Batman - The Video Game (NES)

SIX PART BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1989) SPECIAL, part 2.

If Batman - The Movie is a video game based on the 1989 Batman movie, is Batman - The Video Game based on the video game of the movie?

I love that Batmobile design, but then who doesn't?

Okay this is a platformer, and I'm actually allowed to jump this time, which is a step up from the Amiga game. He seems to stomp around a bit faster too. No grappling hook though.

The music is nothing like Danny Elfman's Batman score, but it's definitely catchy and suits the game.

Holy shit, I just punched the guy and he vaporised! He exploded into a column of flame and burned away. That seems a bit excessive, even for Tim Burton's Batman.

In the absence of any obvious long range weaponry, it seems I've got to wait for these flamethrower guys to take a break, then race in quick to punch them.

Those are really nice graphics for a NES I reckon. Gritty and stylish. I'm not sure why the R and E are escaping on the THEATRE sign. but other than that I think this game looks great.

Where'd these criminals get little spiky robots from? When walked close to it, it suddenly accelerated at me and I was barely able to jump out of the way in time. It doesn't help that Batman seems to have a delay on his jump.

This is nice though. Batman can wall jump to reach higher platforms pretty easily. Though it turns out that there's nothing actually up here and I'm just wasting my time.

Enemies have been dropping ammo and very occasionally a heart (that heals only ONE UNIT of health), so I started pressing buttons to see if I had any other weapons. And it turns out that I've got batarangs, a rocket gun and some kind of three way shuriken shot.

Weirdly batarangs use up ammo despite flying back to me after I throw them. It's okay though, enemies seem to be dropping enough ammo when they explode to keep me stocked up.

Crap, it's a flying enemy. And I can't fire upwards!

And Batman is burned alive, leaving only ash. Okay I have no idea how to kill these things, they keep flying around out of reach, shooting at me from overhead.

I guess it'll be something for me to think about as I replay the entire level to get back here.

Come down here and fight me you bastard! Or at least hover in front of me so I can use my weapons against you.

Yes! I finally did it! I don't know how I did it, but I killed that flying bastard. And now I may proceed.

Son of a BITCH!


LATER.

Whoa, I caught one of them having a smoke.

Damn it's a boss fight... against a FLYING boss. Get your ass down here so I can hit you!

Oh that's great, thanks for that. And then he swoops back into the air out of reach again.

That's it, I'm just standing here and leaving it running until he gets bored and lands. Seriously.


MUCH LATER.


Okay fine I'll just run out and hit him as he swoops me. Man, I hate the flying enemies in this. They're so much faster than I am, and I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do against them except keep soaking up damage when they swoop down and hope I get a couple of hits in.

Next level! Finally! My reward is another cutscene with the Batmobile, guns blazing.

It was only shooting a hole through a door though. Still, these animated cutscenes are a nice break from the action.

Well, the good news is the acid didn't kill me instantly. The bad news is that it'll almost certainly have killed me before I can wade back over to a platform I can reach.

For some reason my batarangs can fly through walls, though I'm not complaining.

This place is getting very HR Giger looking all of a sudden. Or maybe more like something out of Star Trek.

How the hell does anyone work in this factory anyway? Do they only hire employees who can wall jump?

These things take way too long to break. I'd just leave it there, but I'm sure it'll spit out enemies on my head the second I walk under it.

That thing on the bottom ledge is another robot. This one also races at you, except it explodes too!

I'm starting to feel like Batman's just deliberately taking the stupidest route he can. Any path through a factory that involves conveyor belts and spinning blades is probably the wrong one.

Ow. Batman doesn't tend to want to steer much when he's airborne. I have to make sure to get my aim right when I drop because there's not much I can do when he's falling.

Blades in the ceiling too? That's just a dick move.

Okay I just have to destroy the guns while dodging the bullets and making sure I don't get carried along into the spinning blades by the conveyor belts. Easy.

Though not actually easy enough for me to manage to do it. I got as far as the top conveyor belt, where I was shot by ceiling lasers before I could figure out what I was meant to be doing.


I have to admit that I actually kind of like this game. Batman may be a pain in the ass to control at times, but I soon learned how to compensate for it (mostly), and it helps make the game feel more solid somehow. Even when the game's being an asshole, it's not entirely unfair. Losing all my lives just puts me back to beginning of the level and I have infinite continues (then again, each level has multiple stages.)

I guess I have to give it one of these, though the more I think about it, the less I want to.

Part 1: Batman: The Movie (Amiga)
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)