A Less Janky Man of Steel

There is no doubt that Superman 64 left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Here was one of the greatest superheroes ever written reduced to a buggy, unplayable, unwatchable mess of a game. While there’s no doubt that Titus Interactive had their hearts in the right place with that Nintendo 64 title, they were woefully unprepared to actually make the game they wanted. Even if Warner Bros. had been fully on board with their concept and didn’t try to sabotage the game with design notes, it’s hard to say that Superman 64 could have been anything near a good game (although with the right support it at least wouldn’t have been one of the worst games ever made).

Titus let go of the SupermanThe first big superhero from DC Comics, Superman has survived any number of pretenders to the throne, besting not only other comic titans but even Wolrd War II to remain one of only three comics to continue publishing since the 1940s. license in 2000 and Infogrames picked it up to begin development on their own attempt at the Man of Steel. Like with Titus, the new developers wanted to craft a game that could match the power, scale, and scope of Superman and his world. They wanted to use Superman: The Animated Series as their base for everything: the music, the voice work, the art design, the story. That game was a big hit with kids and there was no reason not to make a game that treated that source material fairly (certainly more fairly than the Nintendo 64 game had managed). After two years of development, Superman: Shadow of Apokolips arrived and, well… it wasn’t as bad as Superman 64 at least.

The game focuses on Superman, our hero, going up against the forces Apokolips (as you’d expect from the name) and Lex Luthor, although with the goons (and robots) from Intergang. Apokolips, of course, wants to conquer Earth and the only way to do that is to get rid of Superman. Finding a like-minded spirit in Lex, a man who also wants to see Superman dead, Apokolips (through his representatives) gives Lex the means and technology to take on the Kryptonian and, maybe, end him for good.

Through mission after mission, Superman has to fly, fight, and bash his way through all the various hazards and dangers that Lex has setup. It’s a series of diabolical schemes all designed to keep Superman busy while Lex slowly puts his real plan into motion. Superman will have to battle through all that Lex has devised all to take on the devious tycoon. And, once he’s through his key villain, maybe even take on the real villain at the center of it all. It’s Superman against the forces of Apokolips for the fate of Metropolis.

Unlike the Nintendo 64 game, which seemed to promise the whole of Metropolis to fly around but kept you on a tight leash the whole time, Superman: Shadow of Apokolips at least knows how to not over-promise. The game is designed on a mission-to-mission setup, with various large arena built for the player, as Superman, to fly around and take out the obstacles in his way. There’s a variety of things for Superman to do, from fight robotic goons, break boxes, push switches, and use keys, all meant to keep the levels from feeling stale as you go around as the Man of Steel.

You will note, of course, that none of the things I listed feel all that thrilling and that’s because, well, they’re not. The game design is set so you can fly around and tackle objectives as you like, such as collecting three generators to place into the Metropolis Dam to stop a flooding reactor, but all it really amounts to is switch, key, and box puzzles rearranged from level to level with different visuals. The basic function of the game is the same across the many missions and they are, indeed, quite basic.

In fairness to the title this is still a more competent structure than anything found in Superman 64. These missions do feel like they’re pushing the plot of the game forward, keeping Superman moving ever forward as he works to foil Lex’s various plans. While the objectives aren’t that impressive, they do build to a cohesive whole that feels like more than makework. Superman 64 was nothing but makework while Superman: Shadow of Apokolips at least has the respect for its players to try and build a real game out of its basic ideas.

And also, Superman: Shadow of Apokolips is a handsome game for its era. The game does a decent enough job of duplicating the look and sound of the animated series it’s based on. Far beyond the basic, blocky look of Superman 64, this game actually had an art style that is recognizably based on the cartoon. Aiding this is a score that evokes the sound of the series and many of the voice actors lending their pipes for the characters in the game. It’s not perfect looking or sounding, but it’s pretty close considering we’re talking about a game designed for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube.

All of that, though, doesn’t really save a game with boring play mechanics. The first couple or so stages are decent as you fly around Metropolis to stop some criminals, and then blasting around the dam to stop a flood. It’s a decent set of objectives and I didn’t hate playing through all of it. But by the sixth stage, where I was flying Superman through Lex’s headquarters, taking out robots and tanks while activating doors, I realized that I’d seen everything the game had to show me. I was halfway through the game and instead of adding in new ideas every stage, this was it. This was the game. Boxes and switches and keys, punctuated by a bunch of robots over and over again. Another hour-plus didn’t really change that.

And, let’s go back to that section where we flew around Metropolis for a second. The game gives you a whole slice of the city, promising at least open-world exploration between adventures. Go about, save citizens, fight goons, have fun. That first stage feels like a proper open-world superhero adventure. And then you never get back to that and it’s just guided mission after guided mission. The missions are repetitive but if you could then fly around that city between missions, linking everything together with a populated hub, that would feel like a varied and interesting game. That’s the game I’d want to play.

Of course, what we’ve invented was the 2018 Spider-man game and, yes, it’s exceptional. Maybe it’s cruel for me to want anything even close to that for a PlayStation 2-era title. But then, the Activision Spider-man game released the same year as Superman: Shadow of Apokolips (2002) at least managed to work in web-slinging stages that took Spidey around the city. Some of those in this game would have gotten that hub world feel, even if it was still a tad on rails. Something, anything, to help break up the mix of this game.

It’s not that Superman: Shadow of Apokolips is a bad game, not like Superman 64, but it’s also not a good game by any stretch. And considering everyone still remembered that Nintendo 64 title and was worried about getting another one, Infogrames really needed to knock it out of the park. They had to make us forget all about Superman 64… and they didn’t. This was a fine but forgettable title that everyone set aside the second a better superhero game (like Spider-man) came along.