Dr. K's Waiting Room

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In 2013, DC Comics declared April 18 “Superman Day” to celebrate Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman, the superpowered icon widely regarded as the first ever costumed superhero.

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Quick Facts:
Over his eighty-odd years as a pop culture icon, Superman has featured in numerous videogame adaptations. Following his runaway success with Batman: The Animated Series (1992 to 1999), Bruce Timm spearheaded an equally lauded Superman cartoon that led to the infamous Superman: The New Superman Adventures (Titus Interactive, 1999), widely regarded as one of the worst videogames ever. “Superman 64” was so bad that people often forget about this marginally more positively received action adventure, a continuation of the cartoon that was seen a decent but ultimately lacklustre effort hampered by clunky controls.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Superman: Shadow of Apokolips is a third-person, cel-shaded, 3D action-adventure game set within the continuity of Superman: The Animated Series (possibly between the first and second seasons). The game is divided into thirteen chapters, with no difficulty levels and some surprisingly generous checkpoints. Superman has all his usual abilities but is still vulnerable, so you must wait for his health and “Super Power Energy” to automatically replenish when you take damage or use his various superpowers. Players lock on to nearby targets with L1 and R1 (though there’s no way to cycle between targets), execute a surprisingly weak and boring combo with X, and also hold X to grab things. You can lift cars, crates, and explosive barrels to toss at enemies, grab billboards to make bridges, and carry civilians to safety. When enemies are stunned, you can also grab them to send them flying with a “Super Punch”. Square pulls off a “Speed Dodge” to avoid damage, Triangle unleashes your heat vision, and Circle blows enemies away or extinguishes fires with super breath. While on the ground, you can press X and Square together to perform a “Super Spin” to send enemies flying, or press it while hovering or flying to hit a slam attack for crowd control. While the left stick moves Superman, the right controls his flight. You take off by moving the right stick up (or pressing R2), bank and strafe while flying, and land by holding down or double-tapping R2. While in the air, you can press X and Square together to speed up, ramming into enemies, through certain doors, or chasing airborne targets. Finally, you can enter first person mode with L2 to better aim your heat vision or hold Circle to highlight hidden destructible walls with your x-ray vision.

While these abilities can be fun, they do have drawbacks. Their limited use is the most obvious, but many enemies take a lot of hits to put down. Sure, you can set most on fire with your heat vision and blow them back with your breath, but these don’t do much damage. It’s usually better to toss cars or swing pipes than to use your fists, and Superman is constantly being knocked from the sky or into walls by missiles. Superman is rather clunky to control, both on the ground and in the air. When you get used to the janky controls, the flying mechanics are quite fun but, when asked to dart at enemies or perform precision turns, the gameplay fells apart. The finnicky camera doesn’t help, either. You can centre it with L2, but I constantly lost track of who I was targeting or had my vision obscured by the environment. Superman’s powers are primarily used for busy work, and in very rare,  specific situations. You’re more likely to be getting civilians to safety or retrieving objects than putting out fires with your super breath, for example, with Superman opting to plug lava spills and volcanic eruptions with boulders and coolant tanks later in the game. Heat vision is often used to seal objects, but only after you’ve mashed X like a madman (a frustrating mechanic that often failed for no reason). Amusingly, one level sees you infiltrating LexLabs as Clark Kent, using your heat vision to short out control panels and security cameras and sneaking past Lex Luthor’s scientists. You do this by clumsily walking behind them and hoping they don’t randomly spot you because the game decides they should, making for one of the worst stealth sections I’ve ever played. Clark must also dash past laser traps, mash X to fight past a giant fan, gently blow about explosive mines, and repair leaking gas pipes with cylinders, none of which is particularly fun.

When he’s not rescuing civilians and smashing Intergang’s robots, Superman is defending scientists or police officers from said robots, escorting guards through Stryker’s Island Penitentiary at one point and helping to apprehend rioting inmates. Often, Superman faces a time trial to resolve some crisis, with your time represented by little red dots that creep around your radar. At the dam, you must find and replace three generators, fly to Lois Lane’s endangered cable car, and then frantically mash A to plug up the dam before it bursts. When LexLabs threatens to self-destruct, an audible fifteen-minute countdown pressures you to wipe out all nearby enemies, activate switches, and then bring a glowing orb to a control panel to stop the sequence. However, you then have a scant few minutes to plug another gas leak and extract the poison from the area. Deep in Intergang’s mountain lair, you must protect three scientists as they activate Luthor’s portal technology and then get about five minutes to cool down the overactive reactor, all of which can be extremely aggravating as Superman moves and fights like a bag of sand. Things are much easier when you’re not being timed and you can freely take out tanks, soldiers, and turret placements to defend shield generators or scientists. In the dam level, you must cool down fuel tanks with your breath and break open doors to find civilians; at one point you must take out waves of enemies to open new areas and short out five control panels; and you’re often asked to destroy a certain number of enemies to clear each area. It all gets quite repetitive and challenging very quickly, with the awkward controls and tight time limits artificially increasing the difficulty of even mundane tasks, and the sheer number of enemies and projectiles is often as daunting as it is frustrating. I admire the attempt at some variety but there’s very little margin for error, button inputs often fail to register, and Superman’s powers aren’t used as much as I’d like (I only used his x-ray vision once, for example, and even then it was confusing!)

