Batman: The Video Game
Game Boy
Before Playing:
This was my first time playing through this game. I was inspired to play it by an episode of Cartridge Club Portable, where this game was highlighted. The hosts liked the game and said it was fun. And you know what I like? I like fun. And I like Batman too. So of course I was going to check this out. Let's see how I feel about it.
Story:
This game follows the same basic plot of the movie. It is broken up into four stages: Axis Chemicals, the art museum, a Batwing flying stage, and the cathedral. There are still-frame cutscenes from the movie vaguely advancing the plot of the game in between stages. Simple but effective.
Gameplay:
People refer to this game as "Batman with a gun." And I can see why: you control Batman and your main method of attack is a gun. Batman is normally very anti-gun, so it is interesting they'd go that route here. But what do I care? I am not a Batman purist. Is the game fun? That's all I care about.
Yeah, it is. I don't know why I always come into Game Boy games thinking they are going to suck. I enjoyed this a lot. It just has the feel of a classic, 2D side scroller that I would have loved to play when I was growing up. I can just see myself dedicating hours and hours to this game and getting ridiculously good at it. It's too bad I never had a Game Boy when I was a kid.
The game is relatively short. Each of the four stages is broken up into sections. Level 1-1, level 1-2, etc. Things start out fairly easy. I died maybe once or twice during the first stage, just simply finding out the controls. Batman's jumps are very floaty, and it can be hard to nail precise jumps until you get the hang of things. The line between over and undercompensating when adjusting mid-jump is a fine one.
You start off with a normal short range projectile weapon. You will notice floating blocks as you make your way through the game. They can be destroyed. The white ones are just standard blocks. The black ones have an item in them. If you were comparing this to Super Mario Bros, the white blocks are like normal bricks and the black blocks are like question mark boxes. Inside these boxes are things like health items, extra lives, and alternate weapons. You can get a long range gun, a wave gun, and a batarang projectile that comes back to you like a boomerang. Different power ups increase the damage these weapons do. I think you can get up to x3 on the damage. But there are bad items that bring your damage level down a level if you pick them up. And if you pick up a weapon you don't want by accident, it drops back to one. I always found myself accidentally picking up the short range pea shooter you start off with, and it was driving me nuts.
The basic goal of each stage is to navigate from the starting point to a door at the end of the level. Point A to point B. Standard 2D platformer stuff. Occasionally you will fight a boss character. Bosses are essentially bullet sponges with attack patterns that are, for the most part, predictable. The boss of level one is Jack Napier. Beat him and he falls into the chemicals and becomes the Joker. The museum level has you fighting one of the Joker's big brutes. The end of the game (the fourth level) has you fighting the Joker himself, of course. When you beat him he goes flying off the roof to his death. So Batman uses guns and kills in this game.
The third level, which you will notice I skipped over, is a flying stage. It's a pretty standard 2D shooter. You control the Batwing and you can move up and down and left and right on the screen, as it scrolls forward. You can shoot both forwards and back. Enemies appear and you shoot them. I was never challenged on these levels. They are very easy. The bosses are easy too, once you figure out their pattern. The flying stages may be fairly simple, but I enjoy them and how they bring some variety to the gameplay.
I played through this game twice for my review. The first time, I used save states just to get through the game and complete it. Then I came back a few days later and beat it the normal way. I was surprised at how easy it was the second time through. Really, the only time I ever died or ran into trouble is when I would mistime a jump. The only truly difficult level is right at the end of the game: the scrolling stage in the cathedral. The screen scrolls forward pretty fast, and you don't have the opportunity to see what is coming up and where you will need to be jumping. Plus, the ledges are filled with enemies. There is almost no way to get through without taking a ton of damage.
Graphics:
It's a simple looking game, but it works just fine for me. Obviously it isn't going to look as good as anything coming out now in 2025. And that is totally okay. The game looks good for its time, both the stages themselves and the cutscenes in between. While it may be a simple looking game, at no point do the graphics hinder my enjoyment of the game, or detract from how much fun it is.
Sound:
I need to do a better job at remembering how a game sounds when I write these reviews. I feel like I always put the same thing: "I just finished the game two days ago and I have already forgotten what it sounds like. I never stood out to me as good or bad either way. I suppose if it was bad, I would have noticed it. I guess that means it was fine."
I should copy that somewhere so I can paste it into further reviews. Because it 100% applies here.
Overall:
This was an enjoyable game. Like I said before, I would have loved this when I was a kid. It was right up my alley. It's challenging, but not overly so. It's fun, it's short, it keeps you coming back for more. The fact that I played through it twice should tell you something, because I rarely do that for these reviews.
If you are a fan of classic 2D side scrollers from the 8-bit era, you should definitely check this out. No, it's not "the greatest platformer of all time" or anything like that. But if you were alive back when this game came out, you probably would have liked it. Some people find it hard to go back and play games from this era. But not me. I embrace it. The game does have its flaws (floaty jumps, bullet sponge bosses, that darn auto scrolling stage, and the game's overall short length), but those flaws aren't insurmountable.
This is now the 17th Batman game I've played and reviewed for this blog. Of the 589 games I have reviewed so far, 2.9% have been Batman games. I wonder if it is my most reviewed franchise, or if something like Sonic or Mario has it beat. I should check that out someday.
THE GRADE:
B
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