Just a quick note about the video. Quite a bit of what I was able to find about Superman 64's development comes from Titus' side, so please keep that in mind. That being said, I do speak on on Titus' own shortcomings when it came to Superman 64 and frankly, what they did may be worse than Warner Bros. influence on the game.
In entertainment I am usually glad to blame needless meddling by management, but Titus has a long history of releasing garbage. Play some of their other games, or watch Kim Justice's Titus video. Thanks for the videos!
Wrestling With Gaming best game!!! To look at shelfs of blockbuster..... they had them lined up maybe like 10-15, i was lucky to know most kids whos parents will take them to rent a movie, they saved my weekend the first time i figure they wanted the game the second weekend the ones who took the game were kinda depressed third weekend everybody who got it was pissed, and thd fourth weekend if was a prank thing. I borrowed it from a friend if was a hard game and by hard i mean hard, annoging, glitchy, laggy, unresponsive...
As a kid what really sticks out to me about Superman 64 is the fact that it was the first time I can remember playing a game that I simply did not enjoy. I couldn't articulate why at the time but recently watching other people go back and talk about it/play it really shows me how truly awful the final product was. Glad I had only rented it...
I must have been 8 or 9 when I played it and yeah, I was surprised at how unenjoyable it was. Up until that point I was always super enamored with every new game I played and this one was just junk.
I rented it when I was 5 or 6. Same as you, I couldn't really articulate why I didn't like it at the time but I rented it once, played it and it wasn't was I was expecting.
I worked at a Software Etc. back when Superman 64 was released. We had a 14 days return policy (except for games with single use CD keys, pretty much any MMO game), which at the time very few places that sold software and game did. So with a big title like Superman 64 we had almost a full shelf of it for release day, with most of them being reserved. We opened, and sold about 25% of our stock with in the few 2 hours, not a surprise again with a big name title and a large amount of reservations. However by the time I showed up for work (I had a closing shift so it was 5pm) about 10% of the units we had sold had already been returned, with our customers telling us how bad the game was. We sold almost all of our reservations and may other copies, but we had begun telling them that we had already had returns and how bad the game was said to be. By the end of the day after release, we had almost 50% of the units we had sold on release returned. By the end of the first week we had over 90% of the units we had sold returned and all of us were telling anyone who picked up the display box that is was really, REALLY bad and they should not buy it, but rent it first. After the first 14 days we had every copy we had sold returned, we had stopped telling people to rent it first and just told them to not buy the game. Those who would buy it would return it within 48 hours and tell us that they would always listen to us when we would tell them to not buy a game again.
But he fought them in the city KNOWING they are on par with his powers/abilities. Superman isn't reckless like that, which is why I hate Man of Steel with a passion.
This is why you don't just take any investor you can get. If your clients needs don't align with your project needs, your project is already dead in the water.
exactly, i mean i cringed when wb didnt want any form of destruction caused by supermans powers in the game because they saw it as superman being "the bad guy" smh fucking morons
Bear in mind we are only hearing Titus's side of the story. I'm sure Warner Bros. would give a very different account. They are still the people who delivered the hot mess of a game.
Warner Brothers wanted Superman in a virtual world so that way he wouldn't mess with real people. Meanwhile... in Superman Returns on Xbox 360... *Superman blows a tornado, sending hundreds of cars and people flying into the air*
the logic there is breathtaking. Perhaps they chose a virtual world more so to give Titus 'training wheels' in regards to not fucking with DC universe. They can have superman do all sorts of things, Titus can fuck up tons of elements, and end of the day it doesnt seriously influence dc universe. That being said tho, this is a virtual world inside a made-up universe that is supposed to accurately reflect that universe... and they are worrying about what superman can do. If something was good enough for the original fake universe, isnt it good enough for the fake universe of the original fake universe??!! This is like a rick and morty plot
The only bad thing about superman returns was the second level, which was very confusing and serves as a cockblock for flying around metropolis right away.
