Review of Superman (NES)

Superman, the original superhero. A legendary character worthy of his own game, and a great one at that. Does this game in particular deliver? I'll break down the elements and you be the judge. Let's get started.

Story : Well you talk to the Statue of Liberty for awhile, then as Clark Kent the game starts. Your goal in the game is to save the world somehow, though it doesn't say how. The lack of instructions are kind of frustrating to say the least. Every level you're rewarded with a newspaper article from the Daily Planets. No, I didn't make a typo. You change costume in a phone booth, even when people are looking at you. Overall, the story elements are just a vague jab at the Superman mythos. You're best ignoring it.

Graphics : The graphics are decent for it's time. The sizes of the sprites often don't make any sense, however. Superman is dwarfed by many other characters, which wouldn't be a big deal but he's literally half the size of some of other characters. It's quite distracting and very ridiculous. Nobody really looks as they should. The backgrounds look very nice I guess, though there isn't any variety to them at all.

Sound : Well you won't hear the immortal Superman theme here but it's not that big of a deal. well, sort of. The fact that they replaced it with a bunch of chromatic garbage is a big deal. In fact, I will go as far as saying this game is not listenable. Mute this game. There's not much else to say.

Game play : Not much to say here. This game doesn't make you feel like Superman at all. It takes several punches to kill street thugs, you can only fly in certain areas and Superman's other powers are limited. In short, you aren't very Super at all. The controls aren't fluid nor responsive. At least there's zombies in the game, which is awesome.

There's only five levels, and they're all very long and unfulfilling. On top of that there's very non-linear, to the point of confusion. You have no idea what to do at any point in the game. Another thing is you have to ride the subway places even though you're Superman. Bullets also hurt you. Unbelievable.

Re playability : Not re playable unless you're a Superman fan.

Overall : 1/10. If you're a Superman fan, you may be able to convince yourself that this game is good.