Some of you may be asking, Why should I play The Adventures of Batman and Robin when Batman: Arkham Assylum is already available? That is a very good question.
The Adventures of Batman and Robin is a direct sequel to Batman: Arkham Assylum, and takes place immediately after the events of said game. Batman and Robin have just defeated The Joker at Arkham Assylum and are taking the Batmobile back to the Batcave when Batman is suddenly shot by The Kingpin. Robin cradles his dying partner in his arms while Batman slips in and out of consciousness. As he dreams, he recalls his past adventures with Robin (hence the title, The Adventures of Batman and Robin).
If the premise reminds you of Hitman: Contracts for the PlayStation 2, that's a good thing. It means that you've been paying attention, since both games were developed by Eidos Interactive. But now that Eidos has been purchased by Square Enix you can expect to see a lot of divergence between the two games. For instance, the battle system in The Adventures of Batman and Robin is taken straight from Final Fantasy XIII, and you will be pleasantly surprised when a certain hero from Chrono Trigger makes an appearance near the end to tell Robin that he needs to go back in time to 1955.
One thing that becomes absolutely clear when playing The Adventures of Batman and Robin is how much care the developers put into The Adventures of Batman and Robin. The GameGear may not be as powerful as a PlayStation 3, but Eidos really got the most out of the hardware. Sure, they employed a few parlor tricks in the process, like using pre-rendered backgrounds with 3D characters overtop, ala Resident Evil; but the ends certainly justify the means as the effect comes off sparklingly.
The vehicular sections may feel a little dated, as they're ripped straight from the Sega CD version of Road Rash 3D, but if you enjoyed that game then there is nothing to hate about The Adventures of Batman and Robin. In fact, the advanced rendering techniques that Eidos used for The Adventures of Batman and Robin may put it well above Road Rash 3D in a lot of ways.
One complaint that I have is the limited multiplayer options available in The Adventures of Batman and Robin. With games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, gamers have become accustomed to 75+ players competing on a single map, but The Adventures of Batman and Robin allows only 64 players at a time. This is a ridiculously low amount for an MMORPG like The Adventures of Batman and Robin, and fans of the genre may want to stick with World of Warcraft as a result.
But multiplayer woes aside, The Adventures of Batman and Robin offers a very robust single-player campaign that is totally unmatched on this generation of consoles. To find storytelling like this in any other game, you'd have to go back twenty years to Super Pitfall on the NES.
Closing Comments
The Adventures of Batman and Robin is an excellent game and totally deserves a 4... out of 5.
10 out of 10
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