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G AME REVIEW |
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Konami made a foray into the street fighting genre with Batman Returns, adapted from the movie of the same name. Batman Returns allows you to take the role of the Dark Knight as he battles the forces of evil, this time led by Penguin and Catwoman. There is an old video-game adage that ''adaptions of movies make BAD video games''. Konami did a respectable job in breaking this stereotype with this game. |
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G RAPHICS: The graphics by the standards of 1993 are nothing short of marvellous. The sprites are big like Final Fight with decent animation and nice use of colour, but the real highlight of the graphics are the backgrounds. The scenery is taken directly from the film. The gloomy streets of Gotham City, the rooftops, the statues of Gotham Plaza, the mysterious, full of snow Gotham Zoo. It's all here in very good detail. There are also several cut scenes that tell the story of the film. They are not bad but most of them are too small. Pity.S OUND: The sound is even better. The mysterious music of the film is heard in the game. Batman's heroic theme, Penguin's dingy music and Catwoman's twisted theme are all present. Each level has its own, fitting musical score, and all the sub-levels have different music between them. The SFX are clean and do their job fine. Batman Returns's sound is up to par with the sound of Games like Star Wars: Returns of Jedi for SNES.G AMEPLAY: The game is basically Final Fight with Batman as the hero. Batman himself has a variety of punches and kicks that he can deliver to the enemies he faces throughout the game. Also the famous batarang is present and it can be used to stun enemies from a distance. Batman also has a variety of crushing throws that he can dish out including a move where he grabs two enemies and smashes them into each other. The levels closely mirror the plot of the movie. You start in the street of Gotham City where you have to battle your way through the Red Triangle Circus gang to rescue Selina Kyle, the roofs of Gotham City where you must defeat Catwoman and finally to the Penguin's lair, for the final showdown with the Penguin. There is also a Batmobile scene.Batman Returns is not without problems however. Konami made a design choice to have the levels alternate between street fighting and a more traditional action/ side scrolling type when Batman throws only batarangs at enemies. These side-scrolling levels would have been left out of the game, as they only distract from the excellent action provided by the street fighting levels. Also, since Batman is the only character, there is no variety in the fighters you can choose from and there is no 2-player option either. O VERALL: Overall, Batman Returns is a very good spin-off of the movie, and one of the few good Batman games. It follows the story-line closely and does much to incorporate the fighting scenes into the story. Problems with the side scrolling levels and being limited to one-player mode are the only real problems. If you like Batman you must see this game, and even if you don't but you like Final Fight, it's worth checking out. |
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GAME REVIEW |
