So as some of you should know, August is coming up soon and
that means that I’ll be doing my August Theme month. However, I want to bring
attention to Adamant Ditto, because they also announced that this July is going
to be a theme month for them and they have probably chosen the best theme
possible: they will be doing several let’s plays of Beat ‘em Up games. Beat ‘em
up month sounds like the best holiday ever to me, so I knew I had to do
something for it. At the same time though, I decided I wanted to fix something
from my first August theme of Bat-month. At that time, I only had 3 Batman
games, so I was kind of missing the last week, so why not do a Batman Beat ‘em
up game for you guys? It also seems appropriate because I just hear there’s a
new Batman movie coming out: something rises or something like that. Anyways, here’s
Batman the Brave and the Bold The Video Game for the Nintendo Wii.
The gameplay is a single plain beat ‘em up, kind of like
Power Rangers SNES. The major difference between those two games though is that
Power Rangers concentrated more on platforming, while Batman the Brave and the
Bold concentrates more on fighting. The size of the characters in Power Rangers
were quite big, so it felt claustrophobic when there were several characters on
screen. This is not the case with this game, as there are often a lot of bad
guys on screen at the same time that you can dispatch with a series of awesome combos.
You can do the usual beat ‘em up stuff, like both light and heavy punches, jumps
and grabs and you have a few super moves to clear off most of the screen if
things get too difficult.
Beyond just the fighting, there are a still few platforming
moments and some of the levels have secret areas to find for some extra cash.
Sadly, these are not plentiful nor something really all that amazing (often
just jumping), so most of the game is just punching and walking to the right.
Once you figure out your favorite combo to take out the most enemies at once,
you have most of the game figured out, and the only reason you might replay it is
to unlock all the gadgets. Even if you don’t figure out a good combo, you can still
easily beat this game as the only penalty for dying is a 100 coin loss (even if
you have less than 100 coins, you just lose them all and still keep playing).
It’s rather sad when a game can get fighting down so well, but offers nothing
else (not even a challenge).
I haven’t seen much of Batman the Brave and the Bold TV
show, but from my understanding the concept is that, during each episode,
Batman teams up with one other DC hero to fight a DC villain. This game has 4
episodes, which allows you to play as Robin, the Blue Beetle, Hawkman and Guy
Gardener (in order). The episodes are entirely unrelated though; absolutely
nothing holds them together other than Batman and this game. So you’d think for
this reason that the stories would all be unique, different and progressively
get more interesting. Well, they really aren’t. I found the first story to be
the most interesting, as there is a sense of mystery for the first half, a good
twist I didn’t expect (though retrospectively I should have) and a genuine sense
of panic. The other 3 episodes are basically the same; a villain attacks,
Batman and another hero case him, other hero loses some self-esteem, Batman
helps them through it, they both kick butt, the end. Granted, the last story
has the most at stake, but I never felt like there was actually something to
lose.
Batman the Brave and the Bold the Video game has
some fun fights, but that’s about all it has. There’s really nothing else to
the game; it’s pretty short, a bit repetitive, there is no depth to the story
and the only replay value is in trying to buy all the upgrades. However, none
of these are bad elements, they’re just the lack of good ones; it’s not like
the game play broke on me or like I hated any of the characters. Really, it
just feels like this is a game where the makers barely even tried, but at least
where it does try, it succeeds. I will also give it that the graphics are
really good and the sound quality is fine. If this were a Game Boy Advance game
released 10 years ago, I would think this was pretty awesome, but it seems
really weird that this is Wii game, so it just doesn’t meet my expectations.
Still, if you want some short, cheap fun and like beat ‘em ups or are looking
for something for a younger gamer, then you maybe could consider this. I can
definitely think of a few other games that were a bigger waste of money. I give
Batman the Brave and the Bold the Video game for the Wii 6 levels out of 10.
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