Superman Returns (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

It does appear that Hollywood are fast running out of ideas and if it's not part two, three or four of a long dead idea it's the latest comic book/TV adaptation. One resurrected franchise that did deliver was Superman and with a new lead and director the series looks like it may go from strength to strength. Why then, you may ask, have we had to wait for such a long time for the accompanying games to be released? Well, if various members of the press are to be believed (after previews of the game at last years E3) the game simply wasn't ready for public consumption, in other words, it wasn't very good. It is, or course, here now on the back of the DVD release but after months of rework and the loss of the PSP version was it worth the wait?

Gameplay

This NDS version of Superman Returns roughly follows the events of the movie with many events remixed, abridged and some new ones thrown in for good measure. All your standard comic book foes are here of course including Parasite, Metallo, Mongrel, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Bizarro and not forgetting Lex Luthor who is ready for mayhem after a considerable absence from Earth. The game itself plays of on a gridded map of Metropolis with you moving around the city in order to reclaim the various areas. At the same time, of course, the local villains are on the move causing mayhem and placing a variety of 'tags' on random grid squares.

These 'tags' become the missions of the whole piece and success means that you'll slowly regain the upper hand against the city's darker side, whilst failure generally means game over and the city will be lost forever. Especially if you didn't save. The missions themselves are generally involve flying around a small section of the city using a variety of powers in order to save the day. This could be saving earthquake victims from falling to their death, stabilizing buildings or freezing to the spot aliens who are running amok through the streets. There's also an underwater level where you must locate and rescue stranded submarines. Once they're discovered you'll have to press a series of controls that correspond to those on screen. Fail to do this and you'll lose valuable time. This leads us neatly onto the boss battles, which are activated when you intersect them on the grid. These play out like a king of 'Dance, Dance revolution' with you again pressing the corresponding buttons as they tumble down the screen with combos activated for quick fingered gamers.

Unfortunately that's it and while you can play through the game on multiple occasions in order to get the strategy element just right you are more likely to move onto a more engaging title. There is a multiplayer available but as this is based on the existing game engine, it's hardly worth mentioning.

Controls

This is simple, responsive and traditional with each mini game fronted with a series of instructions and the control layout. What more could you ask?

Graphics

Visually the game is quite close to your average 1950s comic book and Metropolis built with simple textures allows the visual engine to remain at an impressive speed. The downside of this, of course, is the fact that your bustling city is completely unpopulated with absolutely no vehicles or inhabitants of any description. Worse than this though are the ugly loading screens which dominate the 'in-between' bits of the game spoiling the overall presentation of what's otherwise not a bad looking title.

Sound

The audio in Superman Returns is somewhat mixed; while the orchestrations are very well put together, the sound effects are occasionally terrible. As for voice acting of any description, you guessed it, completely absent.

Dual screen

Outside of selecting your direction of movement on the gridded map, there's not an awful lot going on here. You can utilize the touch screen for the options menu but I suspect most of you thought that would be the case anyway.

Final comments

Superman has never had a comfortable relationship with home consoles and this DS outing appears to continue the troublesome relationship. Visually the game isn't too bad and some of the audio isn't too shabby either. What is unforgivable is the simple, repetitive, just plain boring gameplay that you will probably want to switch off after 10 minutes or so. The problem is that at least half of the game plays out like a kind of Dragons Lair/Space Ace laser disc with the user needing only to press the correct button. This leaves you watching a reasonably entertaining cartoon but not playing a game. A definite 'try before you buy' but certainly not worthy of The Man of Steel.

Pro: Some Nice Comic Style Visuals.
Con: Simple Gameplay With Frustrating Strategic Element.
Final score: 4.5

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