Batman: Vengeance

"Riddle me this: What's black and gray and really confused??"

BATMAN FOR GAMECUBE! HAHAHA!!

This game tries too hard to break the mold of genres. It tries to be a platformer, a fighting game, and an FPS all at the same time. However, not enough time was spent on any one part, so they all ended up suffering. Let's get on with the review so I can explain.

Gameplay: 4
This game has several modes of play. You shift between them to do different things, I'll have to explain them individually so it makes sense...

Runnin' and Jumpin' Mode
This is the meat of the game. Batman runs, jumps, and kinda hovers from point A to point B. If he misses a jump, he can still grab the edge of the ledge he's trying to reach and pull himself up. You'll be seeing him doing this a lot, because Batman is not the world's best jumper. The camera is almost completely out of your control. You can put it behind you, but that's it (and when you do it's often at a weird angle forcing you to run around until you right it.) The camera, poor jumping, and weird collision detection with ledges (''It's right in front of you, Batman! Grab it, GRAB IT!'') can get reeealy frustrating at times.

Throwin' Stuff Mode
If you actually have to USE one of Batman's many gadgets, you'll have to press R and go into this mode. This mode is like an FPS, all you see is Batman's hand with the item you're using (very often some sort of Batarang) in it. The problem comes here with aiming. If you want to pick off a far off guard, it usually takes about 30 seconds of fumbling with the C-Stick to get the targeting icon over the baddy's 3-pixel-wide head. You can jump in this mode, or open doors, or climb ladders, or punch things, or pull levers, or do a lot of things. This is a combat-only mode, and many of the boss fights are done almost exclusively in this mode. If you're like me and rarely play FPS games, this is a problem. But all you Perfect Dark fans should be fine.

Fightin' Mode
Run up to an enemy and punch them to start this mode (heck, in this way it's almost like an RPG, too.) When you do, the game will switch to a fighting game-esque thing which pits you against one bad guy (the others all just stand there until the fight is over, even if they have guns or are standing 3 inches away from you.) You can build up your special meter for special moves, and while they do good damage they aren't as impressive as one might expect. The enemies are cheap, too. PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK PUNCH GRAB PUNCH!! Leaving you almost no time to get a hit in (at least the later enemies do.)

Graphics: 4
They're obviously are based on the cartoon, but that's no excuse. Gotham itself is one blocky town, with very little texture. Just because the animators of the show are lazy is no reason for the programmers to be. Character models are odd and many enemies look to be made of plastic. Batman has a bare minimum of animations. Jumping is always the same. Punching is always the same. Climbing is always the same. Aside from the framerate and ''Cinematics'' (cinima scenes), there's nothing here that couldn't have been done on an N64.

Music and Sound: 5
There is no music most of the time. Mostly just a dull humming. In the few areas with music...it's okay, if a bit repetitive. As for the sound effects, they just....average. The voice acting is good in some places (The Joker and Batgirl) and bad in others (Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy.) In all, the audio is just....average.

Story: 7
It held my intrest, and to it's credit it had some unexpected twists. Still, the ending seems to tie it up rather abruptly. The main problem is how absurdly Gotham seems to be put together. Batman has to hack into a computer system at one point. To do this, all he has to do is solve a rudimentary puzzle. Maybe the idea is that he's hotwiring the computer, but if he was I wish they'd SAY so. Also, to get into the Joker's hideout, you have to scale a huge wall of boxes. This begs the question of whether the Joker and all his thugs have to do the same to get in. It would have been better if the boxes popped up when you entered so it would seem more like a security system and less like bad architecture. Maybe I'm nitpicking.

Difficulty: 8.5
This is a hard game. Expect to die a LOT. Usually from falling into bottomless pits (of which Gotham has an alarming amount) because of Batman's poor jumping skills. You won't die often because of fights with thugs, though. Batman can take a LOT of hits. I knew he was tough, but who knew he could take 15 machine gun shots to the head and only have half his life drained? Baddies chip away your health very slowly, and while your life may be low a lot, it will rarely run out except on bosses.

''Riddle me this, riddle me that, should I buy this game with the big black bat?''
You may want to rent it if only to see if you like it more than I do (a lot of people seem to.) However, I would strongly suggest Spider-Man over this one. It has better graphics, sound, everything. In all, I say that this game is ''Close, but no cigar, Batsy!''

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/02, Updated 05/27/02