MFT: Superman 64 speedrun

This is a video of a speedrun of a game "Superman 64" developed by Titus Software. It was released in 1999 on the heels of success of "Superman: The Animated Series". It is bizarre thing to watch.

Here is why.

Video games are tricky things. They are ultimate form of vanitas - you apply your skills and spend your time in order to reach to the very end of the game (100% finish is preferable) and then you feel good for a moment or so and that is it. You may learn a lesson of sorts but it is up to you. And as for vanitas - video games are extremely hard to do. Not only from a conceptual point of view - it is simply hard to pull off technically. Too many things to think-through, too many things to lay out, too many moving parts. It is gruelling and ultimately punishing to say the least. And the fact that it is multi-billion industry doesn't make it easier.

It makes it stranger. Case in point - Titus Software's "Superman 64".

This game is infamous for its bizarrely unplayable state. It wasn't made that way because of lack of skill. It wasn't intended to be a piece of infuriating, frustrating, annoying, irritating conceptual art. It happened that way because of pressure from the publishers. As you already know - it is a licensed game based on a DC Comics character Superman. Why it is so notorious? The thing with licensed content is that often license holder don't really know what kind of product they want. And that results in frustrating start-stops all of a sudden, making changes on the fly, last minute tweaks, backtracking and other extremities that slowly but surely turn the whole thing into a mess. And if combine it with the developers who plan things they are not really able to realize - you get something really special. In the worst way possible.

"Superman 64" manages to combine visual ugliness with mechanic inaneness. What kind of game it is? Japanese call it "kusoge" - "so bad it is actually quite funny".



"Superman 64" is based upon aesthetics of "Superman: The Animated Series". Its story revolves around Superman's gal Lois Lane, Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen and Professor Hamilton the Science Guy being kidnapped by evil bald definitely Pinhead Lex Luthor. As if it wasn't hard enough - he put them into virtual recreation of Metropolis. Superman came to rescue and got into the trap and so he forced to "play the game". Which is "flying through the maze of rings around the city", then walking around and punching shadow-like pew-pew figures many-many times, then flying through rings again. If you think about it - flying stages are classic Luthor messing with Superman circa early 60s. But empirically flying stages are "Battletoads" level of psychological abuse. It can seriously deteriorate your mental state in a matter of minutes. In the future it will be recognized as a form of torture. It also looks good on paper. If you think why Superman couldn't just break the game by sheer force of his powers - he was affected by kryptonite fog. In a virtual reality (it is actually an excuse for very limited drawing distance of the games engine). Along the way Superman manages to fight Metallo, Darkseid (really) and even Brainiac. And then he saves his friends and Luthor escapes because of course he does. Player get congrats and that's it.

Originally it was supposed to be an open world game where Superman what do his thing but then the suits came in and everything escalated to excrement tornado. The game fell victim of ambitions and lack of focus. Publishers and developers were never on the same page and that caused a lot of perturbations and refurbishing on the fly. That is what happened with "Superman 64". 

You can't really play it - you endure it. You can't even motivate yourself to move on from level to level. It annoys you to the point you simply abandon it. But there are some die hards who just don't give because reasons. Believe it or not - there is a man who actually had beaten this game. Even more so - he performed a speedrun of sorts on it. His nickname is headstrong1290. 

This undeniably significant even happened at Awesome Games Done Quickly event. This is probably the best way to experience this game.