Batman (Arcade)

SIX PART BATMAN: THE MOVIE (1989) SPECIAL, part 6.

"I'm Batman."

It's the Batman music! The actual Danny Elfman Batman music from the actual movie, finally! It sounds a bit ass, but it's good enough for me.

"Be careful"? Bit of a weird sound clip for the start of the game. I guess they already used "I'm Batman."

And I'm back to walking right and punching people. This time Batman holds his cape across him while he walks. I guess he's probably a bit cold, it is the middle of the night.

I have two moves, jump and attack, and I can do a super jump to get onto a roof or ledge. Enemies don't actually seem to want to hit me, if they walk into me I just get bumped backwards.

Eventually they'll pull out a gun or a knife and start attacking though.

His cape looks cool when he falls, but I sadly I can't use it to glide. I can't double jump either.

I can't even fill cowardly and superstitious criminal's hearts with fear, as they don't seem bothered by my presence at all. But I can knock them out in one punch so it's alright. Even if I jump at an enemy, Batman will automatically do a flying kick and knock them out.

Crap, I thought that set of bat logos down at the bottom left was my health, but this guy just killed me in one shot. It seems that I've actually only got three hits before I'm dead.

"Shields open."

Hey, he didn't retract the shields the whole way, there's still a bit left covering the cockpit. That's dangerous that is, it's obscuring his vision.

Batman has snapped, and has suddenly started massacring motorists on the streets of Gotham. It's okay though, he has to blow up the cars or else he'll drive into them and take damage.

This is definitely way better than the driving sequence in the Amiga version. For one thing it hasn't sent me to sleep yet.

Back at the Axis Chemical Plant again. This time there's no robots, no rocket launchers, no laser turrets. Just goons and guns.

The graphics in this are weirdly inconsistent in quality I reckon. Batman himself looks pretty well drawn most of the time, but the enemies aren't always up to the same standard.

I may have overestimated Batman's ability to jump.

Fortunately this level is filled with gadgets for me to use, like gas grenades, batarangs and the grappling hook to reach high ledges, so I'll find another way around.

This vat of acid is weirdly lacking in detail compared to the last one, but it's no less deadly. Except I can't fall in, so it is in fact 100% less deadly. But whatever.

Oh no, a tiny drop of acid!

"Nice outfit."

I finally reach Jack Napier, who still hasn't learned his lesson from the last few games and is hanging around next to a vat of acid. All I have to do now is keep knocking him backwards without being hit three times.

Oh crap, he fell in the acid! Someone should probably do something to save the poor man's life! Batman on the other hand is making a speedy exit via grappling hook through the ceiling.

"Daddy's going to make some art, darling."

The Joker soon gets his revenge on the next level with an exploding jack in the box. I should probably kill these things from a distance next time.

Hey, did that henchman just burst through a painting? The poor guy must have gone to all the trouble of carving out a chunk of the wall just so he could hide there for hours waiting to get the jump on Batman, and then the Dark Knight gets himself blown up before he can leap out.

I took a break from the action to have a rail balancing contest against the guy in green. Obviously I won, I'm Batman. Look at that perfectly balanced pose, I could keep this up all day.

Well, actually only 77 more seconds.

Damn, these balloons are a pain in the ass, I just can't seem to dodge them.

Oh wait, I can just throw a batarang at them from across the screen. Duh.

"The pen is truly mightier than the sword."

Shut up Joker, have some gas grenades. If I can keep him off balance I might be able to knock him all the way to the end with these and not have to risk getting close to punch him.

Batman makes a heroic exit, running away from the Joker's goons. Sadly though he seems to have lost his shading.

I thought Batman was supposed to break in, release the kidnapped civilians, then take down all the criminals. Not drop by, grab the prisoner, then run for his life. Commissioner Gordon will not be impressed.

Then after some more driving (this time against cars firing missiles), I ran into some roadworks and had to stop. I guess Vicki Vale went home, or maybe she's still in the car.

As far as I can tell, this may be the only ladder in the entire game, so it's possible that they drew all those frames of climbing animation just for this.

There's even an animated sequence going on in that window down there, with someone apparently being threatened at gunpoint. Batman's apparently too busy to go in there and sort that out through.

Crap, I fell off! Now I have to go climb the bloody ladder again.

"He's stealing my balloons!"

Batwing time! Grabbing balloons and shooting helicopters. Unfortunately for the Joker's goons, Batman's in a hurry, so we're using lethal force.

Joker, at last we meet again. And this time there's nowhere to run!

Oh crap, he's running away again!

I guess I'll go follow him then.

Is it just me, or are these graphics not quite as good as in those other levels? I guess there's not much you can do with bricks.

Whoa, flame thrower glasses. That doesn't even make sense, but whatever.

This time I've brought plenty of batarangs to throw, so this ends right now!

Well he ran away again.

It took me way too long to realise that I could dodge these falling bells by stepping backwards, instead of trying to get in front of them.

Yes... I finally got enough points to get an extra life! Oh I see how it works now, the complete bat symbols are the lives, and the one with a chunk missing is the health bar. Pretty blatantly obvious now that I think about it.

Oh, plus I've finished the game, which is also cool.

Well that's probably the most interesting and fitting picture you could have for the end of a Batman game really. Bruce Wayne grinning and Vicki Vale looking bored, standing in front of a bookcase full of dull brown books.

And now I'm all out of Batman 1989 games. I hope.

I think the Game Boy one was actually my favourite, followed by the NES version, followed by this. The Amiga one I'd put dead last, because that is just a pain in the ass. But to be honest, this is a fairly decent set of licensed games. It was worth playing them just for the music.

Part 1: Batman: The Movie (Amiga)
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)