While we will take a greater look at later generation Batman titles, I thought I would take a brief look at some of Batman’s earlier games on consoles because why not. Some I’ve played before (more of the 16-bit era than here), some are new to me. We’ll start with NES and Game Boy to represent the 8-bit era. As always the “an hour with…” is less literal than it is an approach to more limited coverage. I generally played most of these through all lives across one continue.
We’ll take a look at three NES games from the early 1990’s generally focused around the films and six Game Boy titles that continued into 2001 due to the length of the Game Boy/Color’s lifespan with more of an emphasis on the varied animated series.
Batman: The Video Game (NES, 1990) – Sunsoft
Granted the definitive title of “The Video Game” for the NES-era and somewhat based on the film, it more or less earns that title. While the game is indeed “Nintendo Hard” there are only five levels before the showdown with The Joker. I managed to get to the second boss learning the enemy patterns and use of the weapons so despite its reputation as the hardest of Nintendo games it does not seem impossible to grind through. The bosses are definitely the hardest part.
Batman not only can wall jump but he also get batarangs, a Bat missile launcher, and Bat throwing stars. Batarangs are useful against most enemies and are semi-unlimited, while the missile launcher is probably the best bet against the bosses it uses up more ammo. An inability to fire upwards is a tragic flaw in Batman’s skills and most obvious against flying enemies like the first boss. The regular enemies are actually supposed to be versions of different villains including Deadshot, KGBeast and Heat Wave. While the bosses feature Killer Moth and Firebug. While the enemies are not distinctive to this degree, the levels somewhat look like the movie’s setting and Batman himself is well-represented. There are strange paths to nowhere at times, you may take a series of jumps expecting something only to find a wall.
While dying in this game is a predominant feature, Batman does not go out quietly, instead he explodes into a gigantic ball of fire no matter how he is killed. Perhaps some kind of anti-tampering system to protect his secret identity.
Developer Trivia: Yuichi Ueda was a programmer on this game (and two of the upcoming titles), he would go on to be the director of 2006’s Genji: Days of the Blade of historically accurate giant enemy crab fame.
Rating: two stars.
Batman: The Video Game (Game Boy, 1990) – Sunsoft
This game is not a clone of the NES title with the color stripped out but it is loosely associated with the film like the NES game. Batman is equipped with a gun that shoots orbs of some kind, as are a good number of the enemies. He doesn’t have the punching of the NES version making fisticuffs a non-viable method of dispatching close foes. The jumping sequences in the levels are a bit more precarious than in the NES version, although some reward the player by allowing you to bypass the enemies by keeping Batman moving above the fray. While some levels are decently represented (the chemical plant is an interesting piece of work) others look like they could come from a TI-83. One amusing effect is as you start/continue the entire screen is flipped over a few times in a shockingly high quality way for the Game Boy. Ultimately the trial and error method of patterns are less intriguing here due to the reduced abilities of Batman.
Rating: one star.
Batman: Return of the Joker (NES, 1991) – Sunsoft
We should start with the positive, Batman looks amazing here, almost 16-bit in quality. The rest of the graphics aren’t far off either. Unfortunately the game advances little beyond that and the increased graphics sap the speed compared to the original NES title. Some obstacles are completely obscure on a first attempt. With the addition of the bane of bad platforming, auto-scrolling levels with unclear jumps and forced damage. Batman even loses his choice of weapons for a system which replaces them semi-randomly as you collect power-ups throwing the difficulty all out of whack due to a random drop. But man does Batman animate well, and he can even look and fire upwards! Plus there’s now passwords. But still, platforming and shooting, in my Batman? It’s more likely than you think.
When Batman dies he seems to be sucked into some kind of interdimensional vortex. I might speculate that the entire game is part of Darkseid’s omega sanction.
Rating: one star.
