8 Reasons Batman Fans Will Go Bat-Sh*t Crazy for Arkham Asylum

8 Reasons Batman Fans Will Go Bat-Sh*t Crazy for Arkham Asylum

It's NOT a Movie Tie-In

We've got to give Rocksteady Studios a hell of a lot of credit for this one. With today's tech, it would be a lot easier and cheaper to just rip some audio tracks from the Dark Knight and slap them across a re-skin of Batman Begins and go home to count the incoming piles of money. But not Rocksteady Studios. No, these guys luckily noticed that most movie tie-in games at their best can be considered a form of mass terrorism and decided to make Arkham Asylum a completely unique Batman adventure.

Heck, Arkham Asylum: Serious House on a Serious Earth has more to do with this game than any of the Batman films. You should read it. Excellent book.



8 Reasons Batman Fans Will Go Bat-Sh*t Crazy for Arkham Asylum

It's Not Up for Debate: Arkham Asylum is the Best Looking Batman Game Ever

Rocksteady Studios devoted a team of animators to work on Batman's cape. Not the character model, not his costume -- just the freaking CAPE. With that kind of attention to detail, it's no wonder that Arkham Asylum's graphics are a cut above most other next-generation games. Really, this game looks too good to true.

In fact, we've been playing it and found ourselves occasionally muttering, "I can't believe this game looks so good." Every character has a unique, updated design that blends with the scenery better than a team of Navy SEALs blends with a dark forest at night. We kid you not: after a few minutes of playing Arkham Asylum, you'll be wishing that all video game adaptations of beloved comics were handled as well.



8 Reasons Batman Fans Will Go Bat-Sh*t Crazy for Arkham Asylum

It's the Best Thing to Happen to Batman Since Batman Begins/The Dark Knight

Okay, so it hasn't been that long since the Dark Knight hit the silver screen, but think about all the crap that Batman fans have to endure: Gotham City Racer, Dark Tommorow, Rise of Sin Tzu, Chris O' Donnell, bat-nipples. Arkham Asylum may yet be another welcome step in a long trend of not making Batman suck. And at the end of the day, that's something all of us comic books fans can get behind. Especially Reviews Assistant Will Herring, who has threatened severe bodily harm to anyone and anything that's foolish enough to get between him and this game.

4 Other Batman Games That Didn't Bite

  • Batman (1989, NES)
     It wasn't the first Batman game to hit video game shelves, but this loosely movie-based title had plenty of dark atmosphere to please fans of the Caped Crusader.

  • Batman Returns (SNES, 1993)
     Side-scrolling combat was so fun in Batman Returns, you could literally hover in a single screen, flinging baddies into windows and concrete walls.

  • Batman Begins (2005)
     As far as movie tie-ins go, this Batman game boasted impressive graphics as well as deeper plotlines for each of the original movie's iconic scenes.

  • Lego Batman: The Videogame (2008)
     Amazingly, this game crammed in every tool in Batman's utility belt and more sidekicks and villains than any other titles in the franchise's history -- and it worked WELL.

    • Comments [29]

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    Fat_bot

    It's been a long time since there was a really good Batman game. I hope this one can finally pull it off (plus the special edition looks incredible).

    Crunch40

    Seems like a great game, I'll definitely have this game on my radar. BTW, to be completely honest, when I saw the tittle "8 Reasons Batman Fans Will Go Bat-Sh*t Crazy for Arkham Asylum" I almost expected it to have "IT'S NOT ON WII" on this list.(lol, sorry, I couldn't resist)

    neji64

    Yacaman wrote:

    I want it now.
    Finally I hope these guys do Superman next

    SUPERMAN SUX

    dl316bh

    neji64 wrote:

    Yacaman wrote:

    I want it now.
    Finally I hope these guys do Superman next
    SUPERMAN SUX

    That's a bold faced lie.

    To be honest, I used to think the same thing or something similar. Superman was alright for the occasional cool cameo or team-up with the Dark Knight, but nothing overly special and too bland. You know, a perception of the character not too far off from what the general public thinks of the character.

    I've since given the character an honest chance and changed my mind. Really, Superman just needs the right story. There's a lot of potential inherant in the character and when the right creative team is behind the Man of Steel it's simply magic. All Star Superman is just one of many examples. I seriously believe that if more people gave Superman an honest shot, read some of his better stories and just gave an honest effort more people would like him.

    Besides, his power set just begs for video game adaptions. With the sort of abilities he has at his disposal, it's almost asinine that he hasn't had a truly fun video game adaption yet. There's more potential for a great game there than some people want to realize; I'm with whomever said that Rocksteady should take a crack at Superman next.

    ***************

    As a lifelong Batman fan - since I was a little kid and received my first comic with the character right near the beginning of the Knightfall saga - I've been waiting or a game like this. I'm so jacked for the game that it's not even funny. Batman has untold amounts of fantastic stories; it's about time he had a video game equally as great.

    The only game I'm looking forward to anywhere near as much as this is Brutal Legend.

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