Bow Down to the Dark Knight Once Again... The Batman: Arkham Asylum Review

Note: The PS3 version's exclusive downloadable content of the Joker challenge maps will be also mentioned in this review. Plus, the videos may contain possible spoilers, so watch at your own risk.



The gaming industry gods have not been so kind to the Batman ever since the NES days. Sure, there might be some Batman games that are somewhat decent, but the majority of them are pretty bad. Even with last year's amazing success that is the Dark Knight movie, it seems like things are going right for the Caped Crusader. There are always the skeptics when Batman: Arkham Asylum was announced that the developers Rocksteady have no chance at all of making a good Batman game. Not only Arkham Asylum is a pretty good Batman game, it is a pretty good game that is an early contender for game of the year. It captures the essence and atmosphere of the Batman universe beautifully as well as giving you so many OMG moments to experience. After all, you are truly the Batman in this game.

The story of Arkham Asylum is basically straightforward. Batman captures the Joker easily and sends him to the infamous prison. However, Joker had planned something bigger than Batman thought and now he controls the asylum thanks to a little help by Harley Quinn. It is up to the Batman to stop the Joker from escalating things to worse proportions in Arkham Asylum, but as you progress through the game the story becomes more than just stop the Joker as some of Batman's greater villains such as Bane, Killer Kroc, and Poison Ivy are roaming around as well ready to cause trouble. In addition, there are moments where it throws you in a loop once Scarecrow starts doing his shenanigans as these are arguably the best moments of the game. The story does pace perfectly as you navigate through Arkham Island from one section to another trying to figure out Joker's true motives are.



The gameplay is split into three major parts and they all work exceptionally well. First, the hand-to-hand combat is simple to grasp, but difficult to master going to big combo multipliers. In terms of simple, there are buttons for attacking, countering, cape stunning, and dodging. At first, the combat may seem a bit mashy pounding on the attack button, but as you progress through the game especially in the later sections, it becomes less mashy and actually requires some skill and luck to get past them. Once the combat flows though, it is a pretty beautiful sight as Batman can just take out crowds of Joker's goons in such a badass and stylish manner. Other than the combat is the stealth mechanics in which Batman really shines at. Sneaking around is pretty simple as well just like the combat. He can use his gadgets to his advantage for stealth purposes such as his grappling hook, battarangs, explosive gel to blow certain surfaces away against enemies, and more. Especially when in a room full of armed thugs with guns, executing the perfect plan of attack just using stealth feels very satisfying, but one wrong move can often lead to Batman's death and at least the checkpoint system is pretty generous as going to a different room, the game autosaves. Then there's detective mode where you turn the game to Batman vision to try to find hidden collectibles, visible enemies' locations and emotions whether or not he has been scared or not, and clues toward completing puzzles and objectives. This mechanic works beautifully well in lots of situations, but sometimes you may rely on it too much as if you're going to play the whole game in this blue-ish vision not grasping the atmosphere that is Arkham Asylum. The overall gameplay makes you feel like you truly are the Batman being both intelligible and badass.

Other than the main storyline, there are tons of collectibles to collect in Arkham Asylum courtesy of The Riddler's challenges. They are scattered everywhere in Arkham Island of riddles, trophies, interview tapes with the various villains, and more. Besides the main campaign there is the challenge mode where you play certain sections of the game being scored on your performance. They are split to brawler and predator challenges testing both your skills at hand-to-hand combat and stealth. The predator challenges have specific tasks to complete compared to like the melee ones while trying to take out the opposition as quickly as possible such as a killing three goons by one explosive gel takedown, inverted takedowns, and other tasks that are similar. There is also online leaderboards for high scores and fast times giving the challenge mode a little more replay value than being just another diversion to the core game. Exclusively on the Playstation 3 is the chance to play as The Joker by download as they are the same challenge maps, but playing as a totally different character. Joker does not as much tools or health as Batman, but still can get the job done in his own way. Especially in the brawler challenges, Joker has to counter more since he has low health and if he gets caught in the predator challenges, he is pretty much screwed. You have to think a little differently utilizing Joker's tool set of his gun, exploding teeth, and specs to take out Arkham's guards. At least there will be more challenge maps available by downloadable content later down the line.



