Developer: Clockwork Tortoise Publisher: Sega Released: May 1995 Genre: Action
In the history of the video game industry there have been far too many games that have tried to skate by on their technical merits to distract from their lackluster gameplay. While these titles are always disappointing there lies another category, games that are on the cusp of greatness but miss the mark for a number of reasons. These always hurt the most as you can see the great game underneath if they had just a little more time on it. The Adventures of Batman & Robin is one of the greatest technical showpieces of the 16-bit era. But as a game it is utterly dreadful to play. This could have been a contender.
Mr. Freeze has crafted a giant ice cannon to freeze Gotham city for reasons unknown. To keep the dynamic duo busy he enlists the help of the Joker, Two-Face, and the Mad Hatter. Using Mr. Freeze as the main villain is an interesting choice. But his portrayal here is rather….cold compared to his sympathetic appearances in the series. I will give them credit for not ending on yet another Joker fight; the game gets that out of the way immediately on the first level.
The Adventures of Batman & Robin was developed by Clockwork Tortoise, composed of former developers of Malibu Interactive. I’ve played their previous works and they are nothing compared to this technically. I daresay there are probably only two or three Sega Genesis developers that were on their level. Sadly in addition to the Sega CD version this was their only other work. What a damn shame as it would have been insane to see what they could accomplish with more time on their hands. They sure had the graphics part down.
I’ve mentioned the graphics constantly because they really are that unbelievable. The Adventures of Batman & Robin throws almost every possible special effect in the book in the game. Line scrolling is used on the buildings in stage one giving them a cool 3d effect. This same effect is used on all the buildings in the Batwing sequence with the viewpoint stretching all the down to street level. I cannot stress enough how insanely cool it looks. Every level features multiple layers of parallax scrolling in addition to frequent use of foreground objects. Sprite scaling and rotation is used heavily during boss battles as well. About the only thing missing is transparencies, but this is the fault of the system itself. And it does all this with barely any slowdown.
Beyond just the special effects the art itself looks fantastic. The often dark and moody color palette of the show lends itself well to the Genesis’ color limitations. The sprites are small so that they can fit a ton of them on screen at once. Indeed, I think it is a bit overkill and to the game’s detriment but it is still an impressive feat nonetheless. The animation is spectacular, especially for both Batman and Robin. While the boss battles seem a bit out of place as they all feature some form of mechanical contraption their patterns and look make them a worthwhile addition.
Rather than a straightforward beat em up as in most of his adventures Batman & Robin is a run and gun action game like Gunstar Heroes. It features a similar mix of hand to hand combat alongside long ranged attacks. By default Batman throws Batarangs but these can be switched to shuriken and bolos. Each weapon can be powered up six times. You also have a meter that charges for more powerful attacks. Power-ups drop constantly, from weapon upgrades to life restoring hearts and screen clearing skulls. Yet even with all this the game is still an unbalanced slog.
Sadly until you max out your weapons the game is completely unbearable. The game throws endless parades of enemies in rapid succession from the word go and never lets up. It would not be so bad if your weapons were worth a damn but they always feel underpowered until you reach full power. You will rarely reach that point as death comes swiftly. The pacing is completely awful; every level has multiple points where you must defeat numerous waves before moving on. It grows old fast yet the game leans on it heavily until its conclusion. I will say the first half of the game is at least manageable. It feels like they put the most work into the game’s first two levels as you can manage the chaos if you go slow. While not ideal it at least works.
All of that goes out the window by stage three. At this point the hordes of enemies are not only far too numerous they are extremely strong to boot. You can almost sense the developers need to rush and get the game out the door as there is no balancing whatsoever. The last levels drag on far, far too long with recycled enemies and set pieces. It becomes unbelievable; I literally cannot believe how long the bat plane sequence truly is. At four levels with three sub-stages each the game feels twice that length which is not to its benefit. Had they managed the ridiculous jump in difficulty this could have been an all time classic. It certainly has the production values of one.
In Closing
Alas, good graphics do not make a great game and The Adventures of Batman & Robin tragically falls short. The ridiculous difficulty almost completely ruins the game by its midpoint. Use a Game Genie to cheat your way through if you must but I would still recommend something like Alien Soldier or Contra Hard Corps first.
