Batman: Return of the Joker ・ ダイナマイトバットマン
Developed by: Sunsoft
Published by: Sunsoft (JP, NA, EU)
Released in: December 20, 1991 (JP), December 1991 (NA), November 19, 1992 (EU)
1990’s Batman: The Video Game is one of the all-time greats on the Nintendo Entertainment System. As the review’ll tell you, I was blown away by the high quality package Sunsoft delivered to gamers nearly 40 years ago. So when I found out they released a pseudo-sequel a year later in Batman: Revenge of the Joker, you bet your Bat-ass I was excited to give it a spin. How does it fare when compared to its predecessor? Let’s find out…
Visually, Revenge of the Joker’s graphics may well be unmatched on the NES.
I mean. Just look at it.
LOOK AT IT.
I MADE THIS GIF JUST FOR YOU TO LOOK AT IT! LOOOOOOK!
Revenge of the Joker’s graphics handily body several SNES titles from the same time frame. It makes the Genesis port of this very game look like flaming hot trash. Here’s a screenshot of it:
Bleugh. I hate looking at this. Makes me feel gross inside. I love the Genny (am I allowed to admit to that on a NES blog?), but Genesis Does Not in this instance. Guess this would’ve been a bad match-up to put in one of those tuderiffic Sega commercials.
Back to the NES version. The music is to die for. Sunsoft did some of my all-time favourite 8-bit music (shameless Gremlins 2 OST plug here), but I’m not special in that regard. Their work on the NES is still held aloft on a high pedestal today; if you’ve never heard the Gimmick! OST, good God, what are you DOING!? Remedy that right now! Anyway, that well deserved legacy lives on in RotJ. Give the first stage theme a listen here and become indoctrinated into the cult of early 90’s Sunsoft sawtooth bass enjoyers.
Is that enough tasty NES music in one paragraph for you? So delicious. I must eat.
Turns out that Revenge of the Joker’s audiovisuals do some lifting so heavy, it would make Solomon Grundy blush. Because the gameplay’s not quite up to the same par. In the 2D era, beautifully fluid animated sprites were oft the sign of a game that would look godly, but control like a bull in a china shop. RotJ is kiiind of one of those. It’s especially noticeable coming off of the previous Batman game, given that one has the holy trifecta of good graphics, a bangin’ soundtrack, and delectable controls.
So. Controls. Batman moves like I do first thing in the morning – his gait is slow and limbering and not especially heroic feeling. Stop moving and he’ll continue to skid forward for a long spell; like the floor is always ice, and Batman didn’t bring his Bat-boots with all of the built in Bat-traction needed to weather the non-existent storm. When you jump, Bruce slams back down to Earth like a goddamn boulder. He also has a slide a la Mega Man 3, but I didn’t even know it existed until I was on the final boss and I did it by sheer accident. So, uh, it’s not exactly a crucial move. Truth be told it’s far from the worst control on the system, but Batman: The Video Game smacks its ass six ways from Sunday to a noticeable and undeniable degree.
This begs the question: it fair to draw all of these comparisons to a different game? In this case, I think so. Same IP, same developers, both released within a year of each other. Yet the gap in quality is undeniable. In a sense, this is true to Sunsoft’s methodology as a development house. For every memorable banger that is still revered to this day, a legendarily bad stinker was sure to follow. One of their Famicom games, Ikki, is the origin point of the term “kusoge.” So maybe it’s on me for not forseeing this pivot into mediocrity. But you hope for better, don’t you? Glass half full and all that.
RotJ also has a power system lifted from the likes of Contra, but with none of the satisfaction. Regardless of which shot type you pick, it doesn’t feel good to kill bad guys in this game. Not in a moral way. Like, as a task in a video game. “Task” is the right word for it because it’s more of a chore than anything. In fact, when I cut through the glitz and glam of early 90’s Sunsoft, I came to realize that this is an exceedingly basic game in terms of combat and level design. Batman is huge and takes up a lot of the screen, to the point where nine times out of ten, there’ll only be a single enemy sharing the screen with him. Holy graphics over gameplay, Batman! Was this intentional to keep sprite flicker to a minimum, prioritizing the game’s presentation staying crisp over being fun?! Regardless of the motivation, this is the design we as players have been tasked to tackle in the years since. So you dispatch the singular guy, move forward 10 steps, maybe jump over something, and kill another singular guy. Do the same thing 37 times until you make it to the boss fight. Which, spoiler alert: are just as simple and brainless as the rest of it. The whole thing feels a bit like Fisher Price: My First Action Game.
Sometimes there are these side-scroll-y levels where Batman puts out a huge fuckin’ gun, straps a jetpack to his back and just cruises through some tunnel for some reason or other. The Batman sprite is still huge, but there’s ample room to shimmy around the little robots that fire at you. So it’s not especially challenging. How can a game that houses “Batman on a goddamn jetpack mowing down baddies at Mach 5” as a frequent sequence be so dull? It must be studied.
Speaking of challenge, RotJ is on a bit of a bell curve. It starts out easy peasy, then Levels 3 and 4 are excruciatingly difficult, before sloping back into a gentle monotony with the final stages. The cynical part of me can’t help but speculate if that mid-way difficulty spike was to dissuade weekend rentals from polishing the whole thing off in one go. But assuming you’re not currently a seven year old in 1991, this game isn’t that tough beyond those two levels. Unlimited continues with generous checkpoints and passwords makes brute force a legit strategy when trying to topple this Bat-beast.
Batman: Revenge of the Joker is a nepo baby. The only reason people like it is because of who its esteemed father is (the Batman franchise circa 1990), as well as its clever big brother (Batman: The Video Game, natch). If one stripped away the spectacular pixel art and soundtrack, there wouldn’t be anything of particular value left on this cart and the game would’ve faded into obscurity. But the truth of the matter is that it does have those drool worthy audiovisuals, and that helps significantly elevate what is otherwise a middling package. RotJ winds up being a lesser follow-up to one of the greats, but manages to be serviceable enough on its own merits. Not great, though. Just okay.
Now I think I’ve ribbed on poor ol’ Bruce enough for one entry. Dude’s got enough problems without me in his ear, nagging about how he can’t land a jump without leaving cracks in the pavement. Check out Batman: Revenge of the Joker if you have any interest in ogling the purdy graphics and banger soundtrack. Otherwise, you’re safe to leave RotJ where you left it. On Crime Alley, maybe. Why did Batman’s parents think it was a good idea to take a shortcut through CRIME ALLEY in the middle of the night, anyway?
Sorry, I’m getting sidetracked.TL;DR: you could do worse, but you should play Batman: The Video Game instead. Or read The Long Halloween or something.
Final rating:
NESJunk 