Superman 64
Superman 64 | ||
---|---|---|
Composer(s) WAAM[3] | | |
Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 | |
Release | ||
Genre(s) | Action-adventure | |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Superman: The New Superman Adventures,
In the game, Lex Luthor has trapped Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and Professor Hamilton in a virtual reality version of Metropolis that he created with the help of Brainiac, leaving it up to Superman to save them and break apart the virtual world. The game shifts between outdoor levels where the player flies through rings while saving civilians, and indoor levels where the player looks for access cards, activates computers, and fights villains such as Brainiac, Mala, Metallo, Darkseid, and Parasite.
The development of Superman began in 1997 and was largely hampered by constraints between Titus and the game's licensors,
Gameplay
Superman is a three-dimensional action-adventure platform game, where the player acts as the titular hero saving the citizens of Metropolis, such as Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Professor Emil Hamilton, from a virtual reality of it created by Lex Luthor.[5] Virtual Metropolis is filled with what the developers call "Kryptonite fog" in an apparent effort by Lex Luthor to diminish Superman's abilities (which is actually distance fog and is used as a technique to mask the game's poor draw distance).[6]
In the main single-player mode, the player assumes the role of Superman, who is challenged by Luthor to complete various tasks and puzzles. Superman can walk, fly, punch enemies, and use super-strength to lift and carry large objects.[7] Superman's other superpowers, including Heat Vision, Freeze Breath, X-Ray Vision, Super Speed, and Reprogrammation (where Superman reprograms an enemy to help fight off other enemies), are only accessible through the collection of power-ups in certain levels and have limited reserves.[8] If Superman is attacked by enemies, hazards, or is in close proximity to Kryptonite, his health will decrease. The player will enter game over (indicated with "LEX WINS") and will be required to restart the current mission if Superman loses all his health. The player will also enter game over if a civilian character is attacked or time limits imposed on various missions expire before they are completed.
Superman consists of fourteen levels, alternating between outdoor and indoor levels.[9] The indoor levels involve combat, exploring environments to find access codes to locked areas, activating computers, solving puzzles to finish objectives, and fights with villains such as Mala, Metallo, Darkseid, and Brainiac, who is responsible for programming the computers that trap them in Luthor's virtual reality.[10][11][12] Outdoor stages consist of traversing to the next indoor mission while flying through rings and saving civilians from enemies and hazards.[11] Several missions must be completed under time limits.[9] Superman: The New Superman Aventures has three difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, and Superman. In Easy mode, the player does not have to fly through rings in the ride stages.[13] The penultimate ride stage and the penultimate regular stage are only playable on Normal and Superman modes, and the concluding ride stage and regular stage only on Superman mode.[14] Despite this, it is possible to complete the game without encountering a single ring if the player starts on Easy, as the player is given an option to switch from Easy to Normal mode that skips the penultimate ride stage, as well as the option to switch from Normal mode to Superman mode that skips the final ride stage. The time available to complete missions also decreases the higher the difficulty.[15]
The game includes two multiplayer modes (a racing mode and a battle mode) that can be played with up to four people. In the battle mode, players must defeat their opponents by throwing various weapons and items at them. In the racing mode, players control a spaceship and rings shoot from the backside of one opponent.[16]
Development
Eric Caen, one of the founders of French developer Titus Interactive, garnered the rights from WB Licensing to produce a Superman game during the development of The Animated Series. Hearing about the upcoming show in the Los Angeles offices of Titus, Caen went after the license as no other company would. He recalled in a 2015 interview that Warner Bros. "asked me three times if I was sure of what I was doing".[17] In early 1997 Titus signed a licensing deal with Warner Bros. to make games based on Superman: The Animated Series for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Game Boy.[18] The staff for the development of each port consisted of two programmers and six to nine artists.[17] The Game Boy game was completed and released by the end of the year.
The Nintendo 64 game's development lasted two years.
