13 Video Games That Prove Superman Is Cursed

Countless attempts and the Man of Steel still can't make a good game.

superman comics punch
DC Comics

Superman has had more than his share of dodgy moments over the years. From the backlash over his apparent death, to the awful 2006 film Superman Returns, even his latest outing in Dawn of Justice was poorly received by audiences. 

However, none of this compares to the Man of Steel's beleaguered video game appearances. Where Supes' on-screen career has been hit and miss, his console life has been a disaster from start to finish.

It seems that, when it comes to games, Superman is cursed. No matter what people try it almost always ends badly. From titles based on the original comic books, to the animated series and the many movies nothing seems to escape the hex hanging over him.

So join me as I follow the stench being emitted from the son of Krypton's biggest digital stinkers.

13. Superman – Arcade

superman comics punch
DC

We'll start with Taito’s 1988 coin-op because it is, without doubt, the best game to feature Smallville’s most famous son. The problem is that that's not exactly saying a lot.

In this game you fly around fighting bad guys and shooting them with your eyes until you finally reach Emperor Zaas for the final battle. There is little variation in the gameplay and while it’s extremely fun at first it does become tedious pretty quickly.

The most interesting feature of this game is that it has a two-player co-operative mode. The second player assumes the role of a red Superman. Comic book buffs will know that such a character did actually appear in one lone issue (Vol. 1 no. 162) as part of an imaginary scenario. It was recently discovered that the second player was originally supposed to be Supergirl, as all the sprite images were left in the ROM.

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Kieren is from England and is a well known figure in gaming circles. As a writer he is probably best known for his work on the award-winning Retro Gamer magazine but over the years he has written for numerous publications and websites. A keen games collector himself, he is also the organiser of several UK-based gaming events and has a big social media presence.