Batman Forever

Batman Forever "Batman Forever - It sucked back then, and it sucks forever!" - The Angry Video Game Nerd Genre: Beat 'em up Platforms: Super Nintendo Sega Genesis Sega Game Gear Game Boy PC Release Date: 1995 Developer: Probe Entertainment Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment Tectoy (Brazil) Franchise: Batman

Batman Forever is a beat-em-up game for several consoles that was developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim in North America, Europe, and Japan and Tectoy in Brazil. It was based on the 1995 superhero movie of the same name. While there existed an arcade game based on Batman Forever, this page will focus on the Mortal Kombat style game.

Plot

Batman and Robin must defeat Two-Face and the Riddler.

Why It Sucks (16-bit)

1. The game uses the exact same engine as Mortal Kombat, with the same control scheme and moves. Because of this, the button combinations for doing anything other than fight enemies border on ridiculous. In the SNES version, for instance, to pull yourself up to certain areas with the grappling hook, you must press Select slightly before you press Up. To jump down from certain ledges, you press Down and R, but R must be held before pressing Down. If you press buttons at the same time, you just only jump or crouch.
2. Fighting enemies becomes boring very fast because they have an absurd amount of health and there's almost zero variety in enemy types. Even the first enemies didn't have as much health.
3. The foreground objects can block your view of Batman/Robin and enemies.
4. The graphics are okay, but the game is sometimes very dark and makes everything hard to see.
5. The SNES version has load times despite being on a cartridge-based system (whenever you go to another area, it says "HOLD ON").
6. Activating some switches are a bit of a problem because you'd expect kicking them activates them, but they're instead activated by your bombs.
7. Awfully bland and dull soundtrack where a lot of the songs are forgettable.
8. Weird digitized graphics on the character models.
9. Moves such as the aforementioned grappling hook require you to stand in pixel-perfect locations in order to use them properly.
10. Sometimes, there is just no sense of direction as to where you need to go next in the game.
11. No continues, meaning a game over will force the player to restart from the beginning.
    • If the time runs out in the third level, it's an immediate game over, regardless of how many lives the player had. On the up-side, there are extra-time pickups.
12. There's no sense of reward when you beat the game.
13. False advertising; in the SNES version, to activate Batman's Cape Morph, you have to press Y repeatedly while holding L, while in the manual it says you have to press A repeatedly while holding L! Not only that, but there are some fake screenshots and typos.

Why It Sucks (8-bit)

1. The 8-bit versions lack in graphical detail. Backgrounds and sprites have translated horribly during the transition from the console to 8-bit handhelds, especially on the Game Boy.
2. The soundtrack is even worse than its 16-bit counterpart. The composition in particular is just droning and lifeless, with missing instruments due to the 16-bit to 8-bit transition.
   • For unknown reasons, a lot of songs were cut out in the process. Meaning, you'll hear the same two songs in every level.
3. It only has four levels, with two sections per level. Half of the levels from the 16-bit version was cut out.
4. Button combination for gadgets needed to beat the game aren't listed in the game's manual.
5. Controls were taken from Mortal Kombat (Game Boy), with the same input delay.
6. Your grappling hook sometimes fails due to the faulty controls. This makes the first level, Second Bank of Gotham, very difficult to complete.
7. The "no sense of direction" flaw from the 16-bit versions is even worse. Sometimes clearing the area of enemies is the solution, other times it's not clear on what to do next.
8. Underwhelming combat makes the game a chore to play.
9. Finding secrets within the levels are more trouble than they are worth.

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