The Caped Crusader. The Dark Knight. The Billionaire Playboy Who Likes to Punch
Poor People. Batman has had countless incarnations over the years, not least in video games across almost every system. Unlike Spider-Man or Superman, Batman games
come frequently and regularly, even when there isnât a new movie or television show to
promote. Batman doesnât go through dry spells; heâs
always there, in some form, fighting crime by hurting people very, very badly. Whatâs more, a number of Batman games have
stood out as true gems through the years. Whereas other super heroes are lucky to have
their name attached to one or two great games, Batman has had a pretty solid run in general. Having said that, his record has been far
from flawless, and today we will take a look at every last one of his video game outings,
ranking them from worst to best. In doing so, we will be considering both how
the games played at the time of release and how well theyâve held up over the years. We will also be considering how true they
are to Batmanâs character, something Iâm sure will spark no disagreement in the comments
whatsoever. But before we get to the rankings, a few ground
rules. Firstly, we wonât be looking at Batmanâs
educational games. Fact is, they werenât really designed to
be games as much as they were teaching tools, and comparing them to the likes of the Arkham
series just doesnât make sense, quite frankly. Similarly, we are excluding anything that
was released exclusively on mobile. These sorts of games are here today and gone
tomorrow, what with the rapid turnover of mobile hardware and software, so unfortunately,
weâve all missed our chance to play swathes of them, and you can bet your bottom batarang
thereâs no footage of them out there on YouTube either. Finally, if a game doesnât specifically
focus on the Batman franchise throughout, we also wonât include it. Heâs cameoed in a number of games â both
officially and otherwise â to the point that weâd be including all sorts of strange
entries if we were to allow every one of his video gaming appearances, so unless itâs
actually a Batman game, we donât consider it to be a⌠Batman game. We defy you to poke holes in that logic. Anyway, better get started. Weâre going to be here a very long time. Iâm Peter from TripleJump, and this is every
Batman Video Game Ranked From Worst To Best. #56 - Batman: Dark Tomorrow
2003 GameCube, Xbox
Batman: Dark Tomorrow has a great selection of villains, fully-voiced cutscenes, and an
urgent mission with the highest possible stakes. Unfortunately, itâs also bloody terrible. There is no remotely redeeming aspect of Batman:
Dark Tomorrow, aside perhaps from getting to do battle with villains rarely seen in
games such as Ratcatcher and The Ventriloquist, but everything else feels like it was chemically
engineered in a lab in an attempt to create the word Batman title possible. I mean, if that was actually the intention
thenâŚhey, well done I guess. Success. With complicated controls, a dreadful fixed
camera and the gameâs nasty habit of plopping you into active combat situations the moment
a loading screen goes away, Batman: Dark Tomorrow honestly seems to be intentionally awful - the
icing on the cake is perhaps the fact that whenever Batman takes damage he decides to
lie down and have a little nap, with nothing stopping enemies from pummeling him to death
in his motionless recline while you shout at the television. They couldnât even represent the franchiseâs
characters that well either. The voice acting is almost uniformly terrible
and Batmanâs model looks like a baked potato. Everything about Dark Tomorrow looks cheap,
sounds cheap, and feels cheap, so hey, learn a lesson from this game and be cheap yourself,
by not ever buying it. #55 - Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
2000 Nintendo 64
Not to be confused with the several dozen other games called Return of the Joker, this
one is based on the Batman Beyond animated series, and the Return of the Joker film it
spawned. This is a rare chance to play as a Batman
other than Bruce Wayne; here itâs Terry McGinnis, who assumed the mantle upon Bruceâs
retirement. Unfortunately for Terry, this game is the
absolute pits. The controls while walking are far too sensitive,
and the controls while jumping arenât nearly sensitive enough. The brawling is an irritating slog with enemies
who can reach farther than you can and who gang up on you relentlessly. The level design is frankly careless, with
rooms and corridors that lead to literally nothing, and the soundtrack is often downright
painful. Perhaps this gameâs strongest offense, however,
is its visual presentation. We all know that the Nintendo 64 wasnât
always great at displaying realistic graphics, but this game is based on an animated film. Weâll see later that lesser hardware had
no problem accurately capturing the look and spirit of Batmanâs animated adventures,
so why did this game try to translate gorgeous 2D animation into a hideous 3D downgrade? Itâs one thing to be uninventive when you
make a game, but another thing entirely to purposefully deviate from the visual stylings
of the source material. #54 - Batman
1989 Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64,
GX4000, MSX, PC, ZX Spectrum The most interesting thing about this game
is that it represents your only opportunity to play as a version of Batman who recently
pooped his pants. We looked at the Amstrad CPC version, which
actively dares you to find something to enjoy about it. The animations and controls are almost insultingly
stiff, and the gameâs idea of challenge is to give you massive levels full of identical
rooms and let you blindly stumble your way through them. At times it doesnât feel like the game was
âdesignedâ at all; itâs more like some levels were built for some game or other,
then Batman wandered into them, and that was that. In the first stage, you knock Jack Napier
into a vat of chemicals to turn him into The Joker and in the last stage, you knock him
to his death. Batman does nothing between these two events
aside from sit in traffic, play Mastermind, and forget where the Batcave is, just like
in the Tim Burton classic released in the same year, right? I donât know; itâs been a while since
Iâve seen the movie. #53 - Batman & Robin
1998 game.com
Look, kids! Itâs the best Batman game based on the best
Batman movie on the best video game console. Actually, my mistake; all of those things
are lies. Batman & Robin for the game.com- âŚam I even
saying this right? Do you even pronounce the dot? It just sounds like a website. Batman & Robin for the game.com is a sluggish,
lifeless, uninventive side-scroller, which technically has a combat system but only in
so far as if you press a button, something might happen. It controls as well as anything else in the
game.com library does, which is to say it controls like you died years ago and are trying
to communicate with the game through a medium. Anyone who is brave enough to try this best-forgotten
piece of Batmanâs history should be prepared to be driven insane by the gameâs only track:
a short loop of your grandmotherâs least favorite music box fed through a MIDI synthesizer,
often drowned out by the noisy metallic clanging of Batmanâs attacks. Of course, it isnât all bad. Batman & Robin on the game.com does let us
appreciate something all of the other games on this list somehow overlooked: The Dark
Knightâs long, sexy legs â ooohft, they just go all the way up⌠#52 - Batman: The Caped Crusader
1988 Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Commodore 64,
PC, ZX Spectrum When a game is released on so many different
platforms at once, itâs for one of two reasons. Either itâs a great game that the publisher
expects will sell well to a wide audience, or thereâs so little substance to it that
itâs very cheap to port across. Weâll leave you to guess which category
Batman: The Caped Crusader falls into. The game isnât exactly a long one, but it
sure is padded, with objectives existing sometimes just to make you walk back and forth across
a room several times before progressing, and combat being every bit as clunky as youâd
expect from a Batman game on primitive systems. Its best idea is the fact that it unfolds
as a series of playable comic book panels, a design choice that varies in effectiveness
across the six versions of the game. Itâs the kind of thing weâd love to have
seen in later games on hardware that could better pull it off, but still, credit where
credit is due, even if thatâs about all the credit itâs due. #51 - Batman Forever
1995 Game Boy, Game Gear
Like the infamous console versions of the game, which weâll come to in a moment, the
