Golden Age might be too limiting for a whole game.
Golden Age might be too limiting for a whole game.
Unfortunately I’m sure WB wouldn’t ever green light a Superman game where he didn’t fly, so my dream of a game inspired by Morrison Action or set in the 1930s will never be
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
I think a Golden Age Superman game would be great, and if well done I'd play it, but I'm sure if I played the game I'd also be wishing I had access to Silver Age Superman, too. Compare that to Arkham and I thought there was so little they could've done to make it a better Batman sim. Hell, I think it does action sequences better than most of the Batman cartoons out there, so in some ways it's a better Batman sim than a lot of stuff we see in other media.
But don't get me wrong, sometimes there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a good game using a superhero license but not necessarily being a great sim. I was a big fan of the Marvel vs. games by Capcom, and none of those games have any story to speak of, and most of the fighting scenarios don't make a lick of sense. I actually prefer that to coming up with story-based reasons why combatants A and B can have a fair fight, like another development studio does with its games...
Maybe a Superman sim would be better suited for the VR medium, and the more traditional-style game should be a great game that happens to use the Superman license.
EDIT: The more I think about it, the more I do believe a Metroidvania-style, open world game with a solid story that takes you on the journey to Golden Age power levels to Post-Crisis does have a lot of potential. So if you can find a way to incorporate powers and have good environmental interaction, too, we may be on to something special.
Last edited by DochaDocha; 09-10-2021 at 09:36 PM.
Why is it that this question is asked when games of gods,demons..etc are being made?
"People’s Dreams... Have No Ends"
Don’t get me wrong man: I loooove immersive sims. I love when I can do stuff like blow a door open with a rocket rather than have to hunt for a door pass. But that’s the minority, there’s hard limits on what you can do as Batman and Spider-Man for example that demand you suspend your disbelief. Why can’t I web swing across the bridge to the other NYC boroughs? There’s no in game reason why I can’t. Why can’t I attack civilians? There’s no reason why, the devs just don’t let you. Stuff like that doenst bother me, I’d rather have a Superman game that lets me fight villains within whatever limitations the devs set than refuse anything less than a “perfect” Superman sim. Supes needs new fans, and a video game to go with his upcoming cartoon would help a lot. The alternative is just ceding his only video game rep to Injustice.
The only casual criticism I agreed with was the flight. Flying combat is tough, and it’s only recently that the tech caught up to make it feel good. But there are games now that have solved that problem too! Control and Anthem for example both have good aerial combat. There’s really nothing at this point stopping a Superman game from being made except WB doesn’t want to.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
At this point they should just rent out the ip.I am sure.Someone out there would like to actually use superman.If those things bring good will,wb can atleast use it to propel the character in pop culture and capitalise it later on.
"People’s Dreams... Have No Ends"
I'm guessing part of the reason is that being a tank is so baked into Superman's mythos, which goes against roughly 40 years of basic video game design. Games from the 80s onward mostly focused on glass cannon-type heroes, these sort of one-many army heroes who can take on an entire legions of villains but can only sustain a few hits. Even gods from mythology and stuff aren't typically portrayed as that durable. And even if you did compensate for Superman's durability (e.g. magic and Kryptonite weapons), you still have to deal with all that other Superman stuff like super speed, vision powers, etc..
Mind you, there have been decent Superman games made, or JL games featuring Superman. The video below is a longplay of the Taito Superman arcade game, and I think it's perfectly fine for an 80s arcade beat-em-up/horizontal shooter hybrid. For whatever reason, it gets lost in modern-day discussions of Superman games, probably because of how infamously bad other (one in particular...) Superman games have been. I'm guessing that whenever even a pretty decent Superman game came out, it always left the player thinking what can be done to make it either a) a better game or b) a better use of the Superman license or c) both, and for a handful of reasons the improved, next-gen iteration never came.
EDIT: Maybe a fighter in the style of recent DBZ games would make for a good Superman game, too, where you spend a lot less time fighting random mooks and more time fighting high-profile villains in expansive environments as opposed to constrained arenas.
Last edited by DochaDocha; 09-11-2021 at 09:20 AM.
Put Superman's strength around Byrne's level, before he stopped caring. Though Superman has always been insanely strong, Siegel's stories just never had the feats like the other incarnations. Bring back "nothing less than a bursting shell" and keep kryptonite away. It's 2021, we got a lot of weaponry that can do some damage against Superman with the bursting shell weakness. Get rid of the super-hearing and super-vision. Heat vision and x-ray can stay should have like a limit on it. Put an emphasis on the Clark Kent/Superman dual identity. For example, let the player explore in an open-world as Clark Kent, interacting with his fellow heroes in their civilian attire or just random people. Give Clark Kent some storylines, hence why I stated the hearing/vision should go.
In my opinion, just play around with the character. We don't always need a godlike Superman.
I guess,i just don't see anything special about superman's durability that i wouldn't get from a hercules,nezha,sun wukong,ashura,kratos..etc.You can even have magical mythical kaijuu beasts like in sekiro,ashura's wrath..etc fighting superman.I mean,his own comics had those giant robot,giant monkeys and lizards .etc. Destroyable environment has become easier to do as well as flight these days.High speed blitz and afterimage combat between protagonist and antagonist with wind slash and lazers(in superman's case it would wind punches) stuff is kinda staple for fantasy scifi sword fights in games devil may cry,lost souls aside...etc
while a fighting game with superman can be great.i think it cannot take up the space that mk vs dc or injustice has.also,I am of the mind that dragon ball itself needs an open world adventure type high quality game at this point.I think the only reason they haven't is because fighting is fundamental to dragon ball z more than adventure.It's a shame it wasn't always the case since dragon ball itself was more adventure.Superman is more of an scifi action adventure character than fighting character.
Last edited by manwhohaseverything; 09-12-2021 at 12:41 AM.
"People’s Dreams... Have No Ends"
Superman's gameplay would be more like a beat-em up with heat vision being the shoulder buttons on the controller.
Flight could be seperate missions like how some platformers do vehicle missions. It could even be a fast travel mechanic.
Last edited by the illustrious mr. kenway; 09-12-2021 at 08:44 AM.
I'm not that well-read on mythology from around the world, but Heracles wasn't a guy know for having spears, arrowheads, and swords breaking on him. He wore the Nemean Lion's hide as armor because mortal weapons couldn't penetrate it, so I just assumed that meant that Heracles could get harmed, too.
Maybe mythology writers from millennia ago were just less ridiculous about power creep?
Last edited by DochaDocha; 09-12-2021 at 09:44 AM.