Throwback Thursdays: A Look On the Development of our Favorite Games (6/19/14)

Starting off a new weekly event, I felt it was necessary to begin to look back on some older video games and to see how the titles have progressed throughout the years. Especially with the next gen consoles already out, we can get a good look at how far the video game industry has gone lately and make some predictions on how future games may look. There are some spoilers in this article, you have been warned.

The Batman Franchise

I figured to start things off, we will do a franchise we all know and love, the Batman games. This franchise goes all the way back to the 1980s where it was first seen on the 8-bit consoles such as the Amstrad CPC. From then, there have been over 30 games in which the Caped Crusader has starred in and even more where he has been featured in.

Since there is so many Batman games, I'm only going to cover the first Batman games of each of the video game console generations. These generations, for future reference, go from first gen to the eighth gen; which are the next gen consoles. To start off, first gen has systems that I feel no one has heard about like the Magnavox and Telstar, and go from the 1970s to the 1980s, followed by second gen (Atari 5200 and Intellivision), third gen (NES, Atari 7800, and Sega Mater System), fourth gen (Sega Genesis and SNES), fifth gen (Playstation, N64, and Sega Saturn), sixth gen (Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox), seventh gen (Xbox360, PS3, and Wii), and finally eighth gen (Xbox One, Wii U, and PS4).

Since the first couple of Batman games weren't on consoles, they were on computers, the franchise didn't start on the console until the Third Gen. I will still go over a few of the earlier games as well so we can get a good look at the evolution of this franchise.

Original Games
The first Batman game ever made was a self-titled game for the Amstrad CPC and other 8-bit consoles. In this game the objective was simple, rescue Robin by collecting the parts to Batman's Hovercraft.

As seen from the picture above, there wasn't much to go off of on the game, but it was rated one of the best games of its time in 1986. Video games have surely gone a long distance from these old games.

Third Generation
When entering the 1990s, the Batman games at this point weren't based off of any of the movies, they were just games developed so that the players can play as the Caped Crusader. The first Batman game that was officially based off of a movie was the self-titled Batman: The Video Game for the NES and Sega Genesis and changed a bit for the Gameboy. There were changes from the movie of course, but this five level game was the basis of all Batman games to follow. It featured some well known DC villains, such as The Joker and Deadshot, and had some unique weapons as projectiles; batarangs, a dirk, and a 'bat speargun'.

This game was also followed by a sequel a year later called Batman: The Return of Joker, which had the same game play as the previous game, it was just made more like the Megaman games at the time.

Fourth Generation

The first games on this generation were the reboot of the games in the previous generation made so that the players can continue playing their favorite Batman games at the time. The next original title for the fourth gen consoles was Batman Returns, made for the SNES, NES, and Sega Genesis. This was essentially a 'beat 'em up' game where the only objective was to keep on pummeling the enemy until the player reaches the boss. This game was let down due to its lack of originality, copying games styles from many other games like Final Fight and Double Dragon, but it gained huge praise for its graphics, sound, and controls. These praises were able to win this game the Best Licensed Game of 1992 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. Having personally played this game when I was younger, it was one of my favorite games for the SNES and, although I never got too far, I still had fun beating up all the different bad guys that they throw at you.

Fifth Generation

The beginning of this generation gave very little to the franchise. The first game for this generation was Batman Forever: The Arcade Game. Not a very popular game, this one was an arcade style game (go figure) and the player can pick either Batman or Robin and fight against Two-Face or the Riddler and their henchmen. Simple enough of a game, it wasn't all that popular at the time. The next game in this generation was also rated very bad; Batman and Robin, based off the same titled movie. Although this game in particular had a different style of game play; it was a moving around Gotham that included real time events, traffic, etc., it was voted very badly to coincide with the badly rated Batman and Robin movie. If this game wasn't based off of the movie, I feel that it would have done a lot better, those types of video games where the player gets to walk around and do missions are one of my favorite types.

Sixth Generation

This generation begins with one of the better Batman games of the franchise, Batman: Vengeance. This game was featured on all of the major consoles in the sixth gen and was one of the better games for that gen as well. Based off of The New Batman Adventures animated series, it takes place after The New Batman Adventures but before Batman joins The Justice League in the self-titled animated series. It contained the whole voicing cast of the series, including the great Kevin Conroy, as well as having a great story line taking out villains such as the Joker, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and many others. The main criticism for this game was its first person mode, which limited the abilities of the player and made it harder for them to control, but the cinematic parts and the voice acting saved this game from being bad.

This gen also includes many other great titles, such as Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, Batman Begins, and Batman: Dark Tomorrow.
Seventh Generation

This generation is the gen we are most familiar with and has some of our favorite titles. The first game for this gen is one of mine and one of Christians favorites, Lego Batman. We are all familiar with the Lego series and all of their games, but this one is definitely one of my favorites. The game play is just like all the other Lego games in the series, where you can switch in between your favorite Lego characters, but also added a feature where you can play the story mode as the Villains. This is one of those games that you can grab a couple of buddies and just chill around and play a few games with.

Of course, this isn't everyones favorite game of this generation. The Batman: Arkham series started in this generation as well. These games added a whole new aspect to the Batman series, starting with Batman: Arkham Asylum. This game allows the player to sneak around Arkham Asylum as Batman like he would in the comics or in the movies and added more skill to the games. In these games, the player goes through Arkham and uses a plethora of gadgets to go around and stop the Joker from taking full control of Arkham. There are many different bosses in this game as well that the player has to beat before reaching the joker, such as Bane, Killer Croc, and many others. This game has the best game play and combat system of all of the Batman games to date and has won the Game of The Year by many different media outlets and has also won a Guinness World Record for Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever. One of the coolest parts of the game is the 'detective mode', shown in the picture below. This mode allows the player to see the enemy and track them or to stay hidden from them or to even fight them in the best combat system to date in the Batman franchise.

Eighth Generation

The only games listed for the majority of the eighth gen consoles are Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and of course the most anticipated game, Batman: Arkham Knight. I did go over the latest from E3 on Arkham Knight so I suggest checking that out for a more in depth look for the game, but it is to be set after Batman: Arkham City and contains a drivable Batmobile and much better combat and mobility systems.

For the 3rd Lego game in the series, this one has the main villain as Brainiac as he goes around the universe collecting planets and galaxies for his collection, sort of like the plot for Superman: Unbound, the animated movie with Superman stopping Brainiac from collecting the capitals of planets and then destroying those said planets.

As you can see, the Batman Franchise has grown a lot since the 1980s, as well as video gaming itself. It has been great to be able to play some of these great titles and we can only hope for the best in the future. Who knows, maybe someday when virtual reality becomes the main thing, we will be able to become the Caped Crusader ourselves and fight the infamous villains with our own hands. Tune in next week for the next installment of Throwback Thursdays, where I will go in depth in even more of our favorite video game franchises.