Superman Returns Review (X360)

We have seen a lot of great superhero games over the last couple of years. Wait. Strike that. We have seen a lot of great Marvel superhero games over the last couple of years. For whatever reason, DC just can’t pull it together. Superman Returns, loosely based on the movie of the same name, continues this pattern. It is repetitive, ugly, glitchy, and feels like it was merely phoned-in by all parties involved. It is still the best Superman game ever, but that isn’t saying much.

Story

Superman Returns follows Superman as he ventures out to space to find Krypton destroyed, so he comes back to Earth where he spends his free time fighting same robot enemies and saving kittens over and over and over. You’ll fight a few classic Superman villains, such as Metallo and Bizarro among others, but most of your time is spent fighting grunts that randomly spawn throughout the city. Despite sharing the same name as the movie, the videogame version of Superman Returns has surprisingly little to do with the movie and instead the story is an incoherent mess. It also has surprisingly little to do with the comic books, either. You never save Lois or Jimmie, and you never do anything with Clark Kent, which just seems really, really odd.

Gameplay

The gameplay is one of the bright spots, but only for the first hour or so. Rather than giving Superman a life meter, the city of Metropolis has a damage meter. If you do too much damage without doing a few good deeds, it is game over. This is a nice change from previous Superman games, which downgraded the Man of Steel down to the Man of Silly Putty. You can grapple enemies, string together combos, and use your heat, freeze, and super breath abilities during combat. You can also fly around the absolutely massive city, which is easily the best part of the game. Even going at supersonic speeds (complete with sonic booms), you can turn on a dime and weave around the skyscrapers for a truly thrilling experience.

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