First review: Double dose of Batman!

Today's the first video game review and the lucky game to be reviewed is.....

BATMAN!!

That's right, today I'm gonna do a double whammy of the game for the first movie and it's on Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Both games were made by Sunsoft and both were given the license to make the games based on the 1st movie. From here on, though, that's where the similarities end.

First off, let's check out the NES version.

NES Batman starts off with a cool title screen sequence in which we see Batman in an eyeblink and then fades onto the screen followed by the title and the copyright credits. After a few seconds we are treated to the intro sequence which starts to show us Gotham City at the background while we are told that it's preparing for its 200th aniversity. However, the Joker has other ideas and starts to terrorize the population the one way he knows best, and making his advances on Vicki Vale while he's at it. The Caped Crusader steps in to save the girl and save the day and that's where we get this thing started.

Sunsoft has made good games in the past when it was still in the business and for a game of its time (We're talking about 19 years since it was released!), the NES version looks quite good. The graphics in general look great, the enemies' sprites have good detail and clean animation and Batman's sprite stands out well. The different stages look fantastic and you can see the movement of the various objects in the background as well as the obstacles you must get across in order to advance while beating the enemies. The cinematics look cool and badass and they help you get into the story as you advance to the next stage.

The controls are responsive for the most part. Batman moves and acts as you push a button and it doesn't let you down when it counts. The scheme is simple enough: A is for jumping, B is for attacking and in one of the rare instances for a game, Start will let you switch weapons (The word BATMAN lets you fight with your fists, and you use the Batarang, a gun and Batblades) and Select pauses the game. Thankfully, since the controls aren't ackward, you won't be bothered by this change. You simply have to know which weapon works best on the situation at hand and if you want to punch the daylights out of an enemy, you can do so, but bear in mind there will be enemies that you won't beat with your fists alone, so switch to the right weapon, defeat it and go on.

A particular element to master is the wall jump. The first stage will give you a little warm up on how to use it. Basically, you stick to a wall or a ledge of a platform and press A button as you stay close to the object in question. A small tap on the button will make Batman make a small, quick jump to the other side and a firm press will make him do a higher jump. Mastering the press and timing of the wall jump is essencial to get through the obstacles you'll encounter throughout the game as one small mistake can cost you a life unit. A little bit of practice and the wall jump becomes second nature, just like in the old Ninja Gaiden games.

Speaking of life, Batman has 8 life units and 3 lives in total. As you beat up the bad guys, an item pops out at random. A missle icon gives you 10 weapon units for your arsenal, a B icon gives you points and a small heart will restore one life unit. The game is quite a challenge, but it's one you're willing to sink your teeth into. You'll get the weapon and bonus points icons quite often and it's a rare sight seeing a heart icon when you need it the most, so you have to take advantage on safe spots where the enemies respawn so that you can beat them until you get the item you want. You'll notice the lack of 1-UPs throughout the game; you only get 3 lives in total and if Batman bites the dust those three times, it's game over. Fortunately, there are no shortage of continues, but you'll have to start at the beginning of the stage on which you lost your last life, so you'll have to work through 5 stages with around 3 acts each. Like I said, it's quite a challenge and the best players will get to confront the Joker in the final battle.

The music is top-notch with each stage having the right BGM that adds to the atmosphere as you progress in the game. It's so damn good you just might pause it and listen to it for a long while. The sound FX are appropiate and clear enough that they don't grate into your ears and although there aren't many of them, they're not bothersome.

If I have a gripe of this game it's probably the challenge. Some casual gamers will find it hard after they reach stage 2-2 and if they don't succeed they'll probably quit. Another thing is while they have variety and look cool, the Joker's'minions and the bosses don't have to do anything with the movie (But then again, which game adaptation does have a faithful repetoire of movie-based enemies anyway?). Some of the bosses are a little easy, not too complicated to beat, but the bosses on stages 3 and 5 before the Joker are two of the cheapest creeps I've seen in games and it takes a lot of luck to beat them, nevermind getting to the next stage in one piece. The only good thing is that the stage 5 creep, just before you take on the Joker, is that once you beat him and you die you never see him again. Then, there's the Joker: Sure, he has his big gun which brought down the Batwing (Don't ask me how he did it), but if there's ever a ripoff on Final Fantasy, the Joker wins the gold medal on this hands down with this one attack...