version of Batman Forever released for handhelds is, how shall we put this? Among mankindâs greatest atrocities? This build of the game is somehow even clunkier,
more dull, and less fun to such an extent that itâs almost impressive. The smaller number of buttons means that the
controls are necessarily simplified, which is a good thing in a way, but thatâs immediately
counterbalanced by the fact that everything Batman does is so sluggish that it feels like
heâs fighting his way out of a tub of raspberry jam. Thereâs nothing less satisfying than watching
The Dark Knight cycle through a tedious attack animation long after youâve actually pressed
the button, and it makes every enemy feel like a chore to encounter. Pretty sure this is why they call it Batman
Forever #50 - Batman Returns
1992 Atari Lynx
Batman as a character is an athletic sort and, as we know, heâs prone to plenty of
jumping and punching. Fortunately, these are both fundamental aspects
of video game control, and no developer could possibly screw them up. Sorry, I couldnât keep that
up. Ugh, what a ludicrous claim
Batman Returns is a standard left-to-right sidescroller that controls like ass. The music feels like it would be far more
at home in a game about a surfing gorilla and frankly, that sounds like much more fun. Some enemies in Batman Returns walk blindly
into your fists, which is very nice of them, and a whole bunch of them can be avoided simply
by constantly ducking. Others, however, like to pitch projectiles
that are nearly impossible to avoid. Worst of all are those who like to zip along
the screen without warning, such as these bikers that are nearly too wide to jump over
without taking damage, which really adds to the fun. Things wouldnât be so bad if it werenât
for the view being so tight on Batman. With a little more warning of whatâs coming
your way, you might actually be able to react to some of this, but itâs just such an uncomfortable
close-up. Now weâd maybe understand this choice if
the artists were actually proud of their spritework, but our hero looks less like Batman than he
does some guy dressed as Batman that youâre trying really hard not to make eye contact
with on the bus. #49 - Batman: Return of the Joker
1991 Game Boy
This game may share a title with Sunsoftâs second NES Batman game, but its gameplay is
much more similar to Sunsoftâs first, which weâll get to much later on in the list. Like that game, Return of The Joker has more
focus on wall-jumping, exploring large stages, and taking bad guys down with Batmanâs quick
fists of justice. Unlike that game, though, this is pretty awful. Batman controls in a bizarrely floaty manner,
making precision platforming â or platforming in general âan exercise in frustration. While wall-jumping in search of hidden areas
and to get around stage hazards should be fun, itâs actually far too difficult to
do reliably, with Batman often feeling like heâs responding to a personal interpretation
of what youâve politely asked him to do rather than to the buttons youâre actually
pressing. Thereâs also a grappling hook triggered
by pressing Up on the D-Pad, but we defy anyone to play the game without at least 80% of the
times they use it being accidental. #48 - Batman: Gotham City Racer
2001 PlayStation
âWouldnât it be fun to drive the Batmobile?â Said every child ever. No, apparently It would not be fun to drive the Batmobile. Gotham City Racer is based on The New Batman
Adventures, a cartoon that wasnât quite as good as The Animated Series but was worthwhile
enough in its own right. Gotham City Racer, however, is a damn sight
more mediocre. The character portraits look great, styled
in the same way as the TV show, and the gameâs cutscenes are excerpts from actual episodes. All good! Unfortunately though, everything else looks
unfinished and untextured, even by PS1 standards. Gotham, one of fictionâs most famous cities,
is reduced to a series of indistinguishable grey rectangles positioned so poorly that
their windows sink into the ground. Gotham City Racer seems to believe the only
thing Batman does thatâs worth immortalizing in actual gameplay is his nightly commute. While the cutscenes show Batman beingâŚyou
knowâŚBatman, a hero who does things, the gameplay itself consists entirely of driving
him from one place to the next. It feels less like youâre playing as Batman
than it does like youâre playing as Batmanâs Uber driver. Man, I hope he tips me. Heâs a billionaire, you know. #47 - Batman: Revenge of the Joker
1991 Mega Drive
You will see Mega Drive games on this list that look very good. This is not one of them. In this utterly incompetent port of the NES
game of nearly the same name, everything in the game looks careless, right down to the
animations. Everything Batman does is so unnecessarily
exaggerated and overdone that it feels like youâre controlling a struggling actor who
played the lead in some Batman-themed adult film. You might at least think the animations lead
to a sense of fluidity and momentum, but they are far stiffer than they look. Batman: Revenge of the Joker is a stubbornly
unresponsive game that reminds you, with every button press, just how much it hates you. Even Batmanâs moveset feels odd, with an
uncommon reliance on projectile combat rather than melee. Presumably the developers thought that, instead
of Batâs signature martial arts skills, players would much rather use something resembling
a gun, in this case, a full automatic batarang launcher. All in all, this title just sort of feels
like a bunch of Batman sprites have just been slapped over a pre-existing game⌠and not
a very good one either #46 - Batman Returns
1992 Amiga
The Amiga version of Batman Returns tried very hard to be the worst version of Batman
Returns, but it even failed at that. Unfortunately though, despite being slightly
better than last place, itâs still no fun at all. It canât be easy for Batman games to find
so many different ways to ruin a core gameplay loop of âbeat this guy up then beat that
guy up,â but this catastrophe proves that the possibilities are endless. When the game begins, your comically small
Batman sprite is immediately killed by a crowd of bikers with no time to prepare. You might wonder why the game isnât beginning
with its best foot forward, but actually it probably is. Youâll then respawn, only to be swarmed
by tiny jumping enemies that sometimes gang up on you but sometimes perch in accessible
areas, including off screen. You have to defeat them all to progress, so
have fun waiting patiently for them to decide to become vulnerable. When you finally do clear the area, youâll
be thrilled that you can move on to the next screen at last. Do so and get shot and killed instantly by
an enemy it was impossible to see. Great. All this, and weâve not even mentioned the
fact that Batman is capable of jumping around the screen at speeds itâs safe to say the
actual Michael Keaton has never reached in his life. Screw all of this. Presumably thereâs more to the game beyond
the offscreen gunman, but we have it on good authority that no human being ever played
it farther than this. #45 - Batman
1986 Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, MSX, ZX Spectrum
Laugh all you want, but video games really used to look like this. This very first official Batman game received
near-perfect scores at the time of its release. This might seem rather difficult to believe
nowadays but the novelty of playing a Batman game at all was enough to give this game a
sense of inherent excitement at the time. You guide our hero through various isometric
environments, solving simple puzzles to progress, with your main objective being to rescue the
Boy Wonder, Robin. The enemies and hazards arenât quite specific
to Batmanâs universe, with giant-mouth monsters and Zelda-style spinning blades hindering
progress, but itâs the constant beep-and-boop sound effects, serving as a sort of aural
water torture, that really make it difficult to progress. This game is, of course, an interesting piece
of computing history but can we say anything more positive than that? Well, no. Not really. But hey, it did technically lay the groundwork
for whatever your personal favorite Batman game is, so you have to thank it for that,
and this is admittedly still one of the Dark Knightâs best-reviewed games ever, so you
know what? Well done, Batman 1986! #44 - Batman: Chaos in Gotham
2001 Game Boy Color
Has there ever been a subtitle more redundant than âChaos in Gothamâ? In fact, the futility of this gameâs name
is symptomatic of the larger problem here, which is that Batman: Chaos In Gotham exists...