Graphically, Batman: Arkham Asylum looks stunningly amazing. The infamous prison and island environments looks very atmospheric and fits the canon as if you're in a terrifying place trying to escape. As for the characters, the major ones look great especially Batman and Joker while minor characters like random guards may not look as good as others. As a whole, this game is extremely polished with little to no glitches at all, load times are very minimal throughout the game, and the framerate stays consistent the whole time. What is also stunningly amazing is the sound in Arkham Asylum. It truly felt like you're playing through a long interactive cartoon as the major voices from Batman: The Animated Series reprise their roles as their characters such as Kevin Conroy as the Batman and Mark Hamill as The Joker. Both of them did an amazing job as they are truly those characters once again just like the 90s. Just like the asylum is very atmospheric with the graphics, the same goes for the sound as well with very moody sound effects throughout the game along with Joker's constant heckling and his infamous laugh. The theatrical soundtrack is also extremely well done as it fits the Batman theme just like the cartoons and movies.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a pretty special game that comes out of nowhere and blows your mind. The hype was certainly there for this despite all those skeptics, but it was truly worth the wait to experience arguably the greatest Batman game of all-time. It is an experience that most be played right away as it is amazingly well done and extremely polished. On the default normal difficulty it will take a little less than ten hours to complete unless you are going for all the collectibles in which it will take you a little longer. Of course, there is a harder difficulty to mess with as well as there is no counter signal to rely on when in hand-to-hand combat. The gameplay flows smoothly as if you really are the Batman from the combat, stealth, and the puzzles. There is also some replay value with the challenge mode especially playing as Joker only on the Playstation 3. As my early contender for game of the year, Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of those games and experiences that should be not missed by anyone.

Score = 9.5/10

Pros:

• Simply the greatest Batman game out now - so many OMG moments
  
• Extremely polished and captures of the essence/atmosphere of the Batman universe
• Gameplay makes you feel like you are the Batman
• Amazing graphics and sound
• Playing as the Joker on PS3 is a nice bonus
• Early contender for game of the year

Cons:

• If u don't buy this game, shame on you.
• Other than the challenge mode, not much replay value beyond the main story.
  

Some thoughts on the MvC2 Mixtape & more...

Last week, the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Mixtape came out for download on Playstation Network and the interwebs as 10 tracks by some of the best underground hip-hop artists are there to blast to other than the jazzy stuff that has been on our ears for years. To download them, click here, or go to the Playstation Store and get them there too for your PS3. This mixtape to me is a little hit and miss as I have my favorites, but its nice that it exists and its good music in general to blast while playing something like MvC2 online especially going for OCVs with random teams like I do. Meanwhile, I might as well play that right now "making it rain" on random scrubs who just don't know.





Oh, this is not related to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 but I just don't want to waste another post on this video from some Street Fighter IV tournament yesterday at San Diego as John Rog and Keno actually box it out in this hilarious Balrog mirror. Maybe this is how Balrog mirror matches should be played now... I'll let the HYPE (mainly Kai) speak for itself.

Guitar Hero 5 is Smelling Like Teen Spirit...

Looks like some lucky folks have Guitar Hero 5 early (game is out on September 1st) as videos are starting to show up on YouTube and DailyMotion. It is the usual folks that these games early to show off to the world Expert Guitar sightreads. Above is a highly anticipated song that is finally in a music game, which is "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Things I noticed so far is the soundtrack as expected is pretty hit and miss meaning you're not going to like everything offered on the disc, but I guess the variety is there for those who expect the same old stuff. Also, activating star power might be a little distracting this time around with the crazy effect as something like that could mess a combo up. Other than that, Guitar Hero 5 is the same old game with more songs and more gamey-like features to appeal for casual play like the drop-in, drop-out multi quickplay. So check the tubes this week for early footage of Guitar Hero 5 if you're curious.

