It’s A Bird! It’s A Plane! It’s A Game?

When a superhero is popular and beloved, their stories tend to expand outside of the books.  Two heroes have had their stories do such things.  Spider-Man has had two different trilogies, and a few highly praised animated shows.  Batman has had two different trilogies of his own and few highly praised animated shows himself.  One more thing they have in common are video game franchises that have set the bar for superhero games.  In fact, they could be considered the bar themselves.  But missing in this picture, is the Man of Steel.  Even though he has had a few movies and a few series that have done him justice, Superman hasn’t had the same love when it comes to video games.  For being the superhero that started it all, he sure is falling behind the video game department.  He has potential but as of now, his video game is grounded.  But why is that, and what can be done to get his video game flying?

One of the major factors that could be slowing down or outright preventing a Superman game, is his very one powers.  Batman and Spider-Man, in their respected games, feel unstoppable especially when all gear and skills are unlocked.  But, the two are still vulnerable to attacks.  They could die with normal weaponry.  Superman is not vulnerable to ordinary weaponry.  So, there won’t be any challenge, no stakes on all.  A player will smoothly progress through the game with no sense of challenge.  If the developer is truly faithful to Superman, a slap to the face does the same amount of damage to him as a rocket to the face.  Superman walks away from both with no harm done at all.  No enemy will prove to be any type of threat and that will lead to no sense of accomplishment which will then pull any sort of enjoyment for the game.  If the developer then makes the decision to have certain bosses and threats hurt Superman, then it will shove inconsistency into the game.  It will make gamers go ‘why is this guy hurting me now, even though earlier I was able to walk away from Mongul’s attacks?’.  That frustrates players and that should be the last thing any developer wants.  This dilemma makes the situation ironic; one of Superman’s strongest traits will be the game’s greatest weakness. 

What could also keep this game grounded is Superman’s sheer limitlessness, particularly his ability to travel anywhere pretty much in an instant.  The Arkham games and Spider-Man games have been creative to keep the heroes in the areas they need to be.  On top of that, theses heroes don’t have the ability to instantly travel but Superman does.  As much as he wants to stay in Metropolis, Superman does venture out to different cities, nations and even other planets.  Although the game’s narrative might stick Superman in one spot, players may want to fly around the world in a sandbox fashion, much like the freedom the Grand Theft Auto games have been known for.  This was actually an issue the Arkham games had to avoid.  Batman has access to the Batwing.  Despite it appearing in three games, it was never accessible in game.  It was written out.  That simply can’t be done with Superman.  The power of flight is a core factor to Superman.  Not only does he have to fly in the game but he has to have the ability to go anywhere.  It’ll be against character in a way.  But for a game studio to create then give that much freedom to players, will be a daunting task.  Sure, the developers could write that out, but players will then question why that feature, that characteristic of Superman, is taken out.  There must be a viable reason other than it was a hard task.

So, with all that, there needs to be creative choices to be made to make a Superman game and address these two problems.  That answer lies within the story.  A well written story.  Perhaps Lex Luthor or another villain of Superman has fully cracked and sends Kryptonite particles throughout the world.  And with those small traces, it doesn’t affect human life but gives just enough problem for Superman.  It’s in the balance that weakens him enough to be susceptible to regular weapons and limits his flight but not enough to officially defeat him.  Or Red Kryptonite. Or an original Kryptonite to the game.  The same could be said for magic.  Again, a villain to Superman could resort to magic to take out Superman but instead of honing that power on Superman, it bursts all around the world.  Enough power to weaken Superman but not enough to take him off the board.  Or maybe, some radiation of a Red Sun is exposed to Earth, leaving Superman to be victimized by it.  Then there’s urgency for the Man of Steel.  This creates stake for character and player. It opens up challenges to overcome.  A great, well written story that is believable and fits the character could overcome external factors.   

Superman is too much of a classic, important, and beloved character to be left out of video games.  To deny him a video game because his own abilities make it hard to make one, is not an acceptable reason.  He has had hundreds of stories in books, animated material and live action films that faced these same problems but those stories didn’t fold.  They didn’t buckle.  They find a reason within a well written story. And with games getting more respect because of the story they tell, on top of their gameplay, it paves way for a Superman game.