenged physically all the God damned time.

Whether it is aliens or giant robots or magic or eldritch creatures or super villains, Superman is always fighting.

How is this so hard to understand?

How?
 
kamspy said:
I think it's Superman's skill set that makes it impossible to make a good game or movie about him.
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You seem to lack imagination even to the point where I would suggest going to see a specialist about it as it may indicate some physical trauma to your brain.
 
slade said:
Make a cosmic DC game with Supes as the protagonist. Bring in the New Gods, the Lantern Corps, Mongul and others who can match Superman's power.
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This was similar to my idea. I prefer the more grounded Superman myself, but if it were a Silver Age-esque Superman, then devs could make Metropolis a hub/playground where a number of missions take place, but also have a number of missions that launch Supes across the galaxy fighting all sorts of intergalactic baddies. They could also send him to systems with different types of suns to provide trait modifiers for that level. This way they could show off Superman's full power in combat and still have grounded and more unique missions on Earth. Think of it as Super Mario Galaxy, except with superheroes and a more important hub world.

This would also be my pitch for a Green Lantern game.
 
SJRB said:
The fundamental difference between Arkham games and any potential Superman game is that Batman is just a man while Superman is basically a god.

There is danger around every corner for Batman, he has to use his skills, intelligence and gadgets to get the upper hand in situations. This makes for great gameplay potential and ultimately an amazing game, as both Arkham games have proven.

Superman, on the other hand, would just destroy everything if he needed to. He could hurl people into the sun. Stuck in a burning building? Just smash through the walls. Save 5 hostages? Lol, done in under a second. Unless Braniac clones an army of Darkseids, there is no "danger around every corner" like is the case with Batman. There is no sense of urgency.

There's also the practical development problems like "how big do you make the game world?". Superman can fly around the world in seconds, you can't confine him to a city. That's not how it works.


Also - making Superman weak for gameplay reasons is a huge disservice to the character and a total cop-out.
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All the powers you mentioned would make for an incredibly fun sandbox but I think the tech has made good superman games nay impossible. If you could literally fly anywhere in the world, destroy anything, grab anything in the environment, break through walls into in a living breathing world a Superman game could be incredible.

Every superman game this far neutered the man of steel in someway: superman without limits is the way to go.
 
With all the 'Superman is too powerful you can't make a game with him' why isn't this a concern for Hulk games? Or that Thor game from a few years ago?
 
Ushae said:
Batman has his gadgets, combat moves etc.

Making a superman game would be difficult, what with him being near indestructible. Then again if Rocksteady took the game they could make it work really well. Persoanlly I think Supes should only make an appearance as a cameo.

I think a Green Arrow game would be amazing.
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Just make a Superman game where he fights villains as strong as him.

Plus a fight with Lex in suit. While you fight him your life bar drops with Kryptonite.

Jake Tower said:
With all the 'Superman is too powerful you can't make a game with him' why isn't this a concern for Hulk games? Or that Thor game from a few years ago?
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You just won this thread. BRAVO.
 
The only way I see a Superman game working is if they set it during his early years. With Smallville being the location, and him only having only temp flying abilities.
 
Nessus said:
How about instead of artificially making Superman weaker you design a game *around* his strength?

Superman isn't supposed to be challenged physically, that's sorta the whole point of the character.

Lex Luthor, his most powerful enemy, isn't threatening because he's physically strong, but because he's smart. The best Lex Luthor stories are the ones where everything goes according to his plan, even though at the time it seemed like Superman had agency.

I think what could broadly be described as a puzzle game would work far better.

Obviously you'd still have the action elements, but they'd be almost like an open world god game, where you easily toss the enemies around and there are very few genuine threats to the character you control.

It'd be a challenge to design it so that the element that was threatened wasn't the player character, but instead the city environment, or an individual, without it ending up like an annoying escort mission in most games, but I think with a talented team you could pull it off.

Arkham Asylum turned stealth on its head by making you feel *powerful* when employing stealth, instead of vulnerable like in most stealth games.

