Superman Countdown to Apokolips with Adam Maresh - podcast episode cover

Superman Countdown to Apokolips with Adam Maresh

Jun 08, 202537 min
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Episode description

Holy Kryptonian catastrophe, comic crusaders! This week on Play Comics, we’re diving headfirst into the digital dumpster fire that is Superman: Countdown to Apokolips for the Game Boy Advance – because apparently someone thought the best way to honor Superman: The Animated Series was to trap the Man of Steel in a tiny screen prison with graphics that make MS Paint look like the Sistine Chapel.

Released in 2003 by the brave souls at Mistic Software (after poor Crawfish Interactive literally died during development – talk about your occupational hazards!), this isometric adventure promised to let players soar through Metropolis while battling Livewire, Metallo, and the fashion disaster known as Kalibak. What it actually delivered was a gaming experience so punishing that even Darkseid would file a complaint with customer service.

Joining us for this digital descent into madness is Adam Maresh from my local shop back when he lived by me – a man who’s seen more comic-to-game adaptations crash and burn than a rejected Justice League movie pitch. Together, we’ll explore how this GBA “gem” managed to score a whopping 45% on GameRankings and somehow convinced IGN to give it a 4.5/10 (which in retrospect feels generous).

So grab your emergency kryptonite antidote and prepare for an episode that’s more fun than actually playing the game – which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly setting the bar stratospheric. Will Superman’s portable adventure redeem itself through sheer nostalgic charm, or will it crash harder than a Daily Planet exclusive? Tune in to find out if this animated series tie-in belongs in the Fortress of Solitude… or the Phantom Zone!

Learn such things as:

  • Should we get Golden Age Superman back?
  • What powers do you give the man who could have anything?
  • Where’s Krypto? I want Krypto! Everyone is always talking about Krypto.
  • And so much more!

You can find Adam at a place that even I technically don’t know the location of.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicscaston Twitter and in the Play Comics Podcast Fan Groupon Facebook.

A big thanks to the Kickstarter campaign for Aces and Aros and to the Kickstarter campaign for Starlite for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who still believes in Santa and has no idea how those presents get under the tree.

Read transcript

Transcript

I'm sp. From the Guinegeek.com show, a weekly geek news podcast that is part of the guinegeek.com network. Just like the show you're checking out now, shows on the network are individually owned and opinions expressed may not reflect others. Find other amazing geek shows@getageeknetwork.com. Sam.

And welcome to Play Comics, where once again, we're here looking at a video game based on a comic property and how well it represents that source material. And today we are here looking at the big old boy scout himself, Superman. Because I. I don't know why. It's. It just seems like an appropriate thing to do in these times where things are weird and we could all use somebody who is just a beacon of goodness. And who do I have talking about Superman with me? I have my friend Adam, who used to work at the comic store that I go to and now doesn't live here anymore, so he doesn't work there anymore. Adam, how are you today?

I'm doing pretty good. I'm excited to talk about this game and Superman, who is, in fact, my favorite super, my favorite superhero, my favorite comic book character, and takes up the majority of my comic book spending money. So I'm excited to talk about my favorite. What was it that got you to be such a Superman fan in the first place?

You know, I think it's. It's kind of interesting and it goes into what you just said when you introduced everything, but for a really long time, I was. Spider man was my number one guy. When I got into comics, it was through Spider man because I loved how, like, the realism of Spider Man. But I feel like as I got older and as I spent more time interacting with the world, kind of like what you said, Superman became that beacon of goodness and something to kind of aspire towards. And I kind of like that it wasn't based in as much realism because it. It helped to create that. That, like, aspiration. And I think it's something that we all need to look into ourselves and try and replicate his behavior and his actions as much as possible and try to be that. That good person who's good for the sake of being good and not necessarily because he has to be. So I've just always, you know, especially with everything that's going on in the world and. And life, it's just something that has resonated with me a lot more over the last couple years and has really, really dug a hole in my heart. And now I. Now I love the guy.

