Batman: The Video Game (Nintendo, 1990)

Whenever there is a major Hollywood Blockbuster there will be video game companies trying to milk that cashcow for all it's worth. From E.T on the Atari 2600 to the latest 7/8th generation today there has been a long standing tradition of utterly tripe film franchise games that are to be avoided like the plague by gamers with any sense. However once in a while some film franchise games are actually quite good and are worth playing, Batman for the Nintendo Entertainment System and other consoles of the time that it was ported onto is one of those rare exceptions.
 
Batman by Sunsoft is your typical for the era side-scrolling action or "beat-em-up" game, you walk from the left to the right of the screen while decking various goons with your fists, feet and hurled Batarangs. It's simple, straightforward and doesn't try anything particularly innovative or clever it just gets the job it needs to do done and it does it well. Essentially what it boils down to is this, you're Batman, you walk somewhere you need to go, you beat people up on the way, that's essentially what gamers want from Batman game and this was what the technology time offered.
 
While the gameplay may well be by the book what really makes the game is it's artistic style and atmosphere which does a great job of capturing the look and feel of the film and dark gothic nature of the Batmans world. There are even appearances of films main actors Micheal Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger and there are even scenes involving the classic Batmobile and Batwing. This certainly isn't just any generic Batman game this is the original 1989 film we're talking about here in all it's glory. Overall great use was made of the film license the game was based upon and the story and levels of the game all faithfully recreate scenes and locations in the film.
 
While Batman is faithful to the 1989 film this being an action video game a certain amount of artistic license is needed in providing Batman with a sufficient number and variety of badguys to punch from street gang thugs to rocket launcher armed goons and end of level bosses which weren't necessarily in the film but they feel authentic to the setting. Enemies generally follow set attack patterns that once memorised you can essentially breeze through the game. In addition to this boss characters are generally vulnerable to a certain form or direction of attack so this isn't a immensely challenging or difficult game to beat and there are 6 moderate to short length stages in total.
 
In terms of control everything feels solid and responsive though at times jumping can be a little difficult to get exactly right and Batman himself could perhaps do with a little extra speed he does tend to plod along a little. There is about a half second delay between the push of a button and the action on screen which can be a slight issue in some of the more intense fights against a large group of enemies or an end of stage boss when you're trying to pull of a rapid flurry of moves but it doesn't quite flow into the combos you want to pull. Batman has a few of his "wonderful toys" at his disposal, his Batarangs a useful ranged weapon but you only get a limited quantity of these which more to pick up as you progress through a stage. In general it's best to not waste these on regular goons but to save these up for boss battles where they can then be flung away to your hearts content. Batman also has a grappling hook which is basically used to ascend upward for some minor platform action. Though that is about all Batman is packing gadget wise in his utility belt in this game.
 
As far the graphics and overall look of the game is somewhat impressive by the standards of an 8-bit game. The character sprites are somewhat small but in a way this is a helps to give the locales such as Gotham City or Axis Chemicals a certain grandeur or immensity in scale. A neat touch is the game makes use of "parallax scrolling" objects in the background and foreground move at different rates and this helps to provide a sense of size, scale, depth and distance which can be difficult to achieve in a 2D side scroller such as this. There also neat little graphic touches such as rain and in Axis Chemicals the toxic waste can be seen bubbling and brewing away. Character animation is a little stiff and wooden but the sprites being as small as they are this isn't as noticeable as it otherwise would have been.
 
The music in this game is awesome though none of it is from the film itself which is a little bit of a shame, but nonetheless the music fits perfectly with the tone and style of the Batman game setting. From dark, eerie and atmospheric to fast tempo metal you'll find yourself humming along to some of these catchy tunes as you play.
 
The linear nature of the levels and the simple combat could perhaps get a little repetitive and stale after a while but the game is reasonably short and to break up the potential monotony there are Batmobile and Batwing stages driving and shoot-em-up stages which provide a welcome relief. Given the linear nature of the game it has limited re-play value, about the only thing you can really do differently in the second play through is play on a harder difficulty level.

So in summary this is a game that Batman fans and particularly fans of Tim Burtons 1989 film and NES games of this era may well enjoy this as well as this is a game with good production values and has a good graphical art style, it also features high quality 8-bit music. Challenge wise it's perhaps a little easy and a touch short but for as long as it lasts it's an enjoyable classic Batman romp which is authentic to material it was based upon.

Recommend this product? Yes