Only a few days after the deal was made, the Warner Bros. licensing team changed. Based on Caen's testimony, the new group instantly hated Titus and the project and tried to stop its development. The first demand was to make Superman "a
Some changes were mandated for reasons of putting the fictional DC Comics hero in a positive light. In addition to the limiting of Superman's powers and removal of breakable architecture, the game was set in a virtual world in order for the titular hero to not harm "real" people. Although the ring stages were originally supposed to be tutorial stages, they became a part of regular gameplay due to the other changes.[17][20] These conflicts resulted in a delayed production process where "it took [Titus] months to get every single character approved" and an inability to fix bugs and issues associated with the collision detection and controls that the final product would be criticized for.[17] Near the end of its development, technical support was provided for Titus by Nintendo of America.[21]
Pre-release publicity
Superman was shown at three
Titus announced Superman to be around 85–95% complete in March 1998.[29] The game was delayed again after the 1998 E3 showing in response to gameplay criticisms, and released 3D character models and map sheets of the levels on 24 August.[30] GamePro, labeling the game an "E3 showstopper", noted its "good-looking graphics".[31]
In June 1998,
Nintendo Magazine's preview coverage in an August 1998 issue showed Titus still had not implemented non-tutorial ring stages and a virtual world setting in its plot; the premise was presented as Luthor trapping all of the Metropolis citizens in a "deadly Kryptonite fog". The magazine also saw promise in the final product, claiming that it was "packed with great ideas, and the four-player mode looks like a right good left".[34] In the December issue, the magazine, which changed its name to Nintendo Official Magazine, ran another preview piece showcasing more of Superman's abilities in the game, such as breaking through bricks, lifting cars and humans, punching, and using heat vision and ice breath; it announced a January 1999 release date in North America and a spring date in Europe.[35]
A press release in October 1998 showed that at point, Superman 64's release date was set on November 16, 1998, with "a huge promotional campaign to include; special in-store promotions and displays, advertising, television, on-line and print media. Promotional items will include: standees, t-shirts, game footage, videotapes and oversized boxes".[36]
Superman was one of only five Nintendo 64 games presented at the 1999 Tokyo Game Show.[37]
After the critical failure of the N64 version, Titus gave BlueSky Software the reins to completely redesign Superman for the PlayStation. The game received approval from Sony, but the license from Warner Bros. had expired and Titus was unable to secure a new one,[38] resulting in the game's cancellation in 2000.[39][40] According to Caen, after Warner Bros. "forced us to kill the PlayStation version", the company was planning to pay Titus a litigation settlement as a payback for its abusive behavior against the developer.[17] A build of the game dated to June 22, 2000 was eventually uploaded to MediaFire on November 28, 2020, by Richard Evan Mandel, who announced and linked to the build's release via a journal post on his DeviantArt page.[41]
Reception
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
AllGame | [13] |
Consoles + | 55%[9] |
Electronic Gaming Monthly | 8/40[11] |
EP Daily | 3/10[43] |
Game Informer | 1.25/10[44] |
GameRevolution | F[45] |
GameSpot | 1.3/10[46] |
Hyper | 10%[47] |
IGN | 3.4/10[6] |
Jeuxvideo.com | 9/20[48] |
Mega Fun | 9%[49] |
N64 Magazine | 14%[50] |
Next Generation | [51] |
Nintendo Power | 4.7/10[52] |
Official Nintendo Magazine | 49%[53] |
Super Game Power | 3.8/5[54] |
Video Games (DE) | 21%[55] |
Publication | Award |
---|---|
EGM[56] | Biggest Gaming Industry "Slick Disaster" |
The controls were panned for being confusing and difficult.
The graphics were condemned as "basic" and poor for a Nintendo 64 game released in 1999.
The audio was also criticized. The repetitiveness of the soundtrack was brought up by reviewers such as GameSpot's Joe Fielder, who felt it "would be considered bad for the SNES".[51][46] He also noted that "the sparse voice work even changes at one point, from Man of Steel actors to someone who sounds nothing like the lead of the show".[46] As Norton-Smith proclaimed, "the soundtrack is more than capable of causing spontaneous aneurysms at 50 paces, and the handful of canned smashing moves do a great job at driving home the horror".[47] Chris Johnston of Electronic Gaming Monthly found the graphics "semi-decent" if "oddly letterboxed", and Marriott was fond of them for being "colorful" and "simple".[13][11] Some reviewers praised the visuals' closeness to the animated series, as well as the inclusion of its original voice actors, Weaver highlighting Lex Luthor's laugh which "almost made up for Superman being so hideous".[13][9][50] Lukewarm appreciation was also given to the music, including from Jeuxvideo.com who noted its atmospheric nature and disliked its lack of stylistic variance throughout the game.[50][13][48]
Statements of Superman 64 being one of the worst video games of all time have continued in later years.
Notes
- ^ A typo on the box art says "Aventures" rather than "Adventures",[4] although "aventures" is the word for "adventures" in Titus Interactive's native French.
