Superman: Countdown to Apokolips

Though it's easy to say that all Superman games suck, that's actually not an accurate generalization. There had been peaks and valleys (LOTS of valleys) throughout the character's video game history. However, after the turn of the millennium, it looked like the quality of Superman games was starting to balance out. Then, thanks to Countdown to Apokolips, I was forcefully reminded that video games can still be kryptonite for the Man of Steel.

Superman: Countdown to Apokolips at least has something of a plot. The main plot involves agents from the planet Apokolips teaming up with Metropolis' hoods to take down Superman. There are a few sub-plots involving Lois Lane being kidnapped and Livewire escaping from prison to flesh out the narrative. However, it doesn't come together into a cohesive whole. It feels like you're just playing separate episodes of the Animated Series. Fortunately, it does manage to get the look of the cartoon onto the Game Boy Advance screen. While characters lose some detail, the style is still very clear, especially in the comic-panel cutscenes. The music and sound effects sound like they were ripped straight from the show, as well.

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However, the gameplay gets very annoying very quickly. First of all, the developers went out of their way to try to get all of Kal-El's powers into the game, and the result is some very messy controls. It took a lot of fumbling before I figured out how to do the freeze breath (shame I couldn't find the instructions). Second, he goes down too easily. While regular bullets and punches don't hurt him too badly, the rockets and alien weapons could fry him like an egg. Third, the enemies will ALWAYS get the first hit. The moment one pixel of a thug's hand gets onscreen, he's already shooting. Then, the level designs are poor. While there are some straight level layouts that could've worked for a basic beat-em-up, most involve a lot of wandering in random directions. As a final insult, at the end of each level, you're given a rating for how well you did. The fact that the maximum three-star rating can only be attained by doing nothing but punching seems to be blatant punishment for anyone who actually wants to have fun with Clark's superpowers.

Superman: Countdown to Apokolips is far from the worst game to be associated with the Man of Steel, but it's still not worth hunting down. The aesthetics are the only things propping up the lazy story and game design. Sorry, but Apokolips can just flatten Metropolis for all I care.