During Episode 67 of the AllGenGamers podcast, Gamester81 described Taito’s Superman Arcade as “shitty”, “bad”, “terrible” and “broken”. The remarks came approximately 28 minutes into the show, with special guest “Dirty Dongles” and RobMan filling in for Johnny Millennium.
Gamester’s diss followed Mr. Dongles’ comment that he “hates” Superman. I was intrigued by this remark, as I have never known anyone who didn’t like the Man of Steel. I contacted Mr. Dongles and asked him to expand upon his dislike for the Last Son of Krypton.
“My problem with Superman is the fact that he is really too invincible,” Dirty said. “The whole part of reading comics (at least for myself) is feeling like you can relate to the super hero at times. To understand when they’re vulnerable. With Superman you don’t have the same connection.”
“I like superheroes like Spiderman who [are] actually pretty damn powerful, but there is a human side to him that makes him vulnerable. I also like Batman because he is just a guy that had a lot [of] money that decided to help fight crime with no super power just [a] cool suit and gadgets and his own ability to fight.”
At the mention of Superman, Gamester81 posed the age-old question of “When are they gonna make a good Superman game?” He then shared his recent experience playing Superman at Dorky’s Arcade in Tacoma, WA.
“It’s shitty…oh, it was so bad.”
When co-host Jason Heine asked John to describe the gameplay in Superman Arcade, Gamester responded, “It’s like a beat ’em up but it’s terrible, the controls are broken, and like, all these animals…not animals…all these enemies fly at you and start attacking you and shit.”
I contacted Mr. 81 to obtain additional information about his experience. “There are too many enemies on the screen at one time and as I’m beating up on one the other one is kicking my ass from the other side. It just didn’t feel like other beat’em ups like I love including X-Men arcade, or the classic Maximum Carnage game for the consoles.”
I’ll be the first to admit the Superman franchise has not had the greatest of showings in the world of video games, but my memories of playing Superman Arcade were extremely positive in nature.
I played the game extensively at my childhood arcade and felt it delivered the quintessential beat ’em up experience. In addition to the traditional punch and kick attacks, Superman could fly, throw a superpunch and use heat vision. The levels varied between brawling and horizontal shooting. I remember the controls making perfect sense and performing quite well.
In conclusion, I encourage everyone to play the game for themselves before accepting either Gamester’s or my opinion at face value.
Special thanks to Gamester81 and Dirty Dongles for contributing to this article.
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