- ^ [11][51][46][45]
- ^ [6][45][46][62][63][50][48]
- ^ [13][11][45][47][6][50][51][48][62]
- ^ [11][62][64][65]
- ^ [48][46][13][53]
- ^ [11][6][50][62]
- ^ [68][69][70][71][72]
References
Citations
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- ^ "Superman". IGN. Archived from the original on August 17, 2000. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Titus (May 1999). Superman: The New Aventures. Titus. Level/area: Credits.
- ^ Womack, Lacey (February 17, 2020). "10 Of The Worst Video Game Box Art Mistakes". Game Rant. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ Instruction manual 1999, p. 2.
- ^ a b c d e f Casamassina, Matt (June 2, 1999). "Superman Review". IGN. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
- ^ Instruction manual 1999, p. 5.
- ^ Instruction manual 1999, p. 6.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Superman". Console+ (in French). No. 90. July 1999. p. 140.
- ^ Titus (May 1999). Superman: The New Adventures. Titus.
Letter: From Brainiac to Lex Luther: The computers in my spacecraft have been programmed to keep all of us in this virtual world.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Superman (N64)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 120. July 1999. p. 127.
- ^ Nintendo Power guide 1999, p. 26–30.
- ^ AllGame. Archived from the originalon November 13, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
- ^ Nintendo Power guide 1999, p. 30.
- ^ Instruction manual 1999, p. 4.
- ^ Instruction manual 1999, p. 10.
- ^ Playboy. Archived from the originalon September 30, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
- ^ "Inside Scoop". GamePro. No. 103. IDG. April 1997. p. 20.
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- ^ a b Caen, Eric (January 7, 2011). "An Interview With Eric Caen" (Interview). Interviewed by Proton Jon. Proton Jon's Blog. Archived from the original on June 3, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ "Titus' Superman Stuck in Phone Booth". Game Informer. No. 70. February 1999. p. 29.
- ^ IGN Staff (March 27, 1998). "Superman is Clark Kent!". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
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- Gamers' Republic. No. 2. July 1998. p. 9.
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- Nintendo of America. December 1998. p. 101.
- ^ GameWeek Staff (October 15, 1998). "Man of Steel Makes History". GameWeek. 4 (17). Cyberactive Media Group.
- ^ Mandel, Richard (November 28, 2020). "Superman for PlayStation (Titus, 2000) released!!!". DeviantArt. DigitalExplorations. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
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- ^ a b c d e f Norton-Smith, Hugh (September 1999). "Superman". Hyper. No. 71. p. 61. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Test: Superman". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). December 29, 1999. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
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- ^ Future Publishing. p. 77.
- ^ a b c d e Trueman, Doug (October 1999). "Finals". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 2. Imagine Media. p. 109.
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- ^ a b c d "Superman". Official Nintendo Magazine. No. 83. August 1999. p. 31. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
- ^ a b Mathias, Lord (July 1999). "Superman". Super GamePower (in Portuguese). p. 30.
- ^ "Superman". Video Games (in German). September 1999. p. 91.
- ^ "Slick Disasters". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Vol. 13, no. 1. January 2000. p. 167.
- ^ IGN staff (June 15, 1999). "Superman Enjoys Super Sales". IGN. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^ IGN staff (July 1, 1999). "Superman Flies with the Big Boys". IGN. Archived from the original on March 7, 2002. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^ a b "Superman Flies off Shelves". IGN. July 8, 1999. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
- ^ "Interview: Eric Caen. Crazy Cars, Superman 64, and Back! - Retro Gaming Magazine". Retro Gaming Magazine. June 25, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
- ^ "Talking to Titus". IGN. June 2, 1998. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kramer, Sebastian (July 1999). "Superman". Total! (Germany) (in German). p. 66.
- ^ a b c Jenkins, Jevon (August 11, 1999). "Superman is fun to play, but lacks needed details". Game Industry News. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
- ^ a b "Superman". Nintendo Magazine System. No. 77. August 1999. p. 33.
- ^ a b c Sczepaniak, John (October 3, 2017). "Superman". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
- ^ a b Lee. "Superman 64". Total N64. Vol. 3, no. 7. pp. 50–51. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
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- ^ Birch, Nathan (March 25, 2016). "Virtual Kryptonite: Ranking The Superman Video Games That Failed To Take Off". Uproxx. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
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Bibliography
- Superman: The New Adventures instruction manual. Titus. 1999. pp. 1–13.
- "Superman". Nintendo Power. Vol. 120. May 1999. pp. 26–30.