Batman

Copyright : Ocean Software | Reviewed by : Patrick Furlong

This was actually the first licence I played. In this licence from DC Comic?s comic book series, you control Batman in a nice 3D enviroment. The Boy Wonder Robin has been kidnapped (as usual) by arch enemies the Joker and the Penguin and as the Caped Crusader, you have to rescue him. Better said than done actually. The Batmobile has been dismantled and all eight pieces have been scattered throughout the Batcaves and so you must use all your skill and useful pickups to collect them and rescue Robin. This is a very ambious game from Bernie Drummond and Jon Ritman, who would later expand the game engine to give us Head Over Heels. Ocean got this licence at their request and it?s shows they were willing to repay Ocean for the money they spent on getting the licence because they delivered a very good game.

Graphics

Colourful MODE1 graphics feature in this game. At some points, it can be slow but other times, then can be fast. A nice touch is the cloud effect whenever something disintergrates like a block. Each room has it?s own colour scheme and some can fill the entire screen. The Batman sprite is very nice. There aren?t any scrolling effects but that?s Ok. Everything in the game is nice and detailed, just the way I like it.

Sound

Not much in the way of music - at the beginning of the game you get a nice short version of the Batman theme. In game sounds are limited to Batman moving about everywhere, along with sounds for sliding down the batpole, blocks disintergrating and when Batman jumps and falls.

Gameplay

The difficulty level is just right for this game. Over the 20 years (has it been that long?) that I?ve played this game, I?ve never completed it despite using a map and a cheat for infinite lives! You get to choose your controls and you even get an option to choose how sensitive you want the controls. I never noticed any difference. A select few puzzles in the game are easy but some are very hard. A good deal of patience is required if you?re going to get anywhere in this game. Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond could have written any game to use for the Batman licence, but they gave us a very good adventure type game - unusually for a game like this, there is no violence and everyone lives (except Batman when all his lives are gone). Recommended.