Batman Returns (NES) Playthrough
490A playthrough of Konami's 1992 license-based beat 'em up for the NES, Batman Returns.
Christmas-themed stuff is still allowed for a few more days, right? ;)
Batman Returns for the NES was Konami's first in-house developed game based on the Batman license, following about a year after Sunsoft's Return of the Joker. The shift to a 2.5D beat 'em up was a good move for the series, and while it's not quite as good as Sunsoft's NES Batman games, it was an excellent beginning to what would become another killer line-up of license-based Konami games.
This cart's gameplay is pretty comparable to TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project's. You walk a bit, encounter a group of bad guys, end said bad guys, walk forward a bit more to encounter more bad guys, and repeat. Batman gets a few more maneuvers than his green cousins do, though. In addition to normal punches and jump kicks, he can block to reduce damage taken, pull a sliding tackle into someone's legs, swipe his cape to clear the area around him, and throw a batarang to stun someone or to knock them off their bike. You also get a grappling hook that you can use to find secret areas and to hit enemies flying overhead.
And to break things up a bit, you also get a level to race around in the Batmobile while you blast away at everything in sight.
The game follows the plot of the film, so each stage is introduced with a cutscene that explains what's going on, just like in the SNES game. And the first NES Batman game. They look and sound great, as does the rest of the game.
The close-ups and action shots in the cutscenes look great for an NES game, and the in-game graphics are detailed and well-drawn. The sprites are of a good size and Batman himself looks pretty beefy. The backgrounds tend to have that monochromatic look that started showing up toward the end of the NES's life (there is *a ton* of blue and orange!), but it's still a good looking game. The soundtrack is as good as Konami's usual, too, so if you like games with memorable tunes, turn this one up.
Batman Returns isn't all ideal, though. The fly in the ointment here is that the controls are awkward and get in the way too often. Remember that big list of things I listed that you can do? And remember how many buttons are [not] on the NES controller?
To guard, you have to hit down+punch. To use a special item, it's up+punch. Sliding is down+jump. You get the idea.
Now, the button combos themselves aren't that big a deal. Many games had commands like this. The problem is that the playing field has depth to it and that you're already using the up and down arrows for movement. You'll take way too many hits because you tried to slide and instead jumped, or you'll waste ammo because you've accidentally triggered a weapon as you were trying to move up to punch.
This flaw doesn't kill the game, but it does bring the overall experience down several notches. It was rare that a Konami game flubbed its controls, but that makes it all the more disappointing given the otherwise high level of overall quality. As it is, Batman Returns is still fun, but the control scheme makes the game much harder than it feels like it should be.
But a late-gen Konami NES game with good production values and mediocre gameplay is hardly scraping the bottom of the NES barrel. It's generally quite good. I just wish it had been Konami-good. Oh well.
They nailed the SNES game, at least!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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