Superman 64/Trivia

• Development Hell: The game was announced in 1997. It was released in America in May 29, 1999 and in PAL Territories in July 23, 1999.
• Executive Meddling: In this interview, developer and producer Eric Caen blames Warner and DC for many of the game's more head scratching moments, like the virtual world setting (as they refused to let Superman hurt "real" people) and the reliance on power-ups to use Superman's abilities. Also, "politics" were apparently responsible for the game's delays, and the delays were responsible for the forced release of this unfinished product. A PlayStation version was also in the pipeline, but the developers' license expired before it could be released.
• Franchise Killer: This game ensured that Superman wouldn't star in a solo game for a long time to come.
• Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition: There was a "Collector's Edition" of the game that came with a tie-in comic.
• Screwed by the Network: According to Eric Caen, who squarely lays the blame at the feet of Warner and DC. The money quote:

"The licensor caused us A LOT of problems… they generated the final quality of the product!"

• Serendipity Writes the Plot: An infamous example. The poor programing of the game and the capabilities of the aging Nintendo 64 had the creators Hand Wave the fog for the poor draw distance as Kryptonite Fog.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: The ending described here (ignore the Spider-Man references) is apparently a Crossover Punchline of sorts with Batman and... Duke Nukem?? The actual ending leaves a lot to be desired. Although, on that site, there was a section where people sent in their ideas for game endings. That was probably supposed to go there.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A Sony Playstation version of the game was also planned. In fact, the developers for the Playstation version were actually going to fix the N64 version's problems, but the license expired before they finished it, and they never got around to releasing it (Eric Caen claims the game was 75% complete before the higher-ups pulled the plug).
  • They originally considered using Bizarro, who actually had a model and some voice clips in the prototype, but was removed from the final product.
  • Brainiac was going to be the main villain of the game due to the virtual world setting forced upon the developers. But Executive Meddling forced a rewrite with Lex as the villain, even though Brainiac is still the final boss and Lex's opening line "In short time, your fate will be sealed, Superman" is very clearly said by Corey Burton, having been recorded for Brainiac.
  • The original pitch for the game was for an open-world Superman adventure where you'd fly around using all of Superman's powers to prevent crimes.
  • Warner Brothers' Executive Meddling pushed for a more SimCity sort of game where Superman was the mayor of metropolis and alternated between protecting and developing the cities a la ActRaiser.