Batman: Return of the Joker (Game Boy, 1992) – Sunsoft
In a lot of ways this is probably the most impressive of the Batman titles examined here so far. Batman is quite well animated, especially for the Game Boy, the level designs are more realistic than standard video game stages seen before. The art is nice overall, and there are even “crazy special effects” like moving water and backgrounds, something rare for the handheld console. Batman begins with his fists and a grappling hook along with a wall jump, perhaps the best combo of Batman gear to date. He can pick up batarangs along the way. Avoiding enemies through planning is possible. The game even allows you to pick from three stages to start as well as set difficulty levels whatever those do. A major complaint is the finicky setup in which trying to do jumps often leads to you spamming out the grappling hook rather than actually jumping diagonally. (Though this could be me.) In all, a pleasant surprise after the last two titles and in general knowing some of what is coming. Batman slumps over upon a game over, almost more out of shame than true defeat.
Rating: two stars.
Batman Returns (NES, 1992) – Konami
This one is based a bit more directly on the movie than the earlier titles, including cutscenes to represent key scenes from the film. It is a brawler of Konami/Capcom fame similar to Final Fight or the TMNT games. Batman has a few gadgets, mostly best saved for use against the bosses. The enemies are generally quite simple (and most that you see in the first level repeat for the entire rest of the game) except for a few advanced ones and the bosses who spike in difficulty. Batman’s animations are good and he has more moves than just punching with a jump kick and a slide of questionable value that nonetheless looks pretty sweet. There are even stages where you get behind the Batmobile and Batboat. A harsh NES style continue system is one of the biggest complaints here. Batman merely lays on the ground upon defeat.
Rating: two stars.
Batman: The Animated Series (Game Boy, 1993) – Konami
This is good. Quite good actually. Good cinemas, good feeling of the cartoon, multiple foes, quality levels that are not entirely linear. Graphics are pretty good. Batman mostly punches but can get batarangs, and most importantly has a grappling hook that lets him attack foes from multiple angles, along with a wall jump. It works quite well. Boss fights are unique and each set of levels plays out like an episode of the series. Some sections ask you to do a few wall jumps into grappling your way upwards to flip over and behind an enemy. Good stuff.
Development Trivia: The lead programmer on this went on to be the main programmer for Kingdom Hearts III.
Rating: three stars.
Batman Forever (Game Boy, 1995) – Probe for Acclaim
This is awful. I must have done something wrong because this seems to consist of two fights and then nothing. I can’t find a way out of the first section. It seems to be some kind of brawler though you choose batarangs and gadgets that seem unable to be used. The fighting is more like a Mortal Kombat rip-off than anything, with uppercuts and all. You can also hide in your cape. Even better though you can jump and glide with the cape which is sweet. Everything looks hideous and garish. I’d like to say I would figure it out to give this a proper evaluation but no, what I played was bad enough. So we’ll compromise.
Development Trivia: 53 people are credited for this game. A game I cannot leave the first room of. The lead designer for this also took that duty on The Fantastic Four for the PS1, a game universally reviled as one of the worst games of all time.
Rating: one star.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (Game Boy Color, 2000) – Kemco for Ubisoft
The Joker returns yet again, this time in the future! And in color! An arcade style brawler that is pretty easy and incredibly boring. Obstacles, enemies, bosses, cutscenes all seem to be haphazardly placed. The poor field of view of the GBC can lock you into death traps. Unclear objectives can make simple boss fights into baffling wall juggling madness until you figure out the one quirk. I suppose it looks okay. Terry simply flashes out upon death, much like the foes you defeat, so much for great Batman deaths continuing into a second decade.
Rating: one star.
Batman: Chaos in Gotham (Game Boy Color, 2001) – Digital Eclipse for Ubisoft
This one is quite stunning in its animation. Although the characters are small and the palettes limited it does invoke feelings of the animated series quite well. Batman rolls, tumbles, lunges, hangs and pulls off other moves with great animation. It is mostly yet again a walk through the level and punch everyone game with some slight timing added to avoid gunfire, along with some strange non-linearity to the levels that doesn’t actually seem to uncover great secrets so much as confuse one as to why you might head in a direction to begin with rather than skip it. Batgirl becomes playable at some point and like the other animated series games you take on a new foe with each set of levels leading to a feel of multiple episodes. The last 8-bit Batman game seems infinitely more complete than most of the others that we have looked at in this article despite probably being a smaller scale project overall.
Rating: two stars.
benji v. The Video Games 