Superman Returns

Superman's reputation when it came to video games was already far in the gutter by 2006. When it was decided to make a Superman game based on the then-newest movie Superman Returns, that just seemed to be asking for trouble. How could combining the terrible reputation of Superman games with the abhorrent reputation of movie-based games NOT lead to a full-on atomic disaster? Thankfully. Superman Returns on Xbox is not the second coming of Superman 64 or E.T., but it doesn't clean up those bad reputations, either.

Superman Returns has one of the strongest plots of all the Superman games I've played which is understandable since it directly follows the movie it's based on. The main plot of Lex Luthor taking crystals from the Fortress of Solitude and trying to use them to create his own world is directly lifted from the movie as are the voices of the actors from the movie including Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, and Kevin Spacey. Additional subplots were added in to expand the game including fighting Bizarro and the gladiatorial combat on Warworld. As a bonus, you can even play as Bizarro for a while.

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For the first time, Superman got put into a completely open city to explore at his leisure. There are missions all over the place as well as random events ranging from beating up crooks to destroying falling meteors. Like games like Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Spider-Man 2, Kal-El gains experience points from these various activities which can then be cashed in for new abilities. All of his famous powers are available right from the start with just a self-recharging stamina meter keeping you from firing heat vision all day. One of the most interesting ideas here is that Superman is invincible but Metropolis isn't. Failure can only come from Metropolis getting damaged too much. That's one of the best ideas I've seen for a Superman game.

There are several issues which keep me from recommending this one. The controls are rather finicky. Switching between flying and walking is awkward at best. The combat is very clunky with the lock-on system failing constantly and easy hits missing at random. Picking up objects takes too long, making the fight against Overkhast annoying as hell. The random activities repeat constantly to the point that completing them drove me crazy. Finally, the Xbox version of the game looks very basic with very plain visuals that end up looking ugly from long-range. I know that the Xbox 360 version was the one getting top priority, but EA didn't have to make it quite so obvious.

Superman Returns is just like the movie it's based on in that it's just okay. It has a decent plot, and exploring Metropolis at will was exhilarating. However, the combat and constant babysitting of the city drove me nuts too often. In the end, just like the movie, it's something you check out once and never bother with again.