Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The review article that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. Unless you really are living under a rock, I think you know what’s coming in theatres this week. The long anticipation is finally over, after all the waiting finally… The Well Digger’s Daughter is coming out this week!
Okay, I’ll stop with the silliness. The Dark Knight Rises comes out today. And most likely most of the people reading this have already seen it at midnight last night. The Batman is once again set out to dominate summer once again with the epic conclusion to the Nolan Bat-Trilogy. So, to tie in to this batty day, it’s time to look back at the video game based on the first major Batman film (Well, not the Adam West one), and see if this game is a bonafide classic, or just has bats in its belfry. It’s time to look at the aptly titled Batman: The Video Game.
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1990
PUBLISHER: Sunsoft
GENRE: Action Platformer
The last summer of the 1980’s may easily go down as one of the best film years ever. Within that year saw some of the most popular movies of all time. Everything from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ghostbusters II (depending on if you liked it or not), and so much more came out of that spectacular summer. But no movie dominated the box office like Batman.
The Tim Burton film, and the first major Batman movie that wasn’t just either a serial series or an adaptation of the campy 1960’s series hit theatres on June 23rd, 1989. The film was a major success, raking in over 400 million dollars by the end of its theatrical run, at the time being the highest grossing box office ever. The film was so successful that the VHS copy would be sold mere months later in time for the holidays, a feat that at the time was most unheard of.
Batman was riding high in the film world, so it was only a matter of time until he tackled the world of video games. Sunsoft would get the exclusive rights to Batman video games, and would work on a game loosely based on the hit movie. Not much can be said about the development, though a prototype version was later found with completely different cut-scenes. It would be released in North America in February of 1990, and was a huge hit. Sunsoft would also release games based on the movie for the Game Boy, Sega Genesis, the arcades, to name a few, each game being a completely different experience. So, how does the NES version fare? Let’s go deeper into the batcave.
COVER STORY
A fairly basic cover, but it does the trick. The Batman logo is right in the middle, and is looking great. For anyone familiar with Batman or the film itself, this insignia is definitely an eye-catcher. Other than that, I like the clouds on the bottom, and the general dark tone of the cover. It’s a good example of simple, but effective.
STORY
Gotham City’s bicentennial is rapidly approaching. However, a mysterious clown-faced figure known as The Joker sets out to put a stop to the festivities. The only one who can stop him is another mysterious figure known as Batman. Can the dark knight put a stop to Joker’s schemes and save Gotham?
GAMEPLAY
Batman: The Video Game is a one player action platformer. You control Batman who has to go from level to level defeating enemies as he makes his way to Gotham Cathedral, and his showdown with The Joker. Batman moves with the D-Pad, and can duck with the down button. Jumping is done with the A button, punching or shooting can be executed with the B button, and cycling through weapons is done with the Start button, while the select button is the pause in this game. So other than those two swapped buttons, everything is pretty basic control wise.
Batman has a multitude of weapons at his disposal to take down the many baddies in his way. First off he has his basic punches, which can do damage to most of the enemies in the game. He also has three gadgets that can be used to stop enemies. First is the classic batarang, a short ranged weapon that can be used the quickest, and can damage enemies really quickly. Next is the dart gun, a slower long range shot that can take out trickier enemies from afar. And finally you have the dirk, a three way shot that can do massive damage to far away enemies. These weapons take ammo, which can be seen on the top left of the screen. Batarangs take one ammo, darts take two, and dirks can take three.
There are several items that can help you restore both your health and your ammo. First off is the hearts that will give you one hit point. Then there are missile icons, which will restore 10 ammo. Lastly is the useless B icons, which will just add points to your score, which can be seen in the pause screen. There are no 1-ups in the game, despite original plans for there to be. You get three lives and unlimited continues to help you along the way, so you have a better chance at survival.
Batman also uses another special ability to platform through the level, and that’s his ninja-like ability to wall jump. When you jump, and get close to a wall, pressing A again will have Batman cling to the wall, and leap again. This becomes vital in succeeding in the game. You also have to know the best method for jumping as well, the difference between a long held in jump, and a quick tap jump is definitely a life or death situation in this game.
The game is broken into five levels, each ranging from familiar territory from the film, and others being pretty random choices. You go from the streets of gotham, to a chemical plant (unsure if it’s supposed to be the Axis plant from the movie), then to the sewers of gotham, to a factory, and finally the Gotham city cathedral. Each level is broken into around 2-3 stages before the boss battle occurs.
The game has some strange enemy choices. Instead of going for more obvious movie choices like clown goons, or gangsters, you get cyber soldiers, robotic mines, giant jumping beast men, and so forth. While this does make for more variety than what the movie gave us, there’s still a feel that this strays a bit too far from the film. You will also face five bosses as well, none being from the film. Killer Moth, The Electrocutioner, and Firebug are human bosses, and the other two are robotic security systems that can do massive damage as well.
And finally, there’s the Joker himself, who can be a tough boss if you aren’t prepared. He has two methods of attack, one is his giant gun from the movie, which can whittle your health fast. Next is his uncanny ability to summon lightning, which certainly wasn’t from the movie. He can be one of the hardest bosses on the NES if you don’t have some luck and full health on your side.
The game has solid control, though I do find there is some mild hit detection issues. The game can be difficult, but compared to far harder games like Ninja Gaiden, or Battletoads, it’s fairly in the middle when it comes to super NES difficulty. You should manage to beat it after a few plays. There are no saves or passwords, but as mentioned previously, you have unlimited continues, although you come back with very few ammo points, making things a tad tougher. Still, if you’re bad enough a Batman to take on the task, this should be a walk in the park.
GRAPHICS
The game has excellent graphics. Character sprites are well detailed, and the backgrounds are all really well designed as well, doing their best to give off that murky, Gotham City feel. The game has several cut-scenes that are all look great, and for the most part try to capture moments from the movie (though the ending is certainly a bit arguable). Sunsoft was hitting their mark at this point, so it’s no surprise that their graphical quality on this game would be top notch.
MUSIC
The game has fantastic music, easily some of the best on the console. A solid mix of dark and brooding, with enough action and excitement in them. While the game doesn’t use the classic Danny Elfman theme, what you do get is still some of Sunsoft’s best. My personal favorite is the level 4 theme. There will definitely be some ear candy for anyone who gives this soundtrack a listen.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Batman: The Video Game is one of the best licensed games on the NES easily. While it may not fully follow the movie’s flow that well, what you get is still a solid game with decent control, great graphics, excellent music, and a near perfect difficulty. It’s definitely the best Batman game on the NES, with the sequel Return of the Joker being a close second. There’s also the Konami title Batman Returns, but we’ll get into that one in the future. But if you can pick this one up, you should. It’s a quality game that will not drive you batty.
RATING: Thumbs Up