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Rocksteady: Superman 'bad fit' for videogames
Posted: 11.10.2011 18:29 by JonahFalcon Comments: 3
Batman: Arkham City marketing game manager Dax Ginn states that the lack of good Superman videogames is due to the fact that the character is too powerful, with an array of abilities that provide too much of a challenge to the game design.

"I think Superman is a very difficult character. He’s an incredible character, but the thing about Batman is that he’s so vulnerable, like physically vulnerable," Ginn stated. "The fertile territory of games design is being able to provide the player with opportunities for power, but also letting them know that they’ve got something to lose."

Batman's humanity and vulnerability makes him a better videogame character, because of the very real threat of death, which leads to a sense of accomplishment when defeating the enemy when the odds are against him.

"With Batman, you feel very powerful when you’re surrounded by 25 thugs who’ve just got baseball bats, but give just one of them an assault rifle and it changes the entire dynamic of the fight," Ginn related, "But with a character like Superman, that’s not possible. So, I wouldn’t want to throw Batman away because he’s just such a brilliant character to work with, and the psychology of him is just very rich for gameplay."

The last Superman game, Superman Returns, attempted to solve this by a city health meter, in which the player would fail if the city, not Superman, received too much damage.

Is Superman really too powerful?
Source: NowGamer

Comments

By Jasca_Ducato (SI Core) on Oct 11, 2011
Jasca_Ducato
Hmmmm, I must say, I never played Superman Returns, but that city health meter idea is quite ingenious.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Oct 12, 2011
nocutius
Superman totally is overpowered, there is only one thing that can really hurt him which it's also very scarce.
You can't really tell good stores with an invincible protagonist.
By Kal_El (I just got here) on Apr 28, 2012
Kal_El
What most people don't understand about Superman is that he isn't indestructible, a close friend of his and an old boxer can still knock superman to the ground, and he's a human. Besides, take someone such as Zod, give him an army of robots or aliens and you have some enemies who could take on superman! :) People forget what the comics taught us, he can be beaten!