Hardest Superman Games

Although the most famous superhero in history has had a lot of media made about him, Superman is mostly known for being incredibly overpowered, and this has made it a challenge for many comic book writers, directors, and even game designers to find ways to keep the Man of Steel from becoming too predictable.

Related

5 Best Superman Elseworlds Comic Stories, Ranked

The DC Comics Elseworlds stories take place in alternate versions of the DC Universe, and these alternate Superman stories are all-time classics.

Posts

By  Jason Boje

However, that challenge has not stopped a variety of game designers from trying to put players in the shoes of the legendary Kryptonian. Superman games have littered the history of the video game industry, offering so many different games that even the biggest Superman fans won’t remember all of them (even if they remember every film). From taking on his greatest rivals to party games, team-ups with the Justice League, and even working against his best friends in Elseworlds titles, Superman games have provided plenty of challenges over the years, but some have proven to be more difficult than others.

8 Superman: Shadow Of Apokolips

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.1/5

Although not many games have picked up such widespread new stories for Kal-El, fans loved what Shadow of Apokolips did for the Man of Steel. Based on the Superman animated series, which was hugely popular at the time, this game saw Superman taking on a group of robots using the Intergang’s methods to cause chaos in Metropolis.

The genius behind the bots is in fact Lex Luthor, who hired various other Superman villains, such as Parasite and Metallo, to take him on while he enacts his master plan, working alongside Darkseid. This game was ambitious in terms of its story, but it also greatly challenged players as it introduced so many different villains capable of maiming the Man of Steel. This ensured that the game did a good job of not making Superman feel “too invulnerable,” which has been a common complaint for many easier Superman games over the years.

7 Injustice: Gods Among Us

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.24/5

One of the most prolific games featuring Superman to have been released in recent years, Injustice introduced a world that has become the most famous Elseworld in DC history. Injustice was set in a world where Superman went insane after the death of Lois Lane and took control of the Earth for himself, killing the Joker and many other characters along the way. The games are known for their story, but this first game, which is essentially a fighting game, also challenged players with a lot of difficulty.

Injustice was a wild ride, being a fighting game that explored the length and breadth of the DC Universe, and the controls took some getting used to, while different styles of fighters could also present a challenge to players. Every time the player thought they understood how to win the battles, another, harder opponent managed to appear, culminating with the devastatingly powerful evil version of Superman.

6 Superman: The Man Of Steel (2002)

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.5/5

Not every Superman game is created equal, and this was said to be true by many fans upon the release of Superman: The Man of Steel in 2002, which was generally viewed unfavorably by many. This game featured Superman dealing with Brainiac in a futuristic version of Metropolis, creating a strange location and a fun story, with a basis much more like that of the comic books than most Superman games.

Related

Superman 2025: 10 Reasons To Be Excited

There's a lot to look forward to in James Gunn's Superman movie, set to release next year.

Posts 4

By  VJ Clark

While The Man of Steel was faithful to the comics in many ways, the real difficulty of this entry was in the time limits, which were placed on many sections of the game and forced players to make it through several objectives in short spaces of time. This provided an extra challenge that many fans felt was unnecessary in such a game.

5 Superman (1988)

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 3.77/5

An arcade machine game that featured a classic beat-em-up style, it is no surprise that an entry in the Superman game franchise coming from the 1980s offers a challenging experience. This arcade game was a classic experience that featured an original villainous character, Emperor Zaas, taking on the Man of Steel, as well as featuring the famous 1978 movie soundtrack in the background.

Through the classic arcade-style battles, players had to deal with their fair share of challenges in this entry, and the old-school controls may not have helped. All of this made the game a true challenge, one that could eat up an awful lot of quarters in an arcade back in the day.

4 Superman: The Man Of Steel (1989)

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 4/5

Another extremely old game, Superman: The Man of Steel was a PC game available on a variety of platforms, which told a simplistic, old comic book type of story about Superman taking on Lex Luthor, as well as other enemies such as parademons and terrorists holding Lois Lane hostage.

The varied level design made some players feel like they were playing totally different games with each new level. This made the game a difficult one to get a handle on and produced an experience that was challenging even at the time, when game difficulty was generally quite a bit higher.

3 Superman (1992)

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 4.02/5

Another Superman game that arrived early on in gaming history, this side-scrolling entry, known for being available on the Sega Genesis, provided an excellent level of challenge for gamers at the time, and could easily fit into a fun collection of Superman games today.

Related

DC: Superman’s Best Costumes, Ranked

Superman is DC's most famous hero for a reason, and with decades of history behind the character, he has seen plenty of costume changes.

Posts

By  Chris Harkin

Every level began with a Daily Planet bulletin about another villain on the loose, and the big challenge in Superman was that the Man of Steel couldn’t fly. Players had his strength, and they could jump and kick, but flying was impossible. Older titles like this used these excuses to allow for more difficulty, and a random boss rush in the final level made this game particularly brutal to finish off.

2 Superman (1997)

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 4.06/5

The Game Boy was a huge platform. The level of success it achieved has helped many games that were specifically made for it become immortalized. This Superman game, released in 1997, featured 10 different levels. It had a storyline based on Superman: The Animated Series, and it was an exciting new development as the first handheld Superman game.

However, the challenge in this game was huge. Superman could fly, but a huge number of obstacles, bombs constantly thrown at the player, and all sorts of enemies, as well as the early Game Boy-style controls, made for a brutally hard title that remains a challenge to take on today.

1 Superman: The New Superman Adventures

GameFAQs Difficulty Score: 4.41/5

Often referred to as Superman 64, this game was an infamous one for many reasons. Disputes between the developers and Warner Bros. Led to a lot of development issues for this title, and it has been regarded as unfinished and challenging to play for all sorts of reasons that aren’t necessarily on purpose.

The platforming style could have worked for a Superman game, and the various abilities that the hero could use were more diverse than previous entries in the franchise, but unfortunately, The New Superman Adventures was incredibly challenging to play, and as such, it remains the most difficult Superman game in more ways than one.

More

Best Batman Games, Ranked

Outside of maybe Spider-Man, Batman has the greatest video game history of any superhero. Here's the best Dark Knight games of all time.

Posts