The Brothers Duomazov: Batman

~ BATMAN ~

Sunsoft

HuCard

1990

This poor HuCard is ridiculed quite often these days. People point and laugh at the "rat in a maze" gameplay and bemoan the fact that the game isn't a sidescroller. But back in the day, EGM actually lauded the effort, making it one of the PC Engine titles I most wanted to play at the time. Recent reports tempered my enthusiasm, as it seemed like the only good things about PCE Batman were its music and cinemas (and I can now say that it does indeed excel in those regards). But I'd always been curious about it, and I'd always expected that I would dig it.

The game did not let me down. Sure, the scavenger-hunt-like action is repetitive, but I find it hard to stop playing once I get going. It's fun to scour the maze-like maps and slaughter or evade the villains. I get a kick out of the odd tasks that must be performed, like polishing paintings that look like a baby spat up on them. And I don't know why people make this out to be an overlong epic, as it's definitely conquerable in one sitting. There are forty-eight stages to play through, and while that might seem like a lot, they can all be beaten in short order. There's also a cool three-boss gauntlet at the very end.

I think the key to having fun with this game and avoiding the feeling that your mission is taking forever is, well, not to die very often. I probably sound daft with that remark, but when you use a continue, you lose the abilities you gained through powering up, which means Batman will revert back to his initial state as a vulnerable plodder who can toss only one slow, short-range "batarang" at a time. But you'll be deprived of the powers you've acquired only if you have to continue, not each time you lose a life. And if you can keep your improved speed and your effective long-range weaponry, you'll get into a groove and probably find it hard to walk away from the game.