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Superman Returns: The Videogame

EMAIL PRINT xbox360

6.7 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 48 critic reviews
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Based on 35 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Tiburon

Genre(s): Third-Person Action, Beat-'Em-Up

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: November 20, 2006

Summary

True to the fiction in every respect, this is the game based on the Superman universe that fans have been anticipating for decades. From excited citizens to the traffic on the streets, every detail of this vibrant city has a mind of its own. These 80 square miles are brought to life for the first time in a videogame. Go anywhere and do anything in Metropolis as Superman. Non-linear gameplay allows you to explore and play the game exactly how you want to at your own pace. Where and how you fly – to the top of skyscrapers, dodging elevated trains – is completely up to you, since gameplay is designed as a true open world experience. With notorious villains like Metallo and colossal challenges only Superman can overcome, you must navigate the Man of Steel to monitor and protect Metropolis from destruction. Three distinct types of gameplay — Flying, Rescue, and Combat — will keep the action constant and the challenges relentless. Play both film-inspired missions as well as original content created exclusively for the videogame. Graphics, sound, and gameplay have been taken to the next level to create a Metropolis like you've never seen it, with three dimensional sound, a complete orchestra soundtrack, and Oscar-wining sound designer. [Electronic Arts]

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Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

PGNx Media

Gaming doesn’t get much better than breaking the sound barrier through Metropolis’ skies.

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XboxAddict

The city of metropolis and the world environment looks amazing and will never let you down. The buildings and islands look great from above and the sun flare effects are a treat as well.

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GameZone

The developers at EA finally nailed down what it takes to create a fun Superman game. The only problem is that the game is really late (since it is a movie tie-in and the movie came out nearly six months ago) and the game can get really tedious.

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Gaming Age

Lasting around 7-10 hours, depending on how many side quests you do, Superman Returns may seem short to some but it is a perfect fit for this game's engine...Easily of the best Superman games to come along in quite some time.

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ZTGameDomain

At the end of the day I may have bitched a lot about this game, but I still find myself flying over the streets of Metropolis on a daily basis. The truth is the game is fun, even with all the aforementioned issues I had a great time being a hero for the day.

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AceGamez

Superman Returns isn't a bad game, but at six hours gameplay it's far too short, as well as far too buggy and repetitive to enjoy to its fullest.

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Cheat Code Central

A fairly short game (artificial elongation of finding lost cats not withstanding) that can be beaten inside a day which offers little to no replayability – unless you’re content with just flying around at your leisure.

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TeamXbox

In terms of actual gameplay features, the sprawling city is amazing, but there’s little else to rave about here.

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Extreme Gamer

On the surface Superman Returns is impressive and the actual act of playing flying around the city as Superman is fun, but the lack of any real story hurts the overall experience.

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MS Xbox World

The game play becomes very repetitive and you feel that a lot more could have been done with the powers Superman has and the whole city being open for exploration. However what you are left with is dull combat missions the odd fire-fighting and of course kitten hunting, racing and some destruction thrown in for good measure.

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Official Xbox Magazine

So-so graphics and straightforward action never tap the 360's potential, but what you get is 10-or-so hours of middling superhero beat-'em-up fun. [Jan. 2007, p.76]

Gamers' Temple

There’s a lot of potential for a great game here, though. Hopefully Superman will return again and this time bring more gameplay with him.

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GameTrailers

Superman Returns looks like a passable game, and it definitely feels like one when you first start playing it. Six or seven hours later, when you’ve done absolutely everything Metropolis has to offer, you’ll be shocked how little they’ve sprinkled over the obscenely huge environment.

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Planet Xbox 360

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.

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Game Informer

Look up into the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s another crappy Superman game!

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GameSpy

The controls are great, but with nothing to do in terms of content, things ultimately fall short.

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Official Xbox Magazine UK

From then on you’re bashing various robots, giant lizards and zooming through the streets of Metropolis – the flying is easily the most fun element – trying to keep the city’s health up by rescuing injured civilians (which is hugely boring), while cutscenes tell you what Lex Luthor’s doing somewhere else in the city.

