Overview:

I really don’t think this is a Batman game.  Or at least I don’t think it started out as one.  Regardless, you take control of the Caped Crusader as he goes through Axis Chemicals defeating all sorts of bad guys and machinery.  You get an assortment of powerups to help you defeat them and the drops are very generous.  Along the way you’ll also have to do some pretty basic platforming and having to actually utilize wall jumps, which is pretty cool.  Again, I don’t think it was a Batman game from the inception.  Its cutscenes are all supposedly based off of ‘89 Batman but in what point in the movie does he ever fight robots and deal with saws and moving platforms.  NES games gotta NES game, I guess.

Visuals:

From this standpoint, Batman does at least invoke a little bit of the movie with the backgrounds looking quasi gothic but that’s where the similarities end.  The enemies all looks like something out of a Konami robot shooter game with none of them looking like 1950’s street toughs.  The aforementioned backgrounds do look gothic but so fantastical with conveyor belts and electricity sparks populating the environment.  The cutscenes look super baller, though.  

Audio:

Move over Danny Elfman, Batman: The Video Game’s soundtrack is the new gold standard.  Not really.  It’s a generic NES game sounding game.  At first I was jamming to the songs but every time I died and had to hear the song for longer, it just wore on me.  Batman’s punches and arsenal of weaponry also sound wimpy and don’t have the proper impact as they should.  The sound leaves something to be desired.

Completion:

I had to stop after my third continue.  I don’t know if the game has unlimited but I just couldn’t play anymore.  I beat the first boss which I found out is nigh impossible if you don’t have a projectile.  I will say that the maps all had a variety from the levels I played.  I wasn’t a fan of the electrical level but I pushed through it.  At least you had to use wall jumping wisely to maneuver.  I got to the boss of the second level which was a machine or something and got to the final “phase” of it before I died.  In which I had to start all over again.  No thank you!