Retroactive Reviews: ‘Splosion Man, Shatter

One of the very first reviews for Batman: Arkham Asylum was from this unknown magazine, who went to great, fanboyish lengths to praise the game, clearly arousing suspicions of moneyhats. What would you expect when their most positive comment was “play as Batman” while their biggest negative was that “the game ends”? Let’s face it, there were tremendous odds against Batman’s newest game, namely the fact that it was based on a licensed property. I remained hopeful, however, since it looked great, sounded great (Conroy and Hamil, of course), and because Batman was probably the one superhero to actually have some legitimately good adaptions (in particular, Sunsoft’s NES games, and my personal favorite, Konami’s Batman Returns on the SNES).

Well, color me shocked to learn that not only did Arkham Asylum not suck, it was awesome. And not just “awesome for not sucking” or “awesome for being Batman”, but legitimately, utterly awesome. One person compared it to Resident Evil 4, and I have to agree on that; Batman: AA is like one big thrilling blockbuster that starts with a bang and doesn’t let up until the end, while steadily dropping kickass items and weapons on your lap as you face off against new challenges and intimidating bosses. I’m saddened that I wasn’t given the chance to review this game, but I’m also pleased to give you my biggest off-the-record recommendation. Buy this sucker, posthaste.

I’m planning a new Prospective Preview soon, but in the meantime, I’ve got two more reviews for you.

‘Splosion Man

Shatter