NIDZUMI+

I am by no means a comic book fan, I think in my entire life I have owned maybe two or three total and that was during middle school. My superhero fandom extends to the movies and even those I approach with something akin to taking a radiation shower so when Batman Arkham Asylum came out I was cautious to even think about playing as a man who wears a cape and his underwear on the outside of his clothing. Considering that I can now honestly say, I was surprised by Arkham Asylum as I found my self enjoying just about every second of it.

The game opens up with Batman breaking just about every single traffic law that exists in the streets of Gotham city with the Joker sitting in the back seat of the Batmobile as they speed towards Arkham Asylum so that the purple suited clown can be locked up…for about the millionth time… in the equivalent of a loony bin. Once they arrive Batman turns Joker over to the authorities so that they can process him. Obviously this is a bad idea but since the bat is just such a smart guy he decides to follow Joker while he gets processed.

I was surprised by Arkham Asylum as I almost enjoyed every second

Now I’m all for cinematic openings but after about ten minutes of walking at a very slow pace listening to Joker babble on about surprises it made me long for a skip button. After a while the lights go out and SURPRISE the Joker has somehow escaped his restraints and is on the loose. Good thing Batman decided not to just go home, right…

The game is packed with what I am led to believe are all the famous Batman “super villains”. Prominent among them of course is Joker though we do see appearances from Poison Ivy, Victor Zsasz, A very large steroid packing hulk look-a-like who is apparently named Bane, Joker’s girlfriend Harley Quinn (who for some reason is dressed like a cheap prostitute) and a giant green man who is in some serious need of lotion aka Killer Croc.

With all of these psycho super villains you would think that the game would have some pretty epic boss fights, this is not the case though as most of these “Boss” fights revolve around beating the hell out of a few regular enemies which is followed by a cutscene where Batman beats the tar out of the main villain. We are allowed to fight a few of the larger villains with Poison Ivy easily the only one that actually feels like a Boss Fight.

Luckily doing all this feel natural due to the tightly tuned controls. They just feel great and while it’s strange, it’s actually refreshing to be able to press two buttons and see Batman wail on his enemies in various ways. It has the effect of making you feel like you mastered a complicated series of combos, when in actuality, you are far from it.

The controls make you feel like you’ve mastered complicated combos

Both the Graphics and the audio are all top notch, Batman’s cape flows naturally while he runs and jumps through the game. The voice over’s sound like the original voices from the cartoons and the Joker set himself aside from the very beginning as a madman, by his voice alone.

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows however as Arkham proves itself to be a very confusing place, on more than one occasion I became lost to the point of going around in circles trying to figure out what to do next. About halfway through the game I encountered an area where the goal was to save a doctor and a security guard who has found themselves tied up behind an electrified door and the Joker is going to pump “happy gas” into the room unless you save them within two minutes, that’s all the information you get. When you pair up a time limit with unclear directions things get annoying fast and you find yourself cursing the developers for not giving you any clues on how you can save them. While this doesn’t make Arkham bad, it just makes you feel stupid.

Once the story is beaten it unlocks a new game type named challenge mode. A fairly simple premise, where you fight your way through waves of enemies in memorable areas from the single player. While fun this game type isn’t going to keep your copies of Halo and Call of Duty on the shelves collecting dust but it will provide you some extra chances to smash the attack button and watch Batman do some great combos, which is arguably the appeal of Arkham Asylum.

This is the first time that a game has gotten Batman right and I’m more than eager to see if the next super hero game will be just as fun as Arkham Asylum. It’s easy to love the way breaking our thumb on the X button makes you feel but after the first play through, only the hardcore fans of Batman will find longevity. Sure the controls are great and the graphics and audio are top notch but it simply lacks that extra punch that makes me want to go back for more. Batman Arkham Asylum will provide you with a great distraction from Halo 3 ODST and Call of Duty 4 but that’s really all this game is; a distraction.