Thanks so much. Yeah, it really is a shame. It seems like the PS1 version that Blue sky was making was going to be significantly better (playstation museum has a video with game footage) but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
+fpshooterful I played it 6 months ago and not stuck on the final ring level. The game cost me zero dollars and it was still overpriced lol. Thanks for watching!
+CyberRonin Yeah, I hear ya. Both Titus and WB are at fault but Titus was going to have a hard enough time with it since it was their first 3D game. WB's interference really made it an uphill battle for them. Still, Titus wasn't exactly honest about the game.
Man, you did an amazing job with this documentary of Superman 64. It's a shame the game didn't turn out better than the trash we got. I can't imagine being the person who was involved with making one of the worst games of all time.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate you saying that. I agree with you. It really was such a letdown from what was promised. It would've been difficult for any developer to deliver on some of those promises (like fully destructible environments) so early in the Nintendo 64's life cycle, but judging from Titus' previous track record it would probably have been flat out impossible for them. They weren't exactly known for being innovators. They were competent for sure but tended to make "ok" but largely forgettable games. I just can't see them pulling off that kind of innovation on the Nintendo 64 when you take into consideration that it was Titus' first fully 3d game, their previous history, and the fact that programmers in general were still learning how to get the most from the N64. From the interviews he's done, I think it's pretty obvious that Eric Caen still feels pretty defensive about Superman 64. I can't say I blame him. Like you said, I can't imagine being the person who oversaw one of the worst games of all time. when I first started looking into Superman 64 I actually felt bad for the guy. Then I started looking at the timeline between when he made all these promises about the features in superman 64 and when the game was finished and it became pretty obvious that he was misleading the public about the game. At least in my opinion. I get that Warner Brothers interfered but Titus didn't exactly help things by the way they promoted the game. Thanks again for the compliment and for watching the video!
+Frank Doe Titus filed for bankruptcy in 2005. Interplay ended up with the rights to their games and Eric Caen himself went on to become president of Interplay in 2009. His brother is the CEO of Interplay so I think you can imagine how he landed there.
Yooo my dad got it for me from our local video store when I was a wee lad, and I remember I couldn't get past the first level. I remember feeling disappointed because I was so hyped for the game, and I felt bad that I made my dad spend money on it haha. When I stopped playing after less than half an hour, he stepped in to try the game. I don't think he could comprehend how bad the game was because he didn't play games in the first place. But ah what a time
Me too. I even tried to Gameshark passed the level I got stuck on, and I ended up getting stuck in the level. Thought it was just a not very GameShark friendly game, but it seems levels were glitched already.
Flint Ironstag comes with the territory with licensing of anything. I work for a company that makes souvenir products, and a lot of clients we have we have to get approval not only from the buyer, but also the licensing team that owns the rights. All logos and colors must match their style guides, there's also quality checks. It's basically how those that own the trademarks ensure certain levels of quality are kept with their branding. Obviously I'm the video game landscape of the late 90s there were limitations, but I will say the vision of the open world environment in video games was a new concept, and nobody really got it down until GTA3 did a few years later on ps2 which was a much more powerful device. So I give the developers credit for trying something new that has become a relative norm nearly 20 years later.
+Ed Kiely Thanks man. It's kind of funny because, while I'm sure Warner Bros interfered (most license owners do) in the development, the more Caen talked about it the more attention it put on his own comments about what Superman 64 would be. Like really, since WB was interfering soooooo much why make so many promises? He's clearly not without some guilt.
Yes but Caen's declaration to the press can be seen as supporting the partnership with WB. It didn't do actual harm except raising expectations. It is WB's actions that created a mess with the product itself.
One thing I love about Superman is the behind the scenes drama, be it in the comics, films or tv series. This was interesting as it showed that the tradition continued in the video game world.
The reason why Superman 64 turned out to be the most evil video game of all time was due to licensing issues and the limited time development Titus Software had to make that game.