Wario Land II is another good example of a game that eschewed the conventional wisdom of its genre and made the main character invincible.

It can be done.

I think physics could play a major role in it, with Superman having to figure out how to save the day when faced with a particular scenario using the resources at hand, preferably with multiple solutions that arise organically.

Say you have a bunch of people trapped in a subway car underground while a fire rages. With a nearly fully destructible environment you could try to dig straight down and put the fire out with your breath, but that takes time. You could navigate the subway tunnels while flying which would take a certain amount of skill and the velocity of your arrival creates a gust of wind that puts the fire out.

And hopefully the engine would allow you to think big. You should be able to freeze a lake, pick it up, and throw it at a powerful enemy.

It'd also be fun if the game were really open world, and if you decided to get all destructive it becomes an essentially different game. They start tallying the number of people you've killed, and all the other super heroes try to stop you.

And all of this without falling back on using Kryptonite fog.
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This pretty much nails it.
 
Let RealTimeWorlds, if they are still around, do it. Crackdown was basically a Superman game. Once you maxed everything out you were pretty much invincible and they still managed to make it fairly fun.
 
SJRB said:
I've thought about this a lot, but I have literally no idea how to make a good game out of the Superman formula.
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Same.

I think the problem is that he can do too much. In a game you need limitations. Superman has none.
Nessus said:
How about instead of artificially making Superman weaker you design a game *around* his strength?

Superman isn't supposed to be challenged physically, that's sorta the whole point of the character.

Lex Luthor, his most powerful enemy, isn't threatening because he's physically strong, but because he's smart. The best Lex Luthor stories are the ones where everything goes according to his plan, even though at the time it seemed like Superman had agency.

I think what could broadly be described as a puzzle game would work far better.

Obviously you'd still have the action elements, but they'd be almost like an open world god game, where you easily toss the enemies around and there are very few genuine threats to the character you control.

It'd be a challenge to design it so that the element that was threatened wasn't the player character, but instead the city environment, or an individual, without it ending up like an annoying escort mission in most games, but I think with a talented team you could pull it off.

Arkham Asylum turned stealth on its head by making you feel *powerful* when employing stealth, instead of vulnerable like in most stealth games.

Wario Land II is another good example of a game that eschewed the conventional wisdom of its genre and made the main character invincible.

It can be done.

I think physics could play a major role in it, with Superman having to figure out how to save the day when faced with a particular scenario using the resources at hand, preferably with multiple solutions that arise organically.

Say you have a bunch of people trapped in a subway car underground while a fire rages. With a nearly fully destructible environment you could try to dig straight down and put the fire out with your breath, but that takes time. You could navigate the subway tunnels while flying which would take a certain amount of skill and the velocity of your arrival creates a gust of wind that puts the fire out.

And hopefully the engine would allow you to think big. You should be able to freeze a lake, pick it up, and throw it at a powerful enemy.

It'd also be fun if the game were really open world, and if you decided to get all destructive it becomes an essentially different game. They start tallying the number of people you've killed, and all the other super heroes try to stop you.

And all of this without falling back on using Kryptonite fog.
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That could work. Not a bad idea.

Correction of my first comment: Superman's true weakness is the protection of people.
 
I wrote all this up last time I saw one of these threads and I still feel the same.
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The idea of Superman Returns video game is still solid, it just needed a lot more love and time put into it that a movie tie-in simply can't get due to restraints and nature of a external controlled focus (fitting the movie).

The world was open and the city was there, but it wasn't very alive or involving. Give us reasons to care about the world with interesting tasks to do and people to meet, put in those touches that made Arkham City so beloved with hidden clues and references, make it worth exploring via beauty or collecting (for some of us) or the like. Just having it there and "oh it's your lifebar" doesn't mean very much. Perhaps make it destructible and have us lose out on fun tasks to do and need to wait for it to be repaired as a consequence.

