The Adventures of Batman & Robin

The Good
Released in 1994, The Adventures of Batman and Robin, was based of the award winning show of the same name. But a completely different beast from the Genesis version of the same name. Which as it turns out is one of my favorite games from the 16-bit era, will the SNES version meet it’s muster?

From the get go this game takes a fairly unique approach, each level is like an episode of the show, in some cases it is literally a playable version of the episode, Which I find really cool. And despite the title you only can play as The Dark Knight, AKA, Batman.(Who wants to play as the boy wonder anyhow?-MM-)

Each level or episode,(Or should that be levelsodes?-MM) has multiple parts and feature a different villain, from: The Joker, Poison Ivy, and the Penguin among others. The level objectives are fairly diverse as well, and each boss fight is unique.

Batman can punch, kick, and combo his way to victory, and the combat works quite well. But he also has access to a good deal of gadgets. Like batarangs, gas grenades and so on.

There are also vehicle segments, which are nice, I guess, but could have been implemented better. More on that later.

The graphics are very good, and look like they were torn right off the TV show and stuffed into a SNES cart. And while there are no cool 3D effects as in the Genesis version, it still looks great.

The music is good but not quite up to par with the visuals. I give them credit for using music from the series, or at least attempting to. It just doesn’t sound as good as it should. And I still think that the original score for the Genesis version takes the prize. The sound effects are passable, but nothing to write home about.

The Bad
One of the games biggest shortcomings is the way the vehicle segments were implemented. On of the episodes is one long driving stage. Now it the driving was as fun as it was in the other SNES\Konami Batman game, Batman Returns, or even the Sega CD, Batman And Robin game, then we would have something. Instead this game offers a top down, driving game. With crappy controls, and maze like Gotham City streets. Why Konami?

As I mentioned above the music does not sound as good as it should. And is at times down right annoying. For example, The Jokers theme is done with like the same two notes looping over and over. Which made me turn off the sound and listen to The Dark Knight score instead.

The Bottom Line
Who says that there are no good Batman games? While is may be true that the majority of them are shit, this is one of the few that show how it is very possible to make a great Batman game. I can only hope that the new game, Batman: Arkam Asylum can live up to all these badass old skool Batman games. Because aside from a few questionable design choices, this is one of the dark knights best video game adventures.