Batman's Gaming History

by Dan Ryckert on Aug 18, 2010 at 06:00 AM

Arkham Asylum may have blown gamers away last year, but to call the Caped Crusader’s video game history spotty would be generous. While we’re all eagerly awaiting Arkham City, let’s take a look at the road Batman has traveled in an effort to get his video game justice.

(with contributions by Bryan Vore and Jeff Cork)

Batman: The Video Game

Publisher: SunSoft
Developer: SunSoft
Platform: NES
Year of Release: 1990

This early Batman game shows off a side of the character we’re not accustomed to. Batman hopped across platforms with the grace and ease of a ninja, wall jumping his way through a loose interpretation of Tim Burton’s film. Batman punches his arm silly as he battles guys on jetpacks, guys with flamethrowers, and robots. Also, Batman is purple.

Batman

Publisher: Atari
Developer: Numega
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1990

The arcade version of Tim Burton’s first Batman game is probably the most faithful way to play through the story. The plot follows that of the film (though with considerably more punching), and digitized stills tell the story. It’s primitive by today’s standards, but it’s effective in its own old-school way. The gameplay is pretty stiff, and the platforming sections only serve to highlight just how rigid Batman moves. Still, at the time of its release it made console players envious for its impossibly large and detailed sprites and scratchy voice samples.

Batman: Revenge of the Joker

Publisher: Sunsoft
Developer: Sunsoft
Platform: Genesis
Year of Release: 1992

Batman put on his concrete boots when he suited up for this Genesis game. If Sunsoft erred by making Batman a tad too nimble in his NES outing, this Genesis follow up is a plodding attempt at course correction. The Dark Knight battles generic goons with the help of an arm-mounted weapon, which shoots a variety of odd-trajectoried beams and other energy attacks. This is one of the reasons players voiced skepticism when Rocksteady announced their intentions to make a new Batman game. We’ve been burned before, you see…

Batman Returns

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Platform: SNES
Year of Release: 1993

Fans of Final Fight style brawlers found plenty to like with the Super Nintendo version of Batman Returns. Loosely telling the story of the film, players controlled Batman as he punched, kicked and Bataranged his way toward his final battle against the fiendish Penguin. Highlights included jump-kicking clowns off of motorcycles, throwing enemies into background elements like shop windows, and grabbing two enemies simultaneously and smacking their heads together. (Interestingly enough, that last move makes a return in Batman: Arkham City. Hmmm…) Sega published Genesis and Sega CD versions of the game, though they were more platform oriented. This was an era in which license holders would sell rights on a platform by platform basis, so it wasn’t uncommon for Nintendo fans to play completely different versions of games with the same title as their Sega counterparts.