Batman: The Video Game (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
400A playthough of Sunsoft's 1990 licensed-based action-platformer for the Nintendo Game Boy, Batman: The Video Game.
In 1990, Sunsoft released four unique, internally developed games based on the 1989 Michael Keaton blockbuster. These games, made for the NES, Game Boy, Genesis, and PC Engine, were all highly regarded, praised for their graphics, sound, and gameplay. You can see them all here, if you're interested:
NES: https://youtu.be/sJ8i5WC70F8
Sega Genesis: https://youtu.be/DSEiD-2B73k
PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16): https://youtu.be/MnizcT2krSw
Though it is the only handheld game in the line-up, the Game Boy's Batman holds its own against its console-based cousins. Though small, the graphics are sharply defined and move smoothly, and the soundtrack is the sort of amazing magic that had made Kodaka and Hara so well-known and respected.
If you like the music, you might be interested in my SNES hardware re-arrangement of the first stage theme: https://youtu.be/5xUTHI5Dlow That I put the effort into making such a thing should tell you just how much I love this soundtrack.
The Game Boy game is a platformer, fairly similar in look and feel to Super Mario Land, though its reliance on gunplay distinguishes it from any similar games - and, funnily enough, the other games based on the license. Batman might not murder the Joker for the finale here like he does on the NES, but he totes a lot of firepower for someone who doesn't "kill" his opponents.
Batman nimbly leaps across pits and random block formations, wiping out bad guys and grabbing items to upgrade his guns and circling batarang shield. The controls are excellent, rivalling even the NES game for the precision they give in control - Batman can reliably leap halfway across the screen and land on a platform a single block wide, as long as you've got the motor skills to reliably direct him there. And in case you find the platforming becoming dull after awhile, the game chucks in a random couple of shoot 'em up stages to keep things fresh.
Batman is a simple but well made game that plays to the Game Boy's strengths, and it's one of the best games the machine received in its first year on the market. To anyone that's a Game Boy fan, this is not one to miss.
(That cutscene at 7:44, though! The Joker looks like a pervert on a packed subway car with that rapey facial expression and that gross groping gesture.)
For more Game Boy videos, be sure to check out my playlist for handheld games! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3gSj_kh1fHsEArSL7DiyDE_3RXGkcDDd
*Recorded using Retroarch's DMG shader for that classic LCD look.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
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