Quick Hands-On with The Beatles: Rock Band

I was at GameStop yesterday for a bit pre-ordering Batman: Arkham Asylum last minute (I am buying it after all) and I stumbled by a demo of The Beatles: Rock Band on the Xbox 360 kiosk. I was like oh snap, let's try this bad boy out and so I did. The demo consists of guitar and bass only with five songs to choose from, which are "Yellow Submarine," "Day Tripper," "I Feel Fine," "Can't Buy Me Love, and "Here Comes the Sun." There is also a setlist option which I did to play all five songs in succession as I decided to play guitar on Expert using the Guitar Hero World Tour guitar. At first, I felt a bit rusty at first, but since these Beatles songs are pretty easy to play on guitar, its not that bad. Besides from being typical Rock Band with notes to play, overdrive, and all that jazz, it is the love that Harmonix put into this product as it shows when playing. Each song has its own background when the Beatles are there singing like it's their own music video, but with the Rock Band graphical style. With all these colorful backgrounds, The Beatles: Rock Band is a pretty game to look at.

After playing it for a bit, I'm pretty sold on The Beatles: Rock Band as it is a way better game than I thought it would be. Sure, you're getting a bit easier game if you have been playing Rock Band since it came out, but its the care that Harmonix put into the game making it the pure Beatles experience. Even if you know some of the songs by The Beatles, I think you should still check this out as it is still crazy of the fact we are finally playing Beatles songs on Rock Band. Also, the temptation of coming back to this genre has risen a bit too as it is as still as fun as I remembered it when I was all into Rock Band 2. The Beatles: Rock Band comes out in two weeks, which is September 9 and I hope it succeeds because it is a pretty awesome game.

The Latest on my YouTube channel... also The Music Roundup for 8/21/09

This is pretty much a music video edition for what's on my YouTube lately...



I love this song, "Digital Girl (Remix)," too much as Jamie, Drake, Dream, and Kanye kill it. Looks like the video got a slightly different remix than I used to, but I don't mind because it does spice things up a bit.



Yesterday, the highly anticipated video for "Run This Town" by the Jiggaman with Rihanna & Kanye came out as also I wasn't sold on this song by first impression alone. I think its Rihanna that ruins the song a bit as the melody is dope enough to freestyle when in instrumental mode. I still can't wait for The Blueprint 3 next month as music releases will be stacked that time too with Muse, Paramore, and more.



Finally, LMFAO is a legit video out in the world now (I don't count "I'm In Miami Trick") as this "La La La" video is pretty crazy, but it does fit their style too. Appearing in this video are Chelsea from the Paradiso Girls (everyone's favorite member of that girl group) and Jonna from the Real World Cancun. I'm still waiting for the "Shots" video though because some would know why I love this song for some dumb reason (you know you are!).

That's it for now... make sure to check out the top 10 songs I have been blasting chart for more especially that I have new songs there on a periodic basis.

Oh This game Is So Pringles.... The Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (PSN) Review

Note: Instead of posting gameplay footage, I might as well post the obligatory Marvel videos (sort of NSFW due to language) just in case you're wandering why this game is still as popular as it is when it first came out.


It was the year 2000 when Marvel vs. Capcom 2 first came out at arcades and it was the ultimate versus crossover fighting game between the two entities. There were many characters to choose from and the possibilities were endless in terms of picking teams. As the years went by, the game has been on ported on consoles with mixed results with the Dreamcast version being the definitive one to roll with compared to Playstation 2 and Xbox versions. In addition, it has been around in tournaments being one of the more popular games throughout this decade. Even though Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has been fun all these years, deep down this game is still as unbalanced and broken as it was when it first came out. Certain characters are overpowered while others do not stand a chance at all of being competitive if you decide to play this game seriously. Now in 2009, this fighting game is now on Playstation Network as a download and for fifteen bucks, it is still worth it to experience one of the most popular fighting games in the genre's existence.

The major change in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 compared to the first game is the upgrade to 3 on 3 versus tag team fighting compared to 2 on 2 thanks to the huge roster of characters to choose from. More characters in a fight makes things too chaotic and fast for average players to comprehend if you have been used to it for nine years, it just feels normal to deal with. Other gameplay features range from hyper combo cancels to switch to another partner's hyper combo, snapbacks, which if it hits an opponent, that certain character is out for a period of time, and various character assists in which a character will come out to do a hit and run special move. The other major change is the controls that it feels like a four button fighting game compared to a standard Street Fighter six button game. What I mean by the game being controlled by four buttons is there is only two variations of punches and kicks, but the medium punch or kick still occurs when pressing the weak punch or kick twice. Picking the right characters and assist types to form a worthy team matters especially if you have a certain gameplan in mind to set up big combos and traps. Even with the huge roster, this game is way unbalanced as the high tier characters like Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel are just way too good with their tools to deal damage like infinite loops, resets, and more. If you are considering playing this game at tournaments, you are pretty much limited to certain characters just to be competitive, but playing the game casually you are open to mess with character combinations to make magic happen.