but doesnât really do much more than that. In short, itâs a standard brawler with platforming
elements just tricky enough to be irritating and never creative enough to be fun. As Batman youâll navigate small platforms,
punch faceless thugs, and die from touching things that didnât look like hazards, with
the action slowing to a crawl whenever too much is happening on screen, making the experience
worse simply by virtue of extending it. The music is probably the best thing about
the game but even that isnât great. Chaos in Gotham makes it this far up the list
on the grounds that it isnât actively painful to play, but unless youâve been dying for
an opportunity to square off against minor villain Roxy Rocket â which incidentally,
makes you the only person watching this video who knows who Roxy Rocket is â thereâs
no reason at all to recommend it. #43 - Batman Forever
1995 Mega Drive, SNES, PC
Batman Forever is a game in which you kick seven shades of guano out of an endless series
of goons, which is pretty much the template for every beat-em-up in existence. Itâs also, however, a game that forgot to
be any fun. For such a simple premise, youâd guess that
tight controls and satisfying combat are about all youâd need to create an enjoyable experience. And you would be right. But Batman Forever is mired by needlessly
complicated controls for what, in practice, is actually a fairly basic moveset. Itâs overcomplicated to a fault, which is
a strange decision as nearly every enemy can be defeated by swatting your fists blindly
in the air until they walk into you and die. Clearly inspired by 1992âs Mortal Kombat
with its digitized actors, health bars, and special moves, Batman Forever seems like it
might have been developed as a one-on-one fighting game that was forced for some reason
to become a brawler instead. As such it ends up controlling like the former,
and not in a good way, while feeling like the worldâs dullest beat-em-up. On the bright side, it allowed you to play
with a friend. On the less-bright side, it would ensure that
youâd lose that friend forever. #42 - Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
2000 PlayStation
The PlayStation version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is far better than that
of the Nintendo 64. Weâd like to make that perfectly clear before
we get to our next thought, which is that the PlayStation version of Batman Beyond:
Return of the Joker is also appalling. Itâs not exactly the same as the Nintendo
64 version in terms of content, but itâs quite similar, and it improves on that gameâs
controls without question. Despite this upgrade though, the brawling
still isnât even remotely enjoyable. The visuals are an improvement on the N64
version as well, but they too leave us with the same question: Why rebuild the movieâs
gorgeous animation with lesser 3D technology? And while we could just about excuse the single-image
cutscenes on the Nintendo 64, thereâs no excuse for them on the PlayStation, with its
disc technology. All in all, this version may well be better,
but itâs certainly no less lazy. #41 - Batman: The Animated Series
1993 Game Boy
Batman: The Animated Series is brilliant. Batman: The Animated Series on the Game Boy
is not. Itâs not bad either, but definitely not
brilliant. Developed by Konami in what must have been
one of their least-inspired moments, the game is well built and decently designed. Progress is made both horizontally and vertically,
the combat is responsive if not particularly interesting, and there are lots of goodies
off the beaten path for those who explore. But thatâs about it. Itâs a competent game, but not one that
scratches any itches or excites us in any way. Even the characters â who look great in
cutscenes and faithfully represent The Animated Series â just seem like blobs of pixels
in the actual gameplay. Batman: The Animated Series for the Game Boy
feels like the first draft of what could have been a great adaptation with a lot more work,
but was far too content to just be a playable one. #40 - Batman & Robin
1998 PlayStation
There are a lot of nice things we can say about Batman & Robin for the PlayStation,
but theyâre limited entirely to the gameâs fundamental components. There are three playable characters. The game runs on a clock meaning you need
to figure out which villain will be attempting which crime and when. And the game is largely faithful to the source
material. Yes, we know no human being likes the source
material, but itâs at least nice that the game doesnât just slap the name on something
completely unrelated to the movie. But thatâs about all we can say in Batman
& Robinâs defense. Though the game features two distinct gameplay
types, they both control terribly. Driving is a slippery, imprecise nightmare,
with pop-in and limited visibility making it nearly impossible to see whatâs coming. Then when on foot, we are stuck using tank
controls, and while you can probably name a handful of great games with tank controls,
those likely relied on firearms or other projectiles in combat. Batman, of course, is a fist fighter, and
having to slowly rotate on the spot to face the guy thatâs already been beating the
crap out of you for several seconds is even less fun than it sounds. The basic idea of Batman zipping around Gotham
to stop criminals in the nick of time is a solid one, but the execution was bungled,
and the constant, unstoppable ringing of shrill alarms while responding to break-ins â which
is something that occupies about half the game â just adds insult to injury. #39 - Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
2003 GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
The sequel to Batman: Vengeance, which weâll get to, does one really great thing right
off the bat: It introduces a brand-new villain, unique to this game and its handheld counterpart,
for Batman to match wits with. Itâs something I wish more Batman games
did, but thatâs about all weâd hope for a future game to copy. Rise of Sin Tzu is a strange game in that
itâs either far too easy or far too difficult. On easy mode, the game is an absolutely mindless
button-masher with no real incentive to experiment with strategy, and it gets repetitive very
quickly. On normal mode, though, it is positively brutal. And while this does mean that combat in the
early stages requires you to think several steps ahead, which is good, it also means
combat in later stages requires superhuman reflexes and patience, which is bad. And BAD is NOT GOOD
In some cases, there is a timer that requires you to fight quickly, something very much
at odds with the calculated combat demanded of you by this mode. If you do reach the objective in time, it
will almost certainly be with only moments to spare. Itâs ratcheted up to an insane degree in
one stage that requires you to defeat 75 enemies within 14 minutes. That is no mean feat, and so you can look
forward to replaying a 14-minute battle over and over in the hopes that youâll get lucky
enough to just barely complete it. Joys. #38 - Batman Forever: The Arcade Game
1996 Arcade, PlayStation, Saturn, PC
This is a game that certainly has its defenders, so weâre likely to get some angry comments
over its low placement, but the fact that the game needs âdefendersâ at all might
say something in itself. Batman Forever: The Arcade Game is a side-scrolling
beat-âem-up. Weâve already seen a lot of that in this
list, and this game doesnât seem interested in doing anything unique. By 1996, fans of arcade games had seen more
side-scrolling beat-âem-ups than they could possibly count, and aside from its license,
Batman Forever: The Arcade Game doesnât do anything those other games hadnât already
done better. Having said that, the fact that the damage
percentages pop up 1960s-style when you sock a bad guy is a cute touch, and the animations
are impressively smooth, holding up very well more than 20 years later. Outside of the arcade, the game was ported
to various platforms. The PlayStation version certainly didnât
improve the game but ran it well enough but the real tragedy is that the Sega Saturn and
PC releases struggled with choppy animations and frame-rate issues, thereby stripping Batman
Forever 1996 of its one redeeming quality. Oops! #37 - Batman
1990 TurboGrafx-16
Thereâs a common misconception that Batmanâs secret identity is one Bruce Wayne. We think the confusion comes from the fact
that so few people played 1990âs Batman for the TurboGrafx-16, which quite clearly
reveals that the caped crusader is actually Pac-Man. Wait a momentâŚBatmanâŚPac-ManâŚthe answer
was right there in the name all along! You sneaky so-and-so, you. This particular Batman game is playable, certainly,
and achieves what little it sets out to do, but itâs mind-boggling that someone sat
down to make a Batman game and could not come up with anything more creative than a Pac-Man
clone. Certainly if this had been an Atari game from
1980, that would have been acceptable. But video games had come a long way by the
time of the TurboGrafx-16, and steering Batman through some mazes to pick up various goodies
whilst hoodlums walk around like Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde makes you wonder if the development
team even knew who Batman was. Okay, that may not be entirely fair, as the
game allows Batman to use his Batarang to stun enemies, which is a damn sight more than
