 The death and return of Superman is one of the most interesting names for a game I've ever come across. So Superman dies in the game? That's different. On the surface this looks like your everyday beat-em-up. Walk to the right, mash the Y button, throw stuff, and people. Throw guys into other guys, and occasionally use your special clear all attack to annihilate everyone. It's done well enough, I especially appreciate how smooth the controls are to flip from the left to the right without missing a beat so enemies can't get any cheap shots in. But there's no multiplayer here though, just FYI. You start with two levels of this as Superman, everything seems as it normally does in these kind of games, although uh, since when is Superman hurt by Molotov cocktails and chainsaws? At the end of the second level you fight Doomsday, and you beat him. Well that's weird, I thought Superman was supposed to, hey what the hell, what? He's dead? Just like that? But I've got like three guys left, what the hell is that? So yeah, there you go. Superman is dead, and from there the game becomes way more story driven, as four new characters show up from out of nowhere. There's the Cyborg, who has Superman's DNA combined with something out of Terminator, the Eradicator, who regenerated in the Fortress of Solitude and can shoot Plasma and stuff, Superboy the Teenage Clone of Superman, and the most 90s thing to ever 90s, and eventually Steel, a former special weapons designer who wants to carry on Superman's legacy. He take turns playing as each of these four guys as the story of who's the real Superman unfolds. Now this is a really cool way to structure a beat em up game, because the gameplay itself here is nothing out of the ordinary, it's your usual punching, jumping, throwing guys around, it's what you'd expect. But the hook here is to see you where the story goes, and since I was totally unfamiliar with the story as it happened in the comic at the time, I was really digging each twist and turn as I played along. I don't think there's any other story driven beat em up in the 16 bit era quite like this. My only problem with this approach is that the game didn't go far enough with it. The pixel art here is nicely done, but they re-use the same stuff throughout the game. If they had taken an approach like, with how maximum carnage was done, man that would have been so much better, but whatever. Also I feel like Superman's death should have been treated as kind of a bigger deal. It's just also abrupt, like wait I just beat down doomsday and one uppercut kills me? Then it's just the one screenshot and these four dudes showing up. I mean this is Superman and he's dead for god's sake. I wish they took the time to give that event some of the significance it deserves like in the comic, but that's just me nitpicking I guess. Also Superman's return, as stated in the title, is just as abrupt and confusing. It could have used a little more time and a little bit more emphasis added to make it a bigger deal. Death and Return of Superman is a long game for a beat em up too. It'll take you close to two hours to finish this game, and it gets pretty hard towards the end. But since it's a longer beat em up than usual, you'll definitely get your money's worth. Speaking of which, this game goes for about $30 on eBay nowadays, but I've never seen it for sale elsewhere for much cheaper than that. Anyway, yeah, I'm impressed by the Death and Return of Superman. I was expecting the same old beat em up stuff, but the story here really took me by surprise. It's well done, I think it could have been done better, but the way it's done here is fine, and it's definitely something different for the genre. Even if you know the story, it's still a fun play through because you get to play as each of the different characters. So yeah, as far as beat em ups go, Death and Return of Superman certainly stands out and it's worth picking up if you can find it.