Some work better depending on the challenges; for example if a building is on fire choose the wind breath or frozen breath (using the d-pad) and quickly put out the fire. Sound simple? Well it is and this is one of the double-edged swords that show up throughout Superman Returns: VG. Because it is so simple it will be either a turn-on or a turn-off for all gamers. It makes the game instantly accessible to novice people as well as adding to the fun-factor of the title but it also causes the game to quickly be either beatable or boring. Other than the three attacks there are also punches, throws, and blocks. There is a combo system in place but it is basic at best and quickly becomes more of an annoyance than a payoff. The game consists of multiple chapters that are supposed to tie the storyline together but do nothing of the sort. Besides the chapters there are also side mission (kittens anyone) and other small things to do that could extend the shelf-time of the game. A cool feature is that the game is very open-ended and leaves many choices up to the player. Earlier when I told you about using your powers to put out a fire that is the easiest option but I chose to take the more difficult route and fly to the water-station, pick up a tank, and fly it to the burning building. These are the types of things you should be doing in between boss battles while playing Superman Returns: VG. Boss battles are fun and actually feel very large in size, bringing the gamer into the Superman universe for the first time ever. While there are a lot of bad things that should have been fixed or re-worked with the storyline and progression of the game, the substance and gameplay are there and actually keep this title from being a total bomb.
Graphically Superman Returns: VG is like looking at a girl with your beer goggles on. From far away it looks amazing but once you move in close everything gets blurry and you wish you had kept looking from a distance. To explain let me describe what you see from the first moment you boot up the game in your Xbox 360. After flying our hero up to the highest distance possible I started to look around the virtual city for something to do or someone to save. I instantly noticed how great EA did of creating a huge city to play in, one that you can see from very far away. Simply put the draw distance is something to brag about and should really be implemented in every next-gen title from now on. After finding a kitten in a tree I flew to save it but had to stop because the onslaught of jaggies and flat/ugly textures was too much for my eyes to handle. All of the buildings and textures look way too fake and could be found in any original Xbox game released in the past two years. Superman himself, and all character models look really good but because of this only cause the obvious graphical flaws to stand out more. It was a shame though because things such as animations and lighting were done up to par with other graphically average games out there right now on the Xbox 360. All in all Superman Returns: VG is a great looking game that looks terrible up close.
Usually it is sports games that have words like boring, flat, repetitive in their reviews when writing about the audio portion but this time I have to emphasize them all when writing about this game. While it is great that EA was able to get all the actors to provide their voices for Superman Returns: The Videogame it is a shame that they turned out the way they did, flat and boring. I fear that the voiceovers were recorded on the last day of filming for the movie, in Alaska, at or around four in the morning. Other audio such as music and sound effects are just average and sound no different on a normal television or surround sound setup. Once again it is something that could have been great but turned out just below average because of a rushed deadline and/or tired actors. After the disappointing movie I really wanted Superman Returns: The Videogame to be stellar. After all we have had terrible after terrible attempt at a good game for this genre and the early information on this game was very promising. At the end of the day it turned out to be just like all the other movie videogames and will only impress the most insane Superman fans. All of the bad does have some good tidbits mixed in such as the fun gameplay and “choose your own style” type missions. Capturing the essence of the Superman character is something they did right this time and it definitely won them some points. There is no doubt that another Superman movie will be made, only time will tell if the developers over at EA Tiburon will get another shot at making a game based on the franchise, this time their kryptonite ended up being the game itself.
