1992 · EIM · Action · Platformer

Sunman

Nintendo exclusive

Sunman is an unreleased action video game developed by EIM and planned to be published by Sunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. Despite being mostly complete, it was never commercially released. Also, unlike most video games of this time, it was never even announced. Most cancelled games saw months' worth of publicity in video game magazines before fading off the game-watch radars.

Released: 1992
Platforms: NES
Genres: Action Platformer
Developers: EIM
Publishers: Sunsoft
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Languages: English

About

Keywords

superhero
canceled games

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to Sunsoft's Batman games, Batman: The Video Game and Batman: Return of the Joker, in that the character can run, jump, punch, and duck. However, in this game, the player can also fly simply by pushing up. There are also some side scrolling flying levels where the player can shoot laser/heat vision from Sunman's eyes. The game is divided into five stages, each made up of one to four areas, with a boss at the end of each stage.

Development

The game features a superhero, named Sunman. He is reminiscent of Superman with his cape, and flying abilities - furthermore, the game's title screen is similar to the Superman logo. Sunsoft's involvement with other DC Comics character licenses lead some to speculate that Sunman was intended to be a Superman game. For an undisclosed reason, DC decided not to go along.

The game had some changes made to lose the protagonist's likeness to Superman. In an interview with planner/director Kenji Eno, it was confirmed that this was originally intended to be a Superman game.