Pacman can do. However, heâs locked in place as he waits
for it to return, meaning the game also allows him to use his less-famous âstanding still
like a big idiotâ ability, which this yellow chomp boy wouldnât dream of doing. #36 - Batman: Justice Unbalanced
2003 PC
Batman: Justice Unbalanced is a minigame collection... if⌠if three minigames counts as a collection,
that is. Um⌠either way, with Justice Unbalanced,
youâll be pointing and clicking your way through a barely animated adventure. There is a plot holding these disparate minigames
together, involving Two-Face and The Penguin terrorizing Gotham with⌠little⌠explosive
eggs⌠well, they tried, bless them.. but the eggs donât look anything like real eggs
and they tick loudly so itâs unlikely there would be any victims at all. Still, Batman and Robin already got dressed,
so they set out to stop the bad guys. They do this by solving color puzzles, matching
tiles, and clicking objects in the precise sequence you were told to click them. Itâs riveting! There is some light platforming toward the
end, but making it that far requires you to endure an unhealthy amount of egg puns, so
we canât recommend it. It's eggs-cruciating #35 - Batman: Toxic Chill
2003 PC
Oh, look. Itâs Batman: Justice Unbalanced, only now
itâs Batman: Toxic Chill. The basic structure of the game is the same,
but here the plot is noticeably improved. Not because itâs clever (which it isn't), interesting
(which it isn't), or well-written (which it isn't), but because it features a teamup between The
Riddler and Mr. Freeze, a pairing we wish we saw far more often and in far better places. Mr. Freeze plans to freeze Gotham City, obviously,
but he only seems to have drafted The Riddler into the plan just so Batman would have a
trail of clues to follow and stop him, so either he didnât think this through, or
everyone involved with Toxic Chillâs development didnât think this through. Players will surely be on the edge of their
seats as they click their way around mazes and solve word puzzles but, better yet, thereâs
a series of levels that takes place in the sewers, which is nice because you actually
get to control Batman rather than click on static screens that look like they came directly
from a childâs coloring book. #34 - Batman Returns
1992 Mega Drive
Thereâs an impressively dark atmosphere in this game, but thereâs little else to
recommend it. The controls are far too stiff to give you
a fair shot at the enemies that barrel in at you from all angles, the vertical design
which should be a selling point becomes a liability with far too many blind jumps, and
there is nowhere near enough variety to keep the game interesting. The soundtrack is certainly not bad but is
immediately forgettable, and the visual design isâŚwell, letâs just say it helps if your
favorite color is purple. Batman is purple, the sky is purple, the objects
are purple, the platforms are purple. I think the fact that you encounter Penguin
on his giant Tim Burton rubber duck near the end of the game is a better reward than the
satisfaction of completing the story, just because itâs nice to see a bit of grubby
yellow for a change. By far the worst thing about Batman Returns,
though, is that it often forgets its own rules, making trial-and-error gameplay unavoidable
at every step. You know thereâs a platform beneath you
because you just fell on to it, but climb higher and now that same fall counts as a
bottomless pit. The foundation of a good game is here, but
none of the trimmings #33 - Batman Returns
1992 Mega-CD
This is an enhanced version of the previous game, though it may not seem like it at first. The graphics in the stages are almost identical
to what you see on the Mega Drive, and with a passing glance it may look like this is
a simple port and not worthy of its own spot on the list. However, a number of things have been added
throughout the game. For one thing, the cutscenes look far better
and are gorgeously animated. The soundtrack has also been completely redone,
taking advantage of the hardwareâs ability to play CD-quality audio. And these arenât simple remixes; they are
an entirely new set of pretty solid compositions. The biggest change is that a number of vehicle
sequences have been added, which are fun enough to make this version much easier to recommend
than its Mega Drive counterpart. These moments wonât change your life, but
they lack the problems the platforming stages had, making for a notable improvement. There are even very welcome options in the
menu to play exclusively through the vehicle stages or the platforming stages, if you enjoy
one but not the other. Itâs just enough of an improvement to render
the previous version redundant. #32 - Batman: Return of the Joker
1991 NES
Sunsoftâs aforementioned classic Batman game on the NES is still to come later in
the list but Batman: Return of The Joker was their follow-up to that game and so had a
lot to live up to. Unfortunately, it doesnât quite manage it. The sprites and animation are absolutely lovely
and the soundtrack is every bit as good as its predecessorâs but things fall down a
bit in the overall execution. Here, Batman relies on long-range weaponry
in contrast to the tight, rapid melee combat of the previous game. While that in itself is not a bad thing, it
does feel a bit at odds with how Batman usually gets things done. Whatâs more, the platforming puzzles scattered
throughout the gameâs predecessor are absent here, replaced by far more simplistic layouts
that offer only one very obvious way to progress. None of this makes Batman: Return of the Joker
bad, but it does make it less interesting and ultimately less fun. #31 - Batman Returns
1992 PC
In the 1990s, fans of point-and-click graphical adventure games were well served by the likes
of Lucas Arts and Sierra Online, and if you grew up playing such things, youâll know
the broad strokes of what to expect from the PC version of Batman Returns. Whereas other games based on the film had
a heavy emphasis on combat, this iteration is focused entirely on finding items and solving
puzzles. The adventure unfolds over nine in-game days,
with some generous wiggle room for players to take their time finding clues, analyzing
them, and advancing the story. Careful though, take too long, and the nefarious
Penguin wins the mayoral election and chaos reigns. This is an absolutely perfect genre for a
Batman game, but, sadly, this game doesnât do a great job of proving it. There is little to do other than click, watch
video clips, and select different areas from a map screen until you figure out what to
do next. There combat takes place across automated
sequences, and though you can choose the items you bring into battle, the game handles the
rest for you. For an adventure game, Batman Returns is a
disappointingly passive experience. Itâs totally playable, but itâs rarely
engaging, and the computer gets to control Batman more often than you do. #30 - Batman: Arkham VR
2016 HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR
If this seems to be ranked a bit low to you, we understand. As a virtual Batman experience, Arkham VR
is pretty great. I ruddy loved it, actually. As a game, though, and especially one with
the Arkham branding, itâs significantly lacking any kind of replay value. The first thing that comes to mind when you
think about the Arkham series is likely the combat, the satisfying, stylish, cinematic
combat that offers you plentiful ways to deal with nearly any threat. And yet in Arkham VR, there is no combat at
all. The gameplay is less about fighting your way
out of situations in which the odds are stacked against you than it is warping from place
to place and looking at what the game wants you to look at. Itâs also extremely short, with a blind
runthrough of the entire game taking little more than an hour. To be clear, thatâs not a speedrun; thatâs
the length of the experience. So even if one chooses to see Arkham VR as
an interactive movie, which would be a fairer way of looking at it, it doesnât even feel
long enough to qualify for that. Itâs not a train wreck so much as it is
disappointing, partly because itâs so much fun on your initial session that you wish
there was more of it, and you wish that all subsequent playthroughs didnât feel so underwhelming. Arkham VR can hold its head high for the fact
that our biggest complaint is that we wanted more of it, but that doesnât stop the game
from feeling like little more than a proof of concept, which I fear is fairly typical
of the best PSVR experiences thus far. #29 - Batman
1990 Game Boy
If youâve ever wanted to play a game starring your nephew in a Batman costume, Batman on
the Game Boy is the game for you. Our only guess as to why the Dark Knight looks
like this is that the developers were attempting to break the worldâs record for smallest
recognizable Batman sprite. It gets even better when he crouches, at which
point he resembles a Batman-themed Mr. Potato Head. If you can get past the gameâs silly appearance,
though, it isnât half bad. Itâs certainly fun enough to serve as a
decent distraction and, as weâve seen, poor Batman has endured far worse than this. That said, there are some issues with the
jumping controls, as Batman can be steered in midair but also retains some degree of
momentum, making platforming a finicky affair. Itâs far from game-breaking, but itâs
