Batman: The Caped Crusader Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
73Developed by Special FX and published by Ocean in 1988.
Timecodes:
A Bird in the Hand: 0:00
A Fete Worse than Death: 13:28
With a swoosh of his cape and batarang clenched tightly in one gauntleted fist, the Dark Knight emerges from the shadows to bring justice to the lawless scum of Gotham City in this action adventure game for the Commodore 64.
Originally released in 1988, the game caused quite a stir and with good reason. The game was unique in that it actually contained two separate adventures, one on each side of the cassette tape!
A Bird in the Hand sees Batman taking on the Penguin and putting a stop to his plans of world domination. Having set up an umbrella factory as a front for shady business dealings, Batman must fight his way past gun-toting thugs and an army of lethal toys and robot penguins before confronting the old bird himself.
In A Fete Worse than Death, Batman's arch nemesis, The Joker, has kidnapped Robin, his sidekick, and planted a number of bombs around Gotham.
Both games involves navigating a maze-like set of connected screens, collecting items and using them to solve a set of puzzles whilst beating up (or avoiding) henchmen. The puzzles require thought to solve and are not always obvious at first glance; some rooms contain objects that the player might think are background scenery, but in reality require use of an item to advance the game.
While the first game is manageable, A Fete Worse Than Death is by far the more difficult of the two. Not only do multiple henchmen appear on-screen, but they will head-butt our hero, stunning him and draining his health. As well as solving the puzzles, there are a number of bombs that must be located and defused before Robin can be rescued. Even this isn't straightforward since Batman must find a pair of wire cutters in order to defuse said explosives. The player definitely needs their wits about them if he/she is to survive and rescue the Boy Wonder from a grizzly end.
The game manages to capture the essence of Batman's comic-book origins by displaying each location in a comic cell panel. Moving between locations sees the previously visited room fade into the background and is a very cool touch. Certain rooms contain comic-style box-outs in the top left corner of the screen and hold cryptic clues as to which item should be used on-screen as a particular time.
The graphics and artwork by Karen Davies are extremely good and all of the sprites are very well animated (the way that some of the goons toss coins as they walk around is very cool). Batman himself looks excellent and really helps immerse the player in the role of caped crusader himself.
Fred Gray produced a great music track that plays during both games. It captures the essence of the theme tune from the Batman TV series and is very recognisable and catchy.
The inventory system used in the game is quite innovative, but remains simple to use. Using the batarang pointer, the player selects an item by moving the pointer over it and pressing fire, then moving the pointer to one of the actions in the centre of the screen.
Solving puzzles in this manner awards completion points up to a maximum of 99% in each adventure. I managed to achieve 99% in the first game, but limited energy in the second forced me to complete the game as quickly as possible and I probably missed a few optional puzzles.
It's worth noting that Batman isn't invincible and must keep his health topped up by finding and using various food-related items that can be located within some of the various game locations.
Whilst the fame is generally fun and well conceived, it's no without issues. The main complaint I have with the game is that avoiding enemies is preferable to fighting them. Some of the enemies (especially the toys) are too fiddly and numerous to deal with effectively and it soon becomes apparent that exiting screens as quickly as possible is the secret to success. Considering that Batman usually metes out punishment with a good dollop of fisticuffs makes him feel a little ineffectual in this game.
Secondly, the difficulty of the second game is a tad too much for my liking. It's much easier to die due to the number and types of enemies that appear on-screen, so memorising the level layout and plotting the most efficient path through them is essential.
I feel that, like Samurai Warrior (Usagi Yojimbo), the game had high ambitions that couldn't be realised as fully as the developers would have liked. Even so, Batman: The Caped Crusader is a damn fine action puzzler and deserved the praise it received upon release.
#retrogaming