Sunman – The Never Released Sunsoft NES Superman Game (Review)

Sunman
aka Superman
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Never Released Nearly Complete Prototype
Directed by Kenji Eno
Developed by EIM Group
Non-Publisher: Sunsoft

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Sunsoft might be most famous for their Batman games, but did you know they tried their hand at a Superman game as well? Sunsoft turned to the studio best known in America for a game called Panic Restaurant. EIM Group was led by Kenji Eno, who tragically died in 2013 at just 42. Their game, known at this time as simply “Superman” had the engine mostly finished and the first level programmed. The prototype even features an impressive chiptune take on the iconic John Williams Superman theme. So, what happened? According to Eno, DC Comics rejected the game because Superman “can’t die” and “can’t take damage.” Maybe he was told that, but I don’t buy that’s the real reason that Sunsoft removed Superman from their Superman game. Taito’s Superman arcade game was already a few years old by this point, and spoiler: Superman can take damage and die. Also, would this be a good time to point out that Sunsoft planned this for a late 1992 release. What storyline did DC Comics have planned for the Man of Steel in late 1992? (checks notes) Ah yes, Superman takes damage and dies. More than likely, Sunsoft had simply lost the DC license, and perhaps never had the Superman license at all. Either way, Sunsoft ordered the game to be changed to a generic superhero: Sunman.

Sunman is more powerful than a locomotive. Impressive for someone who is approximately one foot tall. That or this locomotive is HUGE. Also, while playing this game, I kept thinking “if Daredevil wore a cape.”

Another possibility is that DC inspected the game and found it to be boring. The sad truth is, I was pulling for Sunman to be a quality lost treasure of a game because it was designed by someone who died young. Instead, I’m thinking my YES! for Eno will have to wait for Panic Restaurant, which I will review in 2024 (UPDATE: the review is up!). I have to do that before I do his NES “port” of Altered Beast which, yes, exists and.. wow. Yea, that sure is a game that.. happened. Sunman would have gone down as a very middle of the road, bordering on outright bad superhero action game. A game that, oddly enough, has a lot more in common with Nintendo’s Kirby than Sunsoft’s Batman. Hear me out. The big hook with Sunman is the ability to fly at any time. Using that ability, you can circumvent large sections of a couple of the levels, just like you can in the early Kirby games. Unlike Kirby, you might want to fly over the levels rather than play them “honestly” because the brawling is just terrible in Sunman.

I found most of my entertainment in Sunman came from laughing at all the different ways the developers worked to nullify their own gameplay concept. You’re “Superman” and you can fly anywhere, and you generally move faster than the bad guys. What do you do so that people actually play the game? Well, you raise the platform high off the ground, and then you can put an invisible ceiling at where the camera view ends, thus funneling the player into direct conflict with enemies. And this is why a 2D Superman action game can’t work. Eh, at least it’s better than that Kemco abomination.

Sunman has a collision problem. When you fly, it’s hard to punch the enemies who also fly. Your collision box is essentially a square that’s bigger than not-Superman. This box shrinks when you’re not flying and instead walking along the ground. But of course, you have to fly a lot. The level design is built around this, and the combat is just awful as a result. The flying fisticuffs were sloppy at best. There’s also a distinct lack of enemy variety. It’s mostly generic guys with guns flying in pairs and shooting lasers. If not them, it’s usually a little robot that’s firing a laser beam up. The “platforming” stages are never fun. They always feel like a Superman game that hates that it’s a Superman game, because it’s so limited. And, even worse, there’s no power in those stages besides flying. Maybe Sunman would have been too easy if Superman could use his heat vision, but who cares? I’d have had a LOT more fun if I could have zapped enemies out of the sky. There’s also no item pick-ups at all, including health refills. If you’re low on life, you have to beat the boss of that stage. Don’t worry, only one is really hard. Maybe two. As far as I can tell, there’s no point in exploring. Just the same handful of enemies to punch until the five stages are up. There’s occasionally crushing obstacles you have to time your movement to avoid, but even those had terrible collision detection on their edges. Good lord, a Superman game that needs to baby proof corners.