Presentation:
Superman: Shadow of Apokolips opts for a cel-shaded look to better represent the cartoon and therefore  looks pretty good, having aged rather gracefully and visually appearing like the animated series. This is aided by Tim Daly and Clancy Brown reprising their famous roles and adding further authenticity to this as a “lost” episode. Consequently, the likes of Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olson, and even the tyrannical Darkseid pop up in cutscenes as cameos, though sadly Lois and Darkseid play almost no part in the in-game action. On the downside, the game isn’t tailored for newcomers to the series or character, explaining basically nothing about this world and restricting exposition regarding Superman’s powers to tutorial text and unlockable biographies. Superman looks just as he did in the cartoon, being bright, broad-shouldered, and powerful. Even Clark makes an impression in his eggshell-blue suit, even if his stealth skills aren’t anything to write home about! The game performs pretty well, though combat is often sluggish and Superman always feels like he’s moving through jelly. Enemies conveniently teleport in or come crashing through walls so there’s very little pop-up, there’s no distance fog either as every level is constrained to a small area, though I did notice moments of slowdown when a lot was happening and the load times are pretty atrocious.

Things start off promising here as the opening tutorial sees you flying around Metropolis, which appears just as it did in the cartoon, warts and all. This means that while you’ll see skyscrapers, bustling traffic, and the iconic Daily Planet building, buildings are incredibly basic and blocky, with no textures and simple colours bringing them to life. While this mirrors the minimalist style of the cartoon, it does make the game seem very basic, lifeless, and samey. This is exacerbated when you’re stuck in the claustrophobic corridors and rooms of Luthor’s facilities and Intergang’s lair, which assault your eyes with drab greys and browns. To be fair, these environments try to spice things up by basing Intergang’s operation within a volcanic mountain, with lava spilling out, flames bursting from the floor, and volcanic eruptions needing to be plugged. Intergang also use Apokoliptian technology, apparently trying to create a Boom Tube, and their lair does eventually fall apart around you. The dam stage made for a good follow-up to Metropolis as well, featuring different areas with different crises needing to be averted, and I did enjoy escorting the guards around Stryker’s Island, which is damaged by Intergang’s attack and caught in a thunderstorm. Unfortunately, that’s about as crazy as locations get as, despite its title, you don’t visit Apokolips or venture off-world. I did enjoy fighting John Corben/Metallo in Luthor’s office in the penultimate chapter, especially as the walls take battle damage from your fight, and that you confront Metallo in an auto factory, but environments are still disappointingly bland and there’s rarely a chance to fully flex Superman’s muscles or stretch his legs.

Enemies and Bosses:
Things are equally disappointing here as you fight the same, generic enemies over and over. Conveniently, Intergang deploy humanoid androids, meaning Superman can fight them without breaking his “no kill” rule. The Intergang robots are as basic as it gets, often just standing in place and shooting (though they occasionally take cover) or whacking you with their weapons up close. These robots carry machines guns and Apokoliptian plasma rifles, sometimes snipe from above, and later self-destruct upon defeat. Sometimes they use jetpacks, or pour from armoured personally carriers, and their slightly lager variants wield rocket launchers that send you flying. Intergang bolsters its forces with a few military armaments, like turrets and tank-like vehicles. These can be tossed or simply bashed, but sport chainguns, plasma cannons, and missile launchers. Intergang also employ Apokoliptian attack copters that can be tricky to target as they’re quite nimble, but they simply circle around the main areas so you won’t need to chase them or anything, and you’ll sometimes find mines in crates. That’s literally it for the basic enemies as they never get, like, energy swords or tasers or shields and there are no hulking brutes to match wits with. It’s just the same enemies recycled again and again. To be fair, there are a lot onscreen at once, but this isn’t a good thing as Superman’s better in one-on-one fights. Also, while on Stryker’s Island, you come up against the rioting inmates, but these guys are knocked out with a single punch or left dazed to be comically punched into their cells and are hardly a threat.