We've seen and heard of bad games, but this game is the most evil! We're grateful that no other video games including games that had evil but slightly better reviews ended up like this. It's definitely not worth playing at all. It maybe the video game that Satan made and loves!
when licensing keeps their noses out of the development ,great games come out , such as goldeneye 007 ! and that game was made by STUDENTS who never made a game before in a small english studio
When I was a kid I love the cartoon series and was able to pre order superman64. I brought it home, played it, and after i found someone hanging from a noose in my room. I later realized that person hanging was my childhood.
I feel like it's important to note that a lot of this is told from the side of Titus. I doubt anyone at WB would ever weigh in on this, but it's just something to keep in mind that we are only hearing one side of the story for most of this. As you touch on in the last bits of the video, the dude straight up lied about a lot of stuff. Who's the say he didn't lie about everything? Anyhoo, another great video! Well done!
+Daniel Campbell yep, you're 100% correct that it's mostly Caen's side. I actually sent an email to WB to see if they would comment since Caen has painted WB in such a poor light in so many interviews but, SURPRISE, they had no comment. Their lack of denials over the years, while circumstantial, is a bit damming. At least in the court of public opinion. But once you look at the timing of Eric Caen's comments it's obvious that he lied to consumers about what to expect from Superman 64. That's a dick move even when you take interference from WB into account.
Wrestling With Gaming I wouldn't say WB's lack of response is damning. This was forever ago, do you really think they'd still be anyone around from then who'd be able to answer your questions? This issue is nothing to a company of their size.
Wrestling With Gaming Obviously, Warner Bros was not going to comment on this. Why would they? This is a RU-vid channel and the game came out 20 years ago. What you need to find are the names of some marketing people from Warner at the time (people who helped collaborate on stuff like this). Former employees at Warner might remember this game collaboration and give an opinion. You could also talk to some former employees from Titus. That would also give greater perspective. Thanks for the interesting video.
@@WrestlingWithGaming Not really, lol? I mean, they could have used Man of Steel to actually make DCEU Superman a proper Superman... but then BvS came and completely dashed any hopes that that's the direction they were going for.
I firmly believe my brother is the biggest Superman fan on the Earth. Well, maybe not, but he's almost there. He has always loved the character, the comics, the cartoons, the films, the videogames, etc. So you can expect that back in 1999 when this came out, he was extremely excited, but we didn't have the money to actually buy the game, so we just rented it. We didn't know back then that was a blessing. It still hurts to this day remember his look of disappointment and frustration when trying to go through those rings. Believe me it hurts. It hurts to remember how he desperately tried to like the game, looking for stuff that he might like, anything positive, but nothing came up. He finally beat the ring stuff just to find instructions he couldn't even read and more bland gameplay. He turned off the console and just said "I'm not playing anymore" and left the room with sadness in his eyes. He even stayed away from anything related to Superman for a while after trying this game out. That's how bad it is.
The amount of ring stages is almost as absurd as the controls. I live streamed Superman 64 a few weeks ago and got game breakingly stuck in the walls several times. Sadly I couldn't beat the heat final stage. I feel bad for your brother man. I've had the same experience with bad star trek games. Thanks for checking out the video and sharing the story man. Have a good one!
Oh yeah, Star Trek has been cursed with bad games as well, which is unfortunate, as I see potential there. I remember back then, when Goldeneye came out, we thought that was going to be a turning point in movie-based videogames, setting a new standard of quality, but we still get awful games based on movies and vice-versa, like that dreaded Doom film... By the way, I liked how you tried to stay neutral throughout the video, despite of having mostly the story told by Titus. There was an important lesson to learn to developers and holders, but it seems they still don't learn.
I can't believe Warner Bros kept interfering with the development of Superman. You'd think because they have the Superman and DC brand that they'd do the game justice. This was an insult and an injustice to Superman.
When I was a little kid I read an article about it and got excited. That weekend I went out and... rented it. I played the first few levels and I had never been more disappointed with a game in my life. So I called a friend over and we sat down and played the MULTIPLAYER made. I thought "hey this will be awesome, it has to be." I picked superman and my friend picked Metallo and prepared for this epic battle. The game started and... MORE RINGS! We read the article and again thinking, when does any of this happen in this game!
