Superman video games

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Superman
Developer(s) Atari
Publisher(s) Atari
Designer(s) John Dunn
Platform(s) Atari 2600
Release date 1979
Genre(s) Action Adventure
Mode(s) Single player
Media Cartridge
Input methods Joystick
For other uses, see Superman (disambiguation).

Among the various medias, Superman has starred in many video games as well.

Contents

[edit] Superman (Atari 2600)

Superman is an Atari 2600 game designed by John Dunn and published by Atari in 1979.

[edit] Overview

The player(s) takes control of the DC Comics character Superman, who must repair the bridge destroyed by Lex Luthor, capture Luthor and his criminals underlings, enter a phonebooth to turn back into Clark Kent, then return to the Daily Planet in the shortest amount of time. To slow Superman's progress, Kryptonite has been released by Luthor. If hit by Kryptonite, Superman loses his ablilities to capture criminals and fly. To regain them, he must find and kiss Lois Lane.

Only three of Superman's powers are used in this game: strength, X-ray vision, and flight.

The game can be played with two players. The player using the left joystick controller will have priority over the left and right movement of Superman, while the player using the right controller will have priority over up and down movement of Superman. Superman is one of the earliest console games to feature a Pause option,[citation needed] which could be activated by pressing the select switch on the Atari 2600.

Atari later developed video-game-looking graphics for the film Superman III.

[edit] Glitches

  • The game has a bug where if you start the game and use the x-ray vision without moving at all, you can start flying without having to change to Clark Kent, see the bridge blow up and walk all the way back to turn into Superman. It made the game a lot easier where if you were hit by the Kryptonite Satellite, Lois Lane would automatically show up for you to touch.
  • The game also has another bug where it is possible to pause the game immediately after initially changing into Clark Kent, then wait until the screensaver begins to rotate through the different locations (to prevent TV screen burn-in). If the player waits and keeps the game paused until the Daily Planet building shows up in the rotation, it is possible to move a very small distance and touch the Daily Planet's door as Clark Kent, and thus "win" in zero seconds without having otherwise completed the game objectives.

[edit] Superman (Arcade Game)

Superman
Superman faces a boss during the vertically scrolling part of game's first level.
Developer(s) Taito Corporation
Publisher(s) Taito Corporation
Release date 1988
Genre(s) Scrolling fighter/Shoot'em up
Mode(s) Up to 2 players, simultaneous
Input methods 4-way joystick, two buttons
Cabinet Upright
Arcade system X System
CPU MC68000
Sound Z80; YM2610
Display Horizontally oriented

Superman is an arcade game released by Taito Corporation in 1988, featuring popular DC Comics character Superman.

[edit] Overview

The player takes control of Superman, who must fight through five levels to make the world safe from the evil Emperor Zaas. The first player takes control of the traditional blue Superman, while the second player takes control of a red Superman with a Captain Marvel-styled white cape. [1]The title starts out in Metropolis before going to San Francisco, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.. Superman is able to punch, kick and fly. He can also use a projectile "Sonic Blast" attack when the player holds down then releases the punch button. There are also objects in the levels he can throw and/or break. Some of these objects release crystals that can restore Superman's energy, allow the player to throw one projectile attack without charging or defeat all the enemies on the screen. [2] The first four levels have three-parts - a side-scrolling part, followed by a vertically scrolling flying part and a final side-scrolling shooter part where Superman uses heat vision instead of kicking and can destroy or dodge obstacles such as rocks. Each part has a boss at the end. The final level, the main boss's spaceship, adds a side-scrolling shooting section to the beginning and an extra final boss fight at the end. Throughout much of the game the "Superman Main Theme" from the Superman films plays.

[edit] Second player

The second player's red Superman is identical to the first player's blue Superman, except in appearance. However, the red Superman's presence is never explained in the game. The other Superman also looks something like DC heroes Captain Marvel or Mon-El. A red Superman appears in an imaginary scenario in Superman #162. [3][1] Unused sprites from the game show what may be an alternate, female second player. [4]

[edit] Superman (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Superman
Image:SupermanNES.jpg
Developer(s) Seika
Publisher(s) KEMCO
Platform(s) NES
Release date December 1988
Genre(s) Action Adventure
Mode(s) Single player
Media Cartridge
Input methods Gamepad

Superman is the title of an NES video game based on the popular DC Comics character and the first two films of the same name. The game is a combination of side-scrolling action mixed in with some puzzles. While the US release contains an original soundtrack, the Japanese Famicom release features a synthesized version of the film's score.