Though if they can't make the world that interesting, some people are perfectly happy just having a great way to get around like Spider-Man 2 movie game. Start with super jumps and basic hands in front flying, but evolve it with more control and tricks over time. Take in that "you'll believe a man can fly" tagline and make it their own.
Perhaps try to make it just a great 3D geometry fighter. I'm not asking for much, I personally loved Bulk Slash and Zone of Enders, so a modern day equivalent of that for aerial fighting wouldn't be so bad at all for me, others would want more I'm sure.

Enemies shouldn't be that hard to figure out or do if one looks into the franchise. Yes basic grunts aren't much and he's mightier than normal man, but Superman is hardly alone depending on the version (and even then). At the height of ridiculous power levels where he could live forever and had super hypnotism and couldn't be harmed in any way except magic, Mongul was just a yellow skinned alien that could outfight and outlast Superman and Supergirl together. Braniac was really smart and just laughed because he had a shield that Superman couldn't get through. That's at the most ridiculous levels, so one of the hundreds more reasonable power levels Superman has plenty of people to fight.
Once that is realised and people focus on just the main powers (strength, hard to harm but not invincible, flight, X-ray, freeze breath, super speed, ability to use Microsoft Office ribbon), it just makes it the standard video game villain selection and creativity to go through and working with the physical villains such as Mongul or Gog or Hellgrammite. You have magic users or advance technology aliens and scientists who can be the standard shoot from afar enemies. You have creativity of guys like Metallo who can constantly rebuild himself, Riot who multiplies when hit, or that giant kyptonite ape which you have to deal with from afar or Parasite that can rob you of your powers slowly so use attacks from afar or make use of the environment, etc. Whatever the hell they want with Mr. Mxyzptlk, put the Scarecrow levels of Arkham Asylum to shame.
All those gods of Apokolips alone would do well as enemies, Superman is just "a normal guy" amongst them in almost every comic version.

For the powers, by how many games and movies do it, it's not that big of a hindrance to show off people starting from the beginning. Batman and Samus have to get most of their equipment, inFamous's Cole had to build up his strength, so why not Superman? The original Golden Age Superman or the one from It's Superman (I highly recommend reading that book even if you aren't a Superman fan) or even the last four reboots in comics and television have all had him start limited and build up. I would be okay with a version that is only strong and tough and fights the U.S. Army (because Golden Age Superman was a dick like that) in the middle of the city for an excuse to make new housing all before he has to fly to save a falling Lois or use his heat vision to attack from afar or however they want to do it.

-Depending on the version of Superman, holding up a building could be a hard task for him to do. Others landing a plane and barely keeping it from crashing is another, so strength is malleable as long as he is still "can one hit kill a standard grunt". Throwing a tank as the Hulk in Ultimate Destruction was fine with me even though he could lift an entire mountain in some comics.
-Flying needs to be satisfactory as has been talked about plenty of times. Sure he could just flying straight to his destination, but make he is VTOL as well as supersonic jet all in one, he has to be manoeuvrable and should seek that level of fun we had with Spider-Man 2.
- Super speed is, well as a game dictates. He's not the Flash, people really don't expect care to see him run around all that quickly, but enough to make travel quick a la Prototype is all I would want. Quick reaction where he can slow down time to avoid an attack would be okay with me as well.
-Heat vision is a laser attack, I personally don't see a need to go much beyond standard video game energy attacks. Different abilities to do with it, perhaps some puzzle solving or temporary city repairing, but nothing fancy.
Don't need super breath, but it could be puzzle solving and a special attack during a combo.
-Superhearing for missing finding, super vision for tips on were to go, X-Ray vision and a combination of the previous two for "detective mode" or the always funny "the building becomes transparent" so many video games do.-
-No other power is really needed unless it's "the city is the life bar" and then invulnerability, but I think that's a mistake as "you can't hurt him" is the reason most people don't like Superman in the first place. Being really tough to hurt is better I think. Let guys like Doomsday or Bizarro or various aliens be able to physically beat him to death, remember he is like any normal guy can be harmed by magic attacks and guys like Black Adam could knock him out with one punch if they got lucky. If Kratos as a god could do it and people don't believe he's unstoppable if you screw up in combat, so can Superman.