This, the final boss, presumably would have been General Zod if this had gone forward as a Superman game? I assume? He teleports around the room, so I don’t suppose you can discount Lex Luthor in a power suit or perhaps Mxyzptlk.

Occasionally, Sunman trades the platforming sections for all-flying sections. Some of them are still brawlers with the crappy air punch. Others take a shmup approach and now you can fire your laser eyes. Which actually begs the question: why Superman, or hell, “Sunman” would allow himself to take damage on the platforming stages to begin with? The first stage’s boss is a giant helicopter that you shoot. Oddly, in the Superman prototype, you fight this from a laying down position. This is changed in Sunman to the standing position, increasing the difficulty because there’s so much more of you to take damage. I figured they got rid of the laying down sprite altogether, but that’s not the case. After you fight ANOTHER boss with an entirely different standing up sprite that’s not suitable at all for a shmup boss, you finally lay down to heroically fly through a speed tunnel. And it’s horrible. Seriously, this would be like Battletoads speed bike levels of infamous if it had ever come out. It’s the last section before the final boss, but it moves too fast and the squeezes are far too tight. I tried playing it with save states, but I got bored and swapped them for rewinding after about fifteen minutes of dying. One spongy last boss later and the credits were rolling to what would have been a truly boring Superman game.

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I don’t think Superman is necessarily doomed to always produce mediocre games. But, it’s sad that, had Sunman come out, for all its problems, it would have been one of the better Superman games of the 20th century, or ever, really. And it’s just a barely more interesting take on the same type of combat that was already tedious in Taito’s coin-op. If DC really did pass on Sunsoft Superman, I’m leaning more towards DC’s licensing department recognized it wouldn’t have gotten the type of acclaim the Sunsoft Batman games got. Instead, it would have fed into the idea that Superman is an inherently dull character. And he’s not, so I get it if that’s why they said “no.” What’s bonkers is that we’ve made it to 2024 and Atari still can legitimately make a case for having made the best Superman game (scroll to the second-to-last game in Atari 50: The Games They Couldn’t Include – Part One for my review). It came out a full ten years before I was born, and with all the technology that has come along, how is THAT still the best console Superman? It’s shameful.

And, as boring as Sunman is, it could have been a LOT worse.

Frankly, it’s not a mystery why Atari’s Superman is THE video Superman. It’s the only Superman game that feels like it’s Superman doing Superman things. Rescuing Lois Lane, changing in a phone booth, repairing a broken bridge, and jailing Lex Luthor. They even managed to work in either x-ray vision or super vision, depending on how you look at it. The Kemco game TRIED all that, and as maligned as their Superman game is, they really did give an honest effort at creating a Superman adventure with all the traits you’d hope for. The only problem is the engine itself is just pitiful. The talent just wasn’t there to create a game that matched the vision. That’s basically what went wrong with the infamous Superman 64 as well. Focusing on his flying is a bad idea. Focusing on combat is too. Superman is an adventure character. Treat him like it and the action side will take care of itself.

This is the real “level complete” screenshot of Sunman. “GRATE!” Oh my god.

I really get a feeling that Superman is an assignment few game designers want. His invulnerability and god-like powers are considered to be too creatively limiting. So, like, why not make it not about living or dying but about saving people or not saving them? Make the Baba Is You of superhero games. Give players multiple possible solutions to a series of adventure challenges where you’re just trying to save the dam from bursting, or stop a missile, and yes, maybe sometimes throw hands with villains, and make the antagonizing factor time itself. “Will Superman make it in time to save the day?” is the quintessential Superman story. Just do that as a game! And don’t have him have to punch waves of identical baddies along the way. It’s Superman! If he’s punching them, shouldn’t their brains be in orbit?
Verdict: NO!