Batman

I don't like explaining myself, but half the reason I haven't been posting is that I got a lot of new games over Christmas, which don't go in this blog. The other reason is laziness.

Batman is one of the better heroes in comics because he lacks any powers. He relies on his brain and his (admittedly huge) resource pool. Since the release of the Dark Knight, he has seen a resurgence of exposure and quality. The Batman Arkham games are of course fantastic (have them), but that's not to say earlier games didn't have any batman. Batman on the NES is an excellent hero game and very high quality game on its own merit (but the addition of Batman makes it better).

Already Looking Good

A shout out to the fellows at Screwattack.com for bringing this game to my attention. It's a good quality action platformer featuring a totally recognizable Batman. In fact, the graphics overall were quite excellent for the NES; sprites were well defined and the level changes feature cut-scenes. (Spoiler Alert!)

Those are big spoilers

The game was released around the same time as the first batman movie (By Tim Bourton) so it was meant to be a tie in. Fortunately, the game makers avoided the rookie mistake of sticking to closely to the movie. They did there own thing while making it a decidedly batman game with a few nods to the movie thrown in (The Joker wields a comically over-sized pistol). The game plays and controls well and batman has some nice moves. He can wall jump, which is necessary for some really ingenious platforming, and can attack with four different weapons: the Batarang, a missile launching pistol (?), some kind of shuriken launcher which isn't that useful, and BATMAN. That's right, when you run out of ammo (which happens, your weapons draw from one ammo pool), you BATMAN your enemies to death. It's really just punching, but it's Batman punching. It's actually a useful move since attacks stun the enemies and you can attack while jumping to an occupied platform.

Punching and wall jumping

Batarang, second best weapon.

As I was saying (before being distracted by Batman) the game controls well. If you take damage, it is usually your own fault. Some of the enemies do come at you unexpectedly, but you can remember where those ones are. The game can be difficult, but most of that difficulty is reserved for the boss fights. The normal enemies don't present much of a challenge. Notable exceptions: these mutants who bounce around like toads and never leave you alone, and these robot spawners attached to the ceiling where you can't hit them. Other than that, the game is pretty fair; no insta-death pits and no floating Medusa heads. You get infinite continues, which is always good, and the check point system is pretty forgiving. Batman is a rock solid NES title that let you feel like Batman way before the next gen games did.