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This topic contains reviews of Batman Returns.

Originally published at www.smspower.org/maxim/MiniReview-BatmanReturns

Movie licence? Oh no. Developed by Aspect? Music by the Streets of Rage guy(s)? Hmm... maybe worth a closer look.

Graphics

While there’s a decent amount of variety, the graphics are rather weak most of the way through. While dark urban scenes and sewers are in line with the movie, it’s all done in that ah-well-it’s-8-bit way where you know they could have tried a bit harder to get some shading, shadows, curves, etc. but just didn’t bother.

Sound

Well, it’s basically the guy who did Streets of Rage, using the same engine in the same way... which is pretty good stuff, really.

Longevity

There are five stages, each of which is a selection between two “routes”, so effectively there are 10 levels. Each is reasonably large (across multiple in-game scenes). There’s a lot of fairly obvious busy-work with power-up-collecting that offers you the option to be a completist, and the route selection means you have to play through at least twice to see everything.

Plot

There isn’t really a plot. Well, I guess the final boss is the bad guy from the movie, but that’s it.

Fun

The bat-rope-swing thing is integral to the game - but it’s insanely hard to use. I had to cheat massively with an emulator rewind feature to make progress almost all the time - often there is what seems to be a single-frame window to reach the target and not die horribly.

Also, there’s no energy bar. One hit and you die - and there are plenty of cheap hits. Then you lose all your powerups. To make up for this, there are a huge number of powerups and extra lives, but it’s still really annoying.

Innovation

Not really.

Conclusion

Just get the VGM pack...

★★☆☆☆

Music is great which I think Mr Koshiro was involved.
Game is not my cup of tea , characters are very small , the game feels there's a lot of gaps and it's mostly jumping and using that grappling hook thing.
Overall the graphics aren't bad , it's got that dark edgy style which I like but I think this game leaves a lot to desire plus the one hit and your dead thing is kinda silly. Its an ok game but not the best .

I like both 8-bit versions, especially in comparison to the Mega Drive one: beautiful from a technical standpoint ("baroque graphics", said a magazine of the time) and accessible (well, no wonder: it was made by Access. Okay, okay, don't hit me: I take it back).

Its problem is that gameplay-wise gets repetitive very soon, and the dual paths on every level can't fool anyone: this game is unoriginal and lacks variety. Still, it's really fun to play.

The SMS version puts you into action from the start with power-ups everywhere and instant re-spawning when you lose a life. The GG one brings more of a challenge, having to choose which batarang suits you better and focusing on action rather than platforming.

All-in-all, a good, if sometimes a bit uninspired, effort.

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