As long as there have been video games, fans have been able to play as some of their favorite comic book characters. Batman and Spider-Man are two of the more popular video game franchises, though the X-Men, Avengers, and the Justice League have appeared in a number of great game adaptations over the years.

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Unfortunately, Superman has never had a truly amazing game that really represents the character, aside from a few fun and powerful appearances in games like Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and the Injustice franchise. Today we'll look at the best Superman video games, but to do that we have to start with the worst.

12 SUPERMAN

Superman was released in 1979 for the Atari 2600, which was a time when the instruction manual was the key to success.

The game required players to capture released villains and dodge kryptonite satellites, fix the bridge, kiss Lois Lane, and defeat Lex Luthor as fast as possible. Retro gamers will enjoy the sweet nostalgia of watching Superman navigate Metropolis, though modern gamers might be a little turned off by the fax machine soundtrack.

11 SUPERMAN: THE GAME

1985's Superman: The Game released on the Commodore 64, and might be best remembered for featuring Darkseid as not only the main villain of the game but also as a playable character.

The gameplay featured a few different types of levels and included powers like Superman's heat vision and Darkseid's Omega Effect, but the graphics, while slightly better than 1979's Atari outing, didn't really do the Man of Steel justice.

10 SUPERMAN 64

Superman, more commonly known as Superman 64, is largely recognized as the worst modern Superman game ever created. The game saw players attempting to fly Superman (based on his animated series appearance) through rings in a constantly loading virtual city, while also occasionally lifting cars and fighting shadow people.

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Most players failed to make it past the flying-through-rings intro level, which may have been a mercy to them. This wasn't just a bad Superman outing, it was a bad game all around.

9 SUPERMAN

When Superman made his way to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, it was from developers Kemco, who may be best known for their Top Gear series.

Superman was based on the first two films and required players to play as both Clark Kent and Superman against Lex Luthor and the escaped Kryptonians. The game also featured a wide selection of Superman's abilities, though his X-Ray vision was used to turn invisible enemies visible.

8 SUPERMAN: COUNTDOWN TO APOKOLIPS

There were a few games based loosely on Superman: The Animated Seriessuch as the aforementioned Superman 64, but despite having an established animation style and characters, the games rarely managed to even capture the essence of the cartoon, let alone the character.

Countdown to Apokolips was a prequel game to a much better release we'll talk about soon but suffered from poor gameplay and repetitive levels.

7 SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL

1989's Superman: The Man of Steel was released by Tynesoft and featured quite a few different gaming levels that included escorting space ships, side-scrolling action, and even superpowered aerial battles.

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While the gameplay was frustrating at times, it did feature John Williams' iconic theme in all of its 16-bit glory and visually captured a comic-accurate Superman for one of the first times in video game history.

6 SUPERMAN

The Sega Genesis saw the release of Superman from Sunsoft in 1992, which would serve as Sunsoft's trial run for the Superman franchise.

The 2-D side scroller was a classic action-heavy beat-em-up, though Superman's abilities were limited to punching, kicking, and jumping. Graphically the player was almost there, but the gameplay left much to be desired as players attempted to take down villains like the Prankster and Brainiac.

5 SUPERMAN: THE ARCADE GAME

Superman first hit the arcade in 1988 and might be some gamers' first introduction to Superman in video games. The game allowed two-players to co-op battle along the streets and skyrises of Metropolis, both as Superman.

One player wore the typical blue and red, while the other wore a grey and red palette-swapped version of Supes. The game did not include much comic mythology as Supermen tried to stop a Brainiac-like Emperor Zaas.

4 SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL

2002 saw the release of the Xbox Exclusive Superman: The Man of Steel by Circus Freak. The game was based on the comic version of Superman and dived deep into comic mythology.

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Unfortunately, troublesome controls and terrible cutscenes detracted from the overall game. However, The Man of Steel will be remembered for improved flying mechanics, use of powers, and detailed character designs.

3 SUPERMAN RETURNS

Following the 2006 release of Superman Returns, a tie-in game was released that was loosely based on the film.

While the game is known for featuring Superman's powers incredibly well, it didn't really give gamers much to do as Superman besides fight robots and rescue kitties. Superman Returns was very close in figuring out the proper gameplay mechanics, but everything else about the game disappointed.

2 THE DEATH AND RETURN OF SUPERMAN

1994's Death and Return of Superman from Sunsoft improved greatly upon their previous release. The side-scroller allowed players the use of many of Superman's powers while also featuring other playable Superman from the comic storyline like Superboy and Steel.

The game may not have truly captured the feeling of Superman, but they adapted the comic story incredibly and featured many interesting DC locations never before explored.

1 SUPERMAN: SHADOW OF APOKOLIPS

Shadow of Apokolips is easily the best Superman game that allows players to really feel like Superman. The game featured cel-shading to better reflect the style of the animated series and even featured the voice-cast from the show as well. Gameplay was enhanced as well, with Superman using most of his powers and switching between flight and fight easily, though the controls were sensitive and came with a steep learning curve.

The fact that the last really good Superman game came out over 15 years ago proves how badly fans need a new game that can utilize today's technology while learning from the many failures of Superman's video game past.

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