Batman The Movie

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Batman must save Gotham City from a deformed lunatic called “The Joker”. There are five levels in total and the game starts at the Axis Chemicals, where Mr. Jack Napier transforms into the monster we know after being thrown into acid. The first level includes all sorts of toxic substances leaking from pipes and dangerous gasses extruding into the air. This level follows the classic platform style of gameplay. The Joker's men are everywhere and Batman must kill or them. He can use his bat-rope to climb into higher platforms or swing over gaps and his batarags to take down the enemies (who will shoot and drop bombs at him in frenzy). After defeating Napier you must hop into your Bat-mobile; and then, the real thrill begins! The goal at this point is to chase the Joker's van speeding through the streets of Gotham City. You need to avoid all the other cars but you also have to turn your vehicle in time, at breakneck speeds, by shooting a grappling hook to grab any nearby lamp post. You only have three successful shoots and, if you miss, you’ll end up in front of a police blockade). It seems that the developers have actually given their most attention to this part of the game, at least on the Amiga and ST versions. This stage plays like an ordinary -high quality- racing game. The next stage is the Bat-cave, where you have to select three different increments of the lethal Smilex toxic gas, guessing the correct combination (this is done by the simple elimination method) so you can hand over its formula to the authorities. On the next level, you pilot your Batwing (your aircraft) and you fly rather low, over the city’s carnival festivals, taking out the balloons filled with Smilex that Joker is planning to use and take over Gotham City. The final stage of the game is the Cathedral, a platform stage that plays the same way as the Chemical Axis. In the Cathedral you must eliminate the enemies and finally confront your greatest opponent…The Joker!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Amiga version is much better than the MS-DOS and slightly superior to the Atari ST, though it has identical visual details and colors. The main difference is that the action runs smoother and faster and the game’s mode is larger. The backgrounds are greatly done and detailed on the platform action stages while the driving and flying stages of the game are, in one word, “fantastic” (in fact they are better from many racing games of its time)! Note that the PC-DOS version uses up to 16 colors even when Batman the Movie runs on a VGA, while the Amiga and Atari ST versions offer around 30 colors on screen! Another difference found among the three 16 bit versions is the sound, with the Amiga version “shooting” a plethora of digitized effects and some greatly composed in-game themes (Note: the same tunes found on the Atari ST version but they are performed through the YM-chip standards). The MS-DOS version’s sound is poor and limited to its speaker “beeping”.