Batman: The Movie (Amiga)

SIX PART BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1989) SPECIAL, part 1.

There were at least six different games released to tie in with the 1989 Tim Burton movie, and this seems to be the first of them, released for home computers. Each computer got a different looking version to suit the hardware available, but they're basically the same thing. I think.

Either way I'm only playing the Amiga version, with its majestic array of bat-symbols on the title screen.

The title music's catchy, but doesn't sound anything like the movie. Also the composer thought it'd be a good idea to use "What are you?" "I'm Batman" voice samples from the film.

The Axis chemical plant. I've been playing for 2 seconds and already I'm being shot at. It'd be nice if I could dodge these bullets, but Batman moves like he's Robocop. He can't even jump, just slowly stomp left and right.

The music's nice though. Nothing like the movie but it definitely suits it.

Oh thanks mate. First your friend shoots me in the ass, now I've got you throwing grenades at my head. You do see all the warning signs on the tanks of deadly chemicals we're surrounded by right?

Batman's face (which seems to be peering out of his belt buckle) is deforming as he takes damage. He's starting to get a few green hairs.

Fortunately Batman has a handy grappling hook to get around. Which also makes me an easy target for these assholes in green coats throwing grenades down at me.

I'm just lucky they all decided to wear coloured coats to indicate what weapon they're carrying or else I wouldn't know what I was dealing with.

Hey grenade man, how do you like it when people throw stuff at you? It's not nice is it? Maybe you'll be more considerate of others in the future.

Well actually he doesn't really have much of a future, as one batarang hit was all it took to knock him off the level, plummeting to an inevitable death. He's Tim Burton's Batman, he can kill people all he wants.

It took me so many tries to swing across this gap. Each time I'd miss by inches, fall down the hole, and have to go all the way around to climb back up.

And then I realised I could just pull up and climb onto the ledge. Like I've done with every other ledge I've grappled onto. Duh.

Now I'm getting more efficient with my kills. I took those two goons out on the level above, then immediately dropped down to take out the next one. It would have looked more impressive if I hadn't been shot a couple of times while doing it.

I think it would be fair to say that this game is pretty difficult.

Okay, that's hardly fair. That guy on the bottom left just walked in from the same direction I came from. I guess he must have been hiding. These enemies aren't infinite but they like to appear from behind and shoot me in the back every now and again.

Fortunately I don't drop from the rope when I'm shot, I just fall down a little. Unfortunately though I just lost the last bit of my health.

Huh, I start here now, the game has checkpoints? Oh thank fuck the game has checkpoints!


87 SECONDS LATER.

Crap. I was kind of hoping there'd be a ledge underneath me when I dropped down. Back to the checkpoint then.

You know, it's bad enough that this guy just threw a grenade at my feet and killed my last Batman. But he couldn't even be bothered to watch! He just threw the grenade and walked away, like defeating the Dark Knight is just a minor inconvenience to him.

When I get back here I'm going to give him bat-nightmares for the rest of his life.

The Joker finds it funny that I died before I got up to the part when I turn him into the Joker.

Okay, let's try this again. From the start.

I'm really bad at this.

I had to swing over a chasm onto a ledge on the other side. I managed to get the grappling hook to fire diagonally, but I didn't quite manage to swing all the way across on my first go... and he swung back, hit the ledge I'd started on, and let go of the rope.

Oh come on, how was I supposed to dodge that?

Where's my diagonally firing weapons? Can't I at least fire a grappling hook at his face?

And this time I make the swing!

I just need to let go at the right point now or else I'll swing back into that wall and fall to my death.

Man, this game is going to give me a phobia of green trenchcoats.

Okay I'm not screwing around any more now. Batman takes damage if he collides with an enemy, but enemies die in one hit, so I'm going to kill this grenade flinging son of a bitch by just walking into him.

Hey, that guy on the right is wearing a grey coat... oh crap, that's Jack Napier! BOSS FIGHT!

Okay maybe not a boss fight, he went down as easy as anyone else.

Well at least he had something to break his fall.

YES, I DID IT, I FINALLY BEAT LEVEL ONE!

And then I screwed up before I could grab any screenshots of the next level. But thanks to the miracle of cheat mode, I can level-skip back again.

This driving level is somehow even more annoying than the last one. It's hard to avoid hitting cars unless I slow right down, because this Batmobile does not like to turn, but it's hard to avoid falling asleep out of boredom without speeding up.

I get a couple of chances on each section of road to hit a lamppost with my grappling hook and turn the corner, and if I miss them all I hit a police roadblock and it's game over.

And it seems like I have to do this a ridiculous number of times. I managed to get the distance down to around 40 after five or so turns before I got sick of it and turned it off.


Next game.

Part 2: Batman - The Video Game (NES)
Part 3: Batman - The Video Game (Game Boy)
Part 4: Batman - The Video Game (Genesis/Mega Drive)
Part 5: Batman (TurboGrafx-16)
Part 6: Batman (Arcade)