This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on September 21st, 2019.
Hello, and
welcome to PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of an
odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or
Neutral. Now, let’s go!
Today is
Batman Day, and this year is the 80th anniversary of the Dark
Knight. The Bat-Signal will appear in many cities across the globe tonight,
though Pittsburgh, one of the most Batman-related cities, is not one of them.
In honor of Batman Day, today I’m reviewing Batman
Forever: The Arcade Game.
Batman Forever: The Arcade Game is an
arcade beat ‘em up released by Acclaim Entertainment and developed by Probe
Entertainment and Iguana Entertainment. The game came to the arcade in May of
1996 and followed on Saturn, PlayStation, and PC in the winter. It also came
out in Europe and Japan a bit later. The game is based on the 1995 film
starring Val Kilmer.
Confusingly,
Acclaim released another game based on the same film. That game was just called
Batman Forever and came out in 1995
for SNES, Game Boy, Genesis, and Game Gear. Everyone I knew growing up had it.
For some reason, it was basically like Mortal
Kombat. I hated when kids would pop that game in only to see the dreary
sludge of Gotham and some dopey dudes to slowly fight. This game looks pretty action-packed,
so it must be better, right?
The cover
art is subtle but kind of neat. It looks like a Goosebumps book. The dark purples and blue are enchanting and
remind me of the Batman toy
commercials of the 1990s. The composition, unfortunately, isn’t particularly
inspired, though: it’s just Batman mugging for the camera as he swoops down
from a skyscraper in the night. His facial expression isn’t exactly menacing
either. Other than differences in the placement and display of the text, the
cover art is the same in all regions. Everyone got this degree of genericity.
Graphically,
the game isn’t far off from the cover art. The game features pre-rendered
sprites and backgrounds, all going for a look from the film. Though it’s not
that Mortal Kombat sort of thing that
was going on in the other Batman Forever
game, it’s similar. The game is really dark and dreary, and that’s not ideal
with how much stuff flies across the screen at all times in Batman Forever: The Arcade Game. Just
like those toy commercials I mentioned with the falling blocks, enemies and
hazards burst out of the very flat background unexpectedly. The game lags with
how many enemies, explosions, and special effects occur, especially with two
players. The characters are pixelated and mushy too, so it can be hard to see
what’s going on. Some of the effects are decent for the time with enemies
flying into or appearing from the foreground some 3D background objects. With
the rest of the game looking so messy though, it just clogs it up further. Batman Forever: The Arcade Game is not a
great game to look at.
Batman Forever: The Arcade Game is not a
great game to hear either. Sound effects are very flat and seem a bit delayed.
Punches and kicks aren’t particularly forceful, and explosions sound cheesy.
The voice-overs are really ridiculous, the voice-actor trying to do the gruff
Batman gravel voice and not really pulling it off (these might be clips from
the film actually). The voice samples sound muffled and unclear too. The musick
is pretty bad, featuring the kind of musical sounds you expect but played a
little off in some way. I think the big culprits are the shrieking synth horns
and thin guitars. It’s kind of interesting because it’s so weird. That’s true
for the actual gameplay as well.
Batman Forever: The Arcade Game is a
confusing game to play. As mentioned, the game is not exactly easy to look at,
and that graphical uncertainty translates to uncertain gameplay. While the
controls are simple with one button each to punch, kick, and jump, moving
Batman and Robin about a pre-rendered Gotham full of pixelated goons is not as
simple. Unlike Double Dragon or Final Fight, Batman Forever: The Arcade Game has the enemies appear suddenly out
of doors or out of holes. It’s hard to keep up with everything that appears.
Our heroes can get stuck doing long combos too, so sometimes you feel sort of
glued into one area while four weirdos creep up on you. Batman and Robin also
power up by picking up a ton of different power-ups that litter the screen like
Pittsburgh after a Toby Keith concert. It’s not always clear what you are
picking up, and it’s often followed by a scene where Batman or Robin rise up
into the air and power up with lightning. It’s a really over-the-top effect
like some shonen fighting anime. Sometimes you end up invincible, invisible, or
able to do crazy combos. Sometimes bats fly around and attack the enemies.
Other times, you are rewarded with a new gadget which is used by pushing the
punch button. Gadgets range from Batarangs to grappling hooks to a taser. These
can be good, but it’s also often a surprise that you have obtained a weapon.
You can obtain a selection of powerups after each stage by accomplishing tasks
like defeating the most enemies, activating the most Bat-Signals, or getting the
highest score. This is a decent idea, but it suffers by two issues: these
factors are only really a thing in two-player mode (otherwise there is no one
to compete with, so you always get most of them) and you can only select one to
take into the next level. It only really matters that you get the one you want.
Since there are so many and there are no instructions as to what the Crime
Buster Bonus or Hero Bonus does in-game though, I often had to look in the
manual to figure it out as I soon ran out of time.
My biggest
criticism of Batman Forever: The Arcade
Game has to be how fragile Batman and Robin are. Enemies can fell our
heroes with one or two combo attacks. This isn’t fun, it isn’t really obvious
that this is happening, and it’s lame to feel so stun-locked. Since everything
is so murky and there is no button to block, this happens too often. I feel
like the Caped Crusader should be more durable than that.
From the
weird opening cutscene showing some pieces of vehicles or machines to the messy
gameplay, Batman Forever: The Arcade Game
is no technical masterpiece. The game relishes in excesses but hasn’t gotten
its fundamentals down yet. It has the Super Combo Attacks down but doesn’t
understand how to make the match feel fun or how to make the player feel in
control. I really can’t recommend this game at all, though all of the crazy
stuff going in is at least somewhat interesting to look at. Batman Forever: The Arcade Game does
make want to play the game a bit, at least to actually finish it. It’s kind of
exhilarating if ultimately shallow and stupid. If only the developers had taken
time to polish the basic gameplay, this could have been a real winner.
Batman Forever: The Arcade Game receives
a Neutral.
Comments
Post a Comment