I used to work for a media group that is roughly on par with WB, as business director focusing on licensing famous comics titles to game companies to develop video games, just like Superman 64. Based on my experience, I choose to believe what the Titus guy says. Licencors generally have very limited knowledge about video games and are, more often than never, over-protective with their brand and intellectual properties, which is why they put strict limitations on game concept, and sometimes be absolutely unreasonable during the creative approval process. However, I'm not saying Titus is the sole victim. Large games companies like EA usually have sophisticated protocols working with licencor to minimize the risk of failure.
DC has a long history of putting arbitary restrictions on their properties. A good example is the Batman PC Engine game by Sunsoft. Originally it was supposed to be a side-scrolling action game like the NES version. But DC kept forcing Sunsoft to make more and more changes to the game, insisting that it was too much like the NES game. This slowed down the production so much that it got to the point where Sunsoft's license was going to run out. They had invested a lot of money and they had to release SOMETHING, so they slapped together the simplest game they could, that bore no resemblance to the NES game, shoved it out the door, and wrote it off as a loss. They also imposed similarly strict restrictions on an unreleased Superman game from Sunsoft, like "Superman always beats the bad guys," "Superman can't hurt people," "Superman can't die," etc. You can't really make a game with, well, no gameplay. So they dropped the license and tried reworking it with their own character called Sunman, but in the end the game never saw the light of day. You'd think since NES Batman was such a massive success that they'd trust Sunsoft's judgement and let them have at it, but apparently not. Some people just can't resist the urge to micromanage every aspect of a project, even if it's to the detriment of the final product, as long as it makes them feel like they're doing something useful.
+Sitizen Kane Thanks! Yeah, lately RU-vid has been putting some random channels on my home feed too. They must've changed their algorithm for it or something. But hey, I'm glad you liked it!
Reminds me of what is said to have happened before the cancellation of Star Wars 1313. Initially they made the game we saw in the early gameplay videos featuring two bounty hunters in the darker corners of the galaxy. Shortly after they were told to make it a game about Boba Fett. I've always wanted to play that game, but this video has opened my eyes to a lot of things regarding the importance of freedom within the development of an idea and turning that into the best product possible. It's sad to think what could have been of that game, and the likelyhood of it ending up a stressed out mess like Superman 64.
The commercial got me as a kid and I asked for the game and actually got it. I was so excited and then I played it. Lex Luthor's laugh is still in my head.
Then came the DLC/season pass craze of last gen. Now they're wetting themselves over microtransactions/lootboxes. I wonder what they'll come up with next.
Richard Pell yea back then in the 90s many new games had special preorder deals, where you would get like a free toy related to the game or trading cards for games like pokemon, some even had like special characters or item that were given to people who preorderd the game. I remember i got a special gamw guide when pokemon stadium 2 came out.
I wish to add a true story. I actually found the N64 cartridge of Superman 64 in a grass field which I had to traverse to get to a shopping store when I roughly 19. Naturally, I was excited having found a N64 game for free. I couldn't believe my luck. I have to say that the experience of playing this game was arguably the worst I have encountered in my gaming lifetime. I subsequently gave the game to my best mates younger brother, who quickly returned it to me. I then returned the n64 cartridge to the field in which I had found it in.
Thanks for sharing this information with us, rather than just bash on the game like so many others did before. It's quite interesting to see how such a game could actually see the light of day. And also thanks for showing the PS1 footage. Damn, compared to the N64 version that game at least has good graphics.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. I always wondered why this game turned out the way it did. I didn't think it would have such an interesting little history behind it. I try to fair and not just outright bash any topics I cover, particularly when it's something that's been crapped on by the internet. There's always two sides to the story after all. Thanks for stopping by!
Titus is garbage though. The only game with their name on it that is good is Roadsters. It would of been bad regardless, the guy is blaming other people for his companies poor product and skills.
They made a bunch of crap games. Sounds like he's pointing the blame. They were probably on a time frame and were too overly ambitious so they only got a tiny bit done.
Great video, this is the first truly informative on the subject I've seen yet!! Plus, that Namaste outro song is great, thanks for linking the source!!