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Games Radar (in-house)

The targeting system sucks, often sticking to the enemy you just knocked down (and therefore can't attack until he gets up again) while another is bashing you in the back. The final aggravation is the camera, which constantly gets stuck on things in the environment, so you can't always see your foe.

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X360 Magazine UK

Despite the abysmal demo, this actually turned out okay. Unfortunately it gets very repetitive and difficult later on. [Issue 15, p.90]

Worth Playing

As a game that manages to encapsulate the feeling of being Superman, Superman Returns does an excellent job.

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IGN

While the open world is supposed to let you do whatever you like, there just isn’t anything to do in Metropolis. Punching out bad guys becomes about as fun as taking out the garbage, and the “epic” battle between Superman and the forces of evil is as simple and dull as a day of chores.

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Total Video Games

Unfortunately within the first hour of realizing the game is little more then a series of samey battles, the tedium and monotony soon overtakes and leaves the rest of the game a mind-numbingly repetitive struggle - look elsewhere for your superhero action.

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GamePro

Feels more like a botched sandbox-styled game with what little there is to do both poorly implemented and boring. It may be the best Superman game so far, but that's not saying much.

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VideoGamer

A brain numbingly dull title that is only partially saved by its above average presentation.

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DarkStation

The game has the mechanics down in the flying and running, but the combat and the game's progression just isn't up to par with where it needs to be.

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Boomtown

The extra 6 months in development could have been used to make the controls actually controllable.

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Xbox World Australia

While there's nothing broken about Superman Returns, it just doesn't amount to a particularly fun experience, with boring super-powers and mindless melee combat.

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Digital Entertainment News

Superman Returns from EA on 360 is much better than "Superman" from Titus on N64. That’s not setting the bar very high, though. At best, it’s average.

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Game Almighty

Note to self: When a good Superman game finally comes out, see if the Captain can do that “around the world to go back in time” thing from Superman II so he can bring me a copy NOW!

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Electronic Gaming Monthly

If Superman spent more time flying around the city and zero time fighting repetitive enemies, his game would be way better. [Jan. 2007, p.102]

IC-Games

The problems are even more compounded because, on the 360, this is supposedly a next generation game, it simply isn’t. Even Superman will struggle to save this disjointed effort from the bargain bin and only hardened collectors should seek out this disaster.

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GameSpot

After the thrill of flying around Metropolis wears off, Superman Returns is nothing more than a below-average, repetitive movie tie-in that doesn't even do the movie tie-in part well.

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Xboxic

Yea, there’s an incredible, lush environment for Superman to engage in, but it is completely barren when it comes to crime for him to face off against. In Superman Returns, Kal-El’s greatest villain is boredom. The curse lives on.

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DailyGame

Think of Superman Returns as an insanely boring exercise in flying from one end of Metropolis to the other -- non-stop and for 10 hours -- while waiting for the next "battle 10 robots" or "battle eight dragons" or "battle six radioactive gargoyles" button-mashing sequence to ensue.

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GamingTrend

If the value of the game didn’t suffer enough from the lifeless gameplay, the painful dialog and storyline, and the cumbersome controls, the game also suffers from some fairly significant bugs.

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eToychest

It's not nearly as bad as the notoriously awful "Superman 64," but it's yet another chunk of kryptonite plaguing his video game career.

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Talk Xbox

The repetition and horrible encounters make Superman Returns: The Videogame drag along at a snails pace. I’m sure many gamers will be ready to call it quits after the first hour. Simply put, this title does not offer nearly enough to warrant a $60 purchase.

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360 Gamer Magazine UK

Putting aside the sub last-gen graphics, the stunning lack of variety in the gameplay when you have seventy years of material to drawn upon is unforgiveable. There is no other way to view Superman Returns: The Videogame as a cynical cash-in that makes a mockery of a character that deserves so much more.

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Edge Magazine

By even the lowest expectations Superman Returns is a staggering shortfall. [Jan 2007, p.86]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Superman Returns: The Videogame is an embarrassment to video games, not to mention the Superman franchise, and is a new low for the quality of movie tie-ins.