Of course they could throw that all away. Why bother with making it an interesting game for combat when they can do what a lot of people seem to love, destruction? Give an open city where Superman is evil or it's an alien world of Braniac's robots or it's Bizarro and the final boss is Superman in a constantly stalking you Resident Evil Tyrant sort of manner. Super strong, incredibly dense mass, move at intense speeds, where buildings can crumble and fall apart like Red Faction Guerrilla's building code? For the Bizzaro idea it would be more akin to an arcade game I guess, destroy and rampage as long as possible before Superman stops/traps/kills you (it's okay, Bizarro is artificial and not human, it's okay to kill non-humans).

Edit for this thread: They easily could go out for Superman's power and let people "feel like Superman" with all that strength and ability people always expect and cause the (I can't imagine a good game, he's too powerful). Do what people loved in Blast Corp or Red Faction Guerilla, tearing down cities and enemies like they are nothing until the big battles or the smart planning is required.

Have it be purely arcade like and destroy in the fastest time possible or score based.
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I would enjoy a Superman game that isn't about being Superman. Following the idea of it being an Adventure game, play as Clark Kent the reporter. Adventure genre or the clue finding style of L.A. Noire, use the various powers and what he overhears as Superman to put together a story about a criminal ring or mystery like who killed the Mayor of Metropolis (It's Lex Luhtor) or what have you.
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Don't play as Superman. I'm not a fan of Superman, but I am a fan of the world and characters built around him, in fact I say the best stories are those where it's about those around him and he is just the plot device. Those who insult Superman and never pay attention to the franchise often don't realise just how many characters there are to it.

-Steel, a guy wearing a suit of armour and you can't tell me a game about a guy in a suit of armour can't work. Highly intelligent, can make parts and repair from things lying about or taken from enemies, is not Shaq.
-Guardian, a cop who uses a shield and street smarts. No super powers, just street smarts during the 1940s. Later a clone who works as security in a government agency of mad scientists with clones, experiments, aliens, etc.
-Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen almost everyone knows of course, but they have plenty of adventures that don't depend on Superman. I would kill for a Beyond Good And Evil game staring these two or just Jimmy alone.
-One of the Supergirls who wasn't Kryptonian and had teleknetic powers and shape shifting. Sure some of the same problems as Superman, but open to plenty of interesting game mechanics there while being different from Superman.
-Gangbuster, a Batman like character that doesn't really have much money.
-Black Lightning, a man with electrical powers that works in the worst part of Metropolis.
-Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin, police officers who deal with superpowered threats and have to be able to deal with numerous threats without Superman. Third person shooter, squad based shooter, action-adventure, etc.
-Lex Luthor (read Lex Luthor:Man of Steel comic mini-series, great read about why he hates Superman and barely features Superman). Imagine a Tropico or Sim City like game where you also have to deal with superbeings fighting each other.
Plenty more and that's just who is set in Metropolis.
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More of the recent iOS game. I enjoyed it, but it could use some refinement.

RealDeadOne said:
What if the challenge isn't about combat with enemies and mooks, but about stopping crimes quickly and efficiently before anyone gets hurt?

I can't imagine exactly how such a game would play, but an open ended, puzzle-like approach to crime fighting and giant monster stopping could be an interesting way to do a superhero game that isn't seen very much.

It's more of a "power management" game than an action game.
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I know there were a lot of complaints about it from long time fans of the Splinter Cell series, but I could see that idea working along the theory behind "Mark & Execute" or individual stage designs like Hitman.

There is a top down tactical shooter that did the same idea of "getting it just right and seeing it executed perfectly" for PC some time ago as well, but I forget the name of that one.
 