The bosses are even more of a let-down, with your first test being to chase down and disable a helicopter, a mechanic that never returns. When you finally confront the Intergang Leader, he turns out to just be a more formidable version of the regular enemies. Once you shoot him from the sky, deal with his minions, and whittle down his life bar, you must quickly dash him to drop him into molten metal or the fight repeats until you succeed. Similarly, while I was excited to see the Machiavellian Iluthin/Kanto appear, Darkseid’s weaponeer simply fights in you in a variation of the same tanks you see everywhere. Oddly, the game ends with three consecutive boss battles, starting with a three-phase fight with Leslie Willis/Livewire. As you’ll be electrocuted if you touch her, she teleports about, and her electrical blasts either stun-lock you or send you flying, you must trick her into falling into water. You can do this by side-stepping her attacks and blasting bridge controls with your heat vision, but you can also whittle her down by tapping Triangle to fire concentrated blasts. To short circuit and finish her, you must avoid her attacks and fight the useless camera and destroy seven locks with your heat vision, gaining only a temporary reprieve when you blast her away as her health regenerates. Rudy Jones/Parasite is fought on the city streets, where you toss cars and blast him with heat vision from a distance and extinguish his fires. While he’s constantly flying around, tossing energy bolts, and regenerating health, your best bet is to crash into him and land your slam attack to make short work of him. Finally, you face Metallo in a multi-stage fight across two chapters. Metallo fires a deadly Kryptonite beam, rushes you, grabs you and punches you across the room, and later wields a machine gun and an Apokoliptian plasma rifle. It’s best to toss stuff at him and use your eye beams as your punches don’t do much, but you’ll have to quickly fly up and blast a control panel if you want to best him.

Additional Features:
That’s about it for Superman: Shadow of Apokolips. There are no collectibles to find, no difficulty modes to challenge, and no skins to unlock (which is criminal for a superhero game, if you ask me). As you clear each mission, you can freely replay them from the “Level Attack” menu, though there’s little point as there’s nothing to go back for and no time trials or anything. Clearing the game also unlocks the cutscenes to view in the “Movie Theatre”, character biographies, and loading screens to look at if that’s your thing. Thankfully, you don’t have to unlock these or deal with the onslaught of enemies as there are some super helpful cheat codes to access everything and enable invincibility and such. These cheats won’t help you beat the horrendous timed missions, but they do make the game more bearable.

Final Thoughts:
I was really excited to play Superman: Shadow of Apokolips. Ever since I started collecting for the PlayStation 2, this game had been on my wish list and I purposely scoured a retro videogame market in mid-2025 to find a copy, believing it would be a fun (if mindless brawler) that mirrored the cartoon. Well, the last part was right, at least. Superman: Shadow of Apokolips looks really good, especially for a PlayStation 2 title, thanks largely to its cel-shaded aesthetic that perfectly captures the vibe of the cartoon. Sadly, it’s all downhill from there as this is a clunky, aggravating mess at the worst of times and repetitive nonsense at the best. While Superman looks great and occasionally feels fun to control in the air, his attacks and powers are pitifully weak, with no new combos or abilities being added to your arsenal as you progress. The enemies are painfully tedious, especially considering Superman’s colourful rogues’ gallery, and your objectives rarely challenge you to do more than fetch stuff against a tight time limit. It got to the point where I was almost wishing for a ring-based time trial! It was so monotonous, and even Clark’s stealth section didn’t add much variety as it was so poorly implemented. The worst part was the back-loaded boss battles, which could’ve easily been sprinkled throughout the early and mid-game, and the lack of a confrontation with Darkseid, who basically appears as a cameo, leaving all the heavy lifting to the far less interesting Metallo. I was so disappointed by Superman: Shadow of Apokolips, which is more frustrating than enjoyable as even simple busy work is complicated by the janky controls and clunky camera, sadly resulting in yet another poor videogame outing for the Man of Steel.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

How high do you rate Superman: Shadow of Apokolips? Were you impressed by the cel-shaded look and fidelity to the cartoon? Did you also find that Superman was quite difficult to control and his powers were poorly implemented? Were you disappointed by the repetitive environments and back-loaded boss battles? Would you have liked to see a sequel where Superman actually fights Darkseid? Which Superman videogame is your favourite and how are you celebrating Superman Day today? Whatever your thoughts, share them in the comments below, check out my other Superman content, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest another Superman game you’d like me to review.