Is a good Superman game possible?

[SicaFanta]

I've heard people say that it can't be done because Superman is too powerful, but I think that doesn't fly.

I think people would enjoy playing Superman, but the games he's had don't provide what it means to be him. You can't make Superman a beat em up like Batman or Spidey. He can beat most guys by blowing on them. With that in mind, a good Superman game would have to be a unique animal.

First of all, you would need a huge landscape, like Red Dead or GTA. Make Metropolis an enormous city that Superman can fly around. The #1 thing people want to do as Superman is FLY. So don't have selected areas where he can fly or a small map. Also, take a page from the Altered Reality challenges from Arkham City and give Superman flying challenges he can do to unlock advanced flying manuvers.

Next being Superman means more than beating bad guys, it is also protecting the innocent. A big part of the game would be keeping collateral damage to a minimum. Trash a city block while stopping a bank robbery will kill your approval with the people. Have Daily Planet "approval ratings" that score your missions.

Next let's get Clark Kent in the game. Superman attracts too much attention so there will be times when you need to switch to Clark for some investigative reporting. I'd have the main storyline be trying to get enough dirt on Lex Luthor to bring him down. You'd use Clark to snoop around his factories or interview associates.

Design missions that are truly a "job for Superman". For example, Luthor launches multiple missles to hit far apart targets in Metropolis. Sure it is no problem to stop one, but getting to ALL of them is the key.

Finally, boss fights. Bring in some heavy hitters so that Superman can go all out and brawl. Metallo, Parasite and Brainiac could all be epic fights if done right. You can even do a wacky Mr. Mxypltk portion of the game.

I still think a superman game can work well, maybe even implementing some things learned from Arkham, story driven focus, good cinematics, good use of dialogue, set pieces and characters. Also playing as superman doesnt mean you need to actually use kryptonite, for example maybe Lex has juiced the usual muscle bound mooks on a Kryptonite based steroid, meaning their attacks can hurt him, guns could be loaded with kryptonite or magical bullets? Magically enchanted melee weapons, fists etc.

They could also have supes start early in his career so his powers have not developed too powerful yet, this could mean that streamlined gameplay like in Batman: AA, while regular supes would just punch through any door unlike bats, a young clark could have to take the sneaky or long route and still make sense. They could use Christopher Kent(Nightwing) or Conner Kent. Chris is not as powerful or as invulnerable as other kryptonians (he was born in Phantom Zone, he is the son of General Zod and Ursa, kryptonians, adopted by Superman/Clark)

Also Chris's backstory and costume are cool and would fit if they decided to include a part where you say team-up with Red Robin, DIck Grayson or Bats? Maybe include enemies from batmans backstory such as Joker, Freeze, Ivy(maybe she could control him with a pheromone, sending him to kill bats, you coud play as Bats trying to free him and restrain him, or play as supes trying fight against the control with*sigh*timed button presses,if you miss Bats gets ripped to shreds or disintegrated)

They could also use detective mode (using the multiple types of visions clark is endowed with (using his knowledge of lead he could find hidden kryptonite/magic based traps.) They could use the multiple flavours of Kryptonite beyond green such as red which takes Clarks morals, inhibitions and ambitions away making him ruthless and selfish for some scenes, maybe some scenes as clark? Include smallville? A section of the game could take place in smallville? Hero cameos? (Batman/wonderman/Supergirl etc.)

Silver K makes him lose his mind, maybe including a part of the game where he goes nuts? (scarecrow could make a fear gas utilizing different K's) similar to Arkham. Maybe a phantom zone part where clark is vastly weakened and must use sneaking, wits and his natural strength gained from farming with his parents. Maybe a love interest to boost character development? Lois or Lana (Thara if they used Christopher Kent (Nightwing)

Make it less about abilities and his feats and more about his character, his views his humanity, maybe some moral dilemmas. Have his character tested, perhaps Lois/Lana/Kara/Parents are killed by one of his enemies and he is tested on his rule of never killing? Seeing him beat someone to a pulp and struggling to hold back like his usal self would be cool. maybe an end fight against his bigger enemies (Brainiac/Lex Powesuit/kryptonite tonic steroid/ Dark Sied)
Like Arkham Asylum which took place over the course of a single night in Arkham they could say have a bomb threat made by a group of Villains, the bombs have been placed in various sections of the city, they are using it as a distraction for a larger scale threat but you must primarily find villains (probably guarding a bomb, some investigative parts as Clark Kent? Utilize multiple visions and super hearing ect. (the injustice league/ include an alternate dimension JLA(villains?) Maybe a space section? Maybe the game would not even actually NEED free-roam as that would use up resources that could be used on graphics or other gameplay mechanics which were prominent in Arkham.

