Developer: Ringler Studios Publisher: Sunsoft Released: 1992 Genre: Action
Of all the publishers that survived into the 16-bit generation my biggest disappointment has to be Sunsoft. On the NES Sunsoft were one of the system’s best developers, easily up there with Capcom and Konami. But on the Genesis and SNES they descended into licensed game hell and while I liked some of those games it is safe to say they are not what were looking for. One of their first forays outside of the NES was Batman: Revenge of the Joker, a game that should have been an easy slam dunk. Instead we are left with a mediocre version of great NES game that isn’t worth the chips its printed on.
Batman: Return of the Joker was a stunning NES game that pushed the system hard and was a technical achievement. The gameplay didn’t match its graphics but it was still solid. Somehow the Genesis version not only looks worse but has even bigger gameplay flaws. This one was not developed by Sunsoft but it is still disappointing nonetheless.
So the graphics, the main reason this port exists, are flat out bad. I can see what Ringler Studios was going for but it fails in the execution. The NES game was stylized to work around the system’s limits. Revenge of the Joker gives the game a gritty comic book look that does not work due the odd choice in color palette. The bright shades of blue, orange, and grey clash heavily with the vibe they are going for. The sprites are about the same size as the original game but are more detailed. Yet they look silly, like children playing dress up in adult clothes. The tonal consistency of the NES game is what helps it win out in a direct comparison.
I will say though that outside of its palette choices the backgrounds do look pretty good on occasion. Certain areas benefit from more layers of parallax scrolling like the city streets, the sewer and train yard. When it is bad, it is bad. The indoor locations suffer heavily from the garish color palette, another reason why the stylized Nintendo visuals looks better.
Revenge of the Joker differs from prior Batman titles in that it equips Batman with a projectile launcher. It is an odd choice and one that mostly works. There are four weapons: normal batarangs, the crossbow, sonic neutralizer and the shield star. The crossbow and sonic neutralizer are the most effective of these thanks to their strength and spread. In addition, you can charge up each weapon to unleash a more powerful attack. This version adds a few melee moves to spruce up combat and they somewhat work. The slide kick in particular is very useful; you are invincible during it, making it key to winning boss battles. The default kick is near useless however. Its range is limited and combined with the bad hit detection more of a liability than a help.
The original version had its problems such as hit and collision detection and this version has many of its own. The controls are sluggish at best and unresponsive at worst. Batman slides around and feels like he can barely stand still. Actually he can’t; when left idle he stops and poses which can lead to cheap hits. Speaking of cheap hits, the enemies are very aggressive in this version and all of your weapons feel weak. The NES version never had more than two enemies on screen but there is no such limitation here. It feels very cheap; the auto scrolling segments of stage four are a nightmare as a result. The slow controls and large sprites make the few platforming bits flat out bad. And somehow they made the shooting segments boring!
As if these flaws aren’t enough the hit detection is all around bad. The weapons work for the most part. Your melee attacks frequently miss and have such short range they aren’t worth bothering. Unfortunately certain enemies like the gargoyle statues can only be destroyed by melee and you will lose precious life because of it. The control and hit detection issues make the boss battles seem all but impossible. Batman attacks slowly and has little room to dodge. Kicking is faster but I’ve already made known its problems. If you die, good luck defeating the bosses with the default batarang. There are unlimited continues and passwords to alleviate some of the difficulty but the game is so bad why bother.
In Closing
Batman: Revenge of the Joker should have been great. Instead it is a bad version of a good game and simply awful. How did it go so wrong? Sometimes less is more and in this case the NES version is better in almost every single way.
