When I first heard that EA had snapped up the rights to the Superman license and that it was handing development to its venerable Tiburon crew, I was excited. These were the folks behind the Madden, NASCAR, and NFL Street franchises. Supes was finally going to get his videogame props and gamers were finally going to get to experience what it truly feels like to roll as the world's most famous superhero. Flags went up when the game's release was delayed by almost five months. Originally intended to coincide with the theatrical release of the Superman Returns movie (which the game is loosely based on), it ended up shipping just a week before the DVD release of the film. Better late than never? Not really.
Your initial introduction to the Man of Steel is an underwhelming one -- a clunky, last-millennium-looking title screen. Our hero is staring zombie-like into Metropolis, his legs and flipper-like hands moving stiffly and unnaturally. (And that's the first time I've used the phrase "flipper-like hands" in a review since the Dreamcast days.) A couple of loading screens and a cutscene later, you finally get to hit the streets, and things get better -- briefly. A tap of the Y button puts you in flight and the first time you take to the air will definitely put a smile on your face. Flight uses both analog sticks, the left stick for moving forward and backwards and the right for pitching and banking, and this gives you an incredible amount of control. Eventually, you're given the ability to move at hyperspeeds -- up to 800 mph -- and given the huge playing field that you're allowed, this gets crazy fun. As disappointing as this game is, the ability to literally fly up alongside a skyscraper at mach speed is a serious gaming rush.
After this brief handholding intro session -- and just about when you're ready to forgive the powers-that-be for that insanely shoddy title screen -- you're tossed into two back-to-back tutorials that will have you whipping your Controller S against the wall. (And if you're still rocking an old school, first-gen, giganto Xbox controller, you'll probably end up damaging something.) After being given the basics of how to use your super breath, freeze breath and heat vision, you're suddenly supposed to be able to protect the city from dozens of meteorites hurtling downward. You'll shoot down a mess of them, but eventually the city will take too much damage and you've failed. If you manage to somehow make it through this one, you're then tossed into a battle arena where, for some reason, you're pitted against a morphing enemy who would be considered at least a minor boss in most games. Should this have been my intro to the game's fight mechanics? No. It's frustrating as hell. Oddly, once -- and if -- you beat him, the real game starts and the level of the competition drops rapidly.