1) Adventure

Superman is a global hero and his powers allow him to face challenges that are bigger than Metropolis. While I would like to have a game that features missions in Metropolis (specifically at the start), I won't want to have to stay in Metropolis because that could get boring. Let me go to Gotham City and uncover secret conspiracies with Batman/Bruce Wayne. Let me fight giants, sorcerers, and gods with Wonder Woman/Diana Prince on Paradise Island. Let me visit Oa and fight alongside John Stewart and the Green Lantern Corps. Let me see the Source Wall and fight Apocalypse.

2) Action

Don't weaken Superman, but give him challenges that will push his limits. Don't fill the game with mini-games or make the point of the game "holding back." Let Superman cut loose. Let him smash entire building if he has to. This may mean using some kind of Darksiders gameplay mechanic. But it should be somewhat skill-based. It would be cool if there were some escape missions that resembled racing games like "Burnout 3" but with flight. It might be helpful to have some kind of target-ting trigger like in "Zelda Ocarina of Time" to lock on to opponents in the air and fight them one-on-one. Oh, and let me use my surroundings. Let me pull out support beams in Metropolis and use them like bats. Let me use Greek Statues to bash Ares. Let me freeze Sinestro Corps Lanterns and chuck them at Red Lanterns.

3) Mystery

It can't be all punches. Let's have Clark figure out some puzzles and solve some mysteries. He is a reporter. And there are strange new things all around the DCU.

I would play the hell out of this

The more i think about a Superman game, the less i want it. I want a Zod game! Just where there's a completely destructible environment and i can go to town :p

Or just a part in the Superman game where you can play as Zod, that works too :p

I would really want good flight controls.

I always thought the Supergirl: Adventures in the 8th Grade book had a good look/feel for an all-ages adventure beat-em-up game. The combination of juvenile silliness and fantastic power fantasy for a youngster rings true to me.

Who would he fight? I don't mean bosses I mean random bad guys. I think the problem the other games had is they had random people shooting at him or had random thugs, and a weakened superman, but if you have a full powered superman what would you fight? Guess that depends on the bosses for the game

I think that sounds perfect. I did like how superman returns gave the city a health bar instead of superman though

Brainiac Robots, Cadmus Superhumans, Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone, Imperfect Clones of himself; Magical beings on Themyscria like Cyclopes, Chimeras, Krakens, Animated Statues; Manhunters from Oa, Sinestro Corps Lanterns, Red Lanterns, Black Lanterns, Larfleeze's Constructs; Clayface outspurts, Ninjas infused with a Venom-Kryptonite mixture, Poison Ivy Plant Beasts, animated Ice Creatures; Mirror Master clones, Speed Force/Psychic Gorillas from Gorilla City; etc. etc. etc.

I say, give BOTH the city AND SUPES a health bar (the latter only when he's in ACTUAL danger of being harmed).

i think that it should have an infamous style power system....infamous 2 I lied how you could switch between the powers you wanted to use

what would the story be? and i am not asking these questions to be a smart ass, i keep asking because i like picking your brain and you seem to have a solid idea of what you want :P

@w0nd: I haven't given it too much thought actually. But there needs to be a reason to travel to a bunch of locations... I'll keep this really simple. It's basically a riff on the Siegfried and Brunhilde story...

Ultra-Humanite/Darkseid/Mongul/Despero needs various items to achieve some greater goal but cannot accomplish the job himself. The villain attacks Metropolis, and Clark is overwhelmed (this takes place before the Justice League is formed). The villain lifts/floats a large portion of Metropolis from the ground and surrounds it in an impenetrable barrier. The top floors of the Daily Planets are engulfed in a circle of psychic flames that keeps anyone from leaving of getting in. Lois is wounded in the attack and needs medical condition. To save his city, Superman must make the villain think he is accomplishing these missions, but all the while he needs to come up with a plan to outsmart him. This means learning about the villain's past, motivations, and weaknesses.

The items you need to recover just depend on the villain. Darkseid may want pieces of the anti-life equation. Despero could want embers of the Flames of P'ytar. Etc.