The PSN version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 consists of what you expect in a downloadable fighting game from the single player arcade mode, local versus, training to practice up combos and learn new characters, and the highly anticipated feature of this release, online play. Surprisingly, the online play works decently as matches do flow smoothly most of the time, but obviously latency and connection issues do make a huge difference especially in a fast-paced game like this as one mistake can lead to defeat in a matter of seconds. Similar to Backbone's previous effort with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, there are ranked and player matches as player matches are set up in a quarter match fashion with multiple players in a lobby as some spectate while two fight. Besides ragequitters, my online experience has been pretty shaky with multiple glitches and game crashes, which is unfortunate. The online play at least works, but prepared to get worked if you don't know what you're doing especially in ranked matches.

This digitally distributed port did receive some graphical tweaks, but the graphics are not completely remade. It is still a sprite-filled game with character sprites being used from over of the years of versus fighting games, and 3D backgrounds. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 does receive the widescreen treatment on this current generation of consoles, but being on widescreen makes the game look weird at times as certain supers still look like they're designed on 4 :3 displays. There are also different filters to choose from too, but I didn't notice any significant differences as I sticked to the default crisp filter. For purists, there is an option to turn off the widescreen and play it on 4:3, which has been the standard for this game since its inception. As for the music, it is still the same old jazzy tunes you heard all these years with the "I wanna take you for a ride" song on the character select menu screen. As a whole, you would have a love/hate relationship with the music. It doesn't sound like it fits in a fighting game, or you decide to deal with it. At least there is custom soundtrack support to a certain degree as well as the upcoming mixtape coming soon with underground hip-hop artists laying tracks for the game. Backbone did what they could with this port as some notable glitches were taken out, but most glitches are still in some way.



So is this HD port of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 still worth all this wait? The answer to that is yes, but it is definitely flawed just like the game itself. As fun as the fighting is living nerd fantasies of certain characters teaming up for the first time, the game itself is still as unbalanced as it was back in the day and broken at times too. It is still mindless fun at best especially with friends playing versus locally, but it can be a pretty serious game as seen over the years with the infamous videos. If you never played this game before, be prepared to deal with a learning curve even though it is still as simple as it was in 2000 and it also might be too chaotic to comprehend with many things going on at the same time. As for veterans of the game, it is still worth it to have it around as the online play works and the graphical tweaks are fine too even though it does feel a little weird seeing the game on widescreen. At the end of the day, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is still one of the most popular fighting games around as it closes in a decade of existence and this new resurgence of the HD port could be a good thing for the game and the scene in general.

Score = 8/10

Pros:

• Its still Mahvel Baybee!
• Online play works
• Still fun with friends

Cons:

• Be prepared to deal with online glitches and bugs
• Graphical tweaks are okay, but being on widescreen makes the game look weird
• You may love or hate the jazzy music
• If you never played this before, it may too much for you to comprehend what is going on
  

The marathon that was AI Ranbat 2.5

Yesterday was another ranbat tournament for Street Fighter IV at Arcade Infinity and at first, I didn't think I was going to play in it, but decided might as well do it. After missing the last two ranbats, I wandered if those months of leveling up have paid off. Turns out it didn't as if I didn't level up enough compared to the rest of the 64 players that competed in this long day. My good luck charm, aka my pringles can failed me and maybe Marvel vs. Capcom 2 could be the blame, but I didn't want to make any excuses as I still played my best despite going 2 and out again. Despite that, I learned a lot at this tourney and still had a good time hanging out with the SoCal SF4 scene, which matters in the end.

My first loss was a close one, which against a Ken player who knew his stuff. After the mistake of rolling with Honda at AI Ranbat 2.2, I decided to roll as my true main Bison, aka Dictator. I thought winning the first round of the first game would ease my nerves a little getting HYPE, but I started to lose it not executing my usual combos I would at home on my TE stick. Sure, the sticks at AI are a different beast of its own as maybe I should of played more warmup games to get accompanied with the stick again, but oh well. I lost the first game, but luckily won the next one as if I was about to lose it. Eventually, I lost my first match 2-1 against the Ken player since he was nailing his EX Hurricane Kick link combos and I decided to go reckless with head stomp bait ultras, wake-up ultra, or relying on head stomps too much. I was also maybe a little too much trying to get in for rushdown, but I feel I would get out-footsied by Ken which was the case.

