Batman Review

[Carbon Tiger]

I've always found Batman on the PCE to be solid enough. It is what it is and plays well. I didn't go in expecting an action game and I knew it played a bit like Bomerman. That being said I do enjoy the music and the game responds well and the challenge is at an even pace. Interesting final boss battle too. While not an A+ title it's still far better then this review gives it credit for. So yeah I like the game and for what the developers were trying to do they mostly pulled it off.

This is by far NOT the worst Batman game.

My .2 cents as it were.   

[Necromancer]

I don't think 2% is an unreasonable score for Strip Fighter II. If the novelty of seeing naked girls is totally lost on you, then that's probably the score I would give it as a complete rip-off of Street Fighter.

Personally, I would have given it more points just because I enjoy seeing naked chicks.

Naked ladies deserve a minimum of 8%.  Unfortunately, I can't go much higher for this poorly controlled ripoff.  Now if the battles were in strip clubs and involved mirrored walls, sniffer's row, brass poles, and mud (and/or jello) wrestling, it would go at least as high as 17%.  Fix the stiff controls, and it would earn a perfect 69% rating.

[nat]

I don't think 2% is an unreasonable score for Strip Fighter II. If the novelty of seeing naked girls is totally lost on you, then that's probably the score I would give it as a complete rip-off of Street Fighter.

Personally, I would have given it more points just because I enjoy seeing naked chicks.

Naked ladies deserve a minimum of 8%.  Unfortunately, I can't go much higher for this poorly controlled ripoff.  Now if the battles were in strip clubs and involved mirrored walls, sniffer's row, brass poles, and mud (and/or jello) wrestling, it would go at least as high as 17%.  Fix the stiff controls, and it would earn a perfect 69% rating.

Exactly.

2% for Strip Fighter isn't harsh-- it's the fact of the matter.

[offsidewing]

**in my best Sean Connery voice**

Can you expect a game featuring naked women to have anything else but stiff controls?

[Kaminari]

"Speaking of ruining the entire experience, the music in this game is absolutely ear piercing."

That's what you get when you play on a half-finished emulator like Hu-Go. I remember the harsh comments of a reviewer from a shooter fansite who was complaining that the Gunhed soundtrack was absolutely horrendous. Admittedly the guy had never played the game on a real system.

[nat]

Even finished emulators have weak-sounding audio reproduction. I can pick out an emulated Turbo tune any day. Can't stand 'em.

The real hardware just sounds so much "fuller".

[offsidewing]

Emulators are like carnal self-gratification.

The real this is always better.

[MrFulci]

I was a bit into roms 10 years ago (Is IHOR still around?)

It was pretty cool tracking down all these games I used to own, rented, never tried, etc. It was a nice method of trying a game before purchasing it used.

Though, it didn't take long for me to notice certain things sometiems weren't quite right.

Sounds may not sound quite the same, graphical glitches here and there weren't uncommon either. Plus the whole thing of having to get a special USB controller, and spitting the display out to a TV and some speakers/stereo... I drifted away from Nesticle and other emulation stuff soon after that, and stuck to actual systems.

I'm not against roms (though, for many it is theft), though from what I've seen it's chancy how the presentation will be.

I'd rather own the actual products. Tends to be less problems, even if it takes up more space.

[Keranu]

"Speaking of ruining the entire experience, the music in this game is absolutely ear piercing."

That's what you get when you play on a half-finished emulator like Hu-Go. I remember the harsh comments of a reviewer from a shooter fansite who was complaining that the Gunhed soundtrack was absolutely horrendous. Admittedly the guy had never played the game on a real system.

Man one terrible example of this is playing Photo Boy on Magic Engine which has this screeeeching sound that's just painful. I havne't played the real version, but I imagine it's not in the real game.

[malducci]

Heh- I remember the tunes for Batman being pretty cool. Oh well...

I was a bit into roms 10 years ago (Is IHOR still around?)

It was pretty cool tracking down all these games I used to own, rented, never tried, etc. It was a nice method of trying a game before purchasing it used.

Though, it didn't take long for me to notice certain things sometiems weren't quite right.

Sounds may not sound quite the same, graphical glitches here and there weren't uncommon either. Plus the whole thing of having to get a special USB controller, and spitting the display out to a TV and some speakers/stereo... I drifted away from Nesticle and other emulation stuff soon after that, and stuck to actual systems.

I'm not against roms (though, for many it is theft), though from what I've seen it's chancy how the presentation will be.

I'd rather own the actual products. Tends to be less problems, even if it takes up more space.

If there were a poll about this, I think most would say about the same. Most PCE fans don't use emulation from what it seems. Sadly, this seems to keep the translation community away from the PCE scene - getting a emulator setup correctly or even enjoy using it. Well... that and getting people to correctly burn a working CD-R copy for PCE CD games.

[jimid2]

I stumbled on this site a while back chasing down some Lynx reviews - I generally like it but there are quite a few reviews I don't agree with... They don't give very good reviews to Devil's Crush on the TG16 or California Games on the Lynx, and these are two of my favorite games. I seem to recall that they criticize the audio in Devil's Crush as being particularly bad, which would tend to confirm speculation about reviewers playing the games in emulation, I think. Devil's Crush has great audio, imho...   I've been humming the theme to myself on and off for 17 years now, so I should know!  :-"   

[ParanoiaDragon]

"Speaking of ruining the entire experience, the music in this game is absolutely ear piercing."

That's what you get when you play on a half-finished emulator like Hu-Go. I remember the harsh comments of a reviewer from a shooter fansite who was complaining that the Gunhed soundtrack was absolutely horrendous. Admittedly the guy had never played the game on a real system.

Man one terrible example of this is playing Photo Boy on Magic Engine which has this screeeeching sound that's just painful. I havne't played the real version, but I imagine it's not in the real game.

The screeching sound in Photograph Boy is indeed in the original game!  Just kidding, it's not.  But on that note, I think that problem was fixed on ME.

[Keranu]

You scared me there for a second, PD!

[nat]

I'm currently at the end of Batman. I plan on having it in the bag by tonight, but I have an idle question.

If you die on the Final Cathedral stage, the game gives you a password. Yet this password is worthless, it doesn't work. Does anyone know why this is? Luckily I obtained a password from like one stage prior but it kind of bugs me that I have to re-play the final stage of Gotham City every time. Every other password I've been given in the game seems to work fine.

If they don't want you to continue from the Final stage, why give you a password at all?

[spenoza]

The best audio reproduction I've found in a PCE emulator is Ootake. I think it represents PCE audio most authentically of all the emus I've used.

To stay on topic, I really didn't enjoy Batman much on the PCE. It's an OK game, but it's a poor format for Batman.