The Death and Return of Superman
From Sega Retro
The Death and Return of Superman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Sunsoft (US), Acclaim Entertainment (Europe, Australia) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment, Sunsoft | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distributor: Sega-Ozisoft (Australia)
Arcadia Software (Spain) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensor: DC Comics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sound driver: GEMS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Action | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Death and Return of Superman is a 1995 beat-'em-up for the Sega Mega Drive and Super NES by Blizzard Entertainment and Sunsoft tying into the Death and Return of Superman comic book arc.
Contents
Story
After a titanic struggle against the supervillain Doomsday, an evil monster terrorizing Metropolis, Doomsday is destroyed, but Superman is fatally wounded as well. Months later, four Supermen emerge in an effort to replace the original Superman, each claiming to be the original Superman: Cyborg Superman, the Eradicator, Steel, and Superboy. An insidious force still threatens Metropolis, and it is up to the four characters to discover it and find the real Superman.
Gameplay
The game is a single-player, belt-scrolling beat-'em-up played as Superman and the four other Supermen. The currently played character is determined by the level rather than chosen by the player. While the characters differ in appearance, they have the same basic abilities.
Characters can move in any direction on the plane using the D-Pad. They attack by punching and kicking with . They grab foes with
when in close range. While grabbing an opponent, they can pummel them with
+
or throw them by holding any other direction with
. Sometimes hidden items can be uncovered by throwing enemies at breakable parts of the level. Some items, such as crates, can be picked up and thrown at opponents with
. Each character has a "Super Weapon," used with
, which is a projectile attack that does scant damage but momentarily stuns opponents. Characters can unleash a screen-clearing special attack with
+
. These attacks are limited but can be replenished by finding Superman shield icons.
Characters jump with . They perform dive attack by pressing
while in midair. Each Superman has the ability to fly by pressing
again in midair and using the D-Pad to move. While flying, they can avoid some enemies and obstacles. Characters can punch and use their Super Weapons while flying. Some enemies have the ability to fly and are easier to defeat if confronted in the air. Some barriers can be passed only by flying.
Some levels are entirely played by flying. These levels scroll automatically, similar to a shoot-'em-up. In these levels, characters move in any direction using the D-Pad. They cannot punch but can fire their projectile attack with (which can be held for rapid-fire). Steel has a unique flying level that does not scroll automatically, where he uses his melee attack rather than his projectile attack.
Characters have a health bar that depletes as they take damage from foes. They lose a life when they run out of health but revive after a moment as long as the player has extra lives remaining. The game ends if the player runs out of lives, but it can be continued from the start of the current level.
Characters
Items
Red Shield | |
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Adds one use of the special attack. | |
Light Blue Shield | |
Restores a quarter of the character's health bar. | |
Dark Blue Shield | |
Restores half of the character's health bar. | |
1-Up | |
Gives the player an extra life. |
Levels
Siege of the Underworlders | |
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Played as: Superman Boss: Clawster | |
Clawster and his army and Underworlders initiate a power failure in the city of Metropolis in an attempt to take over the city. Superman intervenes and defeats the horde of Underdwellers, including Clawster. | |
Doomsday in Metropolis | |
Played as: Superman Boss: Doomsday | |
Not long after the power is restored, a news bulletin reports that monster of unknown origin (Doomsday) is leading a path of destruction towards Metropolis and that the Justice League were unable to stop the creature. Superman and Doomsday both deal killing blows to each other. | |
Assault on Cadmus | |
Played as: Cyborg Superman Boss: Sentinel | |
Months after the death of Superman, four Supermen arise to replace the fallen hero. Cyborg Superman attacks a Project Cadmus base to locate a comatose Doomsday. Fearing he would be a threat once again if he wakes up, the Cyborg exiles Doomsday to deep space. | |
The Last Son of Krypton | |
Played as: The Eradicator Boss: Steel | |
The Eradicator patrols the streets of Metropolis. He battles another Superman, Steel, as the armored hero fights to prevent the Last Son of Krypton from killing enemies. After the two Supermen fight to a standstill, the Eradicator reconsiders his brutal approach to fighting crime after Steel tells him it takes humanity and compassion to be considered a Superman. | |
Ambush at Coast City | |
Played as: The Eradicator Boss: Cyborg Superman | |
A mysterious spacecraft arrives and obliterates Coast City. The Eradicator investigates the situation, only to run into the mastermind, the Cyborg. The Eradicator is critically injured at the Cyborg's hands, and rushes to the Fortress of Solitude. | |
The Metropolis Kid | |
Played as: Superboy Boss: Cyborg Superman | |
Superboy handles the current situation in Metropolis and then flies off to Coast City, doing battle with the Cyborg. The Cyborg knocks out and imprisons Superboy in the spacecraft. There, the rogue Superman reveals his plan: to destroy the world and reconstruct it in his image, starting with Coast City and Metropolis. | |
Steel Reign | |
Played as: Steel | |
Back in Coast City, Superboy escapes imprisonment to go back to Metropolis, where he and Steel encounter the real Superman. Not wanting to wait, Superboy convinces the two to go with him to Coast City to stop the Cyborg once and for all. Steel, Superman, and Superboy launch an assault on Engine City. | |
Metropolis: Ground Zero | |
Played as: Superboy | |
The Cyborg launches a missile set to destroy Metropolis. Superboy flies out to stop the missile. | |
The Engine's Core | |
Played as: Steel | |
Steel enters the Engine's core to shut it down. | |
The Return of Superman | |
Played as: Superman Boss: Cyborg Superman | |
A regenerated Eradicator bursts out of the Fortress and arrives at Engine City to help a weakened Superman, who is at the mercy of the Cyborg. The Cyborg shoots Kryptonite fuel at Superman, but the Eradicator arrives and shields Superman from the blast, altering the deadly effects of the Kryptonite and restoring Superman to full strength as the Eradicator dies. Superman must now destroy the Cyborg Superman. |
Versions
The Death and Return of Superman was released at roughly the same point on both the Mega Drive and Super NES, and both ports turn in a very similar game. While the Super NES port is able to tap into more colours than the Mega Drive, it is permanently restricted to a 256x224 resolution. In this case, the graphics appear to have been drawn with the Mega Drive's 320x224 resolution in mind, so on the Super NES, all in-game graphics are wider than they perhaps should be (something immediately apparent on the first stage, as the circular spinning fans in the background are stretched on Nintendo's console). Some layers of parallax scrolling are missing in the Mega Drive version of the game, such as the foreground layer in front of the player which is visible in certain areas. Also, the music score is completely different between both versions.
