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I’m not finished playing this game yet, but Alan’s Top 5′s post inspired me.  My guess is I’m only about 30% of the way through, but I’ve seen enough where I think I can offer a decent review.  

Objective:  10  (come on, you’re friggin’ Batman)  You’re the one and only caped crusader, trapped on the Arkham Asylum island complex as the Joker has staged a complete take-over of the facility.  I agree with almost all reviews I’ve read on this game, that it’s the best Batman game ever, but more so, it is the best superhero game ever, quite possibly the best game on the PS3.  If not, at least a strong contender for game of the year.

Theme:  10  The mood of the game is very unsettling.  The lighting effects, the gorgeously rendered facilities that make up the asylum, the colorful rogues gallery you’ve come to know and love over the years, and the creeping, stalking, hiding style of gameplay that keeps you on the edge of your seat all come together seamlessly to make a truly engaging and entertaining experience.  When I do play, it’s extremely hard to pull myself away.  The most incredible thing about this game is the landscape of Arkham itself.  The buildings feel real, yet look like they jumped right out of the movies, cartoons, and comics all at the same time.  You’ve got the more modern medical facility, the gothic architecture of the Arkham mansion that is now the main offices and hall of records, the decades older maximum security building complete with the steel tank-like single occupancy cells, cages, and less PC methods of dealing with the insane, and even a building or two that has fallen completely into disrepair.  And the tunnels under the island, well the Ghostbusters Game could have taken a few points from this one.  Simply amazing.

Gameplay:  9  The gameplay is your more increasingly typical 1st person (over the shoulder actually, it’s like you’re following Bats the whole time) platformer, but with a mix of combat, problem solving, navigation, and a huge scavenger hunt courtesty of Mr. Edward Nigma keeps the game fresh.  Just when you start to get tired of doing one thing, the game switches up.  The only complaint I have is that the targeting system is fairly limited (or seems to be, could be I just haven’t figured it out yet), where you can’t just toggle from target to target to find the person you want to beam in the forhead with a batarang.  Oh yeah, did I mention….You’re the Friggin’ BATMAN.  The combat system seems to be fairly simplistic at first, but gets to be quite challenging when you’ve got groups of 10 thugs all coming at you at once.  Some are swinging bare fists, some are swinging lead pipes at your cowl, some are trying to shank you, and quite a few are packing heat, and all of them require you to react slightly differently to take them down while avoiding taking too much damage yourself.  What at first appeared simplistic gets to be more and more fun and challenging as the game goes on.  The most nerve wracking part of the challenge, for me anyway, is the skulking (hunting, hiding, etc…) portion, where you have to get Batman from point A to point B without getting killed (and in some areas without being seen), all the while taking out the Joker’s henchmen one by one (sleeper holds all around).  The best move so far is where you can hang upside down from various fixtures on the walls.  When one of the thugs walks underneath, you drop down on the zipline (still upside down mind you), grab him, and shoot back up to your perch where you tie them by the legs and let them hang to wait for the cavalry to arrive. 

Sound:  10  By far one of the best aspects of the game is the sound, from the music to the voice track.  The music is phenomenal, a great mix of Danny Elfman’s march that was the title track of Tim Burton’s 1989 movie interspersed with the dramatic, atmospheric background music used throughout Christopher Nolan’s movies.  It’s the music that really helps to bring all the elements of this game together and makes you feel like you’re a part of a movie.  The voice-over talent is second to none, providing the perfect voices for almost all of the characters in the game with very few exceptions.  Heading the cast are Kevin Conroy, the voice of the Animated Dark Knight for almost 20 years now, and in my opinion has one of the best Batman voices on TV or in movies today.  He nails it and when you hear it, there’s no mistaking the Batman just showed up to the dance.  Mark Hamill (yes, Luke Skywalker folks) plays the Joker, and has since the Animated Series debuted in 1991, and is hands-down the best Joker voice actor.  Period.  Heath Ledger may have been the best one on screen, but nobody beats Mark’s signature laugh, and the way he can flip back and forth from the light-hearted (you know what I mean) clown prince of crime and the badass Joker.  Perfection.  Arleen Sorkin reprises the role she helped to create, the Joker’s GF Harley Quinn.  The character made such an impact in the Animated series, she’s been introduced into the comics, in every cartoon series since, and there’s rumbling that she’ll show up in Nolan’s third (and rumored to be final) movie.  The three of them just make the game that much more enjoyable, adding the element of nostalgia to those of us who’ve watched the tv series’ since ’91, as well as just being the perfect voices for those three pivotal characters in this game.  Added in throughought the game are other fan favorites from Batman’s Rogues Gallery like Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler, with some lesser known but up-and-coming characters like Bane and Zsasz .  Plus, you’ve got nods to other greats strewn throughout the game in the form of costumes, posters, and paraphenalia left behind or confiscated and put on display by the prison:  The Penguin, Two-Face, Catwoman, The Mad Hatter, The Ventriloquist, and Firefly to name a few.  By the way, scream queen Adrienne Barbeau, who voiced Catwoman in the Animated Series, shows up in this game also as random female voices (random pages, tv, and radio feeds played throughout the facility’s intercom system).  All in all, the music and voice actors are what puts this game over the top for me. 

