Superman Returns | Nintendo DS

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Superman Returns on Nintendo DS puts the protection of Metropolis at the center of its superhero adventure. Superman has returned to Earth after time in space, and the city needs his abilities as villains and disasters threaten its streets. The handheld game combines a board-style map of Metropolis with short three-dimensional action sequences. You decide where Superman should go, enter an area that needs help, and use his powers to resolve its emergency. The story draws on the film while bringing in enemies from the wider comic-book world. Your overall goal is to keep the city safe while working through those confrontations.

The campaign map shows Superman's position, enemy locations, and the areas affected by disasters. Each turn gives you a limited opportunity to move, so traveling across the city is a practical decision rather than a decorative transition. You look at where trouble is developing and work out which target Superman can reach. The city has its own health indicator, and unresolved threats put its survival under pressure. That makes priorities important: a route across Metropolis has to serve the needs of the city, even when several different areas compete for Superman's attention. The map gives otherwise separate missions a shared consequence.

Metropolis's health is the key to understanding failure. Superman's personal invulnerability means the adventure cannot rely entirely on an ordinary hero health bar, so the city bears the cost of disasters left active or tasks performed unsuccessfully. Cleaning up an emergency or winning an encounter affects that larger situation. This provides a reason to treat each action stage as part of a campaign rather than an isolated score challenge. A successful use of power helps protect the place you are defending; a delay on the map can make the next turn more costly. Progress is measured through both immediate results and the state of Metropolis.

Entering a disaster area changes the view to a timed action sequence with Superman moving through a three-dimensional environment. His abilities are used for concrete tasks, including rescuing people, dealing with fires, and destroying dangerous objects. Super-breath and heat vision are tools for different kinds of emergency, so the objective determines which power matters. The time limit gives these sequences their urgency. You need to identify the required targets and complete the assignment before the opportunity closes, then return to the campaign map with its result. The adventure repeatedly alternates this hands-on response with another look at the city's situation.

Some emergencies use other familiar powers, such as X-ray vision to identify threatening vehicles or freezing abilities to stop henchmen. These tasks frame Superman as a problem solver whose strength is only one part of the job. Searching, moving, and applying the right ability all contribute to an effective response. Because the stages are timed, it is useful to understand the objective before rushing around the environment. The DS game's structure concentrates the hero's powers into these focused incidents. You spend a mission carrying out a specific rescue or cleanup assignment, then consider the next problem from the broader map.

Meeting a major enemy triggers a different kind of encounter. These fights use prompted button presses, asking you to respond at the correct moment to deliver Superman's attacks. The challenge shifts from locating disaster targets to following the sequence and timing the inputs. Comic enemies including Brainiac, Bizarro, Metallo, Mongul, and Parasite appear in the campaign's conflicts. Each confrontation ties back into the city's condition, so reaching a villain and succeeding in the fight is part of managing Metropolis. The map, emergency stages, and cue-driven battles together form the recurring pattern of the single-player adventure.

Film-related story sections appear between parts of the campaign, along with special action sequences based on scenes from the movie. These include flight tasks that put Superman's speed and maneuvering to use under a time limit. The narrative presentation uses still imagery and written dialogue to connect the events. That gives the DS game a distinctly segmented flow: read the next piece of story, assess the board, take on a short challenge, and see how its result affects the campaign. The presentation emphasizes recognizable powers and incidents, with the handheld's limited display space divided between strategic overview and immediate action.

Collection offers a separate reason to pay attention while playing. Krypton crystals unlock a gallery of Superman comic covers, giving fans artwork to view beyond the campaign's emergency objectives. The gallery links the movie-based adventure back to the character's comic history. Local wireless multiplayer also provides competitive disaster activities, with two to four players supported through Single-Card Download Play. Each participant needs a compatible handheld, while one host cartridge supplies the downloaded activity. The campaign remains a solo mode; the shared sessions focus on competing to resolve objectives rather than jointly controlling a campaign map.

The North American Nintendo DS release is rated Everyone with Cartoon Violence by the ESRB. It uses the handheld's controls and stylus interface, and its supported wireless sessions are local play. Choosing this version means choosing a superhero game with a strong mission-to-map rhythm: movement decisions determine which incident you address, and timed powers or button cues determine the outcome once you arrive. The central tension comes from Superman's responsibility for a vulnerable city. Fans who enjoy that premise can approach each turn as a choice about where the hero is most needed, then put his recognizable abilities to work on the next emergency.