update: I went to the Sega.com forums, specifically the Iron Man boards. Lotsa people with pitchforks crying for blood. The game was that baaad. Ok, I exaggerated, but I don't think a sequel is on their mind at the moment, so I refrained...

Superman would need flight-sim like controls or something along the lines of Robotech Battlecry where you can change modes of control.

@WoW
Based on your suggestion, I can imagine two modes: a flight mode where Supes fly at high speeds; and a hover mode, where you can maneuver quickly (which can also works as walk mode when there is ground collision).

Now we're left with Supes method of attacking (while flying). At least for Iron Man, we can probably give him micro missiles to attack multiple targets (a sort of lock on mechanism, perhaps?). With Superman, we have heat vision (or icy breath). I don't know if those attacks lend well while Supes is flying at high speeds.

Maybe when flying, Superman's primary attack could be ramming (his fists) through enemies? So essentially, while flying, you are aiming for enemies straight on. (Hmm, that could work against a Godzilla-like enemy.)

The thing about a Superman game is that I could see the fighting getting very boring very quickly. I think it would be genuinely more fun to go around saving people, stopping the occasional car chase/bank robbery, and the like than fighting super villains.

Superman also moves faster than a speeding bullet so basically time would have to slow down in the game world as he begins traveling faster.

So throw in the ability to slow time by traveling quickly and set up incidents where Superman would have to save lots of people almost simultaneously and it could get pretty challenging.

I think Superhero games could be really interesting if they weren't entirely beat'em/shoot'em ups.

That's a different take from Khuutra, where he envisions non-Earthly environments (unless Supes goes on to save aliens from mundane accidents, that is).

Some superhero games have "rescue civilian and bring him to ambulance/hospital" scenarios, in Superman Returns and Ultimate Spider-man if memory serves me right. Also in Superman Returns, if Metropolis (the city) gets too much damage, it's game over.

My fear with rescue missions is that they usually end up being "Crazy Taxi" missions (fetch person x and bring to location y).

I think a good superhero game engine should handle both other-worldly situations and old-fashioned bank robbery/rescuing action.

I still think that tying gameplay into a narrative focus has a lot more potential than superhero games have managed to live up to so far.

@Khuutra
You mean something like Braid? The story evolving around the gameplay ability/mechanics itself? Why not?

The execution is the only thing that puzzles me: how do you do it exactly for Supes?