Replay Value:  7  I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but don’t really have the patience to master all of the Challenge mode tasks.  I got through all of Batman’s.  Joker’s are more fun, but so much more difficult without all of the gadgets (the grappling hook and infra-red night vision in particular) I lost interest through pure frustration.  I will definitely play this again, but not now, not for awhile anyway.

Total Score:   9.2

I guess you can tell I’m kind of partial to this game.  I’d strongly recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of great video games, comics, the horror genre, or the Batman himself.  I’d give it two enthusiastic thumbs up if they weren’t completely sore from playing all hours of the night yesterday (and this morning….).   All in all, a fantastic game all around.  You won’t be disappointed.  Just put the kids to bed before you fire this one up, the game is really not appropriate for young children.

-CWD

I know it has probably been done before, and most likely much more effectively than I can do it here. But I was thinking on my drive this morning, where I was 8 years ago this day.

I was just starting my third year of teaching, and I was in room 318 (during second period I believe) when a student of mine from another period came down the hall to inform me that a plane had crashed in New York. They weren’t sure but they thought it had hit a building (which they incorrectly assumed it was the Empire State). It seemed so unbelievable so we continued on with class. Shortly thereafter an announcement came on informing the school of the horrific news. The towers had been hit and the total damage had not been assessed, however the outlook did not look promising. I sat with my class of students as they begged for information that I did not have access to. We dealt with the possibilities of terrorist attacks as well as other options. Slowly the realization set in that too many lives had been lost and the heroic efforts of others had helped to save some.

It was on this day that so much changed for myself and many others. Until this point we could not imagine an attack of such magnitude occurring on our own soil. We sat around watching the news for days, weeks, months, etc. We were engrossed and horrified at the details. There was much confusion in our lives, minds and hearts. Now, we had fear and doubt. We were filled with anger and confusion. There weren’t the answers we wanted or expected.

I only posted this because even after 8 years, the events are so vividly etched into my memory. There are days that I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, yet these details never escape me.

I often look for songs that have deeper meanings or background. If you have the moment, check out the youtube video for Tom Morello’s “No One Left”. He’s listed as the Nightwatchman and it’s his personal expression of the events. He stated that in all songs, no one was able to capture how he felt and so he wrote this.

Please feel free to share how you felt and what your experiences were during this powerful, traumatic, and impacting time in American history.

This one might be a bit biased.  I went with characters that I enjoyed as a child or still enjoy today.  This isn’t an official poll so you won’t see 60s and 70s characters on the list because they stood the “test of time”.

5 BEST CARTOON CHARACTERS

5.  He Man:  This is a sentimental favorite.  I loved He Man and the Masters of the Universe as a child and myself, Keith, and Joe Dyer would watch it every morning before going to school (of course one of the worst on the list was also watched before school).  He Man was just one cool cat; and speaking of cat what about Battle Cat.  Now I know that Prince Adam wore pink and it did knock him down a few points but as He Man, he was 100% professional ass kicker.

4.  Starscream:  One of the original Transformers, Starscream was the ultimate villain.  HE was physically weak and generally ineffective, yet was willing to stab anyone in the back for his own benefit, including Megatron.  While the first Transformers movie only passed over his issues with Megatron, the second movie (and you can read my review of Transformers 2 below), the second movie actually did a good job of showing Starscream as he was.

3.  Peter Griffin:  This show has slowly become a classic after its initial cancellation by Fox.  Since its comeback, it has becuase a cult hit and millions watch it each week.  What makes it fresh is the wittiness and randomness of it all.  Peter is, by far, one of the best characters on tv today.

2.  Mr Burns:  The Simpsons has been on so long that I was in high school when we first got Fox and was introduced to all of the great characters in the Simpsons universe.  Now yes, it has become stale but it has been on for 20 years now.  This could have gone to any of the characters but I decided to put one of the men who run the town.

1.  Voltron:  This was probably one of the best cartoon shows in the 80s. Watching them now, not so much but back then, it was the bees knees.  This inspired many other Japanese shows and one day this will be made into a feature film.  (by the way, it must be the Lions and not the cars)…..”I’ll form the head”

5 WORST CARTOON CHARACTERS

There is no real order for these as they can be interchanged

5.  Gleep and Gloop.  These will offend Craig as the Herculoids were on his list of great toys but these two were…LAME.  “Oh oh, someone is falling off a bridge, Gleep…Gloop, turn into a blanket and catch them.

4.  Boo Boo.  I just don’t like sidekicks, especially one that has no actual use like Boo Boo.  Stop cleaning the dingleberries off of Yogi’s backside and get a life.

3.  Wonder Twins.  Watch the Family Guy episode where Peter forms a tampon.  It says it all.  Why create a set of superheroes without any use.  Didn’t they have Aquaman for that already?

