The Death and Return of Superman

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TheDeathAndReturnOfSuperman MDTitleScreen.png

The Death and Return of Superman
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sunsoft (US), Acclaim Entertainment (Europe)
Developer:
Licensor: DC Comics
Sound driver: GEMS
Peripherals supported: Six Button Control Pad
Genre: Action

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
US
$54.9954.99[2] T-15186
Videogame Rating Council: MA-13
Sega Mega Drive
EU
T-81466-50
ELSPA: 3+ OK
Sega Mega Drive
AU
FDEA06SMC
OFLC: G8
Non-Sega versions

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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. A shoots a projectile specific to the character being used, holding the same button can delay the moment of firing. B punches. C jumps; pressing B in mid-air can perform a diving attack, also, pressing A again in mid-air can make Superman (And also the the other Supermen) to fly. A+B together (or alternatively Y 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
  • Programming: 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
  • Sound and Music: Realtime Associates, Eric Swanson
  • Executive Producers: David Siller, Allen Adham
  • Producers: Samwise Didier, Dan MacArthur
  • Technical Manager: Al Artus
  • Manager Game Testing: Sam Patel
  • Play Test: Steve Rizor, Rene Boutin, Steve Gehrke, Justin Siller, Mario Zavala, Kelly Mc Carthy, Benjon Martinez, Pete Marquez, Euclid Woo
  • Chairman: Masami Maeda
  • Vice Chairman: Tad Shimamoto
  • Director, SunSoft of Japan: Kiharu Yoshida
  • General Manager: Kenji Yoshioka
  • Marketing Director: Karen Shadley
  • Game Play Manual: Alison Quirion
  • Executive Assistant: Nanette Hyssong
  • Customer Service: 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
  • 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

Main article: The Death and Return of Superman/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in VideoGames (US) #66: "July 1994" (1994-0x-xx)
also published in:
  • GamePro (US) #60: "July 1994" (1994-xx-xx)[3]
  • EGM² (US) #1: "July 1994" (1994-07-19)[4]
  • EGM² (US) #2: "August 1994" (1994-0x-xx)[5]
Logo-pdf.svg

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
{{{{{icon}}}|L}} Division by zero.
Based on
0 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
60
[6]
Alaab Alcomputtar (SA)
85
[7]
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U
56
[8]
Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 4 (RU)
60
[9]
Freak (IL)
82
[10]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
73
[2]
Hobby Consolas (ES)
64
[11]
Joypad (FR)
74
[12]
Joypad (FR)
62
[13]
MAN!AC (DE) PAL
49
[14]
Mega Fun (DE) PAL
72
[15]
Mega Play (US) NTSC-U
61
[16]
Next Generation (US) NTSC-U
25
[17]
Player One (FR)
50
[18]
Sega Magazin (DE)
57
[19]
Sega Megazone (AU)
64
[20]
Super Juegos (ES)
64
[21]
Todo Sega (ES)
68
[22]
Tricks 16 bit (RU)
67
[23]
Video Games (DE) PAL
61
[24]
VideoGames (US) NTSC-U
80
[25]
Sega Mega Drive
63
Based on
21 reviews

The Death and Return of Superman

Mega Drive, US
DaRoS MD US Box.jpg
Cover
TDaRoS MD US Cart.jpg
Cart
DaRoS MD US Manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, EU
DaRoS MD EU Box.jpg
Cover
DaRoS MD EU Cart.jpg
Cart
Death&ReturnofSuperman MD EU Manual.jpg
Manual
Mega Drive, AU
DaRoS MD AU cover.jpg
Cover

Technical information

ROM Dump Status

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

References


The Death and Return of Superman

TheDeathAndReturnOfSuperman MDTitleScreen.png

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