Batman: The Video Game
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nostalgia Factor:
This was a game that I never owned growing up. I remember playing it at my grandma’s house a couple of times because one of my uncles had it. I liked the game and I thought it was fun, from my limited time with it. In particular, I remember thinking the wall jumping mechanic was really cool. I never came close to actually beating the game. The farthest I ever made it was the boss battle at the end of stage 2. For some reason that fight always stuck around in my memory.
Nearly 25 years passed before I was able to find a used copy of this game at a local game store shortly before starting this blog. I played Batman from beginning to end – all the way up to the Joker battle. But I just could not for the life of me actually beat the game. If you die against the Joker, you have to replay the game’s entire final stage over again from the beginning, and it is a GIANT pain in the you know what.
Just last week I decided to come back and finish this game once and for all, using the RetroPie and its save states. Call it cheating, accuse me of not beating the game properly: I don’t care. I play games for fun, and if that’s the way I wanted to play Batman I am not going to apologize for it. Now that I’ve completed the game, what would my final thoughts on it be? Let’s find out!
Story:
This game loosely, and I mean LOOSELY follows the plot of the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Cutscenes in between stages show the Joker taunting Batman and daring him to come after him. You’ll visit some familiar locations from the movie like the Axis Chemical Plant and the bell tower, but many of the stages in between have absolutely nothing to do with the movie at all. Do you remember when Batman fought tanks in a cave in the movie? I sure don’t.
Before we move on, I have to address some of the liberties the game took with Batman and his ethical code. One of Batman’s main weapons in this game is a gun, which any self-respecting Batman fan knows that he refuses to use. Also at the end of the game he just flings the Joker off the top of the tower after beating him in a fist fight, despite his strict no killing rule – especially of an already defeated opponent.
I don’t know why, but this really bothered me.
Gameplay:
Batman shares a lot of similarities with other 2D platformers of the time, such as Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. Your goal each stage is to simply make it from the starting point to the end of the level. Nothing shocking there. Batman’s main attack is a melee punching attack that takes your foes down in just a few hits. It’s an effective default weapon and I found myself using it quite often. The only drawback to it is that you have to get in close to your enemies to use it. As you play you pick up ammo for three other weapons: a short range boomerang, a gun (I’m rolling my eyes as I type this), and a thrown projectile that splits into three and deals damage to anything it touches.
When you kill an enemy, they’ll drop one of three different item types: ammo for your weapons, a heart that refills one bar on your life meter, or a B icon that I was never able to figure out the purpose of. They don’t give you an extra life, and there is no points system… so what the fork do they do?
Jumping is responsive and works well. This is where I most compare the game to Ninja Gaiden. When you jump into a wall you are able to jump back off the wall in the other direction. You will need to master this wall jump ability if you want any chance at being able to beat this game.
Make no mistakes about it, this is a VERY challenging game. You’re going to get hit a lot. You are going to die a lot. You are going to fall to your death quite often. The bosses are really tough, too. But it is nothing that can’t be conquered without a little trial and error. Again, I compare this game to Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania in that regard. Yes, I used save states to beat this game, but that’s only because I have SO MANY games to play and my time is very limited in which to do so. If I had sat down and dedicated a couple days to beat this game (maybe even just one day), I have no doubt I would have been able to master this game. Tell that to my job and to my one year old, though.
If I had to offer one complaint about Batman’s gameplay, I would say that I found the “item drop” enemy spawn points to be quite annoying. If you don’t know what I am talking about, there are these machines in the ceiling that you’ll encounter sporadically as you play this game. They drop an unlimited supply of enemies down on you, respawning over and over again when you kill them. While it was nice to be able to use these spots to kill enemies repeatedly and farm for health items and ammunition, the rate at which they drop health seems extremely low. And every once in a while an enemy sneaks through and deals damage to you, with no rhyme or reason whatsoever. It should take you one or two minutes of sitting at one of these things to refill your health, but honestly sometimes it took what seemed like ten. Just give me what I want so I can move on! And stop with the cheap shots!
Graphics:
Batman may not look like much by today’s standards, but it looks perfectly fine for a game of its time. I love the dark color scheme of the game. It really seems to reflect Gotham City and the tone of the original Batman movie very well, even if it doesn’t follow its plot very closely. The little cutscenes add some fun to the game as well.
But don’t ask me why Batman is purple. This may be the only purple Batman I’ve seen in any form of media, ever? I don’t mind it though. The character pops out from the background and doesn’t blend into it. It also just seems “right” and perfectly fitting to this game, for reasons I can’t really explain.
Sound:
This game has a fantastic soundtrack. It’s right up there, again, with games like Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. Even up there with Mega Man too. It’s got that classic, groovy NES vibe to each of the songs. I’d proudly put any of this game’s stage tracks on my video game music playlist. The sound effects perfectly match the action on screen as well. I got nothing to complain about here.
Overall:
I quite enjoyed my time with this game. It’s a fun, classy, and perfectly enjoyable platformer for the NES. It’s also movie tie-in that’s not just a blind cash grab, which is refreshing to see. They actually took the time to make this a good game!
As much as I liked to compare this game favorably to other NES classics, I don’t know if I’d put it up there with them. Batman shares a lot of traits with Ninja Gaiden, but I wouldn’t say this is as good of a game as Ninja Gaiden. Or Castlevania. Or Mega Man. Maybe I feel this way because I didn’t grow up with Batman and I don’t have the nostalgic feels for this game that I do for others. That’s completely possible. But it just wasn’t *quite* hitting those same high notes for me as the other classics I’ve mentioned.
This is a good game, yes. And I would even listen to the argument that this is a great or really good game. But a classic? I’m sorry, but in my humble opinion it’s just not quite there.
Final Score:
B
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