Is there an era of Superman that is just really, like, above all else, reaching out to your soul.

Yeah, that's a hard question. I adore the original golden age stuff. I don't think a lot of it, like, obviously a lot of it doesn't hold up. But I like the themes where Superman is a more activ. Force and a more active, just more actively involved in society. And it's less like fighting aliens or just, you know, stopping bank robberies. But one of my favorite issues. I don't remember the issue number off the top of my head, but there's. There's a mining or a guy who owns a mine, and he's not following safety precautions. And the miners are obviously complaining and. And. But, you know, they're not doing anything because this is back in, like, the 60s. And Superman is just like, you know what? I'm gonna go into your mind, I'm gonna get everybody out, and I'm just gonna collapse your mind. And he does it. He just collapses this dude's mind. And he goes back to him. He's like, if you do not start following proper safety precautions for your workers, I will come back and I will collapse every single one of your minds and I will ruin your career. And I always loved that because he doesn't just do it. Like, he doesn't just ruin this guy's life, but he shows him that he has the ability to. And kind of scares him into doing the right thing when he didn't have anything else. Which I think is kind of an interesting take on Superman, too, because a lot of the times we don't see him as someone who's meant to be threatening. But I kind of liked when he was a more active member of the community and was able to do things that no one else was, in a way that impacted the lives of people around him more than just saving them from an alien attack or a super villain or whatever. I will say, though, the current absolute Superman book, if you're reading it by Jason Aaron and Sandoval, is incredible. It feels very much like that old golden age aspects, but with a more modern take and modern writing, modern art. So I would say that book right now has really been resonating with me because it captures that Superman that I really love.

It seems that over the past few days, we have been sharing the same brain a lot, because that Mina issue is also one of my favorite ones for a lot of the same reasons. All I hear about with people who know about Superman, but not a lot is, oh, he's all powerful super Being nothing can ever defeat him and he's so boring. But this is where you get Superman is you attack him on the humanity level or bring the threat out that way anyway. So just knowing that you have a character in there who will go in and he truly is fighting for people who just can't get the job done themselves. Like obviously the miners, they could do something, they just haven't yet. And if you know your history, you know that miners are not exactly people you want to be pushing to the edge a lot of times. So I'm happy that Superman went in there and did that because then he gets the brunt of any kind of backlash there and not the miners. But I mean that I think is just kind of my go to example of yeah, Superman is this all American hero everything. But also you essentially have socialist hero Superman and it's canonical.

The people Superman just going in here. With everything, knowing that there are so many different directions you can take Superman and it works like you can have, I'm going to go out and take on super giant space cosmic level threats. You can have him coming in and dealing with more street level things. It all works because he's done it all. Because like I have said before, Superman is living in a world where he's seen everything as good and he's fighting to keep it that way.

You know, you have Grant Morrison's action comic run from New 52. Greg Pak did an Action Comics run from New 52, the current Joshua Williamson run from DC. Like you just said, it shows that Superman is a character that you can take in so many different directions. You don't just have to have him be the, the kind of people's hero down on the ground. There is also a lot of potential in storytelling when it comes to something like a Brainiac or Lex Luthor or you know, Zod or just Krypton in general. And you know, there's just as much political relevance in those things as there is in like we just were talking about that issue with the minds or a lot of the golden age stuff.

And I feel like a lot of people by age, maybe not your age because you make me feel old, but a lot of people my age getting into Superman, if you didn't pick up on it from like the Christopher Reeves movies from the 70s from your parents or George Reeves stuff from your grandparents, then you were probably getting your Superman love from the 90s animated series that was put out kind of in tandem with the Batman animated series. And how much experience do you have watching that show?

