Proudly made in Canada by the way. With Canada day having just passed us, I want to talk about one of the most famous Canadian related characters: Superman. Don’t believe that he was technically invited by someone born in Canada? Check out the Heritage Moment (clip plays). I don’t blame you if you didn’t know this though, since part of his slogan is fighting for the “American” way. (Kind of appropriate that this review comes between Canada Day and the 4th of July.) So with how big of a legend Superman is, naturally there are tons of games based on him, and yes, I am aware of the god awful ones like Superman 64, but today I’m talking about The Death and Return of Superman for the Sega Genesis. Is it comparable to it? Keep listening and find out.
From my understanding, this video game is based on the comic event of the same name. Actually even that’s debatable since the original title didn’t include the “return” part (mostly since it gives the ending away). You start off as Superman, doing your basic “save Metropolis” duty. This time around though, Doomsday appears, an adversary actually able to match Superman’s strength. In the final strike of the battle, both of them go down for good by the looks of it. After the city mourns the loss of their protector, 4 heroes calling themselves the new Superman appear: Super boy, The Man of Steel, the Eradicator and a Superman Cyborg. Not only do they claim to be able to replace Superman, but also that they are him in one way or another. Who will fill his shoes? Are any of them actually him? Well, I’m not gonna tell you, get the game or read the comic.
This game is best described as “Basic Brawler”. Basically you walk around, jump if the mood calls for it and repeatedly punch people in the head. This isn’t inspired, but can be fun is done well enough, and this game does is it well enough! Not great, but still well. The enemies are fun to smash, the layout is well done and it just feels like what a brawler should. Of course, you get a few extra abilities thrown in for flavor, such as a laser shot, which doesn’t cause much damage but stuns enemies, the ability to fly by pressing jump twice, and a grab, which I love in this game; Superman smashing people against a wall is just kick ass. There are also these occasional side scrolling shooter levels, which are mostly pretty easy, but still fun and a nice change of pace, and the constant destruction can be pretty awesome.
And that’s pretty much all that’s awesome. That’s where we hit the game’s biggest fault: you just don’t feel like Superman. When you get hit or see Superman fall, it just makes your heart sink a bit at how weak he’s portrayed. Also, your only super powers (punching not counting as one and invulnerability missing) are the weakened laser eyes and flying: where’s the ice breath or the super speed? It may be a lot to ask for, but when I think “Superman” I expect a certain degree of kickass. Anyone else in this game would look amazingly strong, but because its Superman characters, it just does the opposite.
I’m gonna make this part short, but the graphics are quite good. Once again, I’m talking about Genisis version, but what I’ve seen from screenshots for the SNES version, they’re better. I want to point out that the comics came out during Superman’s “mullet” phase, but luckily it’s not apparent in the game sprites. (Who decided the symbol for all good needed to look like Billy Ray Cyrus anyways?). And though the music is forgettable, I love the sound effects. When you pick up certain items, it sounds like Mystic Quest, which I found weird, but it’s all about the punching sounds in beat-em up. The sound of making contact has to have a certain crack to it, and this game has it.
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