He calls on lightning bolts! Motherfucking LIGHTNING BOLTS!!! And they're not your ordinary bolts, hell no! The Joker uses Bolt 3 to fry your sorry butt! What a ripoff!! That's a crock of shit!! That's just ASS!!!

(Takes a deep breath...)

Whew! I'm okay now. Let's get to the Genesis version.

We get a title sequence on which the Batman symbol spins around in place until it stops and we get to the title screen. A few seconds later, we get the Reader's Digest summary version of the game based on the events of the movie in case you've never, ever seen it (Shame on you). The Genesis version for the most part is pretty faithful of the source material as you start out on the streets of Gotham City beating up some hoodlums. The graphics are very detailed as all the stages give you a good feel on Gotham as you advance and the levels are based from the various scenes of the movie, which is pretty cool. Batman and Joker's minions look like their movie counterparts as well and the bosses also come from it as well, with a few exceptions (I've never seen a shirless sword-wielding guy in the movie and I looked plenty o.o).

Controls are good too. The A button lets you throw Batarangs (The only weapon in the game, but quite effective), B lets you punch and when you hold it down Batman will make a block stance (Only works on bullets, though); finally C buttons makes you jump and when you double tap it, Batman executes a sommersault jump. The grappling hook is also there as well; just press Up on the D-pad and C button for Batman to shoot it straight up and he'll climb up the platform above him quickly enough (Why couldn't Acclaim and Midway put such a simple scheme on the hook in Batman Forever is beyond me). The normal jump may look and feel a bit slow, but it has its uses on some platforms and with the sommersault you can move quickly. Batman walks as you move him and you'll probably wish he could move faster on some parts of the stages, but for the most part the gameplay is very good.

The music, once again, doesn't cease to amaze me. The music conposer responsable for the soundtrack does a great job taking advantage of the Sega Genesis' Yamaha YM2612 Frequency Modulation chip as the BGMs sound crisp, clear and great on each stage. My personal favorites are the ones on Stage 1 and Stage 4-2 and they'll become yours too once you listen to them. Fortunately, there's a sound test on the Options screen, so you might want to enjoy the music before you play. ;)

There is one thing that the Genesis version has that the NES one lacked: Driving stages! Starting on Stage 4-1, you drive the Batmobile as you blast through the Joker's men. The D-pad moves the Batmobile, A button fires homing missles and B fires the machine guns (It's the same scheme when you use the Batwing on Stage 5-1). The other stage has you at the helm of the Batwing as you take down the Joker's balloons and assault choppers and I can say that when I played them, my mind screamed 'This is way cool!!' There isn't much more I can say except they're well done and it'll make you feel like you're busting some caps with a badass car and it's really boss.

The challenge is toned down a bit in comparison to the NES version, but not so much as to make it too easy. There are pitfalls that will make you lose a life when you drop and there are three items: Batrangs, Hearts anbd 1 UPs. Batrangs give you 5 units for your supply and the Hearts fill a good amount on your life bar. The 1-UPs are self-explainatory. Each of the bosses look tough and each has a pattern that's yours to discover and exploit once you find it. The Joker isn't as hard, thankfully, when you get to him, only that this time around he rips off Fatal Fury's Terry Bogard by using a Power Wave instead of the @#$#ing bolts he uses on the NES version.

The bad thing I'd find on this version is that is a little bit easier than the NES and Batman's movement speed. You'd wish he'd run just like in the Nintendo version and there's no wall jump this time. Fortunately, you have the grappling hook and that's good enough. If only Batman Forever didn't have those horrible flaws...

Both games are very good for their time and with it, I give them both a 9. If you can find them, play them. You won't regret it and at least you can find solace that Batman at least has good games to show for his popularity, unlike a certain man of steel with an S on his chest. :P