In honor of the new 360/PS3 game Batman Arhkam Asylum…I’ve been playing the NES Batman game (Famicom version actually, but whatever). It’s damn good. And it’s made in the only way to do a good movie tie-in game: by ignoring the movie almost completely. There’s Batman, and the last stage takes place in the Cathedral, and you fight the Joker…and that’s really it. I don’t recall seeing Batman fighting against a gizmotron in the sewers in the movie. And that’s a good thing. Movies are movies, games are games.

The game itself is an action-platformer, a genre that got a lot exposure on the system, with a heavy emphasis on walljumping. The mechanic is very nicely introduced too. In the first stage you don’t need it at all, in the second stage you can take a shortcut with it, in the third you need to make one walljump if you want to avoid taking damage…and from then on you need to use it just to make progress. This culminates in the last stage, where you need to make very accurate walljumps (too high and you take damage, too low and you don’t make it) while also dealing with enemies. Best way here and in any level with a similar situation is to time your walljump so you avoid enemy shots, land right next to them and start wailing on them with punches. There’s a brief period when enemies are stunned after taking a hit, so you can either walk through them unharmed or destroy them easily.

The game’s often mentioned in “Most difficult games on NES”-types of lists (along with Contra), but it’s not that hard (just like Contra). I guess most of those lists are made while reminiscing how the game felt to a 7-year old kid. The bosses are pushovers once you figure out a solid tactic to their patterns (though Joker can be a bitch regardless) and there’s only three stages that can pose any problems…3-3 (with the big fireball-shooting tanks), 4-1 (lots of enemies, ground mines and bomb droppers at the same time) and the aforementioned last stage 5-1. I’ve made it to Joker while dying only once on the way and I have cleared the game with continues. I’ve mostly been playing it just for fun, not taking it too seriously. But I might get the no-continue clear by accident rather than by design at this rate. But now I also want to get into the original Ninja Gaiden games…not unlike Batman, only harder.

And eventually I’ll get Arkham Asylum, when it’s a bit cheaper. I’ve been spending a lot money lately so I need to cut back on the purchases a bit. Ever since STGT few years back, when Blazing Star was one of the chosen games, I’ve sorta wanted to get back to it. It’s one of the few shmups where I really like the scoring system and my brain seems to be wired for horizontals, at least for now. I got a nice, sleek consolized MVS (big thanks to rgb, he’s a real magician) and got a nice deal for the game…along with five others. Hey, at least I got a discount.

I got swept into Andro Dunos, though. Fun, fast-paced horzie. I’ve already made it to Stage 6 boss (8 stages overall) on a credit so a clear doesn’t sound too impossible a feat. Even though there’s not a real scoring system in place here, the game still requires it’s due attention even at the beginning since it’s fairly easy to die to an enemy that zooms right into you. So it’s nice to play. The four always-selectable weapon sets are cool and none of them are useless (though Reverse gets very little use). One could slap a buttrock soundtrack to the game, call it Thunder Force’s little cousin and nobody would bat an eye.

I still have little technical problems with recording MVS footage (I can, but then I’d have to play on the small monitor and experience slight input lag, so hardly optimal) but those should hopefully be resolved soon.