City health meter

Red Faction destruction system

Dead Rising time based system

Certain enemies wield kryptonite which if he takes enough damage forces Supes to fly out towards the Sun to "recharge" and takes x amount of game time to accomplish and usually result in returning to significant city damage during your absence

Enemy encounters designed not so much to hurt Supes but to slow the player down/make them think about how to dispatch them with minimal collateral damage
 
The problem always seems to be that superman would have no healthbar.

And stuff like City healthbar/save Jimmy Olsen etc. always sounds annoying to me.
 
SJRB said:
The fundamental difference between Arkham games and any potential Superman game is that Batman is just a man while Superman is basically a god.

There is danger around every corner for Batman, he has to use his skills, intelligence and gadgets to get the upper hand in situations. This makes for great gameplay potential and ultimately an amazing game, as both Arkham games have proven.

Superman, on the other hand, would just destroy everything if he needed to. He could hurl people into the sun. Stuck in a burning building? Just smash through the walls. Save 5 hostages? Lol, done in under a second. Unless Braniac clones an army of Darkseids, there is no "danger around every corner" like is the case with Batman. There is no sense of urgency.

There's also the practical development problems like "how big do you make the game world?". Superman can fly around the world in seconds, you can't confine him to a city. That's not how it works.


Also - making Superman weak for gameplay reasons is a huge disservice to the character and a total cop-out.
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Maybe Superman games need to be over the top like Bayonetta or Killer 7.
 
Barrow Roll said:
Personally, Superman's powers and abilities were never what made him interesting so a game wouldn't really do anything for me. It's how someone of a such a godlike stature relates to the rest of humanity and how such a being still believes in the best of us after seeing the worst side of us day after day; that's what makes Superman a compelling character.
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100% correct. That is the appeal of Superman.
 
One of the huge misconceptions of Superman is that he cant be defeated physically. He sure can. Its almost impossible to kill him and it seems devs fall into this trap. You dont have to kill him, but you can defeat him. Theres plenty of enemies in the DC universe that either match or even surpass Superman in strength and intelligence. They need to design a game around his strength and weakness. As for his weakness we all know about Green kryptonite. However, there are other types of color kryptonite that give off different types of radiation that affect Superman in different ways. I have yet to see a Superman game to use this against him.

Bad Superman games happen cause those making these games arent really fans.
 
Honestly, a Superman game really needs to have a heavy emphasis placed on the narrative for you to even give a shit. Also a more linear focused game ala Arkham Asylum as opposed to Arkham City is more appropriate for Big Blue.
 
Strip Supes of his powers in the beginning, like in Symphony of the Night or Metroid Prime. Come up with some plot device as to why. Some Kryptonite thing. Make it an open world Metroidvania game, like Arkham City. Reintroduce him to his powers over the course of the game. Then he has growth. Regaining 100% of his abilities is reward enough for playing it to completion since by endgame he would be godlike and it would be fun just to load up the game and fool around Metropolis. Like Arkham, after gaining all of your abilities secret areas can be discovered and stuff.

That, or make an adventure point-and-click as some are suggesting. Personally I'd rather play an action/adventure though.
 
Daingurse said:
Honestly, a Superman game really needs to have a heavy emphasis placed on the narrative for you to even give a shit. Also a more linear focused game ala Arkham Asylum as opposed to Arkham City is more appropriate for Big Blue.
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I think AA is better for Bats, and an AC-style game is better for Supes.
 
Superman is near god mode, but still his strength and speed are still finite at some point. A Supes game should follow the template set by the movie Superman 2, where his actual weakness was the world he was supposed to protect. The baddies went after the people and environment, moreso than at Superman himself. That's the true challenge of Superman. Kryptonite is a corny cop-out
 
Rollo Larson said:
Superman is near god mode, but still his strength and speed are finite at some point. A Supes game should follow the template set by the movie Superman 2, where his actual weakness was the world he was supposed to protect. The baddies went after the people and environment, moreso than at Superman himself. That's the true challenge of Superman. Kryptonite is a corny cop-out
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It could be similar to Arkham City, where you could hear some thugs about to beat up a political prisoner and choose to intervene or not.
 