2.  Hoot Kloot.  This show was so bad it only lasted 17 epidoses.  Joe and Keith used to watch this before school and loved it.  If you check Wikipedia, you will see that the plot is really deep.

“A lawman named Mr. Kloot and his horse (both voiced by actor Bob Holt) end up in a series of mayhem in the old west     when going after bad guys.”

1.  Smurfette:  She isn’t the worst character on cartoons but she was definitely the unluckiest.  I mean one girl and a lot of boy Smurfs…sausage party.  I wasn’t a big fan of this show, as it was quite annoying that the Smurfs switch every other word with “smurfy” or “smurftastic”.

Thanks for reading this and please feel free to post who you think belongs on these lists.

I have to thank Facebook.  Yesterday, my brothers and I all did one of the “5 favorite childhood toys”.  After doing this, it made me think that a good addition to our site is to create a weekly post called “5 & 5″.  It will be 5 positive things but I will also add 5 negative or bad things.
The first addition of this weekly post will be the following:  5 Batman villains

5 BATMAN VILLAINS WHO FIT BEST IN THE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN WORLD

Black Mask, Riddler, Catwoman, Hugo Strange, Ventriloquist

I think any of these villains would be great in a new Batman movie.  While two of them are well known, I have placed three lesser known villains in there because Nolan is more about reality in his own Gotham.

1.  Black Mask:  (Roman Sionis)  I think this is such an obvious choice for a movie.  He was an old friend of Bruce Wayne, former owner of an inherited cosmetic company.  Parents died in fire.  He dons a mask carved out of his mother’s casket.  Now he is a crime lord in Gotham and runs the organization the False Faces.

2.  Riddler:   (Edward Nigma).  This is also a great choice because he uses riddles instead of fear, violence, etc….He is one of the few villains that know the true identity of Batman.  He could easily work his way into the third movie as one who tries to out Bruce Wayne while at the same time trying to gain control of the Gotham underworld.

3.  Catwoman:  (Selina Kyle).  Jewel thief.  I might like an idea where they try and avoid an origin story and focus on her taking advantage of a disrupted Gotham after Harvey Dent is killed and Batman is blamed.

4.  Hugo Strange:  criminal genius.  Has tried numerous times to capture Batman in order to get into his head.  Initially a well respected doctor, he has sense moved to a life of crime and tried to over throw Gotham.

5.  Ventriloquist:  (Arnold Wesker and Scarface)-His multiple personalities help Wesker to really bring Scarface to life.  Scarface speaks and Wesker follows.  Even though some people seem to hate this villain, I think it would be so cool to see what Nolan could do with him.  Wesker was from a mafia family and saw his mother killed.  A lot of repressed memories there and uses ventriloquism to be able to say things without having to say them himself.   After a series of crimes, he is sent to prison where a cellmate gives him a dummy carved from the wood of gallows.  He escapes and we have Scarface.

5 BATMAN VILLAINS WHO DO NOT FIT IN THE CHRISTOPER NOLAN WORLD

First of all, I am avoiding all of the creatures because they can’t exist in Nolan’s Gotham.  (Just like Spiderman was doing until they introduced Sandman and Venom).  You will not find the characters Killer Croc, Clayface, Man-Bat, or Mr. Freeze (if they could pull of this one with Patrick Stewart, I will change my mind).

I focused on five of the weakest Batman villains that should never, ever, grace the silver screen.  Some are so embarrassing that they don’t even deserve to be on a cartoon show.  So here they are.

5.  The Penguin: (Oswald Copperpot).  I think what ruined this character was Tim Burton.  I was never a big fan of him and throughout his “reign of terror”, he seems to always get away with his helicopter hat (Lame).  Maybe, MAYBE, if Nolan made him a sidecharacter as a crime boss then it would be ok but I don’t see much use for him in any decent movie.

4.  Killer Moth:  (Cameron van Cleer).  He would aid the criminals like Batman would aid the innocent.  Check out the picture below.  This is the coolest he gets.

3.  Mad Hatter: (Jervis Tetch).  Ok now we are getting down to the worst villains one could have.  These three are so bad that the writer should have been fired for them.  Jervis Tetch was a neuroscientist and loved the Lewis Carroll books.  When he turned to a life of crime, he, get this….created hats that controlled people’s thoughts.  He also dressed up as the Mad Hatter and even once captured Commissioner Gordon’s neice Barbara to make her play the role of Alice.

2.  Calendar Man: (Julian Day)-While a newer version has become slightly more adaptable, the original was quite silly.  Now the idea that he used particular holidays to commit crimes is a good premise, but check out the outfit.  It is just silly.

1.  Tweedledee and Tweedledum: (Dumfree and Deever Tweed):  This is it, the bottom of the barrell.  These two fat cousins rely on their appearance to trick Batman…is he fighting Tweedledee or Tweedledum?  Scared yet?  Well I can’t imagine Batman was either.

This concludes my first post of 5 and 5.  Be here next week for a new column….same bat time, same bat channel.