guaranteed to result in a number of otherwise unavoidable deaths as you adapt to it. On the whole though, this is an okay title
by early Game Boy standards, even if it doesnât actually feel much like Batman. I know that there have been many incarnations
of the character over the years, each one with its own quirks and characteristics, but
I think the one thing everyone expects Batman never to do is walk down the streets of Gotham
shooting people. Is Batman on the Game Boy a good game? Sure. Is it a good Batman game? Not quite. #28 - Batman: Vengeance
2001 Game Boy Advance
Itâs nowhere near as good as its console counterpart, but Batman: Vengeance for the
Game Boy Advance is pretty fun in its own right. It controls well, its difficulty is fairly
pitched, and its soundtrack is truly great. Itâs not without its issues, though they
are mainly due to the hardware. The small screen of the Game Boy Advance limits
visibility in the vehicle stages, making it very difficult to avoid obstacles and giving
the impression that Batman is driving without his glasses. And while the graphics are certainly good,
they often seem like theyâre not designed with gameplay in mind. For instance, in the Joker fight toward the
beginning of the game, thereâs a wall that blocks your Batarangs. There is, however, a gap in the wall that
you can fire through, smashing the crates heâs standing on, but my god, is it hard
to actually see said glory hole The top-down puzzle stages are also not great,
as you slowly navigate mazes, shoving boxes around to create new paths and figuring out
how to handle each obstacle you encounter. Putting these long sequences between the side-scrolling
action stages and frantic vehicle sections was a pretty bad idea, not least because they
hamstring the pace of an otherwise competent adventure. #27 - Batman
1990 Mega Drive
It may not be nearly as polished or as fondly remembered as its NES counterpart, but Batman
on the Mega Drive is decent if forgettable fun. It certainly looks great, and the soundtrack
is no slouch, but itâs also extremely short and not particularly challenging. Still, it makes for a fun experience, and
if youâre looking to kill an hour, there are many worse games to play through than
this oneâŚfor instance, every game weâre already talked about in this list. On the other hand though, the MegaDriveâs
Batman also feels uninspired, with precious little enemy variety and almost no thought
given to interesting stage layouts. In truth, this game doesnât feel specific
to Batman; itâs a competent sidescroller, no question, but it could feasibly star anybody. Even Batmanâs grappling hook, which should
lead to interesting opportunities for exploration and strategizing, serves as little more than
a rope to climb from one platform to another in predetermined places. A few vehicle combat stages later in the game
do add an admittedly fun wrinkle, but beyond that, this fairly entertaining game often
still feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. #26 - Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate
2013 3DS, PlayStation 3, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360,
PC In the words of nobody Iâve ever met, âA
downgraded spinoff of the worst-received Arkham game? I canât wait to get my hands on that!â Batman: Arkham Origins - Blackgate, the game
so nice they subtitled it twice, could have worked quite well. Restricting the game to a single, complex
environment didn't harm Arkham Asylum at all, and Blackgate Prison had
the potential to offer similar densely packed and well-designed challenges. Instead though, the game takes a 2.5D approach
that confuses the experience far more than it should. Despite the fact that nearly all of your time
is spent moving left and right, the overall map requires navigation to the north, south,
east, and west. This means itâs often impossible to know
in which compass direction youâre actually heading, and youâll be fiddling with the
map constantly without the disorientation ever going away. Had the game been built specifically as a
2D adventure, players would at least be able to know where they are. Sadly thatâs not the case, and cramming
the open-world 3D design of the other Arkham hits into a game that literally comes from
another dimension makes the Blackgate feel somewhat undercooked. Thugs form an orderly 2D queue, politely waiting
their turn to have their spines broken and itâs really quite difficult to play the
game stealthily, which was one of the chief joys of the other games in the series. This game might fancy itself as an Arkham
title, but it really kind of isnât. #25 - Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
2003 Game Boy Advance
Rise of Sin Tzu makes great use of the Game Boy Advanceâs ability to display fun, cartoony
visuals, effectively capturing the look of The New Batman Adventures. The animations are also wonderful, with Batmanâs
moves feeling like they have real weight and bad guys collapsing convincingly after getting
their skulls kicked into next week. For a side-scrolling beat-âem-up, thereâs
nothing Rise of Sin Tzu does especially wrong. Itâs a competent experience with responsive
controls and some great ideas, such as the introduction of a Spyro-like hover to allow
Batman just a little more height at the end of his jumps. Thereâs also a nice attempt to include more
of Batmanâs rogues gallery than the title suggests, with Scarecrow, Clayface, and Bane
all putting in appearances. It is also, however, fairly dull, with many
enemies doing really very little as you beat them to death, which almost uniformly takes
far too long to do. Timed switch puzzles, blind jumps, and a general
lack of direction do ultimately leave you with the impression that this game doesnât
fulfill its own potential but it makes a pretty good go of it. #24 - The Adventures of Batman & Robin
1994 Mega-CD
The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Mega-CD looks at first to be strictly a driving game. But youâd be wrong. Actually, I misspoke; youâd be right. However, there is one truly interesting feature
that in the eyes of many fans elevates it significantly: a lost episode of Batman: The
Animated Series⌠ooohh! Or at least, thatâs what fans have taken
to calling the cutscenes that were made exclusively for this game by one of the actual studios
that worked on the cartoon. That showâs stellar voice cast even reprises
their roles, giving the game a greater sense of legitimacy than most others. So admittedly, itâs not an actual lost episode,
but it could certainly get away with going to a costume party dressed as one. Thatâs a huge plus â and, to be honest,
the main reason itâs this high on our list â but there isnât much else the game can
offer. It controls well enough, but the stages drag
on too long with little variety in the obstacles youâll be avoiding. It also has the same problem Gotham City Racer
had: Everything Batman does, he does between stages. When itâs your turn to take control, you
just chauffer him around like a good friend after The Dark Knight has had too much to
drink and you're the designated driver #23 - Batman Returns
1992 Master System
The Master System version of Batman Returns is not a great title, but it comes closer
than one would probably expect. Itâs a simple game, and the graphics are
certainly nothing to write home about â assuming your parents are actually still around and
havenât decided to catch a film at The Monarch theater â but what it does, it largely does
well. The soundtrack is genuinely great â easily
one of the best on the Master System â and players are given a choice of which route
to take through the stages, giving the game some respectable variety. The real highlight of a playthrough, though,
is the implementation of Batmanâs grappling hook, which feels genuinely ahead of its time. The ability to climb, swing, and strike with
it adds some spice to the platforming and the strategy, and itâs impressively fluid
in its execution. Unfortunately though, the game is mighty short
and unnecessarily difficult. Batman dies in a single hit in this game,
making him canonically weaker than Pepsi Man. And while the stages often allow for you to
find alternate routes around the danger, boss fights are absolutely frustrating when every
single attack results in a one-hit kill. #22 - Batman Returns
1992 Game Gear
Would you believe the Game Gear version of Batman Returns is better than the one on the
Master System? We can just barely believe it ourselves, hence
the almost identical placement. We even considered lumping this one in with
the previous entry, but ultimately it deserves to stand on its own for one reason and one
reason only: Batman... HAS A HEALTH BAR!!! With that one, simple difference, Batman Returns
stops being frustrating and starts being fun. It retains just about every positive aspect
of the previous entry and corrects its most irritating one. Yes, the graphics have experienced an obvious
downgrade, but they still look servicable, and thereâs some clever hardware manipulation
at points, such as when the game introduces a snow effect. And actually, there are some visual features
that are an improvement on the Master System version, such as your attacks doing visible
damage to Cobblepotâs campaign bus. Honestly, if you can overlook the limitations
of the hardware, itâs obvious this is the version that got just a little more care invested