Four hours later was my loser bracket match against Zack, an Akuma player. Usually my Bison is pretty good against Akuma in general as I had the right ideas, but execution was lacking as I was dropping scissor kick combos like nothing when I had the chance. In the end, I did go 2 and out, which is disappointing, but I did learned a lot from playing. It seems that my reckless Bison style of "live or die by the head stomp" cannot fly anymore being competitive against the best of SoCal compared to online, which is making me reconsider how I play as him. I feel like going a complete 180 when I play as Bison as a whole not being as reckless. Vic the Slick, Dae, and shglbmx gave me advice to not as be reliant on Head Stomp and Devil's Reverse as I should and I should rely on the poking/rushdown game instead.

Other than going 2 and out at Street Fighter IV, I still had a great time regardless because of generally hanging out with the people I know over the course of the last few months from Keno, his girlfriend Teresa, ComboJack, Fuson, Tatsu, shglbmx, KillerKai, Dae, LegendOfLore, Bebop, Rickstah, hostmaster Shoo and his girlfriend Naomi, Vic the Slick, Jay Jay, and more. Since Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is still fresh on my mind (oh my review of the PSN version will be up tomorrow), I did play that for a little especially with no lag and ragequitters especially the likes of Keno, KillerKai, and Warren. Nothing like seeing the truth that is Keno's Omega Red, which is the case yesterday and also Friday online on PSN, but hey Marvel is what it is and I'll let the review speak for itself. Arcade Infinity itself was pretty packed since it was a Saturday and a tournament was going on at the same time as it was just too hot and sweaty at times of being filled with too many people watching all the SF4 shenanigans. As expected, Glenn, AJ, and Cami from Get Your Tournament was there doing the coverage live at the time as well as recording video of the top 8 since tech man Scott wasn't there to set up direct feed and commentary. Not a lot of photos or video will surface from the event due to some people not being there, but at least there were some quick pics from Twitpic courtesy of Gootecks, Glenn, and AJ.

In the end, it came down to Keno and ComboJack for the title and these two worked very hard to get to that point together and they knew it was their time. Also, these guys have been on the top 3 of ranbat points. The grand finals match (videos below) was pretty epic and entertaining as the Keno Eye 2.0 was in effect and you can hear Teresa cheering him on really loud as well as not looking at times when Keno was in trouble. Jack kept dropping the Tiger Uppercut FADC, Forward+Roundhouse to Ultra combo which would make a difference, but Keno clutched it out in the end with timely EX headbutts and ultras. So congrats to Keno for winning it all in the end as he was on his A game despite some close calls early on against some random Vega player and pro Abel player Black Pyro. The tournament lasted almost 12 hours ending at 1 am and it seemed like the typical Banana Bay after-party was going to happen, but it was too late and I decided to go home.

So even with the long day, AI Ranbat 2.5 was a success lasting 10ish hours with 64 entrants and one machine to play on, which is still good considering what we have to deal with. There were lots of HYPE moments as well as memories as some players leveled up significantly while others didn't have their day especially Gootecks, who was upset by Vic the Slick getting sent to losers, and then getting peaced out by E Money's Zangief in dramatic fashion with the time out at the end. I have indeed learned a good deal from yesterday as we'll see if I'm willing to commit towards improving my Bison to be more legit than reckless especially with West Coast Warzone coming up quick. There are also thoughts of considering a main character change since the Bison army showed up in force, meaning there were lots of Bison players in the building that performed well. I'm thinking Guile randomly especially seeing Christian aka Fuson's Guile in action in his "temporary comeback" to tournaments as well as another Guile player who did decently too. Who knows, I might as well stick to Dictator in the meantime and try to limit head stomps and devil reverses. Once again, I still had a fun time at the end of the day with cool people, which to me what matters in the end.

Here's the grand finals match of Keno and ComboJack courtesy of GetYourTournament below (Don't mind the Guitar Freaks music, which is annoying, but let the HYPE speak for itself).