The PAL version of The Death and Return of Superman removed the region lock of the North American version but inadvertently added a glitch which appears randomly while playing through the first two Superman levels, locking up the game. If the player manages to get to the third level (the first Cyborg level) without triggering the glitch, it disappears for the rest of the game. It is very unlikely not to come across it, though. Acclaim never issued a bug-fixed version of the game for Europe and Australia; instead, it simply halted its production, making the PAL version a rare and sought-after game in the Mega Drive library.
Production credits
- Game Design: Blizzard Entertainment, Dan MacArthur
- Programming: Jesse McReynolds, James Anhalt III, Pat Wyatt, Allen Adham, Bob Fitch
- Artwork: Joeyray Hall, Mickey Neilson, Samwise Didier, David Berggren, Roman Kenney, Stu Rose, Ron Millar
- Sound and Music: Realtime Associates, Eric Swanson
- Executive Producers: David Siller, Allen Adham
- Producers: Samwise Didier, Dan MacArthur
- Technical Manager: Al Artus
- Manager Game Testing: Sam Patel
- Play Test: Steve Rizor, Rene Boutin, Steve Gehrke, Justin Siller, Mario Zavala, Kelly Mc Carthy, Benjon Martinez, Pete Marquez, Euclid Woo
- Chairman: Masami Maeda
- Vice Chairman: Tad Shimamoto
- Director, SunSoft of Japan: Kiharu Yoshida
- General Manager: Kenji Yoshioka
- Marketing Director: Karen Shadley
- Game Play Manual: Alison Quirion
- Executive Assistant: Nanette Hyssong
- Customer Service: Kaz Harman, June Eckert, Connie Perez, Julie Williams, Jamie Jorgenson, Erin Berry, Jaupale Laster
- Special Thanks to: Bruce Reilly, Cathy Juby, Mark Luszcz, Toko Okano, Kazuaki Goto, Masato Kawai, Akito Takeuchi, Karen Lillie, Darin Horgan, Michelle Carlton, Sherry Ross, Frank Pearce, Jr., Susan Brophy
- Very Special Thanks to:
- Marilyn Drucker, Barbara Farina, Cheryl Rubin at DC Comics
- Luana Chambers, Holly Stein, Laetitia May at Warner Consumer Products
- Superman Created by: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Magazine articles
- Main article: The Death and Return of Superman/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Physical scans
Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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64 | |
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Based on 22 reviews |
Technical information
- Main article: The Death and Return of Superman/Technical information.
References
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "January 1995" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 224
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 GamePro, "March 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 50
- ↑ File:Death and Return of Superman MD credits.pdf
- ↑ GamePro, "July 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 73
- ↑ EGM², "July 1994" (US; 1994-07-19), page 179
- ↑ EGM², "August 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 163
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 56
- ↑ Alaab Alcomputtar, "" (SA; 1995-06-xx), page 81
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "February 1995" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 34
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 4, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 97
- ↑ Freak, "4/95" (IL; 1995-xx-xx), page 1
- ↑ Game Informer, "February 1995" (US; 1995-0x-xx), page 18
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Agosto 1995" (ES; 1995-xx-xx), page 88
- ↑ Joypad, "Novembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 58
- ↑ Joypad, "Juillet/Août 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 58
- ↑ MAN!AC, "08/95" (DE; 1995-07-12), page 55
- ↑ Mega Fun, "08/95" (DE; 1995-07-19), page 71
- ↑ Mega Play, "February/March 1995" (US; 1995-0x-xx), page 46
- ↑ Next Generation, "February 1995" (US; 1995-01-24), page 102
- ↑ Player One, "Juillet/Août 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 116
- ↑ Sega Magazin, "August 1995" (DE; 1995-07-12), page 30
- ↑ Sega Megazone, "August 1995" (AU; 1995-0x-xx), page 28
- ↑ Super Juegos, "Agosto 1995" (ES; 1995-0x-xx), page 93
- ↑ Todo Sega, "Agosto 1995" (ES; 1995-0x-xx), page 58
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 49
- ↑ Video Games, "8/95" (DE; 1995-07-26), page 79
- ↑ VideoGames, "February 1995" (US; 1995-0x-xx), page 78
The Death and Return of Superman | |
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Main page | Comparisons | Bugs | Development | Magazine articles | Reception | Region coding | Technical information | Bootlegs |
Superman games for Sega systems |
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Superman: The Man of Steel (1992) | The Death and Return of Superman (1995) | Justice League Task Force (1995) |