Batman–Nes Game Review

Batman
Developed by SunSoft
Original Release Date 12/22/89
2D Action-Platformer

So, it's 3:35 pm. You just got off the bus after a long day of school. After your customary grilled cheese and MacGyver session, what are you gonna do? Play Batman for the NES of course. Ok, maybe you aren't like me and don't have an afternoon ritual like that, but you should still play this game.

Everyone knows the premise of the original movie's story: Batman knows that the Joker killed his parents so he hunts him down to kick his ass and ultimately throw him off the top of a *SPOILER*clock tower. Pretty badass. In the game, you jouney through 5 stages set up around Gotham. You do battle with a decent variety of enemies that all have different attack patterns. Batman can Punch, Jump and use a really neat "wall-kick" technique that allows him to vault off walls in the opposite direction. On top of that, his big sexy yellow utility belt comes equipped with three different gadgets for extra crime-fighting bad-assery. His trusty Batarang™ is as strong as his Bat-Punch™ and travels out about a quarter screen length then returns to his Bat-Hand™. The Bat-Gun™ fires a full screen length but does half the damage of the Batarang™. Finally, the Bat-Three Disc Shooter Thingy™ the fires three discs that cover a height about equal with Batman and have the same power as a Batarang™.

Each of the five levels are opened with a short animated cut scene showing Batman's arrival at the hideout in question (City, Factory, Sewage, Lab, Tower). Each stage also has a boss at the end that will force you to use all your Bat-Wits™ to conquer him. Incidentally, almost nothing in this game save for Batman and the Joker have anything to do with the movie, but you know what? I think the movie would have been better if Batman was forced to fight giant fire-ball shooting tanks in an underground cave, but maybe that's just me.
Graphically, this game isn't astounding, but it isn't utter Bat-Shit™ either. The sprites are nicely animated and the backgrounds of the stages give you a gloomy Gotham City feel. The control is spot on, there is no way you can blame a death on the controls which is unlike Kid Kool, where 98% of your deaths are caused by the controls. The wall jumping works the way it should and scrolling through your Bat-Gadgets™ is a breeze with the start button. This game is also a lot of fun to play. Once you get used to the wall jumping you will be having a breeze playing it. There really isn't much I can say bad about this game other then "why the fuck is Batman purple?".

Insert Coin Review: Justice League Heroes (PS2)

I'm going to try something different today. Given my actual life is pretty devoid of things worth writing about (unless you're interested in the wonders of the world of airfield guidancesigns, in that case read my book). I've been finding myself with time to actually play and complete video games, read books, watch movies, things like that. So every once in a while I'll write up a short review and stick it here (for all two of you that read this blog :0 ). So here goes.

Justice League Heroes, upon seeing the first commercial for this game I was immediately intrigued. What I saw of gameplay footage looked super neato, an X-Men legends style smash em up with the JUSTICE LEAGUE. I've always been more of a marvel fan my whole life, but I along with millions of others have been waiting for a Justice League centered game that we can be proud of (Justice League: Task Force doesn't exist, I swear, it was ret-conned out of real life.) I have to admit, for what it is, this game delivers.

First off, what I really like about this game: Presentation, this game looks GREAT. The in game graphics are beautifully fluid and colorful, albeit small and mostly seen from an almost top-down prospective, the heroes, civilians and villains all look great. The movie sequences look a lot more cartoony than they should in my opinion, but they are still looking good and really add to the whole experience (as opposed to movie sequences in other games that just seem to waste time, *ahem* Ultimate Alliance *cough*). Also, the voice acting is great...for the most part. The dialog can be incredibly cheesy at times and the unlockable characters seemed to be given lines as an after-thought (Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner have the same voice actor and I'm pretty sure they share the same lines.) Also, the acting for Superman is pretty much less than super. It doesn't really give him any sort of presence or intensity. This is supposed to be Superman, I know he's part of the team and they probably didn't really want to overpower anyone too much in any way, but he sounds like a super queer in this game.

Now, the major gripes: Only two characters at once, while still fun to play with only two people, I think a 4 player smashfest would have been awesome. Also, it was awfully short, I beat the game in about 5 or 6 hours, and the characters are pretty unbalanced (if you go into battle with Green Arrow and Huntress, you're screwed.)

Overall it was an enjoyable experience. It seems Snowblind Studios set out to make a game for DC fans that could stand up to the likes of Ultimate Alliance and the two X-Men legends games. The gameplay is very similar between all of them in that you gain experience points throughout the game to upgrade your skills, similar combat and superpower systems, etc. The similarities are obviously intentional, but I don't mind. I recommend it to any major fans of DC comics or the other super-hero based RPGish beat em ups.

Overall Grade: 3.5/5

SNIKT-BUB!!

So, on saturday I took my car to Midas to get the muffler replaced. While I was waiting I walked down to Barnes and Noble to peruse the graphic novel section. I picked up the first volume of Astonishing X-Men (for my man love of Colossus and Cyclops) and found it to be a really enjoyable read. These three pages made me laugh out loud.

Sorry for that, apparently I can't place them side by side.

Another wrestling death...

(From 1wrestling.com) "Former WWE tag team champion BrIan "Crush" Adams was found dead today according to an announcement at WWE.com.

Adams retired from the ring after a spinal injury in 2003 and had worked as a bodyguard for Randy Savage during the promotional tour of Savage's CD. He had last worked for a major wrestling company in 2001 when he and partner Brian Clark (Kronik) worked briefly in WWE.

The cause of death is unknown at this time.

1Wrestling.com sends condolences to the friends and family of Brian Adams."

So, that's another wrestler dead, Benoit killed himself and his family not two months ago. This is a real shame, I remember liking Crush a lot back in his Hawaiian behemoth gimmick days. His feud with Doink the Clown was awesome (up until Wrestlemania 9, of course. Everything just got silly after that, I think.) He was also a part of Demolition, one of the greatest tag teams of all time. He will be missed.