in it. #21 - Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
2000 Game Boy Color
On the subject of hardware limitations, this is a surprisingly solid game that makes impressive
use of the resources available, resulting in a beat-âem-up that allows for Z axis
movement, feeling something like Double Dragon or Final Fight, or perhaps even some other
game without an alliterative title. The combat is more responsive and fun than
we expected it to be, and thereâs something compelling about punching robots to death
in the halls of Wayne Enterprises. Thereâs even an impressive amount of items
and weapons to use, and the music manages to achieve greatness on a few occasions too. Seriously, check out the continue-screen song. Genuinely funky stuff. Itâs worth pointing out that it does suffer
from slowdown and responsiveness issues when too much is happening at once, thereâs an
irritating tendency toward mazelike designs, and the action is halted a bit too frequently
for story moments, so itâs far from perfect. But itâs also a damn sight better than it
has any right to be. #20 - Batman
1990 Arcade
The 1990 Batman arcade game is much more faithful to Tim Burtonâs film than most other tie-ins,
with high-quality voice samples and great-looking images taken directly from the movie. Itâs also impressively varied, with developer
Data East refusing to simply slap together a repetitive brawler. This game breaks up the action with vehicle
sections that⌠admittedly arenât fantastic but at least control well and keep the experience
interesting. In addition, the music absolutely SLAPS, the
graphics are respectable, and The Joker isnât just a sprite to beat up; he really does act
like The Joker, popping up at various points to interfere with your progress and play nasty
tricks on you. For instance, in one stage he disappears down
a hole in the street, but if you follow him â and why wouldnât you? â you discover itâs a death trap. Youâve got to love that guyâs sense of
humor. #19 - The Adventures of Batman & Robin
1994 Mega Drive
Like the SNES game of the same title, which we will discuss soon, the Mega Drive version
of The Adventures of Batman & Robin is based on Batman: The Animated Series. Youâd be forgiven for not realizing that,
though, because unlike the SNES version, this one is not nearly as faithful to the showâs
art style. It is, however, still impressive and fun,
considering its age. Itâs a fluid and fast-paced beat-âem-up
that requires some unexpected strategy. Combat can be as simple as punching goons
and moving along, but itâs smarter and much more fun to take them out with flying kicks,
flips, and projectiles as well, transitioning gracefully from one attack directly into the
next as you defeat thugs from all angles. The Arkham games were rightfully celebrated
for their free-flowing combat that allowed Batman to automatically snap from one enemy
to another mid-melee, but this game requires you to keep track of every bad guy on the
screen and do that yourself, manually. The Adventures of Batman & Robin is far from
easy, but itâs also forgiving. Batman has a generous health bar, which means
you can definitely get away with making a few mistakes, but you canât stumble blindly
through the game, either. The combat does become quite repetitive after
a while, and once you get into the rhythm of clearing out waves of baddies without taking
damage it becomes more of a task than an adventure, but thatâs kind of part and parcel of brawlers,
if you ask me, and so all-in-all, the game is definitely worth a spin. #18 - Batman Begins
2005 Game Boy Advance
As weâve seen, attempts to depict realistic-looking characters on handheld systems donât tend
to go well. Itâs remarkable, then, that Batman Begins
on the Game Boy Advance looks and animates as well as it does. Itâs a short game, but an intriguingly complex
one, with Batman having a large number of moves, items, and ways of dispatching enemies. There are even some pretty great visual effects
for the system, particularly in terms of the way lighting plays against Batmanâs sprite. We also like the neat touch that the tutorial
sequence comes directly from the movie, presented here as the training Bruce Wayne receives
from Henri Ducard. That said, it kind of feels like Bruce should be the one giving the training, given that he can somehow DoubleJump Itâs better than direct movie tie-ins usually
are, offering tight combat, effective stealth, and an optional second run through the game
with unique collectibles. Nice #17 - Batman: The Brave and the Bold â The
Videogame 2010
DS When it comes to licensed tie-in games, there
might not be a better developer than WayForward, a company that consistently takes other peopleâs
ideas and does them perfect justice, having made hits based on Duck Tales, Contra, Alien,
Adventure Time, and even 2017âs weird The Mummy. So what happens when theyâre given the reins
to the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold? Well, they turn in a pretty darned solid game
that looks the part, is true to the showâs lighter spirit, and is a lot of fun to play. Itâs also, however, a very short game, with
a blind playthrough likely to last only two hours. What is here, though, has a decent amount
of variety and the brawling feels great. Also, if you have both the DS and the Wii
version you can unlock Bat-Mite as a playable character, which we think gives both games
a bonus point. Rocksteady, when can we expect Bat-Mite VR? #16 - Batman Begins
2005 GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
The console version of Batman Begins is faithful to the film of the same name, but perhaps
to a fault, leading to a series of completely linear stages and limiting Batmanâs use
of gadgets such as the grappling hook and Batarang to a small number of predetermined
moments. The game feels afraid to chart its own territory,
leaving players to feel like theyâre doing little more than running through a strict
obstacle course. Having said that, Batman Begins does a number
of great things. For starters, it brings nearly all of the
filmâs cast into the studio to record new lines for the game, with Michael Caineâs
Alfred getting a welcome role as a constant source of information for Batman. Whatâs more, the game looks excellent for
its age, with characters resembling the actors who played them and Christopher Nolanâs
dark atmosphere being respected while still providing players with enough light see what
theyâre doing. Most interesting, though, is how well the
game paved the way for Rocksteadyâs Arkham games. Here Batman is a stealthy presence that attacks
from all angles, he uses fear tactics to make enemies panic, he interrogates thugs for more information and he plays minigames
to hack systemsâŚthose are all ideas the Arkham games would build upon and refine,
and itâs impressive that Batman Begins got to⌠aha⌠BEGIN them a full four years earlier. #15 - Batman: Arkham Origins
2013 PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360, PC
Origins is without question the black sheep of the main Arkham games, and thatâs understandable. Rocksteady wasnât involved in the development,
Batman and The Joker were both played by differentâthough admittedly goodâvoice actors, and the entire
experience is detached by design from the other games, as it takes place in the distant
past with very different versions of the characters we saw in Asylum and City. But, to be fair, while itâs certainly as
good as those games, Iâd say itâs better than its reputation suggests. Arkham Origins is often seen as âmore of
the same, but worse,â and thereâs some truth to that. But its unique ideas work quite well, from
setting the adventure on Christmas Eve to allowing Batman to visit crime scenes and
actually be a detective, and an impressive side-story in which Black Mask places a bounty
on Batman, which draws the attention of eight deadly bounty hunters. Arkham Originsâ biggest crime, though? Relegating Mr. Freeze â an absolutely perfect
fit for a Batman adventure on a snowy night â to optional downloadable content. #14 - Batman Returns
1992 SNES
Developed by Konami, arguably the kings of licensed brawlers with classics such as Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, and X-Men under their belt, Batman Returns on the SNES
gives us exactly what we want. Itâs a crunchy, tactile experience with
big, gorgeous sprites and attacks that feel every bit as powerful as they should. Itâs a relatively mindless game, but we
mean that as a compliment. All of the focus is on the experience of exchanging
blows with The Penguinâs nimble henchmen, and thatâs exactly as it should be. Even the digitized images from the film look
great, and Batman can use environmental takedowns such as smashing enemies through windows and
other bits of scenery. Batman Returns does nothing to advance Konamiâs
formula, but it certainly does make the most of it, providing a compelling, addictive experience
within the world of the film. In fact, itâs hard to believe they did even
better with another version of the game, but weâll get there shortly. #13 - Batman: The Brave and the Bold â The
Videogame 2010
Wii Similar but not identical to the DS game of
the same name, WayForward not only designed a whole different set of levels and a largely
unique set of characters, but they brought the cartoonâs voice cast into the studio