The general gist of it for me is that the "fail state" isn't death but rather failure to meet certain objectives resulting in a "game over" scenario due to the consequences of your actions. Superman can't reveal his identity, lose his loved ones or cause too much collateral damage. Your "life bar" would be a "popularity meter" when it appears.

Fail to stop a citizen from getting crushed by a car during a boss fight? Loss of "health"
Accidentally allow yourself to get used as a battering ram to drop an entire skyscraper during rush hour? Game over.
Accidentally reveal Clark's identity trying to find somewhere to change? Game over.
Lois Lane dies? Definitely game over.

Max "life" upgrades could be gained by doing side missions like stopping robberies etc

Game would be expensive as all get out to make due to the environmental damage scales you'd be working with (tons of big scale scripted stuff, but also an open world sandbox)

DEFINITELY doable though.
 
How about this...

Superman was arrogant. He was a 'god' among the people of earth and he knew it. He used his powers for the greater good, but he had no humility. He did it out of obligation, not out of genuine concern or love for the people of Earth. Jor-El grows tired of his son's ways and strips Kalel of his powers to teach him what it's like to truly be as the people he's around. To learn to care for them, to love them, to feel for them.

Years go by and Kalel has changed. He has truly come to terms with what his father wanted and expected from him. He returns to his father to ask for his powers back. Jor-El tells him he has hidden his powers somewhere on Earth and its up to Kalel to seek them out. To use his wits, his cunning... Everything he has learned ever since being relinquished of his might. He must retrieve them to become the true Superman he was always meant to be and save the Earth from an incoming catastrophe.
 
A Superman game could work well. The important thing would be not to limit his abilities however. It's better that they employ a game design that works around his powers without gimping him. I would think that the best route would be to ignore the simple route and just go all out with him. Bring in a danger of epic proportions, and allow the gamers to pretty much use Superman at his peak. Making artifical threats on a street level would just result in a poor effort.

Barrow Roll said:
Personally, Superman's powers and abilities were never what made him interesting so a game wouldn't really do anything for me. It's how someone of a such a godlike stature relates to the rest of humanity and how such a being still believes in the best of us after seeing the worst side of us day after day; that's what makes Superman a compelling character.
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That's nice but has basically nothing to do with making a game about him. They're not writing a comic book.
 
A superman game should just be 2 hours in the life of him. It just starts out with him flying above metropolis. Let say you have mission points, each task will take a certain amount of points. Do you save the ocean by fixing the oil pipeline. Save the baby in the middle of the street, the early twenty something being raped. Fast forward to the next day and you get the paper to see how you changed the world.
 
How about a Smallville game where you slowly are gaining your powers and need to use them sneakily in order to avoid attention. (Yeah, I know it would probably suck to do that)

Think Bully with superpowers.
 
The coolest things Superman does are really limited by current tech. Things like fighting colossal, unstoppable forces, or diving through walls and streets and mountains to stop a threat, all very difficult without meeting some serious CPU, RAM, and programming labor requirements. That being said, I'd love to see things like a fully destructible city, villains the size of skyscrapers (think the Alpha Ceph or Shadow of the Colossus), full-scale alien invasions, a lock-on mechanic using X-Ray vision to burst through a wall and stop a threat/rescue a hostage within a split second. They could use "slow motion" to capture his sense of speed and still have it be playable.
 
Jake Tower said:
With all the 'Superman is too powerful you can't make a game with him' why isn't this a concern for Hulk games? Or that Thor game from a few years ago?
Click to expand...

I don't remember the Thor game, but the main hook to Hulk is 'Smash.' Those games were fun because Hulk could beat the shit out of anything that moved. Superman has near god-like powers, but he restrains himself to protect the people. So to enjoy a Superman game in the way we would enjoy a Hulk game would defeat the intent of Superman as a character.
 
A Batman or Superman game were never hard to do right, it's just that WB kept on letting bad developers make them. In the right hands there can also be an amazing Superman game.
 
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