Before the entry of Sony in home gaming console, there were only two major players vying for dominance: Nintendo and Sega. Both were at the peak of their powers in the video gaming race, fighting to be the best in the world in bringing video games to their consumers. Nintendo had the Super Nintendo and Sega had the Genesis system.
Various games were developed by both, many companies decided created games of their respective brands and they have invested in both companies. DC Comics is one of those companies that invested in both gaming companies to develop games and it was during this era that the Batman the Animated series was being aired. Sega and Nintendo had games of this but for this review; we will be taking a look at Sega’s take on the Adventures of Batman & Robin.
The Bat’s Sega Journey:
Developed by now defunct Clockwork Tortoise Inc, Sega’s rendition of the famous animated series was at a whole new level. As many gamers know, games during the 90’s era were not as great compared to the life-like games that are being developed today. Games of the said decade were mostly in 16-bit format and the graphics are mostly pixilated. The game is a side scrolling shooter game that can be played by one or two players, coop-style similar to Metal Slug.
Sega’s version of the Dark Knight is based on the animated series and his quest to capture four of the most notorious prisoners of Arkham Asylum. These villains are Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, the Madhater and of course Batman’s arch nemesis, The Joker. These four managed to escape Arkham Asylum and went their separate ways and the Batman must capture and send them back to the Madhouse.
Game play:
The game consists of four chapters which contains two to three stages before reaching the four villains and in each level there are gatekeeper bosses before reaching the big boss that the players need to deal with.
Like a typical shooter game, players shoot down enemy troops and beat each boss in every level. Seems pretty easy and your average shooting game, right? For Sega’s Batman and Robin, that is not the case! Enemies swarm you in all directions and will not stop until you are beaten to a pulp and in order for this to end, the players must keep pushing forward for the wave of opponents to end. Until then, your enemies attack you in a coordinated ambush and to indicate the end of this, Batman’s logo will show up on the screen to notify players once in a while that it is now okay to proceed as a new set of unending wave start until you reach the boss or another stop over.
In order for players to keep up with this unforgiving assault, your weapon’s damage is not constant. Over time, it becomes stronger or weaker depending on the players’ progress. You must collect Batman’s insignias to determine the strength of your items and it can be upgraded up to seven times and the good thing is the weapon’s level is carried over to the next stage. But if Batman or Robin is knocked out, the weapon’s strength is decreased by two levels and there are three color codes for the projectiles that the dynamic duo throw.
First one is colored red. This is the default weapon that the players start with. This weapon is basically a spread-type damage, but is the slowest to recharge among the three colors.
Second weapon is blue. This has a faster charge rate compared to the other two and deals the lowest damage. As you collect weapon power-ups of this color, this slowly turns to a spread-type damage.
The last color is green and this color boast heavy damage despite lacking the spread factor and is concentrated in one direction.
Other power-ups include, are big and small hearts for health, a skull for clearing the floor out of enemies and their projectiles, and a projectile charge boost so players can deal slicing damage which passes through opponents or deal heavier damage.
Graphics and Music:
For a 16-bit game, Sega’s take on the Adventures of Batman and Robin is quite different. The graphics looks like three-dimensional and has pushed the Sega video game card to its very limits.
As you progress, the background and the fluidity of some enemies change a lot. The motion of your opponents and background move well especially if you reach level-four which is Madhater’s domain. Miniboss Chessire the Cat’s graphics has pushed 16-bit graphics its limits. Then comes the screen explosions on the next stage. And lastly, the graphics against Madhater is superb.
Now that game play is discussed, let’s talk about the music. As for us who were able to watch the classic 90’s Batman the Animated Series, we all know that this is one of the best cartoons of our time and its music is style is in orchestra form and the sound effects are pretty simple.
The soundtrack of this game is from the genre techno and though it doesn’t fit well to the theme of the game, it gives you that chill that the game will be hard, and true enough, the difficulty of the game is it is not that easy. Every music in the game is menacing especially if you reach the bosses (except joker’s) you are fucked. As the music plays, you know that you will be attacked in all directions, giving you the feeling that the waves of opponents will be hard and long. The scariest music of them all is found in the Madhater levels.
Also, if one is able to watch the entire intro of the game and you’ve heard of all the music in the soundtrack, try to play this on the options and go idle for a long time and let the chosen music play in the intro part, all music goes well with it (except the music against the Joker).
The Verdict:
Many players say that this is the hardest Batman game ever created during the console wars of SNES and SEGA Genesis. Perhaps that is true due to the unpredictable behavior of the enemy, swarming you in all directions despite memorizing the patterns. For over 20 years of playing the game and despite beating it a lot of times not using the level jump code, the writer still has not memorized the pattern of the game for it is random.
Indeed the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin has put their opponents’ mettle to the test, and this time they were able to push one to its limits: SEGA.
Though the techno music doesn’t blend in with the story and the style of the classic 1995 Batman the Animated Series, its beat music simply fits well with the game due to the unrelenting assaults done by the players’ opponents. It gives the players anxiety as they try to finish the game because its music style seems to give you that “you are being attacked in every direction feel.”
Over all, the experience in playing this game was great and deserves to be treated with much respect. The developers did a good job in bringing challenge to old and new players alike.
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