Why Superman 64 Is So Bad, From the People Who Made It

Superman: The New Superman Adventures, better known as Superman 64, came out on the Nintendo 64 in North America on May 29, 1999 and in Europe on July 23, 1999. The French company Titus Interactive developed and published it. It now holds the Guinness World Record for the lowest-rated superhero videogame. Titus co-founder Eric Caen blames Warner's rules and the N64's limits.

Eric Caen called Warner Bros. himself to get the license

Eric Caen co-founded Titus in 1985 with his brother, when Caen was 19. After hearing about the Superman animated series, he contacted Warner Bros. directly and got the video game rights. Warner asked him three times whether he was sure of what he was doing.

The people who signed the deal did not stay. Caen says Warner's licensing team was let go days later, and that the next team "hated us the first minute they saw us and our project." Titus had to show comic references to prove that Superman can fly underwater. DC rejected destructible buildings. Warner would not let Superman kick "real" people. Asked why the hero's powers were so limited, Caen said, "It wasn't our decision."

Warner also pitched its own idea: a SimCity-style game in which Superman is the mayor of Metropolis. Roughly 12 to 15 people worked on the Superman games across three platforms. Each game had two programmers and six to nine artists.

Titus planned an open Metropolis and shipped the tutorial

Caen's first concept was a 3D open-world action game with real-time strategy elements, closer to Tomb Raider than to what came out. Less than ten percent of that design survived. Development took about two years, and technical director Rob Stevens later called it "pretty much a disaster from start to finish." He blamed management and inexperienced programmers, and said the schedule was squeezed by a plan to ship before Tim Burton's Superman Lives film.

What shipped has 14 levels that alternate between outdoor and indoor environments. The outdoor ring stages were meant to be tutorials before they became the regular levels. I think that one decision explains more of the reviews than anything else in the game.

The green Kryptonite fog over the city is explained in the story as Luthor's way of weakening Superman. In practice it is distance fog, a way to hide how little of the city the console could draw at once. The cartridge also has a racing mode and a battle mode for up to four players.

Titus called it a hit, and by the numbers it sold

Caen has agreed that the plan outgrew the hardware. He called the design "too ambitious compared to what an N64 was able to deliver," and said the game sold well and made a profit. In 1998 he had projected about one million copies. Sales passed 500,000, and NPD data put it in the North American top ten in June 1999. In July 1999 Titus said it was the third best-selling N64 game.

Reviewers gave it 22.9 percent on average

GameRankings collected 15 reviews and averaged them to 22.9 percent, the figure Guinness cites for the record. Among the individual scores, GameSpot gave 1.3 out of 10, Game Informer 1.25 and IGN 3.4. The four reviewers at Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it 0.5, 4, 2 and 1.5 out of 10. IGN's Matt Casamassina wrote that the game was "executed so poorly that it actually serves to butcher the reputation of the prominent action hero," and in a separate passage called it a "huge, whopping disappointment".

Over the years the game has landed on worst-game lists, with GameSpy in 2004 and GameTrailers in 2006 both putting it at number one. Caen thinks its reputation is "exaggerated" because Superman is so famous.

The PlayStation version was close to done when the license ended

Titus did not stop at the cartridge. A PlayStation version was handed to BlueSky Software, which rebuilt the game from the start. Caen put it at 90 percent complete with about half a million units on back order, though he gave SlashFilm a figure of 75 percent. Sony had approved it, but the Warner Bros. license had expired by then, and the port was canceled in 2000.

A build dated June 22, 2000 stayed unseen for two decades. Richard Evan Mandel uploaded it on November 28, 2020 and announced it on DeviantArt. A copy went to the Internet Archive before that page was deleted.

Titus bought Interplay shares in late 1999. It controlled Interplay from August 2001 and filed for bankruptcy in June 2004. A French court declared Titus bankrupt on January 9, 2005, with €33 million of debt. The bankruptcy was not directly related to the Superman project.

Where to play it and what the cartridge costs

The game came out only on the Nintendo 64. On October 23, 2026, PriceCharting listed the NTSC cartridge at $13.89 loose, $69.99 complete with box and manual, and $200 sealed. A loose copy sells about once a day and a complete one about once a week.

Questions people ask

Is Superman 64 one of the best video games of all time?

No. It holds the Guinness record for the lowest-rated superhero videogame, at 22.9 percent on GameRankings. GameTrailers called it the worst game of all time.

Why is Superman 64 so bad?

The game was built under a license with limits: no destructible scenery and no punching real people. Its technical director blamed a rushed schedule and an inexperienced team.

When did Superman 64 come out?

On May 29, 1999 in North America and July 23, 1999 in Europe, on the Nintendo 64 only.

Was there a PlayStation version of Superman 64?

One was made by BlueSky Software and canceled in 2000 after the Warner Bros. license ran out. A prototype from June 2000 was put online in 2020.

How much is a Superman 64 cartridge worth?

A loose NTSC cartridge was listed at about $14 on October 23, 2026, and a complete copy at about $70. A sealed copy was listed at $200.