Yeah, so I watched. I. I don't know if I've seen every episode. I was telling you this before the show. I'm not sure I've seen every episode, but I have seen quite a bit of it. It has been a few years. It's definitely on my list of things I need to rewatch. I really want to go through and rewatch, like, all of that Animated Series era because I've seen a lot of it, but not all of it. You know, static shock, Justice League Unlimited, Batman, of course, Superman. But I have seen a lot of it. And I do agree it is a very. That's probably one of the better representations of Superman that we've seen on TV or in movies, because with the. The animation, it gave the potential to do so much more with the. The space side of things. But there's just a lot, a lot to love about that show and its representation of Superman because as much as the. The Christopher Reeve movies are incredible, they are kind of limited in, in the kind. The side of Superman that they're able to show. And I think part of the reputation of Superman as like Boy Scout Goody 2 Shoes is from the Christopher Reeve movies. And I do think that is an important side of Superman and a lovable side of Superman. But I think the Animated Series, because it had a longer run and more flexibility due to being, you know, animated and not live action, it showed so much more of what you can do with the character and also the extended cast as well. I always love Jimmy Olsen's mullet.

I'd completely forgotten about that. I always come back to that. That he just had a mullet. I love that. I love it. Because, you know, now we always see Jimmy Olsen and he has that very short kind of hair that goes up a little bit in the front, but back then he had the full mullet. Oh, I love it. I think about that all the time.

Well, spoiler alert for anybody who hasn't seen it. That animated Superman is really, really good. That's also where you get Superman. Like, I like to think that he actually believes in Santa and that his parents were not the ones who were wrapping the presents in lead so that he couldn't see them. Just that full on childlike wonder of everything. Because you have to remember this is somebody who came from a planet that at least at some point he thought he was the only survivor on. And, you know, ignore the fact that you keep finding more and more people all the time, because that's just how storytelling works when it goes long form, like this, you've got somebody who is just completely in awe of everything in the world and how is everything so cool? How is everything so wonderful? And just. I love that Superman.

It's a really good version of Superman. I also love, like, one of the standout episodes of that show to me, is when they introduce Supergirl. I believe it's season two, there's a two parter where they introduce Supergirl. Um, and I always loved that. And that's another example of the show being able to do so much more. Because Clark's family, you know, his Kryptonian family, like Connor and. And Cara, are such an important part of the character in the comic books that I've never quite been done in live action in the same way. I mean, there is the Supergirl movie and everything, but we've never seen that family dynamic that he has with people from Krypton or, you know, people who are Kryptonian. And I love that the show was able to also introduce that because that's also a very important aspect of. Of Superman and of Clark, is that you have his kind of Earth family with Lois and Jimmy and, you know, Perry and everyone, but then you also have Kara and Connor, and in the comics you get, like, Keenan and all kinds of other characters, Lana and everything. But I loved that part of the show too, is being able to see him interact with his extended cast and then obviously carrying into, like, the Justice League show too, since that's supposed to be the same Superman and seeing him interact with the wider DC Universe as well.

I'm not sure when this episode is going to come out, but I do know for 1000% sure, because I know how to tell time that we're recording this Memorial Day Weekend, 2025. It is before the Superman movie has come out. So obviously we don't know anything that's going to be happening in that movie beyond what the trailers have shown us. And even with that, I'm sure there's some trailers I haven't seen. So maybe that Family Dynamic thing will be out of date by the time this episode actually comes out.

From what it sounds like, I think, you know, Crypto is going to be in the new Superman movie. They've already cast a Supergirl, but I don't know if she's going to be in the movie or if that's just going to be its own thing for now. But we're also getting that extended universe that we've never. I mean, we've kind of seen it with the Zack Snyder stuff, but not to the extent where we have like Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl and Mr. Terrific and a lot more, you know, quote unquote, obscure characters interacting with Superman. I'm so excited for that movie. Movie. I think it's going to be great. The trailers look good, the costume looks good. The actors are all really well cast. I think it's going to be. I haven't been in the movie theater since. Well, as we're recording this, the last time I went to the movie theater was for Deadpool, Wolverine, which was what, a year ago now, maybe a little less.

Oh, God, it was.

