Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – it’s a round-up of six canned superhero games.

With Injustice: Gods Among Us riding the charts high and Iron Man 3 raking in the cash at cinemas, we thought now was a pretty good time for a look back.

Lobo – Mega Drive, SNES

Considering DC’s Lobo is the first extra character to be added to Injustice, Ocean’s 16-bit brawler Lobo is a fine place to start.

This one-on-one beat ‘em up was due out in 1996, which would have made it a very late release for both the Mega Drive and SNES. It featured a rendered art-style similar to Killer Instinct and Clay Fighter but looked rather lifeless and ugly when compared to these two. Backdrops lay motionless; characters were small and crudely animated.

Review copies went out to the ‘90s press, including Game Pro and Nintendo Power, where it received something of a mauling. Ocean, consequently, pulled the plug. Fans of Lobo did get to play it eventually however – playable versions were dumped online.

Kemco had another crack at developing a Lobo game in 2003, this time for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but it too failed to materialise. Given how shoddy their Batman: Dark Tomorrow game was, it was likely to have been for the best.

Batman: Dark Knight – Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

You don’t need to be a genius to realise that cancelling a videogame sets back the publisher an awful lot of money. It has been estimated though that EA’s decision to cancel Pandemic Studios’ open world Batman game cost them over $100 million in lost revenue.

Batman: Dark Knight was never officially announced, which is why this might be the first time you’ve heard of this tie-in. It was even seen as something as a ‘secret project’ within EA itself.

Gary Oldman let slip of the game’s development during an interview with Game Trailers where he claimed that a lot of time and effort had gone into Batman’s gliding abilities. As an open world game, ‘flying’ from one location to another would have naturally played a big part.

A couple of reasons are known for the game’s cancellation. Firstly, EA’s ownership of the Batman license was due to end in December 2008 and so Pandemic was under a lot of pressure. Koktaku reported that they’d already thrown out six months of work after being told it had to tie-in with the Dark Knight, rather than an everyday Batman game. Secondly, Pandemic had decided to use their engine for The Saboteur, which wasn’t designed for an open-world game. This lead to a ton of technical issues, which didn’t exactly help development to come along swiftly. Shortly after The Saboteur was released, Pandemic was shuttered.

Incidentally, a prototype of a Victorian-era Batman comic book tie-in entitled Gotham by Gaslight did the rounds a couple of years ago, but failed to find interest from publishers. There’s some rather foggy footage here.

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While watching the trailer for Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3-exclusive The Puppeteer, it dawned on us that it could be the spiritual successor to Dynamite Headdy.

By the time the trailer ended we did perhaps think otherwise, as the differences between the two are vast, but still, any excuse to dig out Treasure’s often forgotten Mega Drive platformer is a good excuse.

The bright yellow puppet made his appearance in 1994. Treasure had already made a name for themselves with Gunstar Heroes – a game which showed what the Mega Drive could do when tickled in the right places – but gamers were yet to be treated to the run ‘n’ gun delights of Alien Solider. We don’t recall Dynamite Headdy gaining as much press attention as either of these, although it was well received at by the ‘90s gaming magazines who did give it some coverage.

The market at the time was swamped full of colourful platformers, which is more than likely why it was overlooked. There’s no arguing though that it was more creative than most. In fact, it has often been said that there’s more imagination in the first level alone than in other entire games. Bosses feature heavily, be it mini or fully fledged, while every level was suitably different from the last.

Matching Headdy’s puppet ethos, the whole game was meant to be a theatre production. Backdrops were designed to look like wooden sets; occasionally they toppled over to reveal tiny little toys running around behind the scenes. Headdy’s health meter meanwhile was a stage light, while the pre-level splash screens featured red curtains.

Rather than start with a tutorial, things kicked off with a fast-paced chase sequence in which Headdy’s friends were being carted away by a bright red robot. Headdy managed to escape, only to bump into Heather, or ‘Fingy’ as she was known in the Japanese version. Heather was Headdy’s love interest but she was no damsel in distress – she even beat Headdy to one of the earlier bosses, defeating it before Headdy arrived.

Trouble Bruin was then introduced shortly after. A lot of gamers mistook this character for a cat – a very easy mistake to make – but he was in fact a bear. A bear assassin, no less, who had been hired by the Dark Demon to keep Headdy away from the keys required to access this evildoer’s lair. True to his name, Trouble Bruin appeared in several of the boss battles, usually behind the controls of an elaborate contraption. He also appeared in the backdrops now and then, popping his head up from behind bits of scenery.

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If reviews are anything to go by, Metro: Last Light could have been the game to turn THQ’s fortunes around.

UK gaming magazines provided the first batch of review scores – 8/10s from both EDGE and gamesTM, along with a 9/10 from the Official PlayStation Magazine. When the embargo was officially lifted on Monday it was met with similar scores online, including 4/5 from Giant Bomb and 4.5/5 from Joystiq.

Eurogamer meanwhile thought it was worth a 7: “Metro: Last Light is not a bad game, but nor is it a good one in quite the same sense as its predecessor. Metro 2033 was flawed but trying to do its own thing. If anything, Last Light feels like a regression. Similarities abound, but this is a more conservative FPS, one looking at the competition rather than itself, and one with some terrible missteps. So go in with low expectations, and you might be pleasantly surprised. Not the highest praise, is it?”

If you can wait, a PlayStation 4 version has been confirmed to be under-way and is rumoured to included Metro 2033 as well. This means a version for the next Xbox is incredibly likely too. Deep Silver paid a lot for the Last Light license, so chances are they’re going to want to make as much money from it as possible.

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EA’s relationship with Nintendo was rocky even before the Wii U was released. Word has it that the publisher’s negativity towards the system stems from a deal to incorporate Origin into the Wii U’s network, which Nintendo quickly decided against.

