Batman: Arkham Asylum
10 out of 10

Until recently – incorporating comic books into video games has come at the behest of motion picture marketing.  If a big comic book movie would come out, you’d usually get a pretty crappy video game that spent all of its budget on big time actor voice overs and a plot that thinly outlined the movie. Usually these games felt rushed and almost always under-delivered. Thankfully – Batman: Arkham Asylum is NOT one of those games. Not inspired by the recent Batman movies – this game decides to work off the comic book mythos and traps Batman inside Arkham Asylum during the eventual incarceration of the Joker. The Joker then sets his plan in motion – which included him getting captured in the first place.

This game wins on a bunch of different levels. First and foremost is the look and feel of the game. The art really jumps off the screen as if directly from the pages of the comic books. Sometimes you find yourself stopping in your tracks and really just taking a look at the amazing job done with the landscapes and buildings. As if that wasn’t enough – the story and game play really suck you in even further.   It’s hard not to notice how deep the developers dug into the DC comics mythos for the supporting game cast. There’s plenty of easter eggs and extra content that keep you riveted into the storyline and really keep you wanting to explore every inch of terrain looking for extras. It’s a relief to finally have a comic book game that doesn’t just put the characters you love in some random forced situation, but rather give you an epic storyline that completely makes sense for the character and in turn – keeps you connected to the game throughout the end. While I did rip on big budget voice acting earlier – I must admit – the voice acting in this is pretty great. Mark (Luke Skywalker) Hamil as the joker is nothing short of brilliant and Kevin Conroy, a vetted Batman actor via the animated series, is solid.

The levels are challenging and the puzzles keep you guessing. There’s a solid amount of straight balls to the wall fighting and sneaking around the bad guys (a la Snake). The fighting/combo engine is pretty slick, you can’t help but want to do the fighting challenges over and over to get up that combo score.  The enemies are challenging and force you to develop a quick strategy to defeat them, and the Scarecrow sequences alone are enough to sell this game many times over. The final battle with Joker is difficult and will have you throwing down your controller from time to time. In the end, there’s a simple reason this game was named “Game of the Year” and now that it’s getting released in 3D…I have another in a long line of reasons to go back and play it again. 10 out 10.

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