I'm probably going to go see the new Mission Impossible because I love Mission Impossible. But other than that, the next movie I am 100% going to see in theaters is Superman. And I think, like, it takes a lot to get me to go to the theater right now, especially with streaming and just being able to see everything at home two months after. But Superman, I'm going to be there day one, because it looks. It looks like it's going to be really good. So I'm. I'm very excited about that movie and I do hope that, that it takes a lot from kind of the Superman that we're talking about, the Superman from this show, the Superman from, you know, that kind of era of comics. You know, the show's interesting too, because I really like the show, which is interesting because as we're talking about Superman, it's more based on like the John Byrne Silver Age version. He's a little bit more restricted in his powers. You do get a lot more like, space stuff with Brainiac. And I would say just like, tonally it fits more with the John Byrne era and a little bit of like the Silver Age stuff with like Autobinder and everyone, which is not necessarily my favorite version of Superman, but I do think it's one of the. The best versions of Superman you could use for a show like this. I don't know if that Golden Age Superman, as much as I love it, would hold up as much in like an animated, you know, children's show because a lot of it is a little, I don't know, less interesting to a 10 year old. But the Silver Age version, this version that they adapt for the show, the Silver Age John Byrne kind of era, I think it works super well for this show in this version of Superman because it gives you. I mean, I've said this a couple of times, but it gives you so many different aspects of the character and I think it kind of opens up a whole world where you can see the character in a lot of different ways than what the movies have shown.

Yeah, if they had tried to go golden age with it, then you'd have a lot of episodic, a lot of like. I think it would be great if somebody wanted to do like Internet video with it and they put it out when it's ready and that's it. Not so much for having to hit that weekly or daily release that a kids show of the 90s was going for.

I mean, can you imagine being 10 years old and turning on your, your TV and you're like, I'm so excited for Superman. And it's an episode about like Superman threatening a guy who owns a mine over safety regulations. It just, just wouldn't work. I don't, I mean it would be funny, but I just don't think as a 10 year old that would have been exciting to me at all.

I mean, you could have also gotten a faceless guy attacks people at the local fair that would actually know. That sounds like it would be pretty cool. Yeah, I don't know. I'd watch that. I'd watch that. Okay, so maybe some of the golden age ones would have worked really well.

Oh yeah, there's, there's definitely potential, but I don't know that that would be fun to, to see like a rendition of a show like this, but more golden age inspired. I don't know if I think it would be nearly as good, but it would be fun to watch.

But we're going to go dig through all those golden age issues so we can try to find some stories that would work really well. I dropped some promos for a few other things just in time for Pride month. Lifeline Comics, the Ringo nominated publisher that brought you Transphoria and bivisibility, has another queer anthology that's sure to tug at the heartstrings. Aces and Arrows is a collection of 21 short stories across 100 pages from both newcomers and comic veterans. This anthology, spread across the asexual and aromantic spectrum, runs the genre gamut as well as so you're sure to find something that speaks to you. You have until June 26th to help bring this project to life. But don't get tricked by time zone shenanigans. Head over to Kickstarter now and back. Aces and Arrows. That's Aces and Aros. Ever wonder what happens to those child superheroes after they grow up? Find out in Starlight, a new 186 page graphic novel from Overcast Comic Book available on Kickstarter. June 6th. Explore the lives of Chris and Sarah Sheridan, formerly known as Mighty Boy and the Melter. Now just two normal teenagers navigating the challenges of high school and Beyond. That's Starlight. Kickstarter.com S T A R L I T Kickstarter.com those are some great things to check out. But first, let's finish up here. So, Adam, what's actually bringing us together today is this game, Superman Countdown to Apocalypse, that was released on Game Boy advance the end of March 2003. It was made by Mystic Software, who. We haven't looked at anything from here on the show yet. And Infograms, which we have looked at a nice chunk of things on the show. So far from Infograms, I mean, it's been some Dragon Ball Z games, some Men in Black games, some other Superman games. When you're looking at stuff and Smurfs, oddly enough, nothing hugely good, but they're consistent, so you know what you're getting with it.