See also: Superman music

In the game, the player controls Superman on a quest to save the city of Metropolis from the evil Lex Luthor and a gang of criminals that were exiled from the planet Krypton. The game had an overhead map of various locations in the city that the player can travel to, with animated scenes, but then the gameplay would switch to a more traditional side-scrolling adventure game.

Superman has an energy (Super Power) bar and he can collect various icons in the game to use a limited supply of one of his item powers: x-ray vision (make certain enemies visible), superflight, super spin, heat vision (laser attack), and ice breath 1 and ice breath 2 (freeze enemies). A main difference aside from the comics was that Superman's x-ray vision was used to make invisible enemies visible. The instruction booklet explained that glitch by claiming that "Superman is now unable to see inside buildings, as Lex has lined all the buildings in Metropolis with lead!" Aside from the item powers, Superman can also jump and punch. Players start out the game as Clark Kent but can change into Superman (provided that they have enough Super Power) by entering into one of the phone booths that are scattered throughout the city. However, taking sufficient damage from enemies would cause Superman to become Clark Kent. Whenever Superman entered the Daily Planet building he would always revert to Clark Kent, no matter what his power level was. The game also came with an area map that split up the districts of Metropolis and allowed Superman to use his superflight power to quickly change areas. Occasionally a "Help!" signal would appear on the map, such as a person being mugged, to which Superman could fly to that area immediately and aid the person in need.

At the end of each city level, the player a different boss and gives each end of chapter victory an animated front page of a Daily Planet newspaper displaying their success. The second to the last chapter boss in the game is Lex Luthor. This is followed by three fights in a row against the exiled criminals from Krypton; Ursa, Non and General Zod at the "Statue of Freedom", which looks like the Statue of Liberty.

[edit] Superman (Sunsoft Game)

Superman
Image:Superman (1992) Coverart.png
Developer(s) Sunsoft
Publisher(s) Sunsoft
Platform(s) Genesis/Mega Drive
Release date 1992
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s) Single player
Media 8-megabit Cartridge

Superman is the title of a video game released by Sunsoft for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1992. It is based on the popular DC comic book characters of the same name and is a traditional single-player side-scrolling arcade game where the player controls Superman through various levels in an effort to defeat the evil supervillain named Brainiac.

This game was planned to release on the SNES but the game was cancelled some where before it was complete.[citation needed]

[edit] Storyline & Gameplay

Each level of the game begins with a front page of the Daily Planet announcing that some supervillain is wreaking havok on the city, and with Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman leaping into a phonebooth in order to start the level.

The game limited the powers of Superman to jumping, punching and kicking. He could only use his famous superpowers by collecting certain icons scattered throughout the level that were required to accomplish a certain task, i.e. a superpunch icon to break down a wall in order to further advance in the level. At the end of each level, Superman battled one of the a supervillain from the comics and the intermission between each level was a congratulatory message from the Daily Planet newspaper.

The final level involved Superman flying up into Brainiac's space station for a repeat battle with the previous supervillain bosses and then a final battle with Brainiac.

[edit] Critics

While the game was noted for its decent 16-bit graphics and sound, critics panned the game for its limited usage of Superman's powers and for having a limited storyline. As you could only have one super power icon at a time, a glitch in the preproduction editions of the game (fixed before its release but still a problem in the edition that was reviewed by many video game critics) forced the player to reset the game if they collected the wrong icon.

Today, the game has become something of a collector's item, because it is hard to find, and is often not listed among the various Superman video and computer games.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The Killer List of Videogames: Superman. Retrieved on July 19, 2006.
  2. ^ Arcade Flyers: Superman. Retrieved on July 19, 2006.
  3. ^ Legion of Super-Heroes. Retrieved on July 20, 2006.
  4. ^ Scrollboss: Comic based game sprites. Retrieved on July 20, 2006.

[edit] External links

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