So I ported Superman 64 to Virtual reality.

You’re probably assuming I did it as a clickbait joke game and yeah, it’s funny, but hear me out... 

First of all, I’m a VR developer and am always thinking about how other mediums can translate into a satisfying experience.  Everything is better in VR, even Superman 64. 

Try it for yourself and I think you’ll agree that the full square mile of the city has value in and of itself.  (That’s what practice mode in my version is for.) They added all kinds of things like Star Labs, a university and an airport. They clearly had an open world idea for the game but the N64 couldn’t handle it.  You can’t even go to the top of the best buildings, so it’s really hard to even see it’s there originally, now you can and it’s pretty fun.

But that’s only half of why I did this. Superman 64 is one of the worst games ever made for a reason. It’s a perfect combination of terrible controls followed up by lackluster rewards that fascinates me.  

It’s especially bad in the early missions, one repetitive difficult task after another in stressfully tight deadlines. By the second set of rings most people decide like the only winning move is not to play. And they’re right.

Good games make you feel accomplished, this one makes you feel frustrated like that’s the goal. It's good game design inverted like it came from Bizarro land.   

So what would happen if the elements of the perfect storm were tweaked? If you change the unresponsive controls, the high pressure air that powers the hurricane if you will, would the other elements be forgiven, even enjoyed?  

These controls are so bad I suspect the developers playtested on more powerful hardware using keyboard and mouse for the entire development. They couldn’t have thought this was good enough no matter how tight their deadline, They probably didn’t check the N64’s trident controller until it was practically burned to the rom.

Let me be clear, I’m not saying it’s an underappreciated classic, I’m saying let’s put on our lab coats and literally see what happens if we fix the biggest issue. People love StarFox and it’s a ring based flight sim, right?  So maybe there’s something here.  Ok, I guess I am saying it COULD be an underappreciated classic, but not in a hipster way, ok?  

That brings us full circle to the first point. The nature of VR means I couldn’t replicate those bad controls if I tried. A player can physically rotate in their space no matter what restrictions I place on them so flying through the rings on the first try becomes an intuitive process. By porting it over to VR we fix the controls, create an interesting place to explore, and it’s a funny meme remaster all at the same time. 

I think it is a worthwhile use of my week, don’t you? 

So that’s the story, three maddening mazes and terrible traps are included in this version. I can add more if there’s a demand for it, but this is as far as most people got in the original, right?  If you end up playing it let me know what you think,  don’t forget this is a science experiment so data is important.   Also please share it around, I’d love to get the word out.  

You can expect more experiments on my itch page going forward, I’m going to try to post one every few months so let me know what you would like to see in VR and I might give it a try. 

For now there’s no time to waste! Up up and away!