+Peter Trempe Hey thanks a lot, I appreciate it. I love Namaste. It's pretty much become my default intro and outro song for all of my gaming retrospective videos. I only wish all royalty free music out there was as good!
I'm much more of a Batman fan, and I've been critical of Superman before, and sometimes I do think he's a little boring, but I think Superman deserves better than this. Justice for Superman.
Great job on this documentary ! You pick some really interesting topics keep up the good work. Nice to see you passed 7000 subs now. Definately deserve more.
Thanks! Yeah, I don't know why but apparently RU-vid has been pushing a few of my videos onto people's homepage as a recommendation. I ended up nabbing a few thousand subs in a matter of days. I thought something was wrong with my sub count at first lol. I know it's been over a month since my last video but I am in the middle of editing it. It's just taking longer (ok way longer) than usual. Hopefully I'll have it out soon.
I think Mortal Kombat Sub Zero Mythology is worse personally. Factoring in how painful the games are to play of course, not just how mediocre they are.
I honestly learned so much today. Because I am old, and I used to LOVE Titus games because most of their games that I played during early 90s (that were already released even back in 80s) were freakin amazing. I couldn't believe why game company when THIS BAD... Now you gave me an answer, it's another corporate bullshit from WB. Same company who like to push damn crates in Shadow of War. They were asshole back then, and they are still assholes now.
i find it hard to believe that WB/DC would be so overprotective about the character, since they let many writers or directors to do their thing. who knows... it could be a lie from titus or some old executive being a hard ass. anyway great video.
Nice vid. Also a note, Superman for Gameboy using basically the same engine as Titus the Fox released in 93. Different games but if you look at gameplay you can see visually they're similar. So thats prob why they went with a quick GB version of it.
I remember renting this game from Blockbuster, yes the same Blockbuster that chose to not partner with a young company known as Netflix. Any way, this game was utter crap. The game was so lackluster, the controls were garbage and the rings oh the rings.
I did the same thing. Rented it and was so disappointed. When I was young my parents would take me to blockbuster on Friday to rent a game/movie for the weekend. Sometimes you’d get burned by renting a shit game like this and getting stuck with it for the weekend
Sounds like a high school drama for adults. I think it goes to show, just as kids and employees can be destructive, if helicopter parents and micromanaging superiors don't fully support their own, it's wasting everybody's time. We gotta learn to trust each other, like we were all functioning on the same planet at the same time with only one life to experience.
I appreciate the even-handedness here in addressing the faults of WB and Titus. I had no idea the development of this game had been so awful, but it does make sense given the state of the end product. It’s really a shame about the PlayStation version not happening, and I was surprised to hear that Titus didn’t attempt a lawsuit when WB expected it. Did anyone ever say why the lawsuit didn’t happen? Also, you have a new subscriber. I’ve watched a few videos now and I appreciate the high quality video essays and the interesting topics you’re covering. Keep up the good work!
+Bob Slartibarti Thanks! Well it's been almost two months since my last video so I'm catching up to him on infrequency too lol. Jk, I love Gaming Historian. My next video is about half way edited so hopefully it won't be too much longer.
Seemed like WB wanted to sabotage Superman while banking a shit load on Batman. Considering the mismanagement of this game and future attempts at ambitious, promising games being shot down, it honestly feels like some people up at WB were just total Batman fanboys/fangirls who hated Superman
1 France; yup gonna pooch it. 2 i cried when i learned no Pissbox release. 3 Why no one talks about or reviews Superman: Metropolis is beyond me. That one rocked. Metallo, kittens, fire trucks, tornados, WTH? Awesome as always.