to make the entire production feel as much like the series as possible. The developers even used the showâs animation
production sheets to make sure everything stayed on model and would look true to the
cartoon. Like the DS version, the game shares the showâs
themes of pairing Batman up with other heroes, such as Aquaman, Plastic Man, and Blue Beetle,
and presents a respectable number of deep cuts in Batmanâs rogues gallery. Did you want to fight Clock King? Of course you wanted to fight Clock King;
come on now. Everything about the style and presentation
of the game is a perfect match for its source material, which itself was pretty great and
the gameplay was good stuff too, even allowing for two-player action, unlike the DS version. The combat absolutely does get repetitive
over time, but the game isnât long enough for that to be a serious drawback, and fans
of the cartoon really couldnât be in better hands. #12 - Lego Batman: The Videogame
2008 DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation
Portable, Wii, Xbox 360, PC Well before 2014âs The Lego Movie gave Lego
Batman a fixed personally, Travellerâs Tales gave us a Lego-styled comedic Batman experience
in video game form. And, like just about all of the licensed Lego
games, itâs a hell of a lot of fun. Travellerâs Tales had already worked with
major licenses such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones before this, but for Batman they pulled
out all the stops. Lego Batman: The Videogame was by a wide margin
the biggest Lego game to date, containing the most content, and following for the first
time an original storyline. Now, this was the old era of Lego games where
the cutscenes had no voice acting, but Iâve always thought those little toys are expressive
enough to convey the plot and the jokes without any problem. Perhaps the smartest thing the game did is
let gamers play as a slew of Batmanâs villains. How on Earth it took until 2008 for a game
developer to realize the giddy thrill inherent in playing as Gothamâs many bad guys is
a mystery not even the worldâs greatest detective can solve. Especially when his head is hollow and made
of plastic. #11 - Batman Returns
1992 NES
Thereâs no shortage of Batman Returns games, as youâve certainly noticed by now, but
this is by a decent margin the best of them. It doesnât quite reach the heights of Batmanâs
first NES outing, but it comes admirably close. The game plays a lot like 1990âs Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, right down to the fact that jump-kicking is
nearly always the optimal strategy, and thatâs probably because both games were made by Konami. Basically, if you enjoyed that game, youâre
guaranteed to enjoy this one. And thereâs a lot to enjoy here, chiefly
a criminally underappreciated soundtrack. Thereâs also a respectable variety of enemies,
each of which requires a unique strategy to fight effectively. Batman has a large health bar and can collect
life boxes that serve as 1-ups, allowing even unskilled players to make it through the first
few stages, but anyone who intends on fighting through to the end will need to learn the
ins and outs of combat, something that in many of these games would have been a chore,
but which here is easily a delight. #10 - Batman: Arkham Knight
2015 PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
After two back-to-back great games, expectations were high for Arkham Knight, which would close
off the trilogy. It might have been unfair to pin such high
hopes on a single game, but developer Rocksteady had proven that if anyone could bring the
Arkham games to a perfect finale, it was them. Unfortunately, they didnât. Arkham Knight is a fine game, donât get
me wrong, but it sadly fell a little short of the perfection it almost necessitated. It lacks the focus of Arkham Asylum, but doesnât
do much with its expanded scope. It gives us a large open world like Arkham
City, but fails to populate it with anything interesting. Granted, the empty streets factor into the
story as well, but it sure doesnât help the adventure feel meaningful when thereâs
nobody around to even save. The biggest disappointment though, was of
course the increased focus on the Batmobile, something that should have led to exciting
new ways to play but which was, in practice, little more than a slog. Gotham has been resigned to allow for it,
but even though the streets are wider thereâs too much clutter in them to make driving much
fun. Now this might all sound rather negative for
a game thatâs made it to the #10 spot in the list, but I should clarify that these
complaints are really just to illustrate why it doesnât rank as highly as City and Asylum. Critique aside, the takehome point has got
to be that being only the third best game in the Arkham series is still an achievement,
and so Arkham Knight is a worthy top tenner regardless. #9 - Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
2014 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Vita, Wii
U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC With more than 150 playable characters to
choose from, this is definitely the biggest of the Lego Batman games, but it isnât necessarily
the best. The good news is that the simple fun of brawling
and bashing and smashing your way through familiar locations is as satisfying as ever,
and the tongue-in-cheek humor is just corny enough not to wear out its welcome. The bad news is that the few new things Lego
Batman 3 tries arenât necessarily steps forward from its excellent predecessor. Lego Batman 2âs open world has been replaced
here with several different hub areas, making exploration feel less natural and more like
a task. It also widens its scope beyond DC Comics
to include cameos from figures that distract from the game more than they add to it, such
as Kevin Smith, Conan OâBrien, and even Daffy Duck. Itâs far from a bad game though, as its
placement on this list should make clear. One thing we absolutely must give Lego Batman
3 credit for is the fact that the late Adam West â the Batman of the 1960s television
series â voices âClassic Batman,â making this the only video game in which he got to
play the character he helped make famous. #8 - Batman: Vengeance
2001 GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Batman: Vengeance is based on and true to the look of The New Batman adventures, a successor
to Batman: The Animated Series. This list proves that the translation of 2D
animation to 3D art doesnât always go so well, but in this case weâd call it a huge
success. In fact, the gameâs visuals largely hold
up to this day, almost 20 years later, and it reunited the Animated Series voice cast
eight years before Arkham Asylum got around to it! The game has a surprisingly good story, with
Batman suspicious that The Joker has faked his death, though our hero doesnât quite
know how or why. He tangles with Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and
Harley Quinn as he unravels the mystery, employing stealth, gadgets, and a huge amount of style
along the way. Itâs not a perfect experience, with enemies
that are especially reluctant to throw the first punch and a poorly implemented first-person
mode, but it comes respectably close. The highlight is the Batwing stage, which
is satisfying, engaging, and controls like a dream. Itâs actually remarkable how great that
stage is considering the vehicle isnât used anywhere else. Developer Ubisoft clearly knew that Batmanâs
toys should be every bit as fun to use as they look. #7 - Batman
2013 Arcade
If you were lucky enough to find the 2013 Batman arcade game somewhere, the chances are you didnât just play it once and move along, especially if you found the version
that allowed for two players. Thatâs both because the game is extremely
fun and because itâs so punishingly hard you likely wouldnât have seen much of it
without paying for a continue. Arcade games are famously designed to suck
your money away, which is certainly the reason for this gameâs steep difficulty, but this
one was apparently also designed to be genuinely fun. Imagine that. The game focuses entirely around vehicular
combat, with 10 vehicles to choose from spanning a number of Batmanâs various incarnations
over the years. And, remarkably, it actually makes using the
Batmobile feel fantastic. Youâd probably think the Batmobile would
be an easy win for game developers â as, seriously, who doesnât want to drive that
thing around? â but Iâd say pretty much every game on this list that has attempted
to integrate it has come up short. In some games itâs the focus, in some games
itâs just for a driving stage or two, but in all cases, itâs never been the imaginary car we used to drive around in our playground
games. Perhaps no video game will ever replicate
that level of cool but man, the Batmobile of Batman 2013 is addictive, exciting, and
stylish, and about as close to the real thing as weâd ever need it to be #6 - Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
2012 3DS, DS, PlayStation 3, Vita, Wii, Wii U,
Xbox 360, PC Lego Batman 2 gave us exactly what we wanted
from it: ie. more of a very good thing. This sequel to the first Lego Batman game
featured a massive 75 playable characters, including many from other DC properties such
as The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and, of course, Superman. As with their first Batman outing, Travellerâs
