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Superman Returns -Silver Birch Studios / Warner Bros. Wireless (2006) -Played on a Samsung A930
Summary: Superman fights the good fight of positive public opinion. My Thoughts:
Superman Returns begins just like the movie. Superman saves a space shuttle and passenger jet to make his grand re-debut on Earth. The first stage is cool as superman can use his powers or his mighty fists to free the shuttle and jet from destruction. When it’s completed the games takes a completely different direction then the movie, which isn’t bad, but turns out to be not that good. Superman’s goal is to do odd jobs to obtain a 100% public approval rating about his return. Why would Superman need a 100% approval rating to save the world? If he only reaches 73% does he just give up the superhero business? This initial premise doesn't make much sense, but regardless, Superman needs to be loved by one and all. Almost the entire game takes place on the block where the Daily Planet is located. This must be the block with the worst luck in all of Metropolis because everything seems to happen on this street or under it. Superman must save people being mugged, stop bank robbers in a car, detect bombs in mailboxes, stop meteors from falling on people, blow out buildings on fire, and stop runaway subway trains. Once the public unanimously approves of him, he can go on to the story of the game… or so you think. During the time that Superman is performing random acts of saving you are wondering when the meat of the game will begin. When will Superman be able to get on to the story and defeat whatever trouble causing villain the developers placed in the game? After his rating is golden he gets to save an oil rig from sinking and Daily Planet photographer Jimmy who is trapped in the sewers for no reason. What the hell is Jimmy doing in the sewers? When Superman finds him, Jimmy is overly glad to see him (as in really, really glad).
The control for Superman is decent, but needed some additional work. It’s easy to run around and punch things that need punching. Flying is easy to do, but can be tricky to completely get the hang of it. Much of the game requires Superman to fly and lining him up to whatever needs to be fixed or saved requires exact positioning which is difficult at times. Superman has access to his powers such as heat vision and ice breath and they need to be utilized to complete many of the objectives. However, selecting the powers is harder than it should be. A tiny icon displays what power is currently selected, but the icon is so small and its color so faint that you won’t be able to tell until actually attempting to use it. Once you get used to the control and are able to determine what powers you have activated, the game is easy and very short. The graphics are good with a large and decently animated character sprite for Superman. While the locales are a bit lacking, what is there is clear and colorful. The well-known Superman theme plays on the title screen with decent sound effects during the game. If the mobile Superman Returns had an actual story and just wasn’t just saving the residents of this one street in Metropolis it could have lengthened the game by quite a bit. Instead we have a game that shows what a few minutes in Superman’s life are like when he’s not fighting evil super villains.
-Shawn
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The
return of Superman on the big screen also means a slew of movie-licensed games
that hopefully don’t repeat the glowing success of Superman 64. Since
mobile phones are such a great way for companies to earn a few bucks, Superman
arrives on the pseudo-platform as well. If there was one thing I learned from playing
Superman Returns is that saving people isn’t nearly as much fun as
killing them.
It’s not
until the credits start scrolling that you realize there was no story. Or that
Superman boosting public opinion was the story. Now there’s nothing wrong with
saving people. In fact it is a nice gameplay change from all the killing and
maiming, but when there is practically no story the game seems a little
pointless. 