I think it's interesting that they were so confident in this show Infogrames that they made not one, but two games based off of it for two completely different consoles, I think. I don't know. It's very interesting to me that this show got two games within like only a couple months of each other too.

I don't have anything to back me up on this, but the timing of when this came out versus when Shadow of Apocalypse came out really makes me think that they were planning on just doing a Game Boy advance port of Shadow of Apocalypse and couldn't pull it off well enough. And they did the smart thing of just making an entirely new game.

I wouldn't be that surprised. I mean, I think. Cause Shadow Apocalypse, which is a different game than the one we're talking about, but one that I did accidentally start playing before we recorded this because I got my two apocalypses mixed up. It was PlayStation 2 originally, and then I think like a year later for GameCube or maybe two years later. I do think it's interesting that both games are also, like, connected. You know, this Countdown to Apocalypse is supposed to be a. Almost like a prequel. The Shadow Apocalypse, when they're completely different. Like, the gameplay is completely different, the style is completely different. It's very interesting that they decided to do a prequel on the Game Boy. So I do agree that that is definitely a theory that I think probably holds some water that they were. They were thinking about how to release Shadow of Apocalypse on Game Boy and this was supposed to be kind of a quick, easy Promo to get you excited for it. And then like you said, it didn't work out. But yeah, I don't, I don't think there's any evidence for that. At least not that I read about, but I would not be surprised.

Well, speaking of holding water, one of the things that I hear people complain about with Superman is just his power set is almost like Godzilla and that it's whatever you want him to have for that story. This one, they really limit his powers. He has his strength, he has his laser vision, he has ice breath and he can fly. Yeah.

And that's it. Which I mean, from a gameplay perspective, I think is a great choice because it's a nice varied set of things and they all have a different use of what's going on with stuff. And from a Superman perspective, I like when he can't just do everything under the sun.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely interesting. And I do think, I do think they still could have done more in terms of limiting him. Like one thing I mentioned to you earlier when, when we were talking about the game is that you can just infinitely use laser vision. There's no cool down or any sort of timer. So if you just want to get in front of an enemy and just laser them until they die, you just can. There's no, there's nothing stopping you from doing that with every single one. So it kind of can make the gameplay a little less challenging because it does keep a score. I think the more close combat, like punching attacks you use, the, the higher your your score because it's like the three Superman shields per level, but in reality you can kind of just sit there and, and laser people until they die. And they can't do anything about it. They can't fight back or shoot you or punch you or anything as long as you're, you're good on the timing. So I do feel like maybe they should have introduced some sort of limitation on how long he could use the laser vision or maybe more ways for enemies to escape it or something could have, could have made the gameplay a little more interesting. But overall I did think it was honestly a pretty fun game to sit down and just kind of fiddle with for a couple hours.

I do want to jump in real quick and they have like this super tiniest limit on the laser vision that I found out after we were talking and I didn't tell you because I'm an evil person. It has a range limit which is not a surprise. So you can't just go all the way across the screen and they have a little bit of a time limit on how long you can hold the button down for. But to get around that, all you have to do is let the button up and press the button down again.

I never noticed that. Which means that the time limit was not short enough. Exactly.

Because I. I could just sit there and I. Yeah, I never ran into that. So I think if you have to be holding it down long enough that you have to be holding it down for a very long time to reach that limit, you're probably not going to notice it. The range. Yeah, there was the range thing and there are, like some of the boss fights, you can't use the laser vision. The first one with the T, think you can't punch it. You can't use the lasers with live wire, but then in those, you just use your freeze breath to pretty much do the same thing. I thought the Livewire fight was probably one of the best portions of the game.

Livewire is just such a cool enemy anyway, so anytime you can work her in like that, it's just. It's so. I don't want to say cool again, but that's the only word I can think of right now. It's. It's just so great. Great.