Tales used the second game as an opportunity to introduce some new features to the various
Lego series, with full voice acting and an explorable open world making their very welcome
Lego debuts. The story makes great use of the DC-wide crossovers
from the start, with Bruce Wayne, The Joker, and Lex Luthor vying for the coveted Man of
the Year Award, and while this does eventually lead to more exciting setpieces, the low stakes
of the initial conflict set the tone very well for what is still one of the most charming
Lego games. Compared to the first game, there are more
places to go, more characters to meet and play as, and new gadgets to experiment with. If you like a dash of silliness in your superheroes
â and, honestly now, you really should â this game is not be overlooked. #5 - Batman: Arkham City
2011 PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360, PC
With the critical and popular success of Arkham Asylum, a sequel to that self-contained game
was basically inevitable. And though Arkham City is frequently voted
the peopleâs favourite of the series, we feel it doesnât quite reach the heights
of its predecessor in many ways. Here, Gotham City has walled off a disused
area and dumped its criminals inside, essentially letting them wipe each other out. Itâs cruel and inhumane, but with Gothamâs
nonstop supervillainy, we can understand why theyâd probably want to try that at least
once. Of course, Batman isnât too keen on the
idea, and itâs up to him to learn the secrets of Arkham City and make it out alive. This game broadens the scope of Arkham Asylum,
introducing more villains and allowing Batman a much vaster environment to explore. It also, however, loses a bit of that gameâs
focus, and itâs not unlikely that players will find themselves partway through a multitude
of quests while gliding around Arkham City, not quite sure which one to follow up on. Itâs perhaps a harsh criticism. Most players thought the expansion of scope
in Arkham City was its biggest selling point. We totally get that argument, but reckon that
Arkham City felt maybe just a little too broad in the end. However, nobody can disagree that if you are
looking to explore a large world as Batman, fighting crime as you find it, seeking out
collectibles, and restoring Gotham to order one thug at a time, you will find yourself
very happy in Arkham City. #4 - Batman: The Telltale Series
2016 PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox
One, Switch, PC Batmanis a franchise that benefits from strong
narrative but, as youâve seen, most of his games reduce him to a platforming bruiser,
which is fine. Exploring the nature of the broken man hiding
beneath the cowl and cape, though, is so much more rewarding. It is, after all, what makes him such a compelling
figure in films, animation, and his many comicbook outings. Batman: The Telltale Series is arguably more
a story about Bruce Wayne than it is about the superhero and itâs a great one because of that. There has always been a grey morality behind
the character of Bruce Wayne. He develops a themed persona⌠to take down
villains with themed personas. He stalks in the shadows⌠to stop those
who stalk in the shadows. He defies the law⌠to make Gotham City safe
from those who defy the law. Thereâs an intriguing ethical balance behind
the guy, rooted in childhood trauma, reinforced by a lifetime of being necessarily unable
to truly confide in anybody. Batman: The Telltale Series allows you to
experience that inner conflict firsthand and decide how Bruce Wayne â the actual human
being rather than the larger-than-life legend heâs still creating â would respond to
it. Both lashing out and bottling it up have consequences,
and this excellent story paints Bruce as a hero who may succeed, but who cannot win. #3 - The Adventures of Batman & Robin
1994 SNES
Everyone has their favorite version of Batmanâs on-screen adventures, but perhaps the one
that is the most universally appreciated is Batman: The Animated Series. The show ran from 1992 to 1995, during which
it picked up an appreciative following that continues to this day. For its final 15 episodes the name was changed
to The Adventures of Batman & Robin, hence the title of this game, which is actually
rather unfortunate, because fans of Batman: The Animated Series may overlook this classic,
not realizing that itâs a faithful and deserving way to dip back into that universe. The graphics, for the time, are absolutely
fantastic. They really capture the character designs
and animation of the cartoon with remarkable fidelity for a 16-bit title, and still manage
to hold up visually to this day. The game is even structured like the cartoon,
with title cards before each stage, and levels tying directly into the events of actual episodes. Admittedly, the controls do feel a bit stiff
nowadays, with Batmanâs vigorous running animation completely incongruous with his
fairly slow movement speed, but it doesnât take more than a few minutes to get used to
this and truly enjoy the stylish atmosphere and creativity of the game. Players can choose from an impressive assortment
of Batmanâs gadgets, the fighting offers a surprising number of ways to take down thugs,
and despite having only eight stages, Konami crammed a respectable number of Batmanâs
top-tier nemeses into the action. The only real drawback is one that canât
be helped: The game looks exactly like the cartoon, but without technology that allowed
for voice acting, it simply couldnât sound like it. #2 - Batman: The Video Game
1989 NES
I told you Sunsoftâs best was coming up, didnât I? Seems a long time ago that I said that now. This is probably the first Batman game most
of you watching this video will remember, and itâs still one of the best. The relatively limited hardware of the NES
did absolutely nothing to hold this back from being one of Batmanâs most fun, most interesting,
and most memorable adventures. The atmosphere is appropriately moody, the
soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, and the gameplay is tight and challenging. Even the animation is great, with Batmanâs
cape taking a frame or two to settle after moving. Crucially, controlling Batman is more fun
and interesting than it would be in almost every game that came later, with his wall-jump
ability feeling both natural but appropriately challenging to master. Initially it just seems like a fun little
feature, but once youâve completely nailed the timing, youâll be finding shortcuts
throughout the game to help you progress more easily. What could have been a lazy licensed adaptation
ended up being one of the best games on the system, and it still stands out as a highlight
today. It is really quite difficult at first, but
that only gives you a greater sense of reward when you truly get to grips with the gameâs
design. After all, Batman never said his job was easy. #1 - Batman: Arkham Asylum
2009 With Arkham Asylum, developer Rocksteady seemed to achieve a kind of alchemy, doing perfect
justice to Batman as a character. Every aspect of Arkham Asylum â both the
game and the location â is perfectly designed. There is no wasted space, and yet it never
feels cluttered or overcomplicated. Itâs packed full of many of Batmanâs most
famous villains, and a good number of his less-famous ones either make an explicit appearance
or are represented in some subtle environmental detail. Itâs an incredible celebration of the many
different facets of The Dark Knightâs history, brought together into his most cohesive and
rewarding adventure yet. The environmental design is so remarkably
meticulous, with Easter eggs and clues absolutely everywhere. This is also the introduction to the free-flowing
combat that made the Arkham series so urgently addictive, rewarding players for maintaining
tricky combos and varying their moves, while also allowing less-skilled players to beat
their way through hordes of baddies by focusing on simple prompts. Arkham Asylum tells just about the most straightforward
story possible: The Joker lures Batman into a trap, and he needs to use his wits and reflexes
to survive the onslaught of deadly villains. Despite the simplicity of its premise though,
the game works better than any other adaptation in Batmanâs history. Itâs a claustrophobic nightmare in which
not only Batman triumphs over impossible odds; we triumph over those odds with him. The Arkham series got bigger after this, but
we reckon it never got better. Holy massive list, Batman! Thatâs every Batman game ranked worst to
best. Which ones did we get wrong? All of them, obviously; we know how this works. So let us know your own favorites and least
favorites in the comments section. Also, if you have suggestions for other âEvery
X Ranked Worst to Bestâ videos, be sure to sound off below. You can follow myself and TripleJump on Twitter
here and if you want to support the things you enjoy then check out the rewards on our
Patreon. Finally, donât forget to like the video,
share it with your friends and subscribe to the channel. Iâve been Peter from TripleJump, and thanks
for watching.
Anyone else notice a lot of mouse clicking sounds throughout the video (moreso toward the end?)
I just noticed this show is listed under the "New Shows" tab on the YouTube channel - I guess this means we can expect deep dives in to back catalogues for other series now? Sweet!