Clark could be made young, so he's still figuring out his abilities. Or he can get upgraded in some way as the game goes along. When he meets Bruce Wayne, Princess Diana, or Captain John Stewart, it should be his first meeting with each of them so that they have to learn to trust each other. They could be side characters you meet on missions who show up again in the last level for some emotional friendship/loyalty moments. Or they could be heroes that Clark recruits and who can be summoned in battle.

Bosses can be stronger versions of the people I mentioned in an earlier post, Superman villains doing evil (like Metallo) or simply trying to stop him because they think Superman has gone rogue (Cadmus).

It's not a specific story whatsoever, but it does create a tense sitution in which Clark needs to travel and complete missions. The game's story should focus more on Clark's brains than his brawn. It makes him look cooler and seem more relatable. And you don't need to weaken him to do it if the missions are epic enough!

I'd like a Superman game to have some RPG elements in it, sort of how the Arkham games are. Start him out as Superboy, meeting with the Legion, not able to fly, maybe fighting minor enemies alongside Krypto.

Then he moves in to Metropolis, wears the jeans and cape outfit from Action, jumps, fights evil corporations, ect... then he gets the full on suit, by now you'd be able to unlock flight and stuff, and start fighting some cosmic level enemies. I think giving the player some choice in whether they want to develop Clark's strength or speed or heat vision or whatever throughout the course of the game would be cool, even if it deviated from the comics some, and keeping the big stuff like flying across the galaxy back until the latter third of the game would really make you feel that much more powerful by the end. And of course when the final boss fight against Darkseid or whatever starts up Supes gets all his powers unlocked and you can smash him into the Source Wall.

Yeah...None of that is gonna happen.

I would probably do a Warworld video game where Supes has to regain his powers. Kinda like Arkham Asylum.

And have in-game story be in comic form drawn by Jim lee.

All I know...is that I would want the power control that you get in Superman Returns.

Even though the game was not good overall...they definitely got his powers right.

First of all, don't we have a "What do YOU want from a Superman game" Thread? Did we need one dedicated to you?

Second, it's great you have your own little wishlist there, but have you tried to think about what it is you're asking for? Making games at the size we have now takes years and costs tens of MILLIONS of dollars. You're basically asking for a game that allows you to explore 2 giant cities, an ancient island with Greece architecture, and an all new planet which is populated by millions of different aliens. Asking for that is unreasonable, and frankly impossible unless the developers decide to half-ass it.

Third, I understand that the idea of a weakened Superman may not appeal to people. But the fact of the matter is, he is too damn powerful to be playable and balanced in an action game. As far as I see it, we can either complain that Superman is taking hits he obviously shouldn't, can't kill enemies he normally would one-hit destroy, and being able to die in combat, or they could get some talented writers to come up with a story that explains how and why Superman would actually work in a video game.

Everything.

Take Prototype and Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for example. The base guys, with their assault rifles and handguns, shot the main character who barely even reacted to it. Then, when people started bringing out rocket launchers and stuff, the characters started to flinch. Toss in the robots, mutants, attack vehicles, and superhumans, the main characters of those games had tough fights on their hands, typically due to sheer numbers rather than the individual power levels of each foe. Same thing should apply to Superman.

Just toss overwhelming force at him, sprinkle with robots and monsters and whatnot, and you have enemies that can challenge Superman.

Have Blackrock possess citizens of Metropolis and you have plenty of random fodder that could make Superman wince.

@shajita: Have you played Darksiders? There are plenty of locales in that. And video games have plenty of strong characters like Hulk, The Prototype guys, The Darksiders guys, Kratos, Dante, etc. Superman can definitely be made as strong as he is in the animated series or Man of Steel. No one is asking for Silver Age Superman to show up and sneeze away universes.

@thanosismad: That makes sense. Keep Superman off balance due to shear numbers.

@outlawrenegade: They're asking for an unrestricted Superman. That is a guy that moves at the speed of sound, can throw the moon out of orbit, and is virtually invincible under sunlight. Turn and twist it however you like, playing that while making the game challenging or simply playable is impossible.

But fine, I don't really care if they explain it in the story or not. I just want a game that's playable and challenging. Even if most of the characters you listed are irrelevant since they can all be killed unlike Superman, let's have it your way.

