Superman Returns, the latest licensed offering from Electronic Arts, is no Superman 64, but just because it manages to be better than the worst abomination the Nintendo 64 (or any system, for that matter) has seen doesn't mean that the developers succeeded in making a great game. In fact, Superman Returns bombs miserably, failing to capture the magic of the DC superhero.
The game loosely follows the story of the hit summer movie of the same name, but none of the principal characters from the film- Lois Lane (the good girl that cheers Superman on, despite his five-year absence) and Lex Luthor (the villainous multi-billionaire eager to stop Supes at all cost)- play a large role. Instead, players battle evil villains, including the likes of Mister Mxyzptlk and Bizarro, a negatively charged Superman clone. Unfortunately, all of them follow the same, boring pattern. Each villain strikes Metropolis the same way -- with a bunch of aliens, robots or other hellacious beings doing their dirty work, leading to an eventual showdown with their leader.
Despite EA's best attempts to do something different, Superman Returns fails on multiple levels. Players can access a number of Superman's powers, including ice breath, blow breath (to apply force on objects), heat vision, flight and super strength (picking up objects nearly five times his size and lobbing them around like Frisbees), but the flawed control scheme keeps these from being enjoyable. The flying has its moments, with simplistic controls and Superman's ability to break the sound barrier. The rest of the game, however...yikes.
The combat never picks up. Superman lunges at enemies with combo punches and can pull off a ground slam that shakes up the Earth, but the fighting never evolves. Superman has new moves, but they never factor into the game because repetitive enemies can always be destroyed using simple punches. The game then switches off to a more difficult boss encounter. The first pits Superman against a galactic gladiator that can quintuple his size and fire electrical attacks. Superman must wander about, pick up objects, and bring him back down to size. It just gets old and flat, really. Even if Superman picks up an object, sometimes it doesn't collide with the enemy as intended. This allows the bad guy to strike back with a cheap hit, knocking away precious energy.
Later boss battles throw objectives all over the place with no obvious solutions. These result in numerous trial and error situations where the city pays the price every time until the player achieves the correct results. The idea to use the city as Superman's life bar is a snazzy idea, but the environments get damaged way too easily, resulting in frustrating losses.
The game does offer some interesting anti-good guy stages where the player can temporarily take control of Bizarro, destroying the city at will. However, these segments end way too quickly and citizens cannot be harmed.
If the in-game events contained variety, there wouldn't be a problem trying to adjust to the game's style. However, the event structure remains the same, right up to the finale with the disappointing end boss. The lock-on systems with heat and ice breath aren't bad, but they don't mesh well with the vapid ground combat.
Sadly, the graphics never get off the ground. Metropolis looks gorgeous from above. The city has been modeled across 80 square miles, a record for a game of this stature. Fly closer to the city, however, and the ugly, unfinished details show up. Characters pass through solid objects, camera problems obscure the action, and the frame rate skips around. The unimpressive animation only adds to the suffering. The collision detection makes hitting things a huge pain, and having to fly all over the place sucks, since the game lacks tons of missions to complete. The "speed blur" effect tops off this mess. Instead of fading in and out during flight, it shuts off instantly, ruining the experience of soaring through the air.
Thankfully, the sound works just fine. The score shares similarities with the one from the film, and the voice work rings true, featuring the likes of several actors from the film (including Kevin Spacey as Luthor), although a lot of the comments get very repetitive. Brandon Routh's Superman lines, for example, get old because he keeps firing off justice-spewed quotes at super villains without much recourse.
Superman Returns could have been something phenomenal. If EA Tiburon let the thing cook for another year or two (or five), it could've figured out what made previous games drag, work out the kinks, and give gamers a Man of Steel to be proud of. Instead, this game joins the list of failed comic to game conversions. It suffers from a poor visual layout, repetitive missions, gameplay that never comes together like it should, and worst of all, no real reason to take to the skies ever again. Up, up and away to the clearance aisles with it.

Related links
Superman Returns game page
Electronic Arts home page

Our Final ScoreVery Bad

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