Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Warner Bros
Superman is a really hard character to get right outside of his comic book home. I am a huge fan of Superman my personal favourite story arc being Red Son. But his transition to video games has not been as smooth as say Batman. Man of Steel is a great movie and I have really high hopes that the official video game will be just as good. So I went into this one with kind of mixed feelings. On one hand I was really excited and wanted this game be awesome, but on the other hand I was a little worried it would be another super let down.
Man Of Steel is a nice enough looking game. They have captured the look of the movie pretty well and the destructible environment is pretty good. Yes that is right I said environment because there is actually only one level. All the battles you will be having take place in Smallville. Superman looks pretty close to his movie counterpart and so do the other characters. But the game never really blows your socks of when it comes to the visuals.
Now as far as the game play goes like many action games these days Infinity Blade is clearly the inspiration here. To be honest the Batman Arkham City Lockdown game was kind of an Infinity Blade clone as well and it was fun to play. Man Of Steel offers the same kind of one on one fighting action. As a matter of fact that is all the game is. Just a series of one on one battles with various characters from the movie (although one big one is missing!) you will swipe and tape to attack, doge, counter and use super moves to defeat your opponent. Honestly the game controls fine there is no control issue or anything like that. But at the same time the whole thing just feels kind of flat.
You can earn experience to upgrade Superman in the very short story mode there is also a survival mode which you can play in order to grind and get some extra XP for Superman. The combat like I said works and the best part about it for me is when you counter an opponent and you slam them into the environment or high into the sky. The one thing that blew my mind and is just how short the game is now it is pretty common knowledge that general Zod is the villain in the movie. Yet there is no final boss fight with him in this game. How on earth do they leave General Zod out? Well it is actually quite simple as when you beat the game you are greeted with a To Be Continued message. So I am assuming here will be an update in the near future.
Man Of Steel is not a bad game by any means. What there is here is kind of fun and if you are a diehard Superman fan or if you just really enjoyed the movie then I am sure you will have some fun. I feel though that the game needed more levels and maybe just a little extra kick in the butt to make it stand out from the crowd.