Batman

"An excellent action platformer for fans of the movie and comic alike!"

Batman, the Caped Crusader should need no introduction. Starting out as a comics series and then spawning the campy 60's tv show it was a popular hit. Then when all the fuss died down, a new Batman movie was announced. Directed by Tim Burton, the 1989 film starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson gave a darker direction to the series, more closer to the comic books. To cash in on the success of the movie, Sunsoft created several video games on platforms including Nintendo's NES.

Story - 10/10
The game is loosely based on the story from the 1989 Batman movie. Jack Napier and his boss Grissom don't see eye to eye. Grissom sends Jack and his partners in crime on a job to the Axis chemical factory, and Grissom notifies the authorities of the break-in. Batman arrives on the scene after the police, and ends up causing Napier to fall into a vat of chemicals, resulting in him ending up as the disfigured and psychotic Joker.

The Joker then seeks revenge on Batman and the citizens of Gotham city by creating a deadly toxin that sends the public into panic. Batman realizes that Napier was the killer of his parents many years ago, and sets out to stop the Joker's terror and avenge his parents.

Graphics/Presentation - 9/10
The game does it's best to eke out a resemblance to the movie, and if you let the game run after the title screen, you'll get the background story (as described above) as well as a slideshow of the games main characters. Throughout the game, there are several cut scenes similar to portions of the film, which is quite a treat.

The characters are your average sized 8x8 tile NES sprites, and the do a good job of standing out from the rather dark backgrounds present throughout the game. Batman himself is purple - unlike in the film, but it's probably to allow players to distinguish him from the black background, and he has a nice animation count with flapping cape and all. Most other sprite characters use very dull brown and purple palettes which is a bit drab, but isn't too much of a bother.

Boss characters are a good size, and the Joker himself is a treat to watch with his large extendo-gun pistol (as seen in the movie).

The background stages, while very dark, do a good job of recreating some of the scenes found in the movie such as the street in front of Gotham Town Hall, and the Bell Tower finale.

Gameplay - 8/10
The game is a side-scrolling platform game - Batman can use his fists as well as a few hand weapons when powered up. You can also jump, and do a Spiderman-style walljump by tapping jump and press against a wall to bounce off, which adds some variety to the standard of platformers, and some stages require you to master this skill.

You will mostly be fighting thugs and robotic automations, that will either rush or shoot at you. There are even some one-off enemies such as a ninja who will slaughter you if you don't beat him up fast enough. Some of the boss characters in the game are taken from the comic books such as Firebug and The Electrocutioner.

The game is 5 stages long with several parts to them. While it sounds short the game gets difficult after stage 2, which is a good thing you have infinite continues. The Joker is a tough cookie to beat so expect to get slaughter in your first encounter should you reach him.

Multiplayer - 0/10
The game is a single player affair. There is no 2-player option available whatsoever.

Control - 8/10
The games controls are very responsive, however you will often get frustrated in the delay of action when Batman is hurt. Wall-jumping is easy once you get the hang of it, and you'll need to master it in stage 2-2. The only bad point is that unlike traditional games, the Select button Pauses the game, and Start is used to switch weapons - it gets confusing even when you've had months of experience.

Soundtrack/Audio - 8/10
Like most games on the NES, sound effects such as punches and jumps are made by odd noise distortions, but in this game it doesn't sound too bad.

The music is a real treat - the slight techno beats are a joy to hear and add a great amount of tension to the stages and boss fights. Hats off to the composers for a pulsepounding soundtrack full of great sampled drum beats.

Replayability - 7/10
The game is certainly challenging, even if beatable in one sitting like 90% of NES games. The games difficulty climbs from easy to tough in only a few stages, and memorizing the stage patterns will keep you going until you either get through it, give up in frustration, or resort to cheating with a Game Genie.

Overall - 8/10
The way a movie to game conversion should be done. Taking minimal license from the film, you get a great balance between a movie in a comic in an action game that's even entertaining to non-Batman fans. One of Sunsoft's best platformers, if you can still find a copy off eBay, it's worth buying.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/05