20 MORE Pointless Video Game Mechanics Nobody Used
6. X-Ray Vision - Superman: The New Superman Adventures (1999)
Better known as Superman 64, this Nintendo title is regarded as one of the worst games ever made. With its unwieldy controls, frequent glitches, and its insistence on forcing players to fly through rings, its infamy is well earned.
The plot followed the Man of Steel as he ventured into a virtual reality created by Lex Luthor to save his friends. The levels themselves were a combination of puzzle solving, escort missions, and anticlimactic boss fights, each of which was just as atrocious as the last.
Players could also collect powerups to use a selection of the hero's signature powers. These included super speed, ice breath, and heat vision. While these worked as well as they could in a game as poorly made as this, the X-ray vision power managed to be even worse.
Intended to enable players to locate key items for certain puzzles, this mechanic sounds useful in theory. The problem, however, was that it simply didn't work. The mechanic was completely broken and served no purpose.
A combination of a rushed production and issues with the licensor meant there was no time for the developers to realise their ambitious vision for what this game could have been.