Superman: Shadow of Apokolips (GameCube)

Superman seems to have a bit of a bad track record when it comes to video game adaptations, and it’s hard to pinpoint an exact reason why.  The instinctual explanation would have to do with how incredibly powerful he is, but when it comes to video games, players are pretty willing to accept an adapted character being weaker during play. Even if you don’t reduce Superman’s power when adapting him, there are plenty of characters in gaming who are on par or even stronger than Superman who carry their own titles effectively. Whatever the reason is, Superman: Shadow of Apokolips certainly will not be the game to shake off the series stigma.

Superman: Shadow of Apokolips bases its appearance on Superman: The Animated Series and uses its interpretations of DC Comics’s most iconic character and his corner of its universe. It does a generally faithful conversion of the art style into game form as well and many of the show’s voice actors reprise their performances here, but this game seems as if it was constructed while the show was on the air despite the fact it was actually made a few years after its run. This is mainly because of the odd low stakes affair on show that seems constructed to avoid stepping on any of the television show’s toes with how it handled Apokolips during its run. Despite putting Shadow of Apokolips as part of the game’s title, the fictional planet of Apokolips is never visited as part of its plot, but it does play a part in instigating the troubles that do occur around the city of Metropolis. Darkseid, one of Superman’s most powerful enemies, is sending weapons and robotic enemies known as Interbots to Earth, but despite being behind the evil invasion force, Darkseid never faces off with the Man of Steel, and really, very few of Superman’s famous foes will show up. As he goes around the city trying to undo the chaos the Interbots are causing, he will pretty much face only that single enemy until near the end where some more familiar faces like Metallo and Parasite will finally appear.

Were the Interbots an interesting or engaging threat, it might have been okay for the story to sideline most of Superman’s more varied villains, but the Interbots are essentially in the plot just to give Superman something to whale on endlessly with no guilt behind destroying them or any logic questions cropping up on how they’re going toe to toe with Superman.  Throughout most of the game you’ll be facing off with the Interbot ground troops who shoot at you but don’t put up much of a fight, meaning that much of the game will be mindlessly destroying them without any meaningful resistance. Superman’s basic attacks are lifeless and so simple that a fight can boil down to just hammering the attack button until everything is taken care of. However, Superman has always been a superhero with many skills, it’s just his most effective ones here are new and not used for anything interesting save destroying robots more quickly. Superman has a very easy to execute slam attack that will hit things in a radius and send them flying, a flying charge that has a similar shockwave effect, and a cape spin where he becomes a spinning top of doom, and all of these are far too powerful for their own good. Most of these are so effective at clearing away Interbots that you can just repeat them over and over and clear out whatever size group is hassling you, but they do draw on a superpower meter that drains on use. However, the cost for these moves is still pretty low, so very rarely would you ever drain yourself dry using these tactics when they’re called for.

Superman’s superpower meter and health will gradually recover if you just hang back for a while and avoid trouble. This means that even when an enemy can dish out heavy damage, the player is best off flying away and disengaging from combat until Superman is back in fighting shape, something that can drag down the pace of the more involved battles. The Interbots do eventually get some new troop types and even vehicles to add to their waves of generic infantry, but your tactics don’t really become too involved here either. Superman’s best answer to a tank is going to be punching it until it explodes, although he can throw it too to make the process take longer. Helicopters are vulnerable to the flying charge, but if you don’t want to aim at aerial troops or choppers, you can also just lock on and fire some laser vision their way for very little superpower meter reduction. A sustained beam is weaker than double-tapping for the blast, but both are more useful than Superman’s super breath which is primarily used for putting out fires. I almost forgot Superman even had his X-ray vision in this game though due to how rarely it gets trotted out compared to the already underplayed ice breath. He’s got the expected powers on offer, but the levels and enemies don’t engage them well. Flying breaks open many confrontations because few of your foes can keep up with it, and levels also similarly struggle to lay out challenging affairs when you take the skies. The boss battles could almost be the area the game finds its footing, but these fights very much play into the hit-and-run tactics your gradual healing encourages as well as often being pretty susceptible to heat vision shenanigans to overcome an enemy who could have been a physical threat if you had to fight them up close. If you try to engage them up close though, you’ll be punished, because the Man of Steel feels like more like he’s made of cardboard in the hands of his tougher foes, the very present threat of death and being made to restart encouraging the constant tactical retreats. If you’re lucky though, a boss might just stop moving for a while as they glitch out, making for easy pickings.

