warning spoilers.This is not the best DC animated feature

(that honor goes to Justice League : New Frontier)

Nor is it my favorite

(Green Lantern : First Flight)

but it is still very good.

The voice work is stellar with Kevin Conroy as Batman, Tim Daly as Superman, and Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor.

You may recognize these names from Batman the Animated series,

Ya know the show that won all those Emmys.

The Blu Ray for this feature has crisp sound clean, animations, and some of the best dialogue in DC animation history.

Public Enemies has the single greatest one liner in DC animation history

(once you have seen it you’ll know it)

Now to what is always my favorite feature on these features…

COMING SOON!!

Justice League: Crisis on two Earths

this one might have the best cast yet,

featuring

Chris Noth as Lex Luthor

Mark Harmon as Superman

Gina Torres as Superwoman

James Woods as Batman’s evil alternate reality self Owlman

and for the win…

Billy Baldwin as Batman.

I have not read this particular Graphic Novel but the plot seems solid and the voice acting sounds perfectly good,  though I admit Billie Baldwin,   really.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the differences between the Graphic novel Superman Batman: Public Enemies, this is because with only a couple exceptions follows the graphic novel to the letter

I would rather not stick a number on this so I will rate the DC features in order of best to … not best

best

Justice League: New Frontier

Green Lantern: First Flight

Superman Batman: Public Enemies

Wonder Women

erhh Not Best

note the amount to which these are better or worse is marginal, ALL OF THEM ARE GOOD!!!

Well Until next time Yours in truth

Jerimiah Wolfwood

P.S.   Do not forget this season on Batman the Brave and the Bold

the star of such feats as Eat Lead the return of Matt Hazard, Doogie Houser M.D. How I met Your Mother, and Dr. Horrible’s sing along blog,

the one the only, Neil Patrick Harris, will guest star in a musical episode which promises to be great fun for the Caped Crusader.

Seriously…

Ok. Long time no review from me. Ive been working my bunz off trying to get some stuff ready for Dragoncon, but I HAD to take time out to play this game after getting a little sneak peak before it was released. This review is probably going to wind up being a little scatter brained due to my, well, scattered brain (thank you dragoncon). So you’ll have to bare with me for a bit.

First, I have some questions for you. Do you like Batman? Yes, you say? Do you like video games? Yes, again? Good. Play this game. Its that simple. If you read thru my Ghostbusters: TVG review, you saw where i talked about actually getting to live a movie experience. Its the same with Batman:AA.

The plot for the game is incredible. It seems like I heard from a Batman nerd / friend that it was actually pulled from an existing comic or comic series, and if its not, it needs to be turned in to one. Long story short, you’ve caught the Joker and have brought him back to Arkham Asylum where he immediately breaks out and springs a huge elaborate trap on Batman, Commissioner Gordon and the rest of the Arkham Staff. Batman, Harley Quinn and the Joker are all voiced by the actors that did the same rolls from Batman: The Animated Series that aired on FOX. And yes, that means Mark Hamill as the Joker. I didn’t hear any other familiar voices, but they were all done very well.

The graphics and the visual style are all stunning. There aren’t any crazy neon lights or glow in the dark thugs (thank you Joel Schumacher).  All of the characters and the environments have the dirty / gritty look and feel like you would expect after seeing the two Bale Batman movies. Or like you would expect from an asylum that houses nothing but super-criminals.

The general workings of the game are also stunning. The game keeps you on a fairly linear path for maybe half an hour while they set up the story for you. Afterwards they open up all of Arkham for you and let you roam around. You cant do the missions in any order that you want since there is still a general plot to it, but they do let you chose when you want to continue with the story. Want to just go grapple and glide around for a while? You definitely can. Controls are no problem to pick up and go with, but in order for you to be the darkest knight you can be, it takes a little bit of getting used to. Combat is dangerously fun and addictive. Tons and tons of hard hits, flowing combos, changing directions to avoid a knife or a pipe swinging at you, and BEAUTIFUL counter attacks will get you pumped that there is a challenge mode that has levels of nothing but fighting. Seriously, i cant stop beating thugs. There are also a hand full of environment specific attacks you can do. Pulling someone off a ledge, stringing thugs upside down, etc.

