Batman: The Caped Crusader Longplay (Amiga) [QHD]

Game Info --------------------------------------------------- Developer: Special FX Publisher: Ocean Software Year of Release: 1988 Game Review & Impressions --------------------------------------------------- I'm intimately familiar with the C64 version of the game, having owned it back at release, and longplayed it for this channel on at least two occasions. Despite some flaws, I always felt it was one of Ocean's better games based on a license. It's based on the actual comic book incarnation of Dark Knight, rather than the subsequent movie adaption -- which received its own video game -- and is an original concept. As with the C64 version, The Caped Crusader features two separate adventures for Batman to get his Batarang into. These focus on the most iconic of his adversaries, Penguin and Joker, each involving the collecting of seemingly random items from various locations, then figuring out where to use them. To beat the Penguin, Batman needs to gain access to the villain's luxury mansion and install a virus on the central computer, while beating his arch-nemesis Joker involves disarming a plethora of bombs which threaten to destroy Gotham, then rescue Robin, who's held captive at the top of a rollercoaster at the local amusement park. The real challenge is solving the puzzles without Batman's health running out. Armed henchmen patrol the streets and dark alleyways, while mechanical penguins with machine guns and disease-ridden rats scurry about at ankle height, making damned nuisances of themselves. Batman can see off these foes off with a few well-placed punches and kicks, but with these encounters taking their inevitable toll on his health, the need to restore health is one of the biggest concerns throughout the game. Food which completely restores health can be found in certain screens, but unlike the C64 version, enemies actually leave behind snacks when defeated; this is a profound difference, one which makes the game far more manageable than its 8-bit counterpart. However, there's a nuance (limitation) in how the game tracks food items which have dropped, with only a single instance of them able to exist at at a given moment. Although I was already aware of the limitation in its basic form, it wasn't until the Joker campaign I discovered only a single instance can exist across the entire game map. A rogue toffee apple had dropped on a screen without me noticing, and because I hadn't collected it, it's existence prevented enemies dropping subsequent instances of the sugary delicacy. It means you can run dangerously close to running out of energy if you weren't to realise this, because having plenty of food in reserve is crucial to beating the game. As with other cross-platform games from this era, I find that, despite the obvious graphical improvements, I still enjoyed the C64 version of Batman more than this. The character art and animation is good, but I find the limitations imposed by the C64 have an inexplicable "less-is-more" effect. It's certainly true of the in-game music, which is barely more than a couple of loops on repeat; Fred Gray's SID composition for the C64 version definitely has the edge over this. In fact, it wasn't until I re-watched the C64 longplay that I realised it actually has more enemies, a better user interface, and provides a written description of every item Batman collects. The Riddler and Catwoman also make an appearance on C64, but not the Amiga. The sprites might have more detail, but everything else has been paired back. On reflection, I'd be inclined to award the Amiga version of Batman: The Caped Crusader something in the region of 6.5 out of 10. It's reasonably polished, but it just feels a bit dull. Some more music and less dependency on munching snack food might have resulted in something a little more engaging, and it should have had feature parity with the C64. Related Longplays & Videos ---------------------------------------------------    • Batman: The Caped Crusader Longplay (C64) ...   Chapters --------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Adventure A: A Bird in Hand 31:08 Adventure B: A Fete Worse than Death