Batman The Movie

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Batman must save Gotham City from a lunatic villain called “The Joker” who plans to take over and bring crime and chaos. The storyline is loosely based on the 1989 blockbuster movie “Batman”. The game features 5 levels of action. Your mission starts at the Axis chemical plant (were Mr. Jack Napier fell into acid and transformed into the deformed “monster” we all know... the Joker!) As Batman, you have to hunt down Napier and fight all his deadly gang members in order to proceed to the next level. Your main weapons are your fists, your kicks and your trusty batarangs. You can also use a bat-rope to climb into higher platforms. On each level, the action perspective changes and you also drive (or pilot) your Bat-vehicles (like in the second level where Joker is chasing you and you have to run to your Batcave driving your Bat-mobile.) While driving or flying, you have to avoid various obstacles and traps (e.g. police blockades) –and, believe me this is NOT easy as the gameplay gets frustrating, at least in most of the game’s versions (actually it’s hard to control the Bat-mobile, while the Bat-plane seems more controllable. Note that the ZX Spectrum version runs only on the 48/128k models and not on the + models).

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics here are nice, displaying all of the original details but with a very limited palette and color-clash problems. Note that the Spectrum version runs a bit smoother than the CPC, although their greatest difference is in the color quality (which is normal since the CPC produces more colors). Overall, the ZX graphics look identical to the MSX version as both machines offer 4-5 max colors on screen, mainly based on blue and black! In terms of sound, (specifically on the 128k) the game features the nicely composed main menu Batman theme and several in-game tunes along with a few nice sound effects (gunshots, explosions etc) -much like the CPC version. I should mention here that, in comparison, the Commodore 64/128 version offers excellent in-game tunes (due to its SID sound generator chip).