Retronauts Micro Presents an 8-Bit Superhero Sampler
This week on USgamer's classic gaming podcast, we dissect two of the earliest (and worst) superhero games the NES has to offer: Superman and The Uncanny X-Men.
This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.
Comic books may be the source material for some of the biggest and most expensive movies to hit theaters over the last decade, but back when the medium held far less prestige, your Supermen and Batmen weren't always treated with the respect they rightly deserved.
And that brings us to the topic of this week's Retronauts Micro: superhero games—specifically, those released for the NES. Though these releases had some better moments (one of which we'll see in my next Retronauts Micro), an entire generation tolerated the torture of poorly made games if only to jump into the boots of the caped crusaders they so dearly loved. And even when these games were good, they were hardly authentic.
To be honest, I don't know a whole lot about superhero comics—outside of what I learned by reading Wizard magazine in the '90s—so, for this episode, I nabbed two experts who really know their stuff: Henry Gilbert and Chris Baker. Henry, of course, is a comic book fanatic, and former host of the podcast Cape Crisis, while Chris used to be the guy at Marvel who made sure licensed video games didn't deviate from the source material. And thankfully, our discussion ran so long, I was able to split our recording neatly down the middle for the sake of producing two super-size episodes of Retronauts Micro. That said, please enjoy, and we'll see you next month with the conclusion—and at least one game that's worth playing.
Joining us on this one is Chris Antista, captain of the Laser Time Podcast Network, Henry Gilbert, who now works for Wikia's Fandom group, and Chris Baker, author of WRONG! Retro Games, You Messed Up Our Comic Book Heroes! And our cover art comes courtesy of Nick Daniel. As always, you can keep up with the latest Retronauts news via our Twitter and Facebook accounts, and check out some of our video content over on our YouTube page. And, in case you forgot, Retronauts is fully funded by our Patreon campaign, so if you can afford to donate even a dollar a month, please consider it! Every little bit really helps our cause.
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