Superhero League of Hoboken
A comedic post-apocalyptic superhero RPG from Legend Entertainment.
Steve Meretzky designed this 1994 MS-DOS role-playing game, published by Legend Entertainment. It blends superhero antics, comedy, and a post-apocalyptic setting with 256-color 2D graphics. Originally on floppy disk and CD-ROM, it returned in 2019 for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Legend Entertainment
- Designer
- Steve Meretzky
- Released
- 1994
- Genre
- Role-playing
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- MS-DOS
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The world has fallen to war, nuclear fallout, and pollution, causing widespread mutations. Some mutated beings turn to crime as supervillains, while others form teams of superheroes. This game takes place in a ruined New Jersey-New York-Pennsylvania area. Players control a group of quirky, often ineffective heroes fighting odd foes, especially Dr. Entropy, a human jack-in-the-box seeking to create chaos. The missions are strange and frequently mock modern society.
Gameplay
The player chooses a team from a retinue of off-beat characters. The protagonist is the Crimson Tape, whose power is to make organizational charts. Companions include the Iron Tummy, who can eat any amount of spicy food without intestinal distress; Treader Man, a fantastic swimmer; the Tropical Oil Man, who defeats villains by giving them high cholesterol; and the Oxide Man, who damages mechanical enemies. Each character has three stats: Brawn determines weapon damage, Brains affects super power effectiveness, and Toughness is defense. Characters can learn secondary superpowers by drinking colored liquids found or bought in the game. Superpowers are mostly used in combat, though some are part of the plot for solving puzzles.
Reception
According to designer Meretzky, Superhero League of Hoboken sold only 20,000-25,000 copies, which he considered pretty disappointing. Computer Gaming World's August 1994 preview stated that Legend had gone beyond graphic adventures and interbred their traditional fare with elements of computer role-playing. In the October 1994 issue, Scorpia wrote that the game is lightweight fare that may disappoint those seeking challenging puzzles, but called it the first true comedy CRPG ever, worth the price of admission. PC Gamer US's Trent Ward in October 1994 called it an exciting mix of adventure and role-playing, perfect for gamers more concerned with gameplay than graphics, and said it is pretty good fun. PC Gamer UK's James Leach in October 1994 summarized it as good, but believed those who dislike surrealism will soon get bored. Dragon's Lester Smith in May 1995 admitted some may find aspects tasteless, but thought those elements minor and that the game provides quite a bit of entertainment with a satisfying sense of role-playing. The game was nominated for Computer Gaming World's 1994 Role-Playing Game of the Year award; the editors remarked that it broke most of the rules and that its goofy dialogue and storyline, and well-balanced gameplay, make for a wild ride through Meretzky's left-of-center imagination.
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