Yeah. When that was also one of the few levels where you really had to do the combat was actually changed, you know, And a lot of them, it was just the same thing. Like, even with the. The enemies, it was just punch or laser. And it was one of the ones where it was all about getting her in the right place, dodging and freezing her in the exact right spot. Because if it would only work if you were above the water, I would still say it wasn't super challenging, but it was probably the most varied that the combat got in the whole game.

I mean, you're also playing this on a game that. Where the console runs on batteries. Saving was still not done all the time on these kind of games. You could save on this one. Oh, you got your passcode.

I know, right? So you get that little bit. But, like, you are having to kind of essentially dumb things down a little bit to be on the Game Boy advance just because of the lack of buttons that you have to do everything with. Like, when I was watching videos, there were so many people that took forever to realize how to fly because I guess they just never thought about using those shoulder buttons for anything.

Yeah, if you don't do the tutorial, it doesn't really tell you anything. So if you just jump straight into the game without the tutorial, you do just kind of figure it out as you go. I did that and I was trying to figure out how to do the freeze breath and I couldn't figure it out for a little bit because I did not play the tutorial. I just went straight into the game. I went to the tutorial and almost died because I just tried to punch people who were shooting rockets at me.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I do. I do think the little cutscenes are fun. You know, they use the, they use the animation style of the show kind of for little parts of it. Yeah, I thought it was pretty, pretty solid overall as far as plot goes.

There. There really isn't much in this one. You're Superman running around doing Superman things. And eventually it nominally leads into Shadow of Apocalypse, but again, it's a game on Game Boy Advance. So like, how much plot do you need? You get to be Superman and run around, do Superman things. Like, I think that's cool and fun.

Yeah, I definitely think as a kid I would have loved it just to be able to, to be Superman. And yes, the plot is very thin. It's very much. I think it kind of going back to the theory you said about just them probably doing something on the Game Boy with Shadow is that this game is definitely, in some ways it expects you to know that Shadow is. Is out. Either expects you to have played it or expects you to, you know, be planning on playing it. I think a little bit because pretty much the whole plot is just kind of, oh, the villain is coming. The, the. This is happening. It's very much setting up like something is coming soon, but it's not going to be in this game.

And you also get those RPG style. Let's pull a portrait up of the person who's talking screens when text comes along. Because thank God they didn't try to do voice acting in this one. That would have been horrible trying to get it to work on a Game Boy Advance. Like, I don't care how much skill you have, how good you are with the voice actor stuff, like just doing that on a Game Boy advance is just a weird, horrible choice.

I did like the music though. I thought the music was very. Of that time, you know, it had that very. I don't know, I'm not really a music person, but I guess like a techno feel that a lot of those Game Boy games had. So I did think the, the, the, the soundtrack, the score was, was pretty solid. It definitely felt of that time. You know, I'm probably not going to look it up on YouTube and listen to it all the time. But it was definitely. It was definitely like a. It didn't get too repetitive or boring and they kind of changed it up enough throughout the game that I did not hate it. I played with volume the whole time.

It's been a while since I've actually played with volume the whole time on a Game Boy game. And not even because they're all horrible, just because I'm doing it on my computer and I can be listening to other things while I do it. And I don't play games with a bunch of voice acting stuff in them that doesn't at least also have the text on the screen. So I'm not really missing anything when I do that. I did it with this one though. And I mean, I'm with you. Like, it's. It's not something I'm going to listen to by itself, but while it's going, it's perfectly fine for listening to while you're playing the game. As we start to wrap things up here, what do you think are the highlights for what this game really gets? Right?

