The best and worst Superman games and why developers need to do better

GameCentral looks through Superman’s gaming history and ponders why no one seems interested in giving him a new video game of his own.

A brand new Superman movie is coming out this weekend, marking the first cinematic solo outing for the character since 2013’s Man Of Steel. And if those trailers are anything to go by, it looks to be a return to form that truly gets what Superman is about.

Considering writer and director James Gunn is also overseeing the entire DCU (Warner Bros.’ newest crack at an extended cinematic universe) and has expressed interest in tying future video games into it as well, we have to believe there have at least been discussions about getting a dedicated Superman game off the ground.

Despite what you might think he’s actually had lots of games made about him in the past, but for the last couple of decades he’s been relegated to the role of supporting character in more general DC Comics related games.

Sadly, the most famous tie-in game is the dreadful Superman: The New Adventures for the Nintendo 64 (aka Superman 64), but even the better examples are fairly mediocre.

So, while we highlight Superman’s best gaming appearances, we also want to look at why game developers seem to struggle with adapting the character and why it shouldn’t be as difficult as some seem to think it is.

DC Universe Online (2013)

Despite being over a decade old, and never seeming to be in the news, this DC themed MMO is still seeing updates to this day. That alone speaks to its quality, as you create your own hero and join forces with the Justice League… or become a supervillain.

While it’s far from offering the true Superman experience, you can build a character with a similar powerset and Superman himself has played a key role in several of the game’s storylines over the years, including one based on the famous The Death Of Superman comic.

Injustice 2 (2017)

It’s kind of sad that one of Superman’s best video game appearances is one where he’s the villain. The first Injustice is a solid fighting game and its sequel is even better, with improved combat and a great single-player campaign – if you don’t mind Superman acting as a knock-off Homelander.

An Injustice 3 is likely on the cards at NetherRealm Studios, although whether it would continue the whole grimdark angle, or take Superman back to his heroic roots, is hard to say, as the whole idea of an evil Superman has got very tired in recent years.

Justice League Heroes (2006)

A DC version of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games sounds like a no-brainer yet not only was it only ever attempted once, it restricted you to controlling only two characters at a time, instead of four, and had a far smaller roster of heroes.

Still, Justice League Heroes was a harmless, if mindless crack at an action role-player, albeit one best experienced with a friend in co-op. Superman was unsurprisingly front and centre as one of its main characters, with two of his biggest adversaries – Brainiac and Darkseid – serving as the main villains.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (2012)

As the title suggests, Batman’s the real star of this game, while his fellow heroes play second fiddle. And yet, in an ironic role reversal, it’s Superman who steals the show.

Aside from being the only other DC hero to have an active presence in the main story, he’s a joy to play as since he can freely fly through the air and is accompanied by the John Williams score from the original 70s movie. (Lego Batman 3 adds the Wonder Woman TV theme tune, if you play as her.)

The Death And Return Of Superman (1994)

The first Superman side-scrolling beat ‘em-up from Sunsoft wasn’t all that great and while this follow-up was no Streets Of Rage, it was still an improvement – if only for letting you actually fly.

An adaptation of two of the most iconic comic book storylines, you could play as one of five different Supermen, including Steel and Superboy, with each of them having unique projectile attacks and super moves.

Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure (2013)

The Scribblenauts games were very clever, in how you could use almost any object you could think of to solve their various puzzles, but they weren’t particularly successful and this was an attempt to give them a boost via a DC tie-in.

That meant you could summon Superman any time you wanted and, if you knew your DC history, you could even call upon different variants, such as the one with a 90s mullet and one where Kal-El grew up to be Batman.

Superman Returns (2006)

This tie-in to the 2006 movie isn’t particularly good, but it had some solid ideas that could easily be expanded on and refined in a better game.

Aside from getting to freely roam around the city of Metropolis, this game worked around Superman’s invulnerability by giving the city a health bar instead of you, meaning you needed to use Supe’s various powers to beat enemies and solve problems before the city took too much damage.

Superman: Shadow Of Apokolips (2002)

Perhaps the best Superman solo game ever made, Shadow Of Apokolips earns points for being directly based on the beloved 90s animated series, and even bringing back the same voice actors.

Granted, Superman 64 did the same thing, and that game was awful, but Shadow Of Apokolips was thankfully decent to play too, made better use of his rogues’ gallery, and let you use all of Superman’s best-known abilities, aside from just super strength and flight.

Why are there no good Superman video games?

