A
platform shooter based on the
cartoon series of the same name, developed by
Clockwork Tortoise for the
Sega Mega Drive and (I think)
Super Nintendo. The gameplay is reminiscent of
Shinobi and
Contra, albeit with a harsher
difficulty level. The plot involves all the usual
Gotham City crims (including
The Joker,
The Riddler and
The Penguin) escaping from
Arkham Asylum and wreaking havoc while the city is held to ransom by
Mr. Freeze. So of course the
Bat-meister and the
Boy Wonder have to sort them out.
Graphically the game is quite gorgeous, blending the art deco stylings of the TV show with an illusion of depth conjured up through the use of technical trickery (and lots of deep shading). The very first level is a great showcase of their success- a street scene infested with goons dressed as clowns (a la Batman Returns) is somehow made to appear three-dimensional, by using finely-grained parallax scrolling across the entire height of the screen. Unfortunately the sound (at least in the MD version) is not up to the same standard, with a range of nondescript techno-ish tunes and minimalistic sound effects standing in for the sorely-missed movie score and comic-book thwack! and kapoww!'s.
The game presents a more imaginitive treatment of the source material than most previous bat-games, but unfortunately the insane difficulty limits its appeal. Enemies mob you in time-honoured scrolling beat-'em-up fashion, which is fair play for an arcade game where time is money, but overly frustrating for a console game where credits are strictly limited.