Batman Returns

The Good
Released in 1993, one year after the film. Batman Returns follows the plot of the movie from which it is based. But trims it down quite a bit so it is less stupid. And it is a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

After saving dismal Gotham City from The Joker. The city has a brief respite from danger. However that is about to change. Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin, has his sites of the mayor's job. He allies himself with Max Shreck the second wealthiest man in Gotham.

To make matters worse demure Selina Kyle is transformed into the deadly and sexy Catwoman. After she joins with The Penguin, The Caped Crusader is going to have his work cut out for him.

Batman Returns has a nice mix of gameplay. There are beat em up stages. In which Batman fights through waves of enemies. Batman has a large repertoire of skills. Of course there are punches and kicks. But he can also grab foes, and hit them while held, slam them into the ground, slam them into the backdrops breaking glass, or whatever happens to be there. Batman can even grab two opponets and slam their heads together. He can also block, and do area sweeping moves, very convenient if surrounded.

In addition, there are stages in which the player makes use of Batman's tools, instead of punching, they will throw batarangs. And make use of Batman's spear gun, to go up buildings and avoid taking damage.

There is also one level in which you get to use the Batmobile. Shooting foes and racing after The Penguin.

Levels are often ended, with a boss fight. The better fights are between The Batman, Catwoman, and The Penguin. However bossfights tend to be difficult, more on this later.

The graphics are very good. The sprites are very large on screen, and immpressive. Batman, looks like he is from the movie, as do the villians. The cutscenes while not as impressive as the in game graphics, are still fairly good. They wisely used stills from the movie. And the plot is trimmed down, to avoid the dumber moments of the film.

The sound and music fair a little worse than the graphics. The music is a Snesifyed version of the films score. Which I hardly would call CD qualiity as the back of the box maintains. I personally have never thought that the Snes sound chip was as good as that of the Genesis, as fanboys would have you belive. The soundeffects get the job done but are far from greatness.

The Bad
The game can be difficult. But not in the way it should be. What it comes down to is a few bosses that use cheap tactics in order to beat you. They will often corner you and use their special move repeatedly. This is quite lame.

Most bosses allow you to form a sort of stratagy, that normally works. But aside from the tough bosses the game is pretty easy.

The loose plot, may be seen as a bad thing as there are many plot holes because of it. For example in the game Catwoman is never seen again, after you defeat her halfway into the game, odd.

Overall however it tells the story better than the film.

I hate the "try the game on a higher setting crap". I understand that they desingers where trying to add replay value. But this is too much. As finishing the game of the hardest setting "Manic" is next to immpossible.

The Bottom Line
If you crave a good beat-em-up on the Snes, or a good movie tie in avoid Final Fight and pick up a copy of Batman Returns. It is as close to beat-em-up heaven Snes gamers will get. Seeing as Streets of Rage is only of the Genesis.