Friday, January 31, 2014

Superman 64

Box Art
Officially called both Superman and The New Superman Aventures (that's how its spelled), "Superman 64" is a video game staring the famous superhero of its namesake (hence why I am talking about). It is also infamous for being one of the worst games ever. The game is based on animated series more than the comics.
Story
Lex Luthor captured by Jimmy Olsen, Doctor Emil Hamilton (this was before he was revealed to be part of Project Cadmus) and Lois Lane. The trio are placed in a "virtual" version of Metropolis. Superman enters the game to save them. During the game, he has to fight Metallo, Parasite, Brainiac, Darkseid and Mala (who is oddly without her boss Jax-Ur). If the player wins the game, the game tells you that Lex Luthor is still on the loose.
Gameplay
A "Ride Level"
Superman starts off with flight and super strength. He can gain ice breathe, x-ray vision and super speed via power ups. The explanation for Superman's lack of powers is that "kryptonite fog" (which is actually uses to hide the poor draw distance) is weakening his powers.
The actual game levels are separated in two types: ride and maze levels. The ride levels have Superman flying through color rings. After completing this, they have a timed object to complete (such as protecting a woman from goons or throwing a car). If the player misses three rings, runs out time or fails the time objective, the player has to restart the ring segment. The "Maze levels" have Superman travel through one of Luthor's outposts. After doing some task, Superman has to fight a boss.
The game engine is known for its terribleness. It has many glitches. These include (but are not limited to) walking through walls and floor, causing objects to fly, dying in cut scenes and characters disappearing (including some bosses).
History
YouTuber ProtonJon interviewed the producer of Superman 64. He claims that (after producing a beta game) DC Comics and Warner Bros interfered with the game's production. They forced the virtual reality plot onto the game (since they didn't want Superman killing "real" people) and messed with the game in various ways. As such, the final result wasn't even 10% of their original plan (although he admitted that he may have been too ambitious).
Reception
Reception of the game was extremely negative. GameSpot's Joe Fielder gave it 1.3 out of 10. YouTube star ProtoJon claimed he liked the game for its so bad, its good quality. GameRankings gave it an overall score of 22.9 out of 100.
References:
http://www.giantbomb.com/superman/3030-20702/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Superman64?from=Main.Superman64
ProtoJon's multi-part Let's Play of game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_(1999_video_game)

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