Level Up: The Adventures of Batman and Robin

Since we’re in Bat-month, I want to give my thoughts on the whole “Joker” argument that came out with the movie The Dark Knight (yes, I know it’s an old issue, but I’m going somewhere with this). A lot of people were arguing the case of either Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson. While I sided with Nicholson, he just wasn’t the Joker I remembered. Cesar Romero is close too, but not my favorite Joker. For me, the perfect clown prince is portrayed by Mark Hamill who voiced the Joker in the Batman animated series. That series is how I remember Batman and it is the Dark Knight I grew up with. This gets me to my point: there were games based directly off of that series for video games. Here’s one of them: The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega Genesis.

Blah blah blah, Joker, Two-Face, Mad Hatter and Mr.Freeze escape, start causing crimes, regular Batman plot. Let’s just skip the story and get to what I really want to talk about the game’s difficulty.

The game is HARD! And I don’t mean though like Batman from last week, or tough like a well done steak. If I had to compare this game to a steak, I would say that this game is like gnawing on a pierce of still frozen meat. I am serious, if you don’t pay constant attention and know what you’re doing, this game will be quick to kick your ass. I started up this game to refresh my memory to review it, and I couldn’t get past the first area! I remember having beaten this game once, but I can’t for the like of me see how that happened. Though, the same way that a steak will eventually thaw out after gnawing on it, this game does seem to get a little easier after a while. I don’t know if it’s because the levels get easier (the layout of Two-Face’s levels makes it easy for me) or if it’s just because to simply get past the first level you have to get so used to the game that you seem to enter its “mind”. All this just to warn you: this is a hard game with no way to really make it any easier, so better get ready.

This game is what’s described as a “run-and-gun” game. It would be very easy to make a platform or brawler game based on Batman, so this decision really stands out; considering Batman doesn’t use any actual guns, it seems weird to have something that seems quite similar to Contra. What’s even weirder is that Konami, makers of Contra, actually handled the SNES Adventures of Batman and Robin title, which was more of a platform/brawler based game, while this version was published by Sega. I am just looking too much into this?

RIGHT, game play… basically, move from left to right while taking out bad guys, mostly by throwing these weapons. You have to stand still to fire, but you can shoot in 8 different directions. You have three category of weapons, and although there are more technical terms for them, I just call them red, green and blue, since those are the colors representing them. As you upgrade each one, you’ll notice they each do something different. Though I could elaborate on what it is they do, I’d rather explain to you how you make your attack stronger. Let’s say you start off with the red power (since you do) and you see a weapon icon (often dropped by enemies or hidden in items). If you collect it while it’s red, then your power will go up. However, if you collect it while it’s green or blue, then the power level stays the same, you just change weapons. Basically, try to constantly collect the same color to stay as powerful as possible.

This game looks amazing. Quite frankly, it’s the backgrounds; they are well handled, multi layered and perfectly colored to suit the feel of the show. Though, I have a problem with the character sprites; they’re just too small. Although you can make out who all the characters are, I feel as though there isn’t enough definition to them and they look a little faceless. The music is also really good. Probably not as good as the NES Batman game from last week, or even close to the Danny Elfman works, but still suits this game just fine. It has a certain excitement yet mysteriousness to it that just says “Batman run-and-gun game” to it. Yeah, hard to believe any music could say that, eh?

Though this game is fun once you get past how hard it is, it’s pretty disappointing as Batman game. The similarities between the show and this game are shallow (a common theme for Batman so far), the gameplay was oddly chosen and plot is basically non-existent. It’s a really good looking game and it does handle well, but it just feels a little empty and mindless. Also, I have to say it feels short, using only 4 bad guys (5 if you count Harley) out of the Batman repertoire which includes over a dozen. I guess what I’m getting at is that it’s a good game, but far from how good it could have been, especially considering the source content. Still, you might want to not overlook this game. I give The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Sega Genesis 7.5 Levels out of 10.