While DC Comics' Batman has had quite a successful video game career thanks totheArkhamseries, the same can’t quite be said for the company’s other flagship superheroSuperman. There have certainly been Superman games, but none of them are particularly well remembered. The only one with any real staying power isSuperman: The New Adventuresfor the Nintendo 64, better known asSuperman 64AKA one of the worst games ever made.
The last game to be explicitly about Superman was in 2006. Since then, fans of the Man of Steel have had to make do with him making playable appearances in other games, like a couple of theLego Batmangames, theInjusticefighting games, and soonFortniteas well. But it’s recently been discovered that a Superman game was in development from 2007 to 2008 at Factor 5 (the studio behind theStar Wars: Rogue Squadrongames), only for it to be canceled when both the studio and its publisher went out of business.
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The details come from a lead designer on the project Salvatrix on Twitter, who even shared some early test footage. Codenamed Blue Steel, the goal was to feature “super brawls” similar to what was seen in the comics and cartoons.Justice League Unlimitedin particular was apparently a major source of inspiration, with the team putting together a montage of clips from the show to demonstrate what they were aiming for, including the famous fight between Superman and Captain Marvel (known nowadays as Shazam) andSupes' final confrontation with Darkseid.
It would have involved aerial brawling, crashing through buildings, shockwaves from the impact of hits, environmental damage, and then some. The team didn’t want to hamperSuperman’s full capabilities by relying on the traditional crutches like kryptonite and robots as enemies. Instead, he would’ve gone up against enemies of similar strength. Some examples, judging by shared concept art, included the aforementioned Darkseid, Livewire, and Doomsday.
Although it wasn’t made to be a tie-in, it would’ve released alongside a sequel to theSuperman Returnsmovie from 2006. But that was also canceled due to poor box office performance, which eventually led to DC and Warner Bros. rebooting the movie series withMan of Steel.
Further details can be gleaned from the full thread on Twitter, which also includes some concept art. As for the future, DC’s next major game release is another Batman title,Gotham Knights. After that, though, isaSuicide Squadgame, which will feature Superman in an antagonist role.
