PlayStation 2

Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu

Walking the edge of the abyss every night, you are an avenger better known as Batman, one who tries with all his might to keep the peace and tranquility of Gotham, a city filled with maniac crazed enemies. A new enemy has surfaced, the powerful Sin Tzu, and Batman needs your help … will you accept his challenge?

Save for its overall air of cheese, the most memorable parts of ABC's campy 1960s Batman TV show were the fight scenes. Sure, Batman is a master of deduction, and he has that cool car, but what everyone really wants to see is Batman dealing out some good old-fashioned street justice to gangs of deserving thugs. While Ubisoft's last Batman game, Batman: Vengeance, was more of a full-fledged action adventure game, Rise of Sin Tzu strips out the adventure and beefs up the action. It's ultimately a pretty basic beat-'em-up, but the strong production values and a solid combat system make for a gratifying experience.

The last time we saw Batman, he was doling out justice in the very lame Batman Vengeance video game. So it was with a bit of excitement that I opened this latest Batman title, after all, it couldn't get much worse then the last outing, could it?

Ubi Soft delivers its best Batman game yet with quality animation, authentic sound effects, and an impressive cast of popular Batman characters and villains. However, this is a straight beat-em-up action game where the fun is in endless fisticuffs and button-mashing. If you're looking for an in-depth adventure game, you?ll be disappointed with the simplicity of this game.

Rise of Sin Tzu is a standard beat’em-up and an above average licensed game. While not raising Batman up to the video game pantheon, it doesn’t consign it to the video game equivalent of Hades. As long as you are not expecting the world, and you can overlook a few problems, Rise of Sin Tzu won’t disappoint you in Batman or beat‘em-up action. If you like Batman, give Rise of Sin Tzu a rental. A couple days will provide you with all the excitement that this game can offer. For everyone else, unless you like beat’em-ups, give this game a wide berth.

The Dark Knight's videogame career has done little to broaden his popularity. While his 2001 debut on current generation systems was enjoyable in Ubisoft's Batman Vengeance (based on the animated series), his career was soon tarnished by Kemco's painful take on the Batman license. Batman: Dark Tomorrow, based on the dark and gritty Gotham City from DC comics, failed to stray from the gutter. Botched controls, horrid camera system, and generally bad -- it was indeed a Dark Tomorrow for Batman.

Batman Rise of Sin Tzu is a poor follow up to the previous Batman game from UbiSoft, Batman Vengeance. Even at a reduced price it's very hard to recommend this title to anyone but die hard fans of the TV series.

Riddle to the night. A mystery to anyone who has or hasn't met him. Batman, the super hero driven by revenge and feared by every vigilante who dares to challenge the Caped Crusader, is but a man in a pair of black and gray tights. From comics, cartoons, cinematic features...trading cards, toy figurines, and video games: the one known as the Dark Knight has seen his share of iconic mediums many times over the past 50 years, even more so than any other of DC Comics' greatest known men of action, drama, and sheer suspense.

Within the world of game development, I would imagine that it is standard practice for developers to study the market to see how their game stacks up against others. Not only that, it would also seem logical that the developer would try to one-up the competition. Judging by the multitude of mistakes that pollute almost every second of Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, I get the sneaking suspicion that the developer had never played a game before.

Grande déception, ce Batman : Rise Of Sin Tzu, reprend les défauts de ses prédécesseurs, n'y adjoignant que très peu de points dignes d'intérêt. Un mode deux joueurs en coopération, un système d'évolution, ou encore un nombre dantesque de combos disponibles, ne font rien à ce triste constat. Un titre pauvre, dénué d'âme et de fond. Divertissant une fois, à condition d'être patient. Et pourtant je suis un grand fan de cet homme de la nuit. Une ombre rôde sur un toit ....ce n'était qu'un chat.

I wrote a preview of Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu for this site a while back, and I was, in retrospect, much too positive in my initial assessment. And while I realize that I'm backpedaling like a bad mamma-jamma, I just don't think it's cool to criticize a work-in-progress. Especially not a video game, in which the various elements often come together at the very last minute; bug-fixing, sound effects, and on and on. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which I played through for a strategy guide, is a wonderful example of how a final version can repair or polish all the raw gameplay elements of an early version.