And last, have YOU played Darksiders? Strictly speaking about the first game, sure, you visit a lot of different locations. The problem is that most of these locations are small and completely linear. They didn't build a whole city to explore, they build smaller parts of it that you could visit and only go where they wanted you to. Just like the Ducktales games on the NES, where you go everywhere from Egypt to the friggin' moon, but that's not really a compelling argument now, is it?

@shajita: Does it say open world anywhere? Not even the Batman games are open world. Levels are fine. And if you keep Superman to the power level he had in the cartoon or will have in Man of Steel everything should be fine. I doubt we will see Superman moving the moon in animation or live action ever, so it doesn't need to be in a game. Not restricting SUperman doesn't mean having to turn him into his comics counterpart. Heck, the Batman games borrow more from Timm than Morrison.

Also, unless you mean sun dipped, by under sunlight, SUperman is far from invincible. He faces threats that could kill him in the comics and cartoon all the time. And superspeed was done well in Jak 3 by slowing the world down...

It would be cool if the costumes looked like the ones in the movies.

Gallery

That's what the Batman films have been doing.

@outlawrenegade: Arkham City is open world. You have a fairly big area that you can fully explore. That's the definition of open world. And it's more or less universally accepted that when we're talking about Superman game ideas, we're talking about open world. Having Supermans power at your disposal, and you're locked down to limited, linear levels. Not terrible interesting.
And fine, let's base him off the Animated Series. I just figured when we ask for a Superman game on a comicbook forum, we're talking about a comicbook adaptation.

But hey, slowing down the entire world. Decent idea. Do that.

@captain13: That would be awesome!

From the thread comic book video games.

I would love if Rockstead was following up their work on Batman in the Arkham games with a Superman game titledMetropolis. I'd have it be heavily inspired by the first several issues of Grant Morrison's Action Comics, including the jeans and t-shirt costume. It would depict Clark at the absolute beginning of his career as Superman, with his powers still in their infancy (as in Skyrim, powers would be upgraded based on usage). He would not even have the ability to fly, at the least initially.

In addition to sharing similar gameplay with Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, it would employ dynamic choices and cinematic dialogue, a la Mass Effect. It would not allow for an evil or even renegade Superman through such, but it would allow you to shape relationships with characters such as Lois and Lana. Moreover, there would be sections of the game in which you play as Clark Kent in his guise as a reporter, not merely focusing solely on the superhero aspect of the character.

Essentially, the game would be inFamous meets Mass Effect, starring a young Superman.

@rideaspacecowboy: sounds cool.

Building on my above mentioned ideas, he would of course be voiced by Tim Daly, though the game would not be based off of the animated show.

As for minor level villains, there would be Kryptonian criminals (sans his full power set, as per the upcoming Man of Steel movie, at least it looks that way from the trailers), Braniac robots, and Darkseid's parademons.

Tim Daily does do a great job. I liked Mat Bomer's rendition in Unbound too.

@press_oblivion: I thought Bomer was terrible, but Daly's son will voice Superman in Flashpoint Paradox and he sounds like his old man. The Daly family should just keep doing this for generations.

Side note: I always thought Daly looked like Superman. His wife looks like Lana Lang. So their son must look like what Clark and Lana's baby would be. =D Okay, yes, I'm weird...

I would like a space adventure type Superman game, maybe Brainiac attacks Earth

@superdork: I've never seen the family but it sounds like karma! LOL that's awesome!

@press_oblivion: See, lol

You can hear his voice here at 7:10:

I would love it to be like the Batman games only less stealth oriented. Like instead of Nightwing or Robin it would be like pre order now to be Supergirl or Superboy. It would be all action too, and a great story. And of course third person.

@superdork: Ha guess i have seen Tim before :D You're right they do look like Clark & Lana LOL

The game could also be set on war world, so that Superman would have to fight all kinds of powerful aliens, save the innocent on the planet, and find his way back to earth.

Superman: War World sounds pretty epic and could incorporate a lot of the stuff already mentioned. It could have Batman, Wonder Woman, and John Stewart as DLC.