Superhero League of Hoboken (1994)

Superhero League of Hoboken (1994), designed by Steve Meretzky, published and developed by Legend Entertainment

While Legend Entertainment did publish RPG games, and FPS's as well, Steve Meretzky wasn't known of either of the genres. His bread and butter were comedic text adventures like the Spellcasting series or Eric the Unready. Neither of which belong to my favourites in the genre. That's why Superhero League of Hoboken is kind of an anomaly on his resume, as despite it being a comedy game, it is a superhero-themed roleplaying game.

In the post-apocalyptic future USA, leagues of superheroes have taken upon them to keep up the peace when all kinds of mutated monsters rummage to radiated lands. You take the role of Crimson Tape as the newly appointed leader of the Superhero League of Hoboken. You probably got the job because of your amazing ability to create organizational charts. The rest of the heroes in your opening roster are Robomop, an intelligent cleaning appliance that can clean up almost any mess, Tropical Oil Man, who can raise the cholesterol level of the enemies,  Madmoiselle Pepperoni with her amazing ability to see the insides of a pizza box without opening them, Iron Tummy who can eat spicy foods and last, but not least, Captain Excitement, who can put opponents to sleep with his aura of lethargy.

With your ragtag group of heroes, you need to tackle the missions given you by the supercomputer Mathilda. Each mission is divided into 5 submissions, all revolving around different kinds of mischief caused by the evil doings of your nemesis, Dr Entropy. These missions are more or less Meretzky type adventure game puzzles, ranging from rather simple to the more annoying end of moon logic the genre has to offer. After you've solved 4 submissions, you can then move to solve the Dr Entropy missions with the stuff you've gathered during the quests.

The game area is relatively large. You can move in relative freedom, only blocked by tough enemies and geographical obstacles, like hills, rivers and forests. The further you advance, the less of an obstacle the surroundings provide thanks to new skills you can learn. The combats get easier by levelling the characters but also by purchasing new weapons and armour from the merchants. The locals can also sell you potions for unlocking new skills. The League also attracts new heroes the more quests you solve, so you'll have them helping you as well.

The combat itself is fairly simplistic. At times, it pays off to use skills, but most of the time you can get away with it simply by pressing one of the two attack buttons, be it for melee or long-range. The better the gear, the easier it gets, basically. There are no healing items, so after each battle, you need to decide if you want to leg it to some safe location to rest for a while. The system also rewards you from emptying the map screens from enemies as well as exploring every square of them.

As such, the RPG elements are not very deep. Most of the time, they just feel like padding to make the game longer, as there is rarely a genuine challenge or tactics about it. Like I said, at times it helps to use some skill specific to the enemies you face, but in general, that isn't really necessary, especially if you've geared your team to the max. In the end game, skill usage is a bit more relevant. The cover and escape options are more or less pointless, as I never needed them beyond testing what they do.

Superhero League of Hoboken uses the same engine as Companions of Xanth and Shannara, so if you are familiar with either of those games, you know what to expect. If you've played Spellcasting games or Eric the Unready, you know the style of humour in offer. While I found some things amusing, I can't say I am a huge fan of the brand of comedy Meretzky does. With that in mind, how much you like the game is more or less related to if you like the comedy or not.

The jokes I liked the best revolved around the pop culture references as well as jabs towards how the people of the apocalyptic future saw the past. There are libraries amazed by the ancient VHS recordings and new religions formed around Elvis and Wheel of Fortune. It all is a bit like what the original Fallout games or the Wasteland games have on offer but in even more of a parodic tone.

I can't really claim to be a huge fan of Superhero League. In part it is the fault of the writing, at part, it is because of the engine, that isn't really suited for this kind of a game. It isn't the worst game in the genre, but all things considering, rather mediocre as far design goes. The only reason I'd recommend it is, if you are really hankering to play a superhero-themed adventure/RPG game, otherwise you can give it a skip.