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The Death and Return of Superman is a 1995 beat-'em-up for the Sega Mega Drive and SNES by Blizzard Entertainment and Sunsoft tying into the The Death and Return of Superman comic arc.

Gameplay

The gameplay itself is typical of a beat-'em-up from the era, but also have its own mechanics. shoots a projectile specific to the character being used, holding the same button can delay the moment of firing. punches. jumps; pressing in mid-air can perform a diving attack, also, pressing again in mid-air can make Superman (And also the the other Supermen) to fly. + together (or alternatively button, if a Six Button Control Pad is connected in place of the regular Control Pad) unleashes a special attack specific to the character being used.

The game is single-player only, alongside Superman, it also features other four Supermen: The Cyborg, The Eradicator, Superboy, and Steel - each of them having their own predetermined stages.

Versions

The Death and Return of Superman was released at roughly the same point on both the Mega Drive and Super NES, and both ports turn in a very similar game. While the Super NES port is able to tap into more colours than the Mega Drive, it is permanently restricted to a 256x224 resolution. In this case, the graphics appear to have been drawn with the Mega Drive's 320x224 resolution in mind, so on the Super NES, all in-game graphics are wider than they perhaps should be (something immediately apparent on the first stage, as the circular spinning fans in the background are stretched on Nintendo's console). Some layers of parallax scrolling are missing in the Mega Drive version of the game, such as the foreground layer in front of the player which is visible in certain areas. Also, the music score is completely different between both versions.

The PAL version of The Death and Return of Superman removes the region lock of the North American version but inadvertently added a glitch which appears randomly while playing through the first two Superman levels, locking up the game. If the player manages to get to the third level (the first The Cyborg level) without triggering the glitch, then it disappears for the rest of the game. It's very unlikely not to come accross it though. Acclaim never issued a bugfixed version of the game for Europe and Australia, instead it simply halted its production making the PAL version a rare and sought after game in the Mega Drive library.

Production credits

Game Design: Blizzard Entertainment, Dan MacArthur

Blizzard Entertainment, Dan MacArthur Programming: Jesse McReynolds, James Anhalt III, Pat Wyatt, Allen Adham, Bob Fitch

Jesse McReynolds, James Anhalt III, Pat Wyatt, Allen Adham, Bob Fitch Artwork: Joeyray Hall, Mickey Neilson, Samwise Didier, David Berggren, Roman Kenney, Stu Rose, Ron Millar

Joeyray Hall, Mickey Neilson, Samwise Didier, David Berggren, Roman Kenney, Stu Rose, Ron Millar Sound and Music: Realtime Associates, Eric Swanson

Realtime Associates, Eric Swanson Executive Producers: David Siller, Allen Adham

David Siller, Allen Adham Producers: Samwise Didier, Dan MacArthur

Samwise Didier, Dan MacArthur Technical Manager: Al Artus

Al Artus Manager Game Testing: Sam Patel

Sam Patel Play Test: Steve Rizor, Rene Boutin, Steve Gehrke, Justin Siller, Mario Zavala, Kelly Mc Carthy, Benjon Martinez, Pete Marquez, Euclid Woo

Steve Rizor, Rene Boutin, Steve Gehrke, Justin Siller, Mario Zavala, Kelly Mc Carthy, Benjon Martinez, Pete Marquez, Euclid Woo Chairman: Masami Maeda

Masami Maeda Vice Chairman: Tad Shimamoto

Tad Shimamoto Director, SunSoft of Japan: Kiharu Yoshida

Kiharu Yoshida General Manager: Kenji Yoshioka

Kenji Yoshioka Marketing Director: Karen Shadley

Karen Shadley Game Play Manual: Alison Quirion

Alison Quirion Executive Assistant: Nanette Hyssong

Nanette Hyssong Customer Service: Kaz Harman, June Eckert, Connie Perez, Julie Williams, Jamie Jorgenson, Erin Berry, Jaupale Laster

Kaz Harman, June Eckert, Connie Perez, Julie Williams, Jamie Jorgenson, Erin Berry, Jaupale Laster Special Thanks to: Bruce Reilly, Cathy Juby, Mark Luszcz, Toko Okano, Kazuaki Goto, Masato Kawai, Akito Takeuchi, Karen Lillie, Darin Horgan, Michelle Carlton, Sherry Ross, Frank Pearce, Jr., Susan Brophy

Bruce Reilly, Cathy Juby, Mark Luszcz, Toko Okano, Kazuaki Goto, Masato Kawai, Akito Takeuchi, Karen Lillie, Darin Horgan, Michelle Carlton, Sherry Ross, Frank Pearce, Jr., Susan Brophy Very Special Thanks to: Marilyn Drucker, Barbara Farina, Cheryl Rubin at DC Comics Luana Chambers, Holly Stein, Laetitia May at Warner Consumer Products

Superman Created by: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Magazine articles

Promotional material

Physical scans

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Mega Drive, US Cover Cart

Mega Drive, EU Cover Cart

Mega Drive, AU Cover

Technical information

ROM Dump Status

System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments CRC32 982242d3 MD5 960a409245913c8adf10c4b3ed23ab04 SHA-1 3534d17801bd5756b10a7f8d7d95f3a8d9b74844 2MB 1994-08 Cartridge (US) CRC32 cfc440e8 MD5 d14f262f3d9d46df0ed1d9f2bb6c3442 SHA-1 bc23b7c2fc720371a8b7caed1acb3f457315e0a6 2MB 1994-04 Cartridge (EU)