I would say, that WB attitude was the main and only reason this game was so bad. Titus had released great games in the past for PC DOS and Amiga. "Titus the Fox" is one of the best 2D platformers from 16-bit era. In my opinion is way better than any Sonic Sega ever made. Prehistorik 1 and 2 are also great games. I had a chance to play their NES and SNES games and these games aren't good at all! Blues Brothers on NES is simplified port of PC/Amiga game. On SNES there was Prehistorik Man which shared a lot of graphics with "Prehistorik 2", but even though it had parallax scrolling, more levels, and used SNES abilities like transparency, hardware rotation etc. this game wasn't even in the slightest as good as Prehistorik 2, which had great music, superb level design, and was very difficult. It all shows that Titus just wasn't able to work with someone controlling them. When they had their freedom on PC and Amiga, they made great games. On consoles their game were uninspired to say the least.
The last game I remember that Titus made that was okay was a 2D Outrun clone called Lamborghini: American Challenge. You could buy gadgets to make your car run better (including a radar jammer), and could gamble with side bets against other drivers before the race began. It was cool enough to wonder what an upgraded one would look like. Played mine on PC.
This channel should have way more subs. The content is A-1 quality, informative, well edited, simple, and too the point. No begging for subs or likes, no BS or even opinions really. I have not seen this kind of good gaming journalism since the early 2000's. These days 90% of gaming news is sponsored puff articles made too look like a review, or baseless click-bait BS that has no substance and many inaccuracies. This is just good content. I really enjoy these vids and hope you get many more subs. Keep up the great work.
+GTA V Modding Thanks for the compliment, really appreciate it! I just try to make the kind of videos I'd like to watch. I'm actually pretty surprised and humbled to see other people are enjoying it. I just gotta start editing these more quickly! Thanks again!
+adfot1 thanks so much. Definitely got more stuff coming. I'm working on a Atari jaguar video right now. Preview/trailer for it should be up in a day or two.
In this case, I don't believe that the publishers were the main villain. Way before Superman 64, I knew that when I saw that red fox of Titus on the game box I was in for a really shitty experience. These are also the same guys who bought up and destroyed Interplay.
I had maybe a dozen n64 games back in the day and this was sadly one of them . I remember the shock and disbelief that pressing start aka pause hard reset the game and pushed you back to main menus . Wtf
WB the same company that took Monolith studio who was making awesome unique fps games such as Blood, FEAR, Condemn, and then told them to make a LOTR hack and slash game. Same company that put out a shit PC port of Batman Arkam City. WB has some history of not making the best decisions with video game companies and properties.
And Titus who well... have a track record of shitty games. I'm willing to bet WB did the stuff they did to disenfranchise Titus after they saw just how bad development was going.
+Trollbertofu lol! I saw that they've been playing it. I've been stuck on the final ring stage for about 6 months. It's the Moby Dick to my captain Ahab lol
I'd like to hear the story of "Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis" & "Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing" too, if you could ever track down & get an interview with a developer. Ooooh... & Sonic Extreme.
If development was delayed enough Titus' license would expire and WB would get out of the deal, being free to license it to someone else or whatever. It sorta succeeded too - the game was clearly never finished - just Titus decided to release it unfinished rather than just drop it.
I remember being sooo excited to buy the game. I remembering saving up my money from mowing grass. When i got the game i was so excited because i loved superman, my hands was shaking out of pure excitement when i was putting the game in my N64. When i got to play the game i was sooo disappointed. I actually mailed it back to the WB studio, with a letter i wrote saying how it was sooo horrible. And after saving up for so long to buy it, with money i earned from mowing grass, playing that game made me hate superman. And to this day, i hate anything superman lol.
I played the PlayStation beta for Superman at E3 1998. It had an awesome player vs player mode where each person played as their own Superman. My friend and I played it until it crashed. Sort of wished that had come out instead of the N64 one.
I was given a copy for free by a friend who was dumping his N64 collection. After hearing about how bad the game is, I was not surprised to see that it is, in fact, thoroughly terrible. What did surprise me is how much fun I had playing it, marveling at the amazing audacity of anyone to release this as a full price game, much less anyone actually buying it. So while it is easily one of the most bottom-of-the-barrel games ever made, I'm very glad I have a copy. It's a fantastic conversation piece in my collection, and the way I see it, it's so bad that it circled around into the realm of awesome. Though maybe not having to spend money on it has softened my perception...
