Can You Make A Good Superman Game?

Written by: Cliff Wells 

There is probably no other licensed character who has had enough defeats at the hands of gaming than Superman. Forget kryptonite, magic, or a red sun, Superman’s true weakness has been video games.

Gamers have had a huge negative outlook on the Man of Steel (Superman 64 we still remember you), and the constant backlash of The Man of Tomorrow ranging from being too bland of a character, not enough villains, overpowered, resulting to the overall fear of a abysmal game.

Well I think that is absolutely false. Superman is the oldest comic book superhero still published today, he has without a doubt the richest lore of any character (yes even Batman). Let’s start on how an actual Superman game could work:

Concept: 

Superman is about strength. The fortitude to make the right decision no matter the situation, and the if you have strength you use that to help others who don’t, one of the big reasons he is dubbed, Big Blue Boyscout.

Flight Mechanics: 

Finely tuned flight controls, flying above all else should be easy, and fun to use.

Perspective:

I think the game should be a customized third person perspective, meaning that you would have the ability to zoom as far, or as close to Superman while in third person.

Gameplay: 

Of the entire games based on the Last Son of Krypton only one in my opinion achieved a good core element for a video game. In Superman Returns (game based on the 2006 film), Superman doesn’t have a health bar, instead Metropolis does. This is a brilliant way of substituting a near invulnerable character’s health bar for a city with living people. 

Ambassador For Hope: 

Superman doesn’t just protect Metropolis, but Earth as a whole. Tackle the big issues he faces in the world, if countries withhold food from a poor nation have The Man of Steel supply them, busted underwater oil lines, a rocket malfunctioning in space, and yes a plane falling from the sky, there are enough disasters globally to come up with any given scenario. Carry the weight of being Superman.

Clark Kent: 

Let’s not forget Superman spends a lot of his time as Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, which can serve as one of your many mission hubs, Kent is his eyes, and ears at the Planet to keep up with everything going on with the world.

Power Balance: 

Since you have a multitude of powers as Superman, they should all be based on an RPG like system. The longer you are exposed to the sun (playing the game progression wise) the stronger those powers become, so head back to the Fortress of Solitude, and continue training to reach your maximum status.

Weaknesses:

Kryptonite is an obvious one, but the sun can prove to be a troublesome foe as well. Go to places of the world with little to no sunlight, Superman is a solar battery, let him fight on the reserves, and have enemies with magic.

Villains: 

Superman has a multitude of villains besides Lex Luthor that would be awesome to see in a game.

Have Metallo be a recurring side villain throughout the story in Metropolis, Lex manipulating public perception of you, then fight against him in his power suit, the imp Mxyzptlyk messing with you (trials, collectibles, etc) go to War World to defeat Mongol, stop Bizarro from an incidental rampage, General Zod escaping from the Phantom Zone, have a galactic battle with Lobo, fight Darksied on Apokolips, have Doomsday sent to destroy Earth as a final boss.

Cameos:  

Let members of the Justice League pop in. 

Fly by Watchtower in space, Bruce Wayne on television at the Planet, Wonder Woman at the United Nations when you are doing a journalistic piece as Clark Kent. Save someone and Flash gets them before you, all you see is a red streak, and he leaves you a selfie in your hand of him saving the person. 

Have Green Lantern hand over Lobo to the Corps after you are done with him. Aquaman thanking you for helping him with an oil spill in the ocean. 

Home: 

Go back to Smallville and check on your mother, play through mini missions of you as a teenage Clark Kent 10 mins max a mission

To me these would be beneficial in making a good Superman game.

The Superhero Game Stigma

Written by Cliff Wells

Last night the CGSyndicate was in chat talking about comic book based video games. One of our close friends on the matter suggested that any character could potentially have an awesome game due to the longevity of the characters story, since story matters. His example was Iron Man.

Now at the time I was really set against it. My argument was “he has flight, the gauntlets, Jarvis, his mind, which would eventually become stale and repetitive making it just a cool VR demo or game”.  At the time I was solely thinking about the gameplay aspect, which is vital to gaming, but story matters and as an aspiring writer I should have picked up on what he was saying. So I slept on it and realized he was right, you can make an awesome Iron Man game and here’s how:

Character Summary: Due to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe I doubt Iron Man would need an introduction to anyone, but since the comics have a much richer lore let’s take the real look into the character: Tony Stark being a billionaire U.S. weapons manufacturer, learns the misuse of his technology after almost suffering a literal loss of heart from a land mine created by his own company at a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan.

He was then captured by a worker of the Mandarin. Fortunately for our character the shrapnel penetration was however averted by a fellow prisoner Yin Sen, a physicist who created what is known as the famous arc reactor to stop the shrapnel from entering his vital organ (which also has to be permanently attached to Stark to live). Tony then makes the first Iron Man armor, and successfully gets out making a promise to himself to rectify Stark Industries as Iron Man.

Game Concept:

Let’s take the statement above. Iron Man doesn’t have a secret identity the whole world knows he is Tony Stark. Tony personally wants repentance for the disaster his company has brought on most of the world through war. So let’s transition that to gameplay:

Perspective: To me Iron Man would have to be a third and first person game. You should be able to toggle between the two instantaneously, similar to Star Wars Battlefront. Gamers love customization and perspective is the easiest way to accomplish that. In first you are Iron Man, you see through the helmet Jarvis is constantly communicating with you while flying through New York. Third needs little to no explanation, you want to see your Iron Man suit! Or maybe you’re like me, and would be switching between the two, either way you’re set.

Objectives: I think New York should serve a sandbox for you to be Iron Man and Tony. Tony Stark is one of the smartest characters in Marvel and a brilliant inventor. You should be able to customize or craft each armor of your choosing for any task at hand, and the customization should be near limitless so no matter who plays that game no one has an Iron Man armor that is exactly the same.

 Now transition that into boss battles, and let the players decide what to bring in for battle, and not given selections. Whatever you accomplish in game should only be unlocked when you face the boss. In addition let there be consequences for the highest difficulty if you lose a battle there is no Game Over or Restart, you face the consequences as Tony Stark and have to go on damage control, which would bring in Nick Fury, and Shield as well as Captain America into play in the story

As Iron Man you should be able to go to three countries that are sandboxes of their own, Russia, China and Afghanistan.  Go on missions to rescue or liberate people, give clean or running water, set up a Stark Tower in other countries that would promote free energy through an arc reactor. Go on diplomatic side missions.

Cameos and Appearances

Marvel characters such as Spider-Man, Reed Richards, Hulk, Magneto, and Daredevil.

Online Play

A 2 v 2 online match of Iron Man, and War Machine vs Iron Monger, and Whiplash, in any one of 

those open sandboxes above.

Co-Op Campaign

Someone can join your game as Rhodey/WarMachine

Thank you Grey and Castro for giving me the spark to write this

NEXT TIME…