• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

History of Batman Video Games

Batman: The Animated Series on Gameboy was my introduction to gaming as a 6 year old kid.

I don't ever remember getting past the very beginning of the Mr. Freeze level (Third level, I believe), but god damn, that was the best game ever.
 
Batman-label.jpg


Batman_Arkham_Asylum_Videogame_Cover.jpg


ArkhamCity.jpg




all one needs to know

10/10
 
I played the fuck out of Batman Forever on SNES even though I knew it was poop. It actually had some pretty good music.

Great retrospective though, enough that I want to send in grammar edits because it's definitely an evergreen post. I wish it covered the Game.com Batman & Robin game if only for Batman's lulzy orgasm noises: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hpjOF7Mng
 
He is missing this Batman game on the Gameboy (came out long before the TAS game).

I used to love that game though it's pretty silly. Reminded me of Super Mario Land except you were Batman and for some reason you had a gun and shot people to death with it's giant blob bullets.
 
Adventures of Batman & Robin was where it was at. I definitely preferred the SNES version over the Genesis. I never played the Sega CD version.

Edit: Wow, there were a lot of awful Batman games in the PS2/GCN/XBox era. Rocksteady really turned around an abysmal license.
 
"Critical reception: Well I watched this youtube video for a couple minutes and I thought it looked kind of lame so it must have sucked."

Hooray, games journalism!
 
Is it Batman Rise of Sin Tzu any good? I like beat'em ups but I don't want to play a bugfest...
 
The only one I remember was the Batman game that looked like Mortal Kombat. I used to think Batman was an unlockable character in MK2 just because it was so similar looking.

What a weird game to make.
 
When I was a kid my best friend and I played the shit out of Batman: Vengeance. It was based off the animated series. It wasn't the most solid game, but we had tons of fun playing it. It was the first Batman game I played that incorporated the ability to glide with Batman's cape. Also, there was this sweet freefall mechanic in certain parts of the game, where you would have to jump after someone, freefall down to catch them, then use your grappling hook to save them. The final fight with Joker actually had him jumping out of a zeppelin and you needed to avoid him shooting you while skydiving after him. My friend and I use to have challenges to see how close we could get to the streets of Gotham before saving him.

http://youtu.be/lD0KCf17FCQ
 
Batman Returns on the SNES was fantastic. Arkham Asylum was amazing as well, so those are my two favorite Batman games. I still have to play Arkham City so I'm sure I'm going to like it if it's anything like AA.
 
stuminus3 said:
He is missing this Batman game on the Gameboy (came out long before the TAS game).

I used to love that game though it's pretty silly. Reminded me of Super Mario Land except you were Batman and for some reason you had a gun and shot people to death with it's giant blob bullets.
Click to expand...

It took me about 10 years worth of plane rides to beat this game. This games, the Jurassic Park game, and that Looney Toons side scroller were all tough as hell as a kid.
 
I think Probe Entertainment developed Batman Forever, and they worked on Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II for the Genesis. I played BF on SNES but I was pretty terrible at it and never made it past the circus level. It never ever dawned on me until AVGN did a video on Batman games around the release of The Dark Knight that it used MK controls.
 
hmmm didn't like every major gaming site do something like this when AA was coming out?

Anyhow, favorite batman was still probably the nes one. Wasn't that great, but was pretty memorable.
 
90sRobots said:
I played the hell out of Batman: TAS on a Tiger Electronics handheld.

Tiger-BatmanTheAnimatedSeries.jpg


Fuck you, it was a birthday present.
Click to expand...
Those were cool, I had the Megaman one. *brofist*

No love for Return Of The Joker GB?
9iaxt.jpg

I still hold a grudge against the Joker fight on hard. Me and my friends never beat it.
 
Man, the one where you had to find the missing pieces of the Batmobile in order to escape the batcave to rescue Robin. That's just...pathetic. lol
 
Batman Forever on Super NES had the most chillingly dark atmosphere of probably anything on the system, or even the 16-bit era for that matter. DKC-style rendered graphics and incredibly suspenseful music. Check it.
 
The adventures of Batman and Robin on SEGA CD was great, an extra episode for The Animated Series.

Likewise Batman Brave and the Bold for Wii was extra four episodes of that show with a good and solid Way Forward beat-em-up and standard charm. The DS version of the game was easier, but enough to remind me of the NES game in a "easier" charming way with the best final boss fight of any Batman game (don't spoil it for yourself, just play the game to find out).

The three games listed above need and deserve far more love.

Batman for ZX Spectrum is still great, it wasn't what anyone expected but still a great game to change things at the time and stood out for it's isometric view. The non-Batman remake for modern PCs is good too.
 
The SNES Adventures of Batman and Robin game deserves a lot more credit. It's only a side scrolling beat em up in the first stage. What made that game special is that every stage was a unique gameplay idea; each one had a different gimmick but it all felt unified.

Plus it had amazing animation, super tight gameplay, and some of the best visuals on the SNES taken as a whole.

IMO it was tied with the famed NES Batman game until the modern Rocksteady franchise.
 
sixghost said:
It took me about 10 years worth of plane rides to beat this game. This games, the Jurassic Park game, and that Looney Toons side scroller were all tough as hell as a kid.
Click to expand...

Batman for the Gameboy was a glaring omission.

Protip: on the Plane stage 3-2, there's an area right below the gun turret of the boss where no bullet can hit you. Just park the Batwing there and hold the A button. Found it myself, I'm that hardcore. Got all the batarang, batshield, speed capsule by the time I reached Joker.
 
jooey said:
no

no

no
Click to expand...
Lol, yep, my thoughts 10 seconds in.

It's really not that hard to get a complete list of games released nowdays, and yet this 'history' misses many and combines completely different games as one (Revenge/Return of the Joker etc).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Are even great video games a product of their time?
29
72
ToneyJ replied
A History of Arcade Wrestling Games
Opinion Analysis Retro 
0
195
RAIDEN1 replied
Best Thunderstorms In Video Games
2
86
1K
Polaris replied
Ever wondered if the 'official' history of gaming is actually just a bunch of myths and lies?"
2 3
126
1K
Geometric-Crusher replied
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight - Reviews Thread
40
464
BlackTron replied
Top Bottom