Now for the best part of being Batman. The gadgets. I have to say they nailed the gadgets and how and when you can use them. One gadget per each of the 8 directions on the d-pad, and the two most important (batarangs and grapple gun) are able to be used quickly as well as in a time restraint free situation. Everything is unlimited, but several more powerful items require a slight recharge time before they can be used again. But unlimited batarangs?! Do you need anything else?! Most of the gadgets can be upgraded thru the simple XP system that they have, and when you get them all upgraded, its bliss. On top of that, you cant even get to certain parts of areas until you upgrade a few of them, which makes you have to go back to the starting areas if you want to collect and do everything. They even give you the zip-line device he used in the original Keaton Batman when the Joker makes the remark about the toys/ Take that nostalgia.

The only down side i found to this is that there isn’t too much to be done after beating the game. You can continue your career and run through Arkham rounding up the various hidden items, solving riddles, etc. but that’s about it. After completion, the game clears of all of the enemies except for a few weak escapees, which provide no fight. I’m assuming that’s a little bit of a push for you to start on the challenge mode, but id still like at least a few guys leftover to keep me busy while i search for all the hidden items.

So there you have it. Someone has played it and confirms that its good, so now its ok for you to go buy or rent it. Then you can freak out and get goosebumps when you’re doing all this crazy Batman stuff like I did.

Wanna buy it? Here you go!

Batman: Arkham Asylum – 360 Version

Batman: Arkham Asylum – PS3 Version

I have heard the complaint that this game “steals” from better games,

this in blatantly untrue.  as with many great games it simply borrows from great games of the past, but even then it is simply  succeeding at emulating  the elements of Batman’s cache of talents.

the first of these is the stealth aspect of the Caped Crusader’s arsenal.

whether your are hiding under the floor from air vents or from the dark shadows of the gargoyles on the walls the feeling of stalking your prey is always exhilarating.

the second are the gadgets that are the worlds greatest detectives paraphernalia.

from Batarangs, to the Bat rope, to the cryptographic sequencer all of Batman’s gear feel real and usable.

last but certainly  not least is the combat  of the Dark Knight

the combat of this game is the definition of easy to learn hard to master.

note all button configurations are set to the xbox 360 as this was the console I used

with X as attack, B as cape stun, Y as counter, and the LEFT TRIGGER as the gadget you will always have a way to destroy your enemies.  even up to twenty enemies at once is no problem for the the Bat-Man.

Though I will not be talking about the story all that much for I would rather not give away any spoilers but suffice it to say the story is the height of Batman lore.

The Joker is at the height of his game with a plan only the Clown Prince of Crime himself could come up with. even still I think that the parts of the game with the Scarecrow are better, and the boss fight against Killer Croc is the best.

and as for the voice work it is absolute perfection from Kevin Conroy’s Batman to the greatest Joker of all time himself

no not Heath Ledger wait for it

Mark Hamill

surprised you shouldn’t be even Christopher Nolen’s film The Dark Knight references Hamill’s Joker.

as if the wonderful story mode was not enough the boys at Rock-steady games gave us a challenge mode with more than ten different maps and at least two different variations.

the first type of challenge room is your standard beat-em up chamber and the second is a more difficult version where the point is to defeat your enemies as quickly as possible

note this next challenge room is available only in the game-stop version

Dem Bones

the point of this exercise is to fight as long as possible without getting hit and as an added incentive you are fighting skeletons ( it all makes sense once you have played the game)

If you only get one thing out of this review understand this

THIS IS THE BEST GAME OF THE YEAR

as always sincerely yours Jeremiah Wolfwood

P.S.    My next game review will be for ROCK BAND BEATLES which releases on September 9th so tune in next week same Bat time same Bat channel

P.P.S.  If you are not aware of or have not watched BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD please understand that the camp factor in this show is on purpose and perfect in every way I am extremely  happy about the fact that on the upcoming season NPH (AKA Neal Patrick Harris) will costar as a musical villain going toe to toe with Batman and his compatriots so tune in.

Not only does it take considerably longer to set up the camera to shoot a shot in IMAX, but there had to be special lenses created for the shots in Dark Knight. So an entire movie shot this way would be enormously expensive. Coming off of the success of the last Batman film, Nolan likely has plenty of clout… so if he’s ever going to push for something like this, now is the time.