Have you ever wondered what would happen if the developers of Superman on the N64 made a Game Boy game? Well, it would be just as terrible, but for different reasons.
Superman on the Game Boy is about what you would expect. It is a side-scrolling game with you playing a stupid version of the Man of Steel. I get that they have to make him weaker so the game can be playable, but this is a little much.
When I first found this game, I was hoping for something close to the NES version of Superman. The NES game isn’t good; it is way better than this version.
TLDR: This is as disappointing as Superman 64.
History
There isn’t much information on the game out there that I could find. Titus created it in 1997. This came out before Titus made Superman on the N64.
While the game is bad, it isn’t as bad as Superman on the N64. It is kind of hard to screw this game up as badly as that one. It is a short game. You can beat it in 20 minutes or so.
Gameplay
I could say that it is awful and leave things at that. However, I should explain why I don’t like it. There are a bunch of problems with this game.
You don’t have a jump button. The man who can leap a tall building in a single bound can’t jump in this game. Instead, you can fly as long as you hold down the B button. I know they were limited in what they could do, but this was an annoying choice.
If he couldn’t fly, I would be here complaining about that. The developers are in a tough spot. The Game Boy limits what you could do to get all of Superman’s powers into the game. I’m still waiting for a game to work his Super Ventriloquism into it.
They try some interesting things in the game. The first section has you collecting keys. This is also where things get stupid! You’re getting shot by people with guns, which shouldn’t hurt you, but you have to, I guess. This is also where you start to miss the jump button.
You have to explore the level to find things. I wouldn’t say I liked this part mainly because I hated the flying mechanics. There are also floating bombs.
You die very fast in this game. It was one of the things that annoyed me the most.
There are bosses in the game. They’re from the animated series that was going on at the time. I never watched it and didn’t know it was a thing until later. It was one of the many cartoons from the late 90s I missed because I was playing video games.
You keep collecting keys. Do these keys open doors? Are they used to unlock things? Nope. They’re only there to give you something to collect.
I didn’t see any villains that I recognized. It’s probably because I didn’t watch the cartoon.
Some levels turn the game into a Metroidvania for a bit. I’m okay with it. At the time, it is what you would expect from a game like this.
Visuals
The game looks great! It was released in 1997, and you can see that developers were getting the most out of the aging Game Boy.
The enemies are easy to see, the items you need to collect are easy to identify, and if it weren’t for the terrible controls, it would be great.
There isn’t much detail to the character sprites. However, they still look good. I like the way the game looks.
5/10. You can play this short game, but I’m not sure why you would want to.
Conclusion
I probably should have known better. For some reason, Superman games weren’t very good. It seemed like one of those properties doomed to fail from the start.
I would compare this game to one of the X-Men or Spiderman games. It is playable, but other than nostalgia or having a game to complain about on YouTube, I can’t see much of a reason to play this.
The graphics are the only thing that stands out to me. The rest of the game is forgettable.