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GameDaily

Repetitive, unlikable gameplay squashes everything. Flying around with the Man of Steel becomes about as entertaining as putting a helmet on your head and ramming into a brick wall at top speed.

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Eurogamer

Superman Returns is so criminally lacking in any inspiration, though, and is such a dismal waste of the licence that you'll want to curl up and rock yourself into a trance. At least then your mind can entertain you with thoughts of what a good Superman game might be like.

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1UP

Locking on to a specific enemy is a crapshoot. The character faces are bad enough that we were actually shocked to find that they had the rights to use the actors' likenesses. We could write a book about everything wrong with Superman Returns.

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Game Revolution

Bryan Singer built his movie around an emotional core; Superman Returns is an empty gaming experience that needs tuning, heroics and a conclusion worth fighting for.

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GameCritics

It is a game that utterly fails to capture any of the elements that make its source material so enduring and beloved.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

A making-of documentary on how such a precious franchise was so flagrantly mishandled would be far more entertaining than anything the game has to offer.

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G4 TV

They made the world, but forgot to put a game in it. There's so little friction here that a sharp gamer can easily blow through the game in four or five hours.

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WHAM! Gaming

The controls are about as responsive as a corpse in the city morgue and the moody camera handcuffs you at every turn.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Steven C. gave it a9:
A far better game than most would say. It's the ultimate Superman sim, with a sense of freedom like no other, and does well with it's boss battles and the feeling of power you get. It is repetitive at times, but I haven't played a game that isn't.

RK B. gave it a1:
Sad and miserable experience. Listen to Rob B above. I'm a huge Superman fan but this game was half baked at best. I picked this up expecting a living breathing world full of things to do, people to save and earth shattering scenarios to play. What I got was a game that pretends its giving you mission choices ala Spiderman when all of the choices are the SAME spread out around the city. Over and over and over! For variety you can save kittens, play as Bizarro or race Mr. Mxyzptlk - sounds like more fun than it actually is. Superman the game had money and talent behind it... sometimes it shows. Metropolis is beautiful, Supes powers are incredible. Everything else seems lifted from some lousy 90s first gen 3D title and pasted into place. Anyone else feel like this was just junked after they missed the movie deadline? I think games like this are an insult to gamers. And I think everyone should demand better games than this for next gen systems like 360. For people who like to buy things only.

