Batman: The Video Game
Sega Genesis
Nostalgia Factor:
Prior to tonight, I had played this game at exactly one point in my life: a random weekend back in the mid 90s. I had rented this game from Blockbuster Video. I remember staying up late at night, trying to beat this game. While I don't remember much about the game itself, I remember liking it and I do remember being able to beat it.
Ever since I discovered how to emulate, this has been a game I've wanted to return to. I'm a big fan of Batman video games, and of all the countless Batman titles out there, this is one I am relatively unfamiliar with. I had only played it for one weekend over 25 years ago. Would it still hold up after all this time? I reckon it is time to find out.
Story:
This game follows the events of the first Michael Keaton Batman movie. In fact, it follows the movie much, much closer than its NES counterpart, which I reviewed back in 2022. The entire plot of the film is laid out in the game's opening sequences if you do not press anything when the title screen comes up. Effective, I suppose. By doing this, the game developers didn't have to worry about putting cutscenes in between each stage. Just lay it all out right away what you're going to see in the game!
Gameplay:
This is a pretty typical 2D side scroller of its time. Controlling Batman, you use the d-pad to move your character around. As far as I know, there isn't a way to run. So Batman can move pretty slowly at times. There is a punch button, a jump button, and a "throw batarangs" button. Stages mainly consist of moving left to right, defeating enemies as they appear. You make it to the end of the stage and fight a boss character. You beat him, you move onto the next level. So on and so forth.
Although the gameplay sounds very cut and paste, this is still a pretty fun game. The challenge level is just right. I'd recommend cranking your number of lives up to seven, as you have to start a stage over from the beginning when you run out of lives. This isn't an overly tough game, but three lives isn't quite enough to get through some of the more difficult stages, especially with how quickly some enemies can drain your health meter. You can be playing a near-perfect game and then die multiple times in a matter of seconds.
You also have a grappling hook, as is typical for many Batman games that came out in the 90s. This grappling hook isn't used much here. There are stages where you need to ascend to another level above you, but that is about it. This isn't like most Batman games that involve a lot of jumping, swinging, and precision platforming. There is some of that in the game, sure, but most of the focus of the game is on the combat.
There is a flying stage later on in the game, where you control the Batplane as it shoots down the Joker's poisonous balloons. You also get attacked by helicopters and other flying enemies. It's a fun stage. It is a little difficult, but its shortness makes up for that. If you can just stay alive for, like, two or three minutes, you have got this in the bag. This is really the only stage I remember from when I had played this as a kid. There's also a stage where you drive the Batmobile and blow up enemy vehicles, but there is nothing special or memorable about that one.
There really isn't much else to talk about. This is a pretty basic platformer. But that's not a bad thing. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. I wouldn't say this is the greatest game of all time or anything, but it is a good way to kill a few hours. I even played through it twice for this review. Can't be that bad, huh?
Oh, I almost forgot one of my biggest gripes. In the Axis Chemical stage, there is a pipe that explodes as you walk over it. You have to jump off of the pipe over a pile of boxes in your way. If you should happen to fall, there is literally no way to get past those boxes, and you have to intentionally let yourself die so you can start the level over again. WTF kind of game design is that? (Edit: I played through the game one more time after writing this review, and found that the grappling hook was able to pull me onto a small piece of pipe remaining from the explosion. So you can get past this part normally. Huh. I had tried the grappling hook previously. Wonder why it didn't work!)
Graphics:
This is such a mixed bag, graphically. There are some stages that look great, like the Batplane level up above. And there are stages that look like they could have come from the NES, like the museum stage I posted a picture of below.
Batman himself is unimpressive. This is probably one of the worst video game Batmans I have ever seen. He doesn't look cool or badass or anything. He just looks derpy. I'll take the purple NES Batman over this any day of the week. Enemies themselves look fine. The driving stage looks good. Like I said, some stages look okay. Others don't.
Sound:
This game has good music, not that I remember any of it. I remember it fit the tone of the game well. Some tracks almost gave off kind of an Ecco the Dolphin vibe. I can dig it. It is nothing that will stick on your head or go on any of your video game music playlists, though. It serves its purpose and that's about it.
Overall:
I can easily recommend this game to anyone interested. It's not a must play title by any means, but if you like Batman and you like 2D side-scrollers, you should like this. It's fun, there is some variety, it's challenging. And it's Batman! It checks all the boxes.
This is a game that I can see myself returning to in the future. Let's say it is late at night and I only have an hour or so with nothing else to do. Not enough time to invest myself in a longer game, but just enough time to make a run at this one. Perfect. Compare this to Mischief Makers, my last review. It was a game I liked, but a game I'll probably never play again. I'll definitely play this one again.
THE GRADE:
B-
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