If the fiasco surrounding Superman 64 is anything to go by, it's a hearty combination of all three. With the possible exception of that other game starring a superpowered alien, Superman 64 is regarded as the worst video game ever made. It's a buggy mess of fog, un-fun mechanics, bad dialogue, more fog, and offensively blocky graphics, even for 1999.
Titus InteractiveNot a Minecraft recreation, believe it or not.
The worst thing is that it wasn't supposed to be this way. According to the developers in an interview with Playboy, the troubles began pretty much as soon as they signed a contract with Warner Bros. to make the game. The only reason they got the job in the first place was apathy. No one else was even remotely interested in making a video game based on a Superman animated series that wasn't even out yet.
Unfortunately, days after signing the deal, the Warner team that negotiated with the developers was fired and replaced with a team straight from Hell. Apparently, their mission was to sabotage the project in order to be able to fire the developers and sell the rights to some other, bigger studio. Of the many, many spiteful things they did -- including refusing to answer questions or talk to the team -- they suggested switching from an action game to a Sims-style game starring Superman as the mayor of Metropolis, as seen in issue #never, that's an awful idea. Meanwhile, they'd object to any little thing on the basis that "Superman would never do that," forcing the devs to look up pages from the comics to prove that, for instance, Superman has gone underwater.
ex is a mermaid, so he has come underwater too." width="350" height="233" class="lazy" data-src="https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/6/5/5/659655_v2.jpg" />DC ComicsHis ex is a mermaid, so he has come underwater too.
After the developers spent significant resources making a destructible environment for Superman to smash with his fists, Warner announced that he couldn't destroy things or cause property damage, because they didn't want people thinking that Superman was a "bad person." They must have had a fit when they saw the trailers for Batman v. Superman.
Adam Wears is on Twitter and Facebook! He also has a newsletter about depressing history, but that's only for the coolest kids.
Celebrate where video games are now and get yourself a Nintendo Switch.
Support Cracked's journalism with a visit to our Contribution Page. Please and thank you.
For more, check out 5 Things I Learned Testing Video Games For A Living and The 5 Most Evil Ways Video Game Developers Trolled Players.
Follow us on Facebook. Game on.