[Alex]

im having postive memories of a superman arcade game i played on vacation when i was very young.
It was at a truck stop and wasn't street fighter 2 so this must have been early 90s.

[ceroxide]

I've been thinking about this recently and I honestly think there's one way it could work well, now this might take a while so get ready to read :(

First of all, NO TAKING POWERS AWAY! This is Superman not Superchump! So right from the get go you have ALL of your powers but you won't be taught how to use them until you need to use them for the first time, you could potentially still press the button for heat vision and you'll fire it but you won't be using it regularly until the game has taught it to you)

As you progress and catch bad guys you gain experience which you can be used to buy upgrades for your powers or you could use them to buy combos you can upgrade or combine with Sups powers for cooler combos and that kind of everyday video game stuff. Think how Batman gets upgrades in Arkham City, just tailored towards Sups.

Now for the game itself the world is composed of Metropolis but for whatever reason it'll be huge, add more to Metropolis to make it even bigger than it was in DC Universe Online. The main story will focus around Braniac declaring war on Superman and has set up a plan to secretly invade Metropolis and finally bring down Sups. Now Braniac is the main villain but the city is overall full of other enemies Sups has had, and while Lex forms a big part of the story he is not the main villain but you constantly chase after him and go through his traps and some missions are set up by him but he still not the main, just sort of a showing of what he can be but you never fight him at his full potential, but you get to see enough to want to fight him at his fullest (DLC or part 2)

Now in the game you as Sups fly around a Metropolis where millions of crimes are happening all at once and each one is timed, for example you can have Atlas in one side of the city, while at the same time Bloodsport can be in another part of the city, while all at the while some crooks are about to rob a bank. You're F-ing Sups but there's only 1 of you, so you're going to have to decide which mission you're going to take upon, and right then and there you'll know that you're basically saying "I'll stop this guy, and leave the others to their own devices for now". Each mission you ignore will either disappear or escalate to something larger. For example the crooks you decided to let go in order to take down Bloodsport, they're now working for Bruno Manheim and are now packing more heat than before but at the same time they've also revealed who it is they're working for and Atlas, well that part of the city is now in ruins and he is nowhere to be seen.

You'll constantly be making this decisions that will weigh heavily into the story and defining Superman as a man with just as much guilt as power. By the end of the game you'll still be able to stop all the villains introduced throughout the story, if you choose to stop them, but all the damage they created in the time it took you to stop them cannot be undone, and Sups will be greatly affected by this in the story, questioning himself and loosing his will to fight (less health, less strength, and less powers overall). In the end Braniac will hold a final challenge for him, from his ship in orbit he'll latch cables to the terrain around metropolis and lift it from the Earth and is holding the entire city hostage, threatening to drop it if Superman doesn't meet his demands and now the problem is much bigger not only have you been failing/saving people from Braniac and other villains throughout the whole story but now the city itself is in danger of being destroyed, Superman might be all mighty and powerful but the world around him isn't and that's where he is the weakest, sure kryptonite wielding goons are hard to deal with but when innocent people are put on the line and he must make sacrifices that's a Superman that'll feel rather weak and people will sympathize with him
hell you cold even go as far as if the player continuously lets villains get away not only will Sups loose all his will, he will continually curse his powers because he cannot do anything with them, he is a man of steel in a world of corrosion and that eats him up from the inside out

[Aziz Abbasi]

Superman Returns displayed some potential, so I won't deny the possibility of a good Superman game

[dupersuper]

Superman Returns displayed some potential, so I won't deny the possibility of a good Superman game

I like the free play in that as much as the free play in the Spider-Man movie games: flying/swinging around a huge city fighting robots/muggers/super villains = fun.

[Aziz Abbasi]

I like the free play in that as much as the free play in the Spider-Man movie games: flying/swinging around a huge city fighting robots/muggers/super villains = fun.

Fighting robots by Spider-Man is a chore, I'm glad both versions of SM3 moved away from that, and it's sad that TASM will head back to it. Hope it's not as dull as the first movie game
I agree on everything else in the free roam is fun, flying controls were good in SR from what I experienced