Batman: Arkham Asylum

Directed By: Sefton Hill
Written By: Paul Dini
Voice Cast:
Kevin Conroy
Mark Hamill
Arleen Sorkin
Kimberly Brooks
Tom Kane

“Welcome to the madhouse Batman! I set a trap and you sprung it gloriously!” – Joker

Batman Arkham Asylum comes after a slew of subpar Batman games and in 2009 we Batman fans finally got the videogame we deserved and the one we needed.

Batman takes Joker to Arkham Asylum after he foils yet another one of his mad plots. After handing joker over to the Arkham guards he decides that something’s not right, that he gave up too easily, he was right. Joker gets loose and with the help of Harley Quinn completely takes over the asylum and lets free all of its inhabitants. It takes the saying of the inmates taking over the asylum to feverishly new heights.

This is everything a Bat-fan can hope for in a game based on the caped crusader. My favorite Bat-scribe Paul Dini was hired to script the game which tiled the game into my favor even before it was released.

There is a great combat system in place (the free flow combat system). You can beat criminals up in style, just as Batman would. You can also utilize Batman’s predatory stealth abilities and use the shadows to strike terror into the hearts of the inmates. There is a feature called detective mode which can be turned on at any time to see more than the naked eye and get info on your surroundings, you can even see enemies heart rates and if they are: calm, terrified etc. These combines to make you really become the “The Worlds Greatest Detective”.

Detective Mode

Through the years I began to lose hope that a great Batman game would ever be released. I owned Batman: Vengeance (the game based on Batman: The Animated Series), a good game but lacking to some degree and there was the game based on Batman Begins which I never played but didn’t hear much good things. So I wasn’t expecting anything amazing to come from any Batman game.

Freeflow Combat

The greatest superhero game up until 2009 was Spider-Man 2 (based on the movie) which I saw as the pinnacle of the superhero gaming genre. By the time 2009 rolled around and the trailer for Batman: Arkham Asylum started making the rounds, I thought wow this looks really good! When I finally got my hands on the game I was fully blown away. The main voice actors from Batman: T.A.S on voice duty, Paul Dini writing and Rocksteady on stellar form this game was such a joy to play through from start to finish.

As great as the character design is and the voice actors are in there respective roles, maybe the best character is Arkham Asylum itself with its meticulous gothic architecture and design that really evokes a dark and creepy atmosphere. It’s really something to behold, as you have free roam of the iconic madhouse from Bat-lore.

The map is jam packed with Easter eggs relating to the Batman mythos. Most of these can be found while completing the Riddler side story that runs throughout the game where you have to solve riddles and find trophies.

All the boss fights are well designed and fun. A standout is the Scarecrow’s fear toxin induced nightmare sequences. By far the best in the game is the Killer Croc battle which depending on how you react to horror movies might just scare the piss out of you, but at the least will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

This game is phenomenal and you don’t need to be a Batman fan to love it. (Although you will definitely appreciate it more if you are). This is an outstanding game in its own right not just a fantastic superhero game.

10/10 – Cody

10/10 – Michael

  8/10 – Matthew

10/10 – John

   N/A – Jason

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Top 10 Favorite Superhero Movies

Cody’s Top 10 Superhero Movies.

The Dark Knight Rises

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

 

Written by:

Christopher Nolan

Jonathan Nolan

 

Story By:

Christopher Nolan

David S. Goyer

 

Starring:

Christian Bale

Tom Hardy

Gary Oldman

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Anne Hathaway

Marion Cotillard

Morgan Freeman

Michael Caine

I am vengeance!… I am the night!… I am Batman! – Batman (From: Batman: The Animated Series)

It’s humiliating to admit Batman has his limits. That none of my abilities makes any difference if the mark doesn’t believe – Batman (From:The Hill)

I am Bane — and I could kill you… but death would only end your agony — and silence your shame. Instead, I will simply… BREAK YOU!’ – Bane (From: Knightfall)

Christopher Nolan does a decent job of bringing his Dark Knight trilogy to a close 

Batman being my favorite hero/superhero since I was very young and watching Batman Begins and The Dark Knight in Cinemas when they came out and even going as far as to go to the Batman Begins/The Dark Knight Double Feature in cinema on the Eve of The Dark Knight Rises opening night.

On opening night in the cinema, there was me, front of the line ( I had showed up really early to make sure I was at the front) with my ticket in hand (which I was compelled to buy well in advance) wearing my batman t-shirt so excited to see this film.

I can tell you now after sitting through the 160 minute runtime I was surprisingly underwhelmed.

There are things in this movie that hindered my enjoyment such as plot holes, (which I will not get into as there are spoilers) and Tom Hardy’s Bane voice.

Bane I found to be an interesting villain but I thought the Bane Voice was off-putting, and kinda sounds like hes constipated the whole time (some people found his voice hard to understand, I myself did not have the same problem).
Tom Hardy’s screen presence as Bane is very good however and he manages to do a lot of acting with just his eyes.

Christian Bale does a solid job of playing an older Bruce Wayne a man who now feels that there is nothing else out in the the world for him now that he has hung up his Cape and Cowl.

Catwoman is an interesting character who is played really well by Anne Hathaway although i prefer Michelle Pfeiffer turn as Catwoman in Tim Burton‘s 1992 film Batman Returns. I think Anne Hathaway is better as Selina Kyle rather than here alter ego.Her backstory isn’t gone into in much detail but I feel she is meant to be a little mysterious. But really she’s not even Catwoman, shes either “The Cat” or the “Cat-burglar” which I mean come on Chris are you ashamed of the character i really don’t understand why she can’t be Catwoman. But i digress.

Although Bane isn’t as great a villain as The Joker, Heath Ledger played that role perfectly and he was a near impossible act to follow, Tom Hardy was up to the challenge.

All in all I do think The Dark Knight Rises is alright, but I like it less and less with every viewing. I think we all expected a bit too much from this movie, things that it couldn’t possibly deliver, but that doesn’t make me any less disappointed.

 6/10 – Cody

10/10 – Michael

 6/10 – Matthew

 7/10 – Jason

 9/10 – John

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