Rob B. gave it a1:
The pros: Superman's powers are accurately displayed - finally! The flying is undoubtedly the highlight of the game, and there's plenty of enjoyment to be found in just cruising around the Metropolis city limits (when you can). The heat vision and freezing breath are great as well - the super breath is cool too. Strength and endurance are completely unlimited - however, the endurance of Metropolis isn't, and that's your concern. Cool touch, I thought. Very cool that they got the cast of the movie to lend their voices as well. Pros? That's about it. The cons: Saving Metropolis from losing health. At times, the game can be VERY difficult and frustrating. Metropolis loses health over EVERYTHING you and your enemies do...a citizen accidentally gets punched and Metropolis loses health. Not realistic. Saving citizens restores health to Metropolis, but the ambulances are often times extremely hard to find, and you won't be able to rescue all of the injured people before another combat sequence begins. Very frustrating. The super powers are almost useless in actual gameplay. Flying is, of course, very cool - however, most of the aliens/robots/dragons you fight throughout the game seem to be immune to heat vision or freezing breath (or both). The super breath power is completely useless as an offensive weapon as well. Your strength is great, but the impact counter is very poor and it's frustrating at times even trying to land a punch. The combat is EXTREMELY repetative and boring. Even after beating the game at 100% completion, random monsters still generate for no discernable purpose - not cool when you're looking for a break in the action and just want to enjoy the game for a while. Very little variety - either you're facing off against robots, aliens, or dragon-things. Over and over again. That's it. For a break in the routine, you occasionally get to put out fires using your freezing breath. Either that or you can spend 20 minutes looking around the city for a fire truck to take over to it - but of course, it's not even remotely worth the time nor the effort to do so. Side missions? Virtually non-existant. You can recover 100 lost kittens that are scattered around Metropolis. Whoopie. The camera and lock-on is horrific. The camera is among the most annoying and dysfunctional I've ever seen in any video game, and the lock on features often times fix on an enemy on the ground - who you can't target again until he gets up - or some other feature (car, etc), which renders combat even more difficult during a first play. Often times you'll find yourself simply button mashing in frustration. The game follows the events of the movie only peripherally - anything that actually occurs in the movie only occurs in the game during cut scenes (which, of course, the player has no interaction with). At no point in the game do you have any interaction with Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, or Perry White, nor do you get any time in as Clark Kent (other than in a brief cut scene in which you have no control over). Very, very lame. Apparently, night never falls on the city of Metropolis, either; upon reaching 100% completion, the day just keeps on going indefinitely, and this doesn't add anything to credibility for the game. You'll never get a chance to explore anything of Metropolis, other than flying around the city. Buildings cannot be destroyed apparently, nor can you fly through anything. The city IS massive, but there's very little to do with it. Unfortunately, Metropolis doesn't appear very accurate either - the city seems to be surrounded by either endless miles of water or endless miles of sand, and you can't really explore any of those areas. Additionally, there are several industrial zoned islands - but apparently no roads or bridges leading to them, leading you to wonder if all of Metropolis' citizens can fly... Flying up takes you high, but you'll never actually progress beyond a certain point - being able to leave the city limits for a spell and/or being able to fly into space would have made this game SO much more enjoyable. One of the biggest selling points the game offers is it's free roaming. True enough - however, once you reach 100% completion, the monsters keep on generating at random, meaning you'll never really get any opportunity to simply relax and enjoy flying around for the sheer sake of doing so. This is very disappointing, considering the flying is really the best aspect the game has to offer. It seems as if the developers of the game focused solely on representing Superman's powers well and basically sluffed off on the rest of the game. Even once you've beaten the game and have acclimated yourself to the poor combat layout, once you know the enemies particular weaknesses, the game is a VERY easy play and you'll beat it inside of 4-6 hours, tops. If you can stand replaying it that long, and I know I certainly couldn't. The flying and super powers are fabulous, though, and for that it gets 1 point - without those elements, I would have scored this a zero, because it wouldn't have deserved any better. The game is worth $7.95 in a cut out bin and will no doubt soon be there. When it is, I'll pick it up strictly to enjoy the flying and that'll be it. Hopefully a sequel game will be given to different developers or the reviews that are all saying the same negative things about the game will be adhered to and a REALLY GOOD Superman game will come next. Hope springs eternal.

K Marx gave it an8:
It is crazy fun to fly so fast around in such a huge city. The game is really short but it is different for everyone that plays it. The story sucks and the voice acting is comical but the game play has really grown on me. The physics are unbelievable and are the real reason to check Superman out.

Kyle M. gave it an8:
It seems everyone either loves this one or hates. it. I'm going to say that people are going on the deep end in both regards. In my opinion it's a good solid game, but certainly not the best super hero game (I enjoyed Hulk, Spiderman, etc). Try the demo that's available on Xbox Live Marketplace - if you enjoy it, this is a solid rental. I got it for Christmas (after asking for it, having enjoyed the demo), and I'm happy with the game. It's better suited for a $40-45 purchase than a $60 purchase in my opinion. FYI, yes certain parts were slightly repetitious, but nothing awful... I usually play this in 30-60 minute incriments. As for there being no story, that's also true, but by no means breaks the game.

John Z. gave it a0:
A depressing experience all round. Flying around metroplis is boring with nothing to do but zig zag from one side to the next repeatedly destroying robots or aliens. Jeff N, Jose M, Steve C and Jack T all look like they work for EA Tiburonof, trying to improve the games rating. I hope it's "unmatched group of managers and producers" all quit the gaming industry.

Monkey Bone gave it a10:
This is the best game i have ever played and it never gets boring, Its fun to fly around Metropolis and use all of supermans powers, its just a great game.

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Superman Returns: The Videogame

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What The Critics Said

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