James Gunn’s Superman will release, or has released by the time you read this, on July 11th 2025 and marks the solo return of the big blue boy scout to the silver screen after a twelve year hiatus. (2013’s Man of Steel) The trailers have all been incredibly promising. James Gunn appears to get “it” with Kal-El, the things that make him iconic. It’s been a long time coming honestly. While Marvel has churned out a veritable onslaught of quality films DC has… not. (to put it nicely) In fact, Marvel seems to have DC’s number in just about every department currently with hit movies, tv shows, toys, and video games. Sure, the Arkham games were great but the last proper entry, Arkham Knight, came out in 2015 and, as the name implies, stars Batman and his rogues gallery not Superman. Superman has been woefully ignored in the videogame space with fourteen solo titles since 1979’s debut for the Atari 2600, most of them painfully, horribly, wretchedly bad. Compare that to thirty six games for Batman and twenty six games for Spiderman (give or take a few depending on the list you use), and we can clearly see that Supes has not gotten the love he deserves. And while there is no tie-in game for this particular film, there are a few diamonds in the rough that, if you’re an uber excited fanboy like me, are worth a playthrough. Submitted for your approval these are the top five Superman games.

(quick note: this list will not factor in multi-hero titles, app or PC based games, or fighting games)

5. Superman - Sega Genesis 1992

Full disclosure, this is not a great game by any stretch. Developed and published by Sunsoft, they of the outstanding Batman NES game, there is a certain amount of Genesis Jank ™, which if you know you know, only five levels starring some less than heavy hitters as bosses, Prankster? I mean…, and it’s hard. Really, really hard. All that said, I still find a decent amount of enjoyment here. The Superman sprite looks great and animates well. There is a good use of some of his powers and the flying parts, while few, feel really good. The music is nice if not outstanding and the overall gameplay is solid. What really put this on the map for me was that it was the first console release that felt like Big Blue. The 2600 game is well, it exists. The NES game is legendarily awful. (yes it’s worse than the 64game, no I won’t hear arguments against that point) This one though showed that there was a path to something better. The game lacks replayability but is worth playing through even with cheats, that you will definitely need.

 4. Superman: Returns - PS2, Xbox, 360 2006

For many, not me obviously, this is the Superman game. Developed by EA Tiburon and published to tie into the then current film, Returns is the game that gets the closest to what a Superman game should be. In this game The Man of Steel is basically invincible. No matter what happens, save for a few encounters, he cannot be hurt or killed. Instead he has a stamina meter which can be replenished by flying into the atmosphere and recharging from the sun, a nice nod to the comics, while the city of Metropolis has a damage meter. Too much damage, either from enemies or Superman himself, and it’s game over. Which is honestly quite clever. It forces players to be not only creative in how they solve the various obstacles in Superman’s path, like burning buildings or imperiled citizens, but to also master Superman’s powers so as to not accidentally Heat Vision something or someone to bejeezus and back. Why then is this game not higher on my list? Because it isn’t that much fun to play past the initial look at what I can do phase. Now don’t get me wrong, that formula worked for Spiderman 2 wherein swinging around the city and rescuing escaped balloons was an absolute blast for way longer than it should have been. Here too flying around and being Superman is really fun. The controls allow players to be the character in a way the limited configurations of the past never really could. But, once that wears off the rest of the game is fine. All told if you’ve never played through this you definitely should, on the 360 preferably. 

3. Superman: The Arcade Game - ARC 1989

I waffled hard on where to place this game. I want to put it at two but if I’m being honest, I can’t. I do genuinely love this game though, maybe (probably) more than most. Developed and published by Taito Superman is a combination beat ‘em up/shoot ‘em up designed to mercilessly suck all of the quarters from your pockets. As with other games in the genre it is brutally hard to the point of being unfair/cheap and has an ending screen that almost never played in actual arcades. But thanks to the power of technology, those empty pockets concerns are a thing of the past. The game itself looks great with nice, big sprites that animate really well. Kal-El in particular looks fantastic with great animation on his cape. The enemies, while generic, are new creations for the game as is the final boss, the evil Emperor Zaas. The gameplay splits itself between “Go Right” beat ‘em up stages where you can punch, kick, and fly all you want with scrolling shooter sections that give you the ability to use your Heat Vision as well as punch. The music features a wonderful arcadey version of John William’s classic theme as well as Can You Read My Mind. While this game certainly downplays Big Blue’s moveset you really do feel like the titular hero. It’s an absolute blast to play 2-player, even with the weird red/gray costume coloring on the second Superman. If you never have, you need to give this one a shot.

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2. Superman: The Death and Return of Superman - SNES 1994, GEN 1995

It's hard to overstate just how massive the Death of Superman storyline was. This event was everywhere. The local nightly news covered the people waiting in lines outside comic shops to get their hands on the super special black bagged issue containing the final fight. Stories were written in newspapers nationwide about the history and cultural impact the Last Son of Krypton had on the world. Investors speculated hard on the book causing it to be massively overprinted and found in almost every .25 cent bin around the country. Kids like me talked about it non-stop during recess and lunch at school. And while I certainly have my issues with the story overall, Doomsday being undeserving of the honor mostly, the event did a lot of good for comics in general and Kal-El in particular. One of those things was this wonderful game. Building on the beat ‘em up/shoot ‘em up formula of the arcade game, Sunsoft delivered a game that told the story of the comics faithfully, for better or worse. Here you not only play as the Big Blue Boyscout but also as the replacement Supermen, Superboy/Steel/Eradicator/Cyborg Superman. And while the game adds nothing new to the beat ‘em up formula, it does the genre justice. The controls are exactly what they need to be with multiple attacks and the ability to fly at any time by pressing jump twice. The graphics are gorgeous with detailed sprites that depict the different supermen exactly as they appear on the comic page. Even without 2-player, a cardinal sin in most beat ‘em ups, this game is a blast. It’s hard, sure but so damn fun. I would love a remaster of this game one day. Until then, I’ll stick with my regular playthroughs, on the SNES, of this gem.

1. Superman: Shadow of Apokolips - PS2 2002, GC 2003

To the surprise of no one, who has played any of the Man of Tomorrow’s games, Shadow of Apokolips takes the number one spot. Based on the brilliant animated series, SOA sees Supes saving the city, taking on a host of A-list villains, and making his way to a final showdown with Darksied. Along the way players can use all of Superman’s abilities in a relatively intuitive control scheme that takes a little bit of getting used to but works really well. The game looks like the cartoon, a great thing in my opinion and shows why developers were all about cel-shaded graphics in the early aughts. The music and sound is fine but what really stands out is the voice acting. All of the major players from the show reprise their roles here giving this game a performance better than any other on this list. Like Returns this is very close to being the perfect Superman game. It does get needlessly obtuse at times and the control can be frustrating. But, once you get into the game, it just feels right. There is a weightiness to being Supes here that other games are missing. It's a damn good time and tons of fun to return to, even if just to fly around. When you do, make sure you go with the GameCube version as there were several enhancements made over the PS2 title.  

So there it is, my list of the top five Superman games. I hope we see some innovation in the future and a game that stands up to Rocksteady’s Arkham series or Insomniac’s Spiderman games. But for now, we play what we have and what we have is a variety of solid ass games. But I want to know what you think. Join the Stone Age Gamer discord, or you can find me on Bluesky to let me know your thoughts. See you in two weeks.