Superman: The Man of Steel (Atari ST)

It's playing the Superman movie theme! Could it be that I've actually stumbled upon a half-decent Superman game?

Hmm... more Superman movie music, excellent.

Apparently Darkseid has sent an army of para-demons to invade Earth, and someone has to go and report on it. Or stop him. Clark thinks about it for a bit, then decides that this is probably more of a job for Superman.

And now... silence. Except for the buzz of enemy fire.

It turns out that this is actually a shooter. I control the Superman shield shaped crosshair with the mouse, and use it to move around and shoot laser eyes at the alien invaders.

It's hard to tell if my laser eyes are actually doing anything though. Enemies just flicker a bit instead of crashing out of the sky and exploding. And then more of them just appear from those blue portals. It's really... unsatisfying.

Huh? How did I fail? Superman's still alive, I don't get what's gone wrong.

He's just flying off! He must be as bored of this crap as I am.

Back to the comic book. Okay, round two.

Ah! I can switch between weapons with the right mouse button. Laser eyes, punching and super breath. It seems I need to keep changing what I'm using to give them a chance to recharge.

Damn! Getting hit stuns Superman for a second and it takes seemingly forever to get him back in the fight. Especially as he's an easy target while he's not moving.

I'm hammering my poor mouse button way more than I'd like to try to kill these things quickly, but I feel like I'm not even doing anything at all.

I definitely don't feel like the most powerful being on the planet, laying waste to my enemies to protect my adopted home.

Superman gets bored and flies away again, and now the Earth is quite possibly doomed.

And the Man of Steel crawls back to his Fortress of Solitude to cry about it.


Next game.