Superman: Shadow of Apokolips doesn’t wholly rely on the combat for its level and mission design though, many stages focusing on Superman trying to rescue people or stop something bad from happening in a limited amount of time like a dam breaking or a base self-destructing. Time-sensitive missions do feel like the better test of Superman’s skills here, as the combat during these portions becomes less focused on the thrill of the battle and becomes an obstacle to quick completion instead, Superman needing to swat helicopters out of the sky so he can continue saving people. Some missions have interesting ideas like Superman having to sneak around a secret lab undercover as his civilian identity so he can report on what he finds, and one mission where he’s trying to foil a self-destruct system involves him flying through multiple hazardous tunnels full of lava vents and falling rocks to repair a machine in time. The flight controls aren’t perfect for this, controlling differently depending on the speed of his flight, but once you get the hang of it, they’ll be up to the task of the timed missions. However, some of these timed missions are so lenient there is barely any pressure, just consist of sequences of battles, or are incredibly dull due to bad mission design. One mission for example involves clearing some safe paths for civilians so they can get to a hospital, but once you’ve made these paths and cleared away all enemies, it involves just watching the people slowly run to their destination. An even worse problem can occur though in the prison level where you need to escort security guards to safety and they can get stuck on level geometry, slowing down a level that is already mostly just fight after fight with Interbots. While designing missions around rescuing civilians is a good fit for a superhero, the mission designs here mostly boil down to sequences of the battles, the tedious design of the combat influencing the rescue missions that lean on it too hard.

THE VERDICT: While not his worst video game outing, the Man of Steel still hasn’t been captured in a satisfying way with Superman: Shadow of Apokolips. The game puts a lot of emphasis on a battle system that is too easily broken by Superman’s special abilities and when it isn’t, the foes you’re facing are so strong you need to constantly retreat to recover health at a very slow rate. While many of the missions do try and focus on tasks like protecting or rescuing citizens or stopping dangerous devices, these can be just as slow and uninspired, and the game’s propensity for glitchy character behavior can lead to failures outside your control. The game’s repetitive design makes it mostly about timed conflicts with robots, making it hard to enjoy the few moments where the powers and mission design do click.

And so, I give Superman: Shadow of Apokolips for GameCube…

A TERRIBLE rating. Superman fans will have to continue searching for their quality adaptation, but Superman: Shadow of Apokolips at least didn’t fail as hard as the Nintendo 64 adaptation of the animated series despite feeling like it at a few points. Across its different levels, Superman: Shadow of Apokolips does sometimes hit on a good idea for a mission that achieves a proper balance of challenge and interaction, but many of them are either weak excuses for bland waves of Interbots or tasks that are too simple to achieve in empty and dull environments. When an enemy does put up a good fight, Superman’s healing is also too focused on minimizing conflict with that foe, meaning your more interesting and complex adversaries are usually handled best by keeping your distance so their poor AI won’t figure out how to hurt you as you lay down laser fire or only fly in when you’ve got the health reserves to risk it. Somehow, Superman manages to feel both too capable thanks to how easily he tears through Interbots and incredibly weak when he comes up against anything more competently designed, making it hard to enjoy the rare moment where things come together in a somewhat decent manner amidst all the mess.

Superman: Shadow of Apokolips should have dared to be more. It didn’t go all the way with its focus on Apokolips and barely used any of Superman’s regular villains, leading to a game that focuses on a few elements introduced up front and dragging those out as long as it can to fill an already rather short game. The rescue missions are actually a smart design choice as the focus is less on power than performance, but even those resort to bland designs as the developers seemed reticent to embrace their imagination. Perhaps the shadow of Superman’s past video game outings was so heavy they didn’t feel like putting in the effort to truly shake it off, leaving us with a game that once again makes playing as the most iconic superhero of all time a bore.