Batman
I'm Pac-ManGenre: puzzle - overhead
Publisher: Sunsoft
Year: 1990
System: PCE
Gameplay Score: 4
Gameplay Notes:
The view is overhead and the gameplay has more in common with Pac-Man than the beat-em-up you were expecting. The Caped Crusader ditches melee combat in favor of throwing batarangs to stun and walking right into bad guys to temporarily knock them off the map. The only menace besides enemies walking through single-tile corridors are a set of collectibles and a generous time limit. These collectibles include containers, artwork, and x's on the ground. Yup, nothing says The Dark Knight like picking up makeup, cleaning up graffiti, or setting bombs where X marks the spot. Amazingly, despite being stupid in concept, the gameplay is actually pretty darn fun. Movement is snappy, one-button controls are *ahem* uncomplicated, and the difficulty is pretty low. I had a great time with this little game.
Level Design Score: 4
Level Design Notes:
There are multiple worlds, each with 12 stages. Each stage is filled with pickups (which seem to do nothing) and those objective collectibles which, when all collected, ends the game. I don't usually like "get everything to end the stage" game design but it works for a game like this. The stages are different enough that I had a distinct "one more level" mentality as I sat down and played for well over an hour straight. They aren't perfect, mind you. It would've been nice to have more variety than the three enemies (slow guy, fast guy, stationary gunman) and the red arrow warps that send you to a certain spot on the map are an annoying mechanic. I also would've like to see more unique elements like the trucks on the busy street in world two. More variety please!
Theme Score: 2
Theme Notes:
Batman shouldn't be dealing with petty crime, I'm sorry. Imagine swapping Batman for Goofy in Goof Troop and you'll get an idea of how silly this premise is.
Art Style Score: 3
Art Style Notes:
Sprites are well-drawn and animate well but are decidedly early gen. The best thing about the graphics are the cutscenes between worlds (every 12 levels) which are impressive for a cartridge game. They're on par with some of the best stuff on any 16-bit cart.
Audio Score: 5
Audio Notes:
Four incredible tunes, including the first level song from Batman on the NES! The samples used in the music have a solid feel to them and the music has layers of bass to give each track extra oomph. Great sound effects as well.
Overall Score: 78
Review ID: 8007
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