Batman : The Caped Crusader

Copyright : Ocean Software | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Gotham City...Threatened now by the lawless exploits of those two arch criminals...The Penguin and The Joker. The situation is becoming critical...in the Batcave Batman figures out a plan to first put an end to the determined squawkings of that overweight birdbrain, The Penguin.
Later, at the Gotham City fairground Batman hears the cries for help from his colleague Robin...but wait...the fairground...the ghost train...the fun house...an awesome revelation, a terrifying truth begins to emerge...this could only be the work of the Joker.

Graphics

Having first played Batman: The Caped Crusader on my original Amstrad CPC 464 back in mid 1990 on a GT65 (Green Screen) monitor I can honestly say that having now looked at the game in colour we poor unfortunate green screeners didn?t miss anything. The graphics still remain at top quality with some excellent ideas and superb animation, the game unfolds in an almost comic book style as windows pop-up like pages in a book in which the action takes place. Caped Crusader is without doubt an original idea and is probably one of the first truly good quality cartoonistic games to be released on the home computer, the only thing we would pick on is the poor quality colour scheme, most of the scenes rely on black, green and blue - most of you can work out without playing the game itself tha it?s not the most ideal colour scheme to use. Having said that, it didn?t stop me from enjoying the game to the final scenes and I can honestly say that this is another great Ocean Software rendition of Batman for your CPC.

Sound

Sound is another plus in Caped Crusader as the in-game music alone deserves an award, there are many various tunes to listen too throughout the gameplay (something unique in this era) as you flip between the start/options screen to the game itself, then move into the inventory, progress through the mission you selected the music changes pace and style. Sadly Ocean didn?t quite pull all the stops out on this one as there is a distinct lack of in-game sound effects, it doesn?t spoil the game that much because the music makes up for it but an option on the menu screen would have been great.

Gameplay

Gameplay is cool also, during the loading of the game you can choose to either play against the Penguin or the Joker. Each enemy has a different story line, different henchmen to do their dirty work, different locations in Gotham City and different puzzles to solve along the way. Caped Crusader is certainly not just a walk about punching the hell out of people type of game, you need to engage your brain from time to time and unlike some games that follow this style Caped Crusader keeps the player interested by it?s unique graphical style.
The control system is a little hard at first but once you get used to it and read the instruction manual that came with the original game it?s pretty simple. To access your inventory you simply stand on the spot, push down and press fire, here you?ll see some self explanatory icons which in turn tell Batman what to do with a specific item. The game runs at a pretty nifty speed and doesn?t contain any major bugs or slow-down problems along the way, for those that can?t get enough of Batman we highly recommend ALL of the CPC games featuring your favourite hero as each and everyone has something unique to offer the player.
Once again, a top notch Batman game by Ocean Software.