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 Entertainment System Sega Genesis Sega Game Gear Game Boy Microsoft Windows Tiger R-Zone
Release Date:	Super Nintendo and Game Boy: NA: August 1995 EU: September 7, 1995 JP: October 27, 1995 Sega Genesis and Game Gear: NA: September 4, 1995 EU: 1995 JP: October 17, 1995 PC: NA: 1996 EU: 1996
Game Engine:	Mortal Kombat II Engine
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

General

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 using basic attacks to 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. What's worse, basic attacks deal pathetic amounts of damage, essentially forcing the player to learn the button inputs for more complex attacks, combos and gadgets.
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.
The underwhelming combat makes the game a chore to play.
No continues, meaning a game over will force the player to restart from the beginning.
There's no sense of reward when you beat the game.

SNES and Genesis versions

The foreground objects can block your view of Batman/Robin and enemies.
The graphics are okay, but the game is sometimes very dark and makes everything hard to see.
The SNES version has load times despite being on a cartridge-based system (whenever you go to another area, it says "HOLD ON").
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.
Awfully bland and dull soundtrack where a lot of the songs are forgettable.
Weird digitized graphics on the character models.
Moves such as the aforementioned grappling hook require you to stand in pixel-perfect locations in order to use them properly.
Sometimes, there is just no sense of direction as to where you need to go next in the game. Compare it to the arcade game; that one is totally straightforward.
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.
Robin controls slightly slower than Batman, which, coupled with the broken enemies and poor controls, means that playing as Robin makes the game even more frustrating and boring than it already is.
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.
The music is awful, even compared to the Batman Return game of the Genesis, which doesn't even have that great of a soundtrack. Even if Forever had the benefit of better sound engine, it sounds much worse than Returns.

Game Boy and Game Gear versions

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.
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.
It only has four levels, with two sections per level. Half of the levels from the 16-bit version was cut out.
Button combination for gadgets needed to beat the game aren't listed in the game's manual. Even the button combinations for the gadgets were listed in the 16-bit versions' manuals, albeit with typos.
Controls were taken from Mortal Kombat (Game Boy), with the same input delay.
Your grappling hook sometimes fails due to the faulty controls. This makes the first level, Second Bank of Gotham, very difficult to complete.
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.
Finding secrets within the levels are more trouble than they are worth.

Redeeming Qualities

The commercial was good.
Unlike the SNES version, the Genesis version doesn't have load times, even if it's on a cartridge-based system.

Reception

The game's reception by gamers was quite polarizing. Most consider it to be nothing more than a disappointment to the SNES Batman games, while some think it's a decent game by its own standards.