As you can see, even the better games on the list don’t really offer the experience of being Superman. He’s certainly not had his Batman: Arkham Asylum moment, that not only got the character exactly right but was a great game in its own right.

Although there’s been numerous rumours of cancelled Superman games over the last decade or more, nothing has ever been announced and not even the new movie has inspired Warner Bros. to make something new.

After so many years of mediocre to bad games, it seems everyone collectively decided that the very concept of a Superman game didn’t work. Some will point to Superman’s invulnerability as a key problem, but that’s hardly an unusual attribute in video games.

However, this logic ignores two things. One, it’s fun being invincible sometimes. We’ve all tried those invincibility cheat codes so we can just turn our brains off and revel in the power trip of ignoring all damage and wiping out enemies, like we’re Darth Vader at the end of Rogue One.

And two, Superman isn’t entirely invincible. Aside from his two obvious weaknesses – kryptonite and magic – regularly rendering him vulnerable, he can still get seriously knocked around when engaging with characters in his weight class.

Not to mention, in a lot of Superman media, he is known for needing to hold back lest he accidentally level a city. It’s an inherent part of Superman’s character and can be easily justified in-game by placing him in densely populated areas.

Filling a game with enemies that make use of kryptonite and/or magic, or are simply just as strong as him, seems like the easiest solution to the problem. And as we mentioned in the list, the Superman Returns game had the neat idea of giving the city a health bar instead.

Shifting the player’s focus to protecting citizens over keeping Superman healthy would be very in keeping with the character. Although it would run the risk of turning the entire game into one long escort mission, but it’s not like those are intrinsically bad, in the right hands.

Another common criticism we’ve heard is that Superman doesn’t have any good villains, beyond Lex Luthor, to prop up a video game. This is frankly untrue as Superman has one of the best rogues’ galleries in comics, with plenty of enemies to fill up a video game as both major antagonists and secondary villains.

The reason people think this is because the live action movies have generally never featured anyone but Lex Luthor and Zod, but there’s a whole lot more:

• Darkseid, the powerful ruler of Apokolips who is basically the final boss of the entire DC universe
• Brainiac, the supremely intelligent alien who collects cities
• Metallo, who stands even with Superman by being powered by kryptonite
• Parasite, who can absorb Superman’s energy just by touching him
• Mongul, the tyrant ruler of Warworld who’s not only physically strong but once famously trapped Superman in a dream world with the Black Mercy plant
• Cyborg Superman, a robotic imposter that also possesses technopathy
• Doomsday, the mindless undying monster responsible for killing Superman in the 90s
• Bizarro, an imperfect copy of Superman that uses backwards logic
• Lobo, an alien bounty hunter responsible for wiping out his own species
• Zod, a fellow Kryptonian as strong as Superman and with a grudge against his dad
• Ultraman, an alternative universe version of Superman with the same exact powers
• Mister Mxyzptlk, a reality-controlling imp from the fifth dimension who Superman can never defeat, only outwit

This isn’t even getting into minor villains like Toyman, Atomic Skull, or Intergang, who may not match Superman physically but have the means to challenge him with advanced technology or by threatening the people around him.

All the ingredients are there for a great Superman video game, they just haven’t been put together properly before. Or at least not officially.

In 2019, a group of Japanese game design students released a project of theirs called Undefeated on Steam (and later PlayStation 5 in September 2024) as a free download.

One look at it and it’s clearly trying to be a Superman-esque power fantasy and having played it ourselves, it works really well. It’s obviously not particularly fleshed out, but you can freely fly at high speeds, knock out bad guys in the blink of an eye, and put out fires by clapping your hands.

There’s also a one-on-one boss fight against a powerful foe in the skies above the city and, much like Superman Returns, you have to ensure the city is safe and regularly repair any damage the boss inflicts on it.

It’s a solid basis for a full game and clearly born from a desire to see a proper Superman game (the player character even has heat vision). The same team also has plans for a more advanced sequel entitled Undefeated: Genesis in 2026.

Aside from showing that Superman can work in the medium, Undefeated demonstrates that there’s an audience for this sort of the game. As of April 2025, the Steam version has seen more than three million downloads while the PlayStation 5 version saw one million downloads in its first three months.

Granted, being free helped but Undefeated also must’ve impressed Epic Games, as it’s supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for the sequel according to a Steam post from this April.

With any luck, it’ll prove successful enough to at least catch Warner Bros.’ eye and convince the company a Superman game is not only something worth capitalising on but something that can be done well.

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