Green Lantern might not be remembered for much other than a failed movie starring Ryan Reynolds over the past decade, but long before this in the early '90s, British developer Ocean Software was working on a licensed Super Nintendo video game for the DC Comics hero.
This unreleased project has been largely shrouded in mystery up until now, but thanks to video game historians Liam Robertson and Frank Gasking - creator of Games That Weren't - we've now got our first look at the game in motion after all these years.
Ocean began working on Green Lantern in 1991 for multiple platforms but shelved it within months. By 1993, work started again on the project, this time for the SNES. It was a mixture of genres including a platformer, shoot 'em up and even made use of the Nintendo system's Mode 7 capabilities. A third iteration followed in 1995 and was eventually cancelled.
This third take borrowed the company's Jurassic Park 2 engine and aimed to be more faithful to the source material. It also swapped out Hal Jordan for the new Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, but was ultimately axed when DC Comics announced a "world altering" event for series, which also impacted the wider DC universe.
To get the entire rundown about this unreleased game, be sure to watch the Did You Know Gaming video above.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 25
Ocean mostly made mediocre-at-best tie in games but their soundtracks were ace. That Waterworld OST is brilliant. Green Lantern deserves his time in the limelight so I’d be interested in a game featuring him for current consoles. As long as it’s John Stewart, he’s way better than Hal Jordan.
Honestly baffles my mind that anytime Green Lantern is put into a video game by himself they somehow manage to take his concept and make it devoid of any creativity whatsoever
A guy with a ring that can manipulate and shape matter at will using his inner cognition and imagination should open the floodgates for creative and deep combat, or interesting puzzles & level design
It's like people don't know how to make good standalone comic book based video games that aren't Batman or Spider-Man related these days
Oh yeah, I forgot Green Lantern existed.
But seriously, this is cool.
Rookie mistake. Everyone knows the success to Green Lantern is to give the starring role to Guy Gardner.
Thumbnail with Hal Jordan, but the game is with Kyle Rayner. lol
Needs more G’Nort.
The game exists, you just can’t see it and you only hear about it because it stars Rot Lop Fan.
...only a fellow fan of Green Lantern will get this. 😋
@nessisonett
To be fair to you, you did say "mostly"... but let us not forget that they also published some amazing 8-bit games... Head Over Heels, Wizball, Rainbow Islands, The Great Escape, Firefly... some true classics. In terms of licences... Robocop... and they also released no less than three excellent Batman games. But, yeah, they did also release some stinkers... I still remember the crushing disappointment of their Short Circuit game! 😆
@graysoncharles
Ocean published at least three excellent Batman games... the isometric adventure which was a precursor to Head Over Heels (1986)... the comic book adventure "The Caped Crusader" (1988), which I remember playing at the time, and 13-year-old-me felt like he was transported into a comic book... and the Batman movie tie-in (1989), which was spectacular at the time, particularly the Amiga version.
@nessisonett i prefer Kyle Rayner, but John is cool too.
@nessisonett
I have to take issue with that The Spectrum version of RoboCop was much better than the arcade version. Ocean's game of the '88 Batman was excellent as well.
Mike Lamb & Dawn Drake were amazing programmers.
Ocean did do a heap of film tie-ins, but also home versions of Chase HQ, Op Wolf/Thunderbolt, Renegade, plus stuff like Target Renegade, Great Escape, and Land Before Time.
Err... I really like Ocean on the Spectrum, it seems.
@Ooyah
Did Ocean do Head Over Heels as well? I would love a modern version of that.
The isometric version of Batman didn't do it for me, but the film version was excellent.
Good to be reminder of the wonderful New Zealand Story and Wizball
@Rambler
Am glad to see another 8-bit fan here! 😆 Batman and Head Over Heels were both from the same guy... the extraordinary Jon Ritman. Head Over Heels was just incredible... such an exceptionally charming game, truly. Also... yeah, the home computer versions of The New Zealand story were incredible. You know... I still remember how sad I felt when reading in Zzap 64 about how the C64 conversion of Parasol Stars was scuppered due to a burglary. ☹️
@Rambler @nessisonett
The Spectrum version of Robocop is bloody staggering!!! How did they do that? It very often appears in "all-time" top 10 lists of Spectrum games, for good reason. Also... I still remember being totally blown away by Target Renegade on the C64. Ocean may have been patchy at times, but they were also responsible for some of the most historically important 8-bit releases ever.
It seems they used the same engine of Lethal Weapon (SNES), another " " "classic" " " from Ocean.
(Ok, they used the same api/source code... I think engine is not the right word for this reuse).
@jancotianno
I was always intrigued by Lethal Weapon on the Amiga, but never got to play it. Also reminds me of another movie tie-in game from Ocean... Hudson Hawk!!! Decent game, but they backed the wrong horse there! Does anybody else even remember that one? 😆
I can not only remember Hudson Hawk; I can remember it got a bit of a kicking in Amiga Format magazine. So, I never played it!
@Krockman There is a reason for that if you watch the video.
It seems like the game never would have been completed even if they kept going because DC would keep coming back and telling Ocean to change things. No wonder a lot of DC games suck.
Aren't they the people who made that cruddy Jurassic Park game?
When I was in primary school and didn't have a lot of games due to their high prices (£50 was a lot for a kid in the early 90s, unless you got driven to school in a Rolls Royce) I used to love seeing shop shelves filled with film tie-ins and imagining how awesome it would be to play games based on the films. Then I tried a couple via friends and realised I'd have been better sticking with imagining what they were like.
@graysoncharles Ocean making a Batman or Spiderman game at the least couldn't be worse than what Acclaim put out, could it?
Though I hear the SNES "Animated Series" Spiderman game was okay. At the least it got the Angry Nerd to proclaim "LJN finally made a game that didn't suck!".
Uh, Green Lantern has been a very popular and successful comic series over the last decade, with multiple spin-offs. To say it won't be remembered for much is incorrect.
@Ooyah I do remember, oh yes.
@TheFrenchiestFry All of that is true. However, it's also possible Ocean was limited in what they could do by DC/WB. That's part of what happened to Titus in the disaster that was Superman 64.
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