BATMAN RETURNS (SNES)
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Publisher: Konami.
Developer: Konami. Released: 1993. Genre: Scrolling beat 'em up. Other versions: NES. Posted 15th April 2015. By Chris Weatherley © 2015 |
With the release of the Chris Nolan Batman trilogy, it’s easy to forget and dismiss the impact and quality of Tim Burton’s foray into the dark knight’s universe with two excellent films firmly rooted in the 90s. However, the video game scene remembers them more fondly. The original Batman the Movie made for some great platforming action on various systems (even the GX4000), and the second film gets given an equally decent outing. Batman Returns was a vastly different video game to the first, switching from an established platformer foundation to a scrolling beat ‘em up. This was not a misjudgement, as the various incarnations were received with praise; the Super Nintendo version particularly shining the bat-signal brightly. Let’s see how the Batman franchise held up in the brawler template of Streets of Rage.
Opening up with well drawn still representations of the movie and an excellent reproduction of the memorable Danny Elfman theme, the game takes us right to the point where Batman is battling the Penguin’s Red Triangle clown gang on the streets of Gotham, and progresses though seven scenes from the movie. Most of the action is favourable to the beat ‘em up fan, many levels bearing close design similarities to Final Fight or, as previously mentioned, SEGA’s Streets of Rage series. Some levels adopt a purely flat presentation akin to Altered Beast, just much more frantic. A quick-fire Batmobile driving level also is thrown in for good measure, but overall this is principally a brawler of the classic 2D kind, so it’s satisfying to see Bat-brain dishing the out the pain to the circus scumbags, particularly when the background scenery can be interacted with at many junctures. Throwing a face-painted thug against the wall or into a window is endlessly amusing and fulfilling, and doesn’t ever seem to get dull no matter how many times you do it. Those delicate glass panes are just begging for a clown to be thrown into them.
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Batman’s fighting skills are rather basic however, standing punching and flying kicks the staple of the game. However, he does have a few special moves which are effective and spectacular to witness. Grabbing two baddies and bashing their heads together is sluggish to perform but hilarious, the aerial body splash with bat-wings outstretched is a multiple enemy strike, whilst a swish of the cape hits everyone in close proximity to get you out of trapped situations. The latter however uses up vital energy, and this is something you should not waste. Whilst the difficulty curve is right on the money, with each level escalating in challenge nicely, dithering about will result in being hit in quick succession no matter where you are. Thankfully the controls are tight, well arranged and user friendly, and the movement around the play area is surprisingly generous considering the size of the sprites. Batman himself is rather large, but the fat clowns and skull bikers are huge, and grouped together the screen can fill up quickly, sometimes feeling a little cramped. Careful use of the sprite limit results in little or no slowdown, and things generally progress at a steady and consistent pace. In some stages, Batman swaps his fists for his trusty batarangs and batropes. These levels are quicker and tougher, and some inventive use of the batrope at points is another excellent little addition. For example, the first boss is the clown with a taser from the movie, and as in the movie, you can shoot the batrope into the wall behind him and get the first hit in. This is what makes this Batman game really enjoyable; the attention to detail.
Graphically, the old dark knight has never looked better on a 16-bit platform. The art style of the Burton movies is of course used effectively, with a little comic license to beef Mr Wayne up a bit. The scrolling is smooth, the environments are faithful to the film as are the circus loonies themselves. The use of colour is excellent, striking a good balance to create a dark mood, without coming across as too dull or insipid. It’s certainly taken design cues from Final Fight as previously mentioned, but refined the look and scale of things to give a more compact and comprehensive appearance. It’s certainly the more impressive game on the Super Nintendo compared to the flawed port of Capcom’s brawler. Another highlight of the presentation is the audio; whereas the BGM over-shadows the effects considerably. This is no bad thing, as the mood generated by the superb revisions of the original Elfman soundtrack fit the game like a batglove, so the fact that the smashing of the windows, the thumps of broken clown faces and the swishes of Batman’s cape are sometimes so subtle under the music they go unnoticed. Personally, the music is so good, if the SFX was removed entirely it wouldn’t be the worst.
Graphically, the old dark knight has never looked better on a 16-bit platform. The art style of the Burton movies is of course used effectively, with a little comic license to beef Mr Wayne up a bit. The scrolling is smooth, the environments are faithful to the film as are the circus loonies themselves. The use of colour is excellent, striking a good balance to create a dark mood, without coming across as too dull or insipid. It’s certainly taken design cues from Final Fight as previously mentioned, but refined the look and scale of things to give a more compact and comprehensive appearance. It’s certainly the more impressive game on the Super Nintendo compared to the flawed port of Capcom’s brawler. Another highlight of the presentation is the audio; whereas the BGM over-shadows the effects considerably. This is no bad thing, as the mood generated by the superb revisions of the original Elfman soundtrack fit the game like a batglove, so the fact that the smashing of the windows, the thumps of broken clown faces and the swishes of Batman’s cape are sometimes so subtle under the music they go unnoticed. Personally, the music is so good, if the SFX was removed entirely it wouldn’t be the worst.
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Batman Returns is pretty much standard scrolling beat ‘em up fare for the most part, but executed very well indeed. The visuals, sounds and themes are perfectly matched to the film that they are drawn from, and while it may not to be the most original of games, it’s yet another decent Batman venture. Some may find the typical old-skool style tedious, and with the cloned enemies reappearing frequently, may be slightly bored by it all. It’s also not the longest of games either, especially for a beat ‘em up of this type, but for me the high-points outweigh the negatives by quite some distance. There is a lot of fun to be had with this game, all thanks to the detail and acute care to render this vision of Gotham and its dark protector, who certainly is more bad-ass in this game then any other previous Batman title. Now, let’s throw another clown through a window…
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VERDICT
Visual: 8/10
Audio: 9/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Longevity: 7/10 OVERALL: 8/10 |