Come launch day, EA provided just three titles to ship alongside the Wii U – FIFA 13, Mass Effect 3 and the US-only Madden 13.

Skip forward to six months after launch and the system has received just one other release – Criterion’s polished but belated conversion of Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

EA’s promises to bring “their biggest brands to Wii U” first fell short after news broke that Crysis 3 was up and running on Wii U but cancelled. Then last week the Wii U received perhaps its biggest blow so far – 14 “major titles” won’t be making an appearance, due to EA claiming that their Frostbite engine “doesn’t run well on Wii U”.

Two weeks ago we would have said that FIFA 14 on Wii U would be a safe bet. FIFA games tend to be strong sellers all year around, and so it’s likely a profit would eventually be made no matter how small. Now having heard that this year’s Madden is a no-go we are starting to have doubts. Due to its large user base, we could even end up with the scenario of FIFA 14 appearing on Wii but not Wii U. Just think how embarrassing that would be for Nintendo.

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Zombie bad: Dead Island Riptide is the UK’s no. 1 for a third week running.

That’s one week longer than its similarly sloppy predecessor managed. The only other game to manage three weeks in a row this year is Bioshock Infinite, which this week is at #6.

Zombie good: Telltale’s The Walking Dead retail collection enters at a respectable #9. We feared this one wouldn’t do too well – it’s a slightly pricey £24.99 (or £29.99 if you shop at GAME). All five episodes have been reduced on both PSN and XBLA over the past six months too.

2D beat ‘em up Persona 4 Arena hasn’t done too badly either, entering at #11.

With Riptide at #1, the rest of the top five is comprised of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Tomb Raider, Injustice: Gods Among Us and FIFA 13. In that order, obviously.

You’d be wise not to dismiss Crash Course 2 as promotional tat. Under the colourful exterior lies a game that’s both addictive and surprisingly well designed. As freebies from Doritos go, it’s easily the best thing since Star Wars Tazos.

For those who missed out on the first Crash Course, which too was a freebie, it can be loosely described as a videogame rendition of Takeshi’s Castle. Players sprint, jump, skid and bounce their way through an elaborate obstacle course full of moving platforms, springs, conveyor belts and mallets which can send your Xbox 360 avatar hurtling towards the screen. Every course has a set time to beat, along with three ‘ghost’ contestants to race against.

Developers Behaviour have added a significant amount of new content, including some rather welcome elements that encourage exploration. This makes it feel more like a typical platformer at times rather than a simplistic madcap race to the finish line.

Like before, the single-player mode is based around a world tour. A set of courses in the Amazon help to break you in gently, getting to grips with the controls and learning a few of the nuances essential to shaving precious seconds off the clock. Your avatar is precise and responsive to control – rarely do you feel that fault is anybody else’s other than your own. Should this not be the case then you can always rewind try again.

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The saying “good things come to those who wait” rings true with Persona 4 Arena. It was originally due last August, but then delayed time and time again. PlayStation 3 owners couldn’t even resort to importing a US or Japanese copy – it was one the few PS3 games to be region locked.

Those who have played any of the numerous Guilty Gear or Blazblue games will feel a sense of familiarity – it’s by the same developer and shares a similar art direction.

The story carries on from where Persona 4 Golden left off and each of the 13 characters having their own campaign. The press release boasts that it’ll take 30+ hours to see the story in full, which strikes us as quite a significant amount for a one-on-one brawler.

Reviews have been full of praise, including 9/10 from Destructoid, 9.0 from IGN and 9/0 from Eurogamer. Looking at Metacritic, there’s not one review below 80% and that’s from a round-up of 27 critic reviews. You have to admit that is rather impressive.

Two limited editions are available. Currently the rather lavish exclusive set on The Zen Store is still in stock and includes a tote bag, badges, keyring, jigsaw puzzle and more for a not too shabby £49.99. GAME’s pre-order pack meanwhile includes a soundtrack CD and digital fan pack for £34.99. They were offering a yellow vinyl record with it at one point too but that deal appears to have ended.

Persona 4 Arena went down very well in Japan – even beating the launch figures of Tekken 6 – and with only two other games out this week, we’re hoping it’ll do well in next week’s UK chart.

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Climax Entertainment’s crash ‘n’ smash driving series Runabout is one that few people have heard of and even fewer have actually played. It’s a little odd considering that this week sees the release of its fifth instalment.

That said, perhaps being unheard of isn’t all that odd. Of the five Runabout games to be released since the series’ PSone debut in 1997, two of them have been released under different names. The original was renamed as Felony 11-79 in the West, while the upcoming 3DS rendition is known as Crash City Mayhem rather than its Japanese moniker Runabout 3D: Drive Impossible. We assume publisher Ghostlight thought the new name would turn a few more heads. The ‘impossible’ part of that title does sound a little off-putting, doesn’t it?

When looking through the review scores the various games in the series have received over the years, we quickly noticed something rather strange – every single one has gained mixed reviews. We’d wager this is because Runabout isn’t a series to everybody’s taste, due to arcade-style time limits.

Starting as it probably didn’t mean to go on was Felony 11-79, published by ASCII Entertainment Software (aka Agetec). The objective-based racer was visually quite accomplished for a relatively early PSone title, and the focus on destruction managed to find it a fair few fans.

IGN’s review is still up, in which it was given a 7.0. “Ascii has taken destruction to heart, combining it with cool vehicles and high speeds, resulting in an immediately satisfying game” they said, before pointing out that it was rather on the short side. Other reviewers though seemingly couldn’t look past its shortness – it wheeled off with a 60% from PSM magazine, who claimed that “Felony is one of those games you can finish in a weekend, leaving you wishing for Felony 2”.

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