Looking at Superman, like you said earlier, like, there's not that much plot, there's not that much character. But I do think there are small moments, especially in the opening sequence when Clark and Lois are walking down the street and Clark hears the police talking, like in a, I guess, key that only Superman can hear. And there's this little moment where he's just trying to get away from Lois so he can go do a Superman thing. And he's like, oh, the dry cleaning place, it closes early on Fridays. I forgot. I have to go get it. And then he, like runs off and Lois is like, but Clark, today's Monday. And I thought that was like a, you know, a little funny bit to start with because I think it does show that similar characterization of clips Clark and Superman from kind of the Animated Series. I think one thing that's kind of strange is that when they animate Superman using his laser vision on like robots or helicopters or anything like that, you watch it like burn down and explode. And then when you watch him use it on like a person, that person just kind of like falls over. And I thought that was really funny that you're watching him use it on like a person and the person's like, mostly fine. But then when he uses it on, like a robot, it's just like burn words to a crisp. But overall, I think it doesn't do that much with character or plot. But I think the small Moments where it does tend to work pretty well, like that beginning scene, like Clark being worried about Lois when she gets kidnapped. There's, like, a couple little throwaway joke lines throughout it. But overall, there's just not. There's not enough in terms of plot, character scripting that really. That really does much. The combat isn't very unique or different for Superman other than just like, the flying or they're running really fast. Some of it kind of was that difficulty of, like, how do you make a Superman game where Superman can get injured? And it's like just kind of rockets, apparently. But, you know, they also kind of justify that with them getting more powerful weapons from Apocalypse as the game goes on, which make the. The combat feel a little more like something that would actually put Superman in danger versus, like, the. The first level where he's just getting shot with, like, a regular gun and he's just, like, somehow getting hurt. I don't know. What do you think?

I'm with you. I think it's a lot of those little moments that are just happening in there, like, everybody just being happy to see him when they get rescued and, oh, you saved me. Yay. The police actually working with him because this was made back when we still believed in the goodness of police officers. And Superman, I think, always will, because I don't know. That's just. That's a weird aspect of him I'm trying to wrap my brain around. But, you know, you have all these moments in there. Superman wants to save the day. He's doing everything. And, I mean, I feel like both of our answers are kind of really melting into what's normally. My next question of what do we normally get wrong in here? Looking at the subject, because the answer isn't so much that there's this thing that's really good that they did. The answer from both of us is more of a they didn't do things really wrong. And I think that's the main thing with this one, is that, like, there's nothing really egregious that's popping up here that is like, anti Superman. And it's really weird to say that the thing that they got right is that they didn't get things wrong.

Yeah, I think that's fair enough, though, Especially when a lot of adaptations of Superman do tend to get a lot.

Of stuff wrong, especially the damage thing, you know, like, just give me some kind of hand wavy answer for why he can get hurt. That's all I want. And they take care of that later in the game by Apocalypse Providing stronger weapons. But, you know, like, I passed all the bullets through, like, mist of kryptonite. Okay, cool. Now Superman can get hurt. That's fine. Like that. That's all I want. Just some acknowledgment that you know what's going on there. Or have the whole thing be that the bullets slow him down a little bit. Because, like, I don't care how strong you are, when something hits you, you have that impact. You have to deal with it. And you're doing the whole level on a timer. Oh, my God. I just suggested that they make Superman 64. But, like, there are good aspects of Superman 64, and one of them is the timer for getting things done. Because how do you defeat Superman? You make it so he can't do all the things he wants to do. Like, that is your one big thing that you can count on.

Yeah. And that's something. Shadow. Shadow Apocalypse, the kind of sequel to this game, even though it came out first, also takes a lot of that kind of. Same stuff with the timer and. And everything. Yeah. If you had somebody who somehow didn't already know a bunch about Superman but wanted to get into Superman, would you give them this game as part of a primer course?

No, I don't think so. Because it doesn't. It doesn't do enough. Like, it's fun as kind of an oddity that you get to play when you're already familiar with the character, when you already like the character kind of to see a part of his history. But no, if you didn't know anything about Superman, I wouldn't say this is. This is something you should check out. Not again, not necessarily because it's bad, but because it doesn't. Doesn't do much. It doesn't have much of a plot or story, and the bits that are kind of fun and good are so, so small in terms of, like, the dialog and stuff that you're not really getting any familiarity with the character to this game. You know, I might recommend the show. I would recommend the show. But no, I probably wouldn't recommend this game. Unless you're just a huge fan of old Game Boy games and you also want to get into Superman, then maybe I'd be like, yeah, go play it.

Yeah. If. If you're throwing on the requirement of it also has to be a Game Boy game, then, yeah, I'm giving them this one, no question, because it's obviously the best one that comes out on handheld stuff. But this is not a game for introductions. This is like a maybe a 180 level course, a 200 level course, kind of Superman thing. Getting into that hidden gem, that second level of. Okay, like, everybody's going to tell you that World War I started World War II, but let's dig a little bit deeper there. Like, that is where the Superman game falls in. It's. It's not one that I would say, all right, here, cool. Go learn about Superman. Like, it's not going to do anything detrimental if somebody wants to get into it, but it's not going to really help with anything either.

Yeah, it's a fun oddity to. To interact with, but it's not. But it's a fun piece of history, but that's about it. If you were going to remake this game. But it's Muppets. Which Muppet gets to be Superman? I mean, I feel like. I feel like the obvious answer is Kermit just because he's like the. The leader. But I don't know. My favorite Muppet. Favorite Muppet is Animal. I don't know if Animal would really make that much sense, but be fun.

See, now I'm just thinking about Animal as Superman. And through magic of the Internet, we have all the episodes of Muppet Babies. So now I'm just really thinking about Muppet Baby's animal being Superman. And. Oh, man, that would be amazing. I'm just a big animal fan. So, you know, I mean, animals, fun, you know, One of the best Muppets. One of the best Muppets out there.

It's true. Well, Adam, it has been great talking to you about all this. If people want to hear more from you, where else can they find you? Around the Internet?

Yeah, they really can't. I don't. I'm not online. I mean, I talk about sports on my Blue sky account. If you like hearing about sports. I am on Blue Sky. I mostly talk about the Seattle Storm and the Milwaukee Bucks. My username there is adammarsh bluesky.social, because that's how they all end. Um, I've been throwing around the idea of starting a blog about sports, but it hasn't happened yet. So maybe that in the future, but, yeah, other than that, not really anywhere.

Well, just like always, we'll have links to that stuff down in the show notes, because clicking links is so much easier than trying to remember how to spell things. Well, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

I mean, thank you for coming on. I'm glad to have somebody come for one of these that just, I know, truly loves the character and also isn't afraid to say that a game is not where they were hoping it would be. As always, if you want to hear more from me, you can head on over to playcomics.com where there's links to all the social media things, which is pretty much blue sky and maybe some threads, but mostly blue sky because that's just where I naturally go. Because I like the color blue. It's really nice and calming and it matches my eyes. If you think beat on the show sounds like a really fun idea and it is. I'm biased, but I am saying that it is. There is a link to the page on the website where I have a list of what I'm looking to get booked this year and that could be you helping to fill out that episode, or it could be you telling your friend that they should come out and help fill out that episode. Either way is cool. I don't care. Because finding good guests is fun, but it's also hard and if you can help me out with that, then that would be really nice of you and I would love you forever. You can do that to support the show, but if you want to support the show in some other ways, you can be like Dan McMahon and Ono lit Class and give the show money because it does cost money to run a podcast, unfortunately. Or you can just share it with friends and enemies and family members and random people on the bus and things like that because, you know, just make other people know that the show exists. It's really fun. Don't forget that Play Comics is on the gunag.com network, home to such wonderful shows as Legends of Shield where we go take a look at things in the greater Marvel universe. And we probably won't look at Superman, but I'll find a way to sneak it into an episode because I'm sure that movie is going to be really fun. Fun. If you're waiting for Sugar Spite and everything is fine, well, we have some slight technical difficulties, so we got to get that figured out. But once we get that figured out, then should be coming out. If you like the music that I'm really talking on top of right now, then head on over to backing track GG and check out all the great music over there. Maybe find something for your own project. But most of all, just grab a game, grab a sack of comics, and go find yourself a new favorite character.

Sam.

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