When Batman: Arkham City breaks out this October, gamers will be able to suit up as the Dark Knight and lay waste to the city's shadowy villains. However, the Caped Crusader isn't going to own the spotlight alone.
Warner Bros. today announced that it has partnered with national electronics retailer Best Buy to offer Batman sidekick Robin as a playable character in Arkham City's Challenge mode as part of the "Tim Drake Robin pack." The pack is available to those who preorder the game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. 
Robin boasts his own distinct gadgets and other "special moves," though none were named. Further, gamers who preorder at Best Buy will score two extra challenge maps: Black Mask Hideout and Freight Train Escape. Lastly, gamers who preorder Arkham City at the retailer will score a "Red Robin" skin.
Like its well-received predecessor, Arkham City drops Batman in the confines of an unconventional prison. But where Arkham Asylum stuck players in the halls and courtyards of a mental hospital overrun with the Joker's goons and allies, Arkham City deposits them in a sprawling neighborhood of Gotham City that has been walled off to contain the criminal element.
Under the watchful eye of "warden" Dr. Hugo Strange, who knows Batman's secret identity, inmates of Arkham City are free to do anything they want short of attempting escape. In addition to Strange, the game will feature Batman villains like Two-Face and the Joker.
For more on the title, check out GameSpot's most recent hands-on preview with Batman: Arkham City.
What's with the Tim hate? He's easily the best Robin out of the bunch, being much closer to Bruce's level when it comes to being a strategist or deductive reasoning skills than any of the other four Robins. This kid put up a hell of a fight against Jason Todd twice, whooped the snot out of Damien (thank god), strategically beat Lady Shiva, held his own against Dick one-on-one, as a solo hero scored a MAJOR victory against Ra's Al Ghul, and found out that Bruce was still alive when everyone else wrote him off as dead. He was one of the darker side kicks (not as much as Damien though), miles away from the one-liner spewing old days of the Robin character and he's showing signs of being able to eventually surpass the bat as the world's greatest detective one day. Yes Nightwing would have been cool but A) Dick's not Nightwing anymore for the moment and B) this isn't Bludhaven.
I heard that Robin will be available to everyone it's just that whoever pre orders at best buy will get Robin right away and everyone else will half to wait and purchase him off of psn xbox live etc.
Will somebody be offering Nightwing?
I've been wondering when the first salvo in the pre-order from us war for this one was coming. What is everybody else offering as incentive to pre-order from them?
So will this be made available for purchase down the road?
SiLenTWarrior29 you mean Nightwing
All the more reason to not preorder. I'm against this kind of crap.
I got to admit that best looking robin I've seen so far he actually looks semi-badass especially compared to the comic versions I mean c,mon at least he's wearing pants. Although I still would prefer Nightwing.
F that. Preordering for exclusive content is not a good look.
ROBIN is lame !!!!
As nice as this game looks...I don't like preorder pap. After a certain recent game that bit and used so much preoder garbola it has become a warning flag to me. As for BestBuy. They should be busy firing the guy who did that latest advertisment spasm about "Pwning every n00b" promoting their tradeback by having the corporate sounding spokesman talk all "/_337"...it was just sad...no matter how nice their buyback program is.
Fun.
Nice idea to push ppl to piratism, why should i preorder damn game to get Robin when i can just download a crack and play him whenever i want since i cant preorder it even if i want to. I wonder when will this companies realise that if we players (not me) like the zombie games we are not zombies with no brain and they can just test us with stupid preorders or dlc craps, if they think we are dumb like their scripted zombies they are wrong, sorry but if u game companies treat us like this then we have no other choice but join piratism and enjoy the full games since most of the time pirat gamers are enjoying games more the we do cause of crappy drm and preorders... Im not supporting piratism but this things lately are really pushing the limits and the games are getting more and more crappy then they were...
It is pretty crappy, yeah. Especially folks who don't have access to a Best Buy. But the developers still need to make a profit on this game, and I am sure this partnership wasn't done up on only a handshake. Hopefully whatever profit they garner will go to ensure that the caliber of their games continue to rise. And as for the DLC, hopefully it will get released at some point in the future.
OMG dont they know or feel for other people that dont have pre-ordering features. I have the money and I want it but I can't get it ever because it's only with a pre-order. WTF and these limited/collector's edition bonuses in games are really annoying cuz they give you exclusive stuff. best collector's edition in my opinion is Killzone 3's since all you get bonus are a DLC which anyone can get and the soundtrack and an art book both of which are useless extras not like this bull!
....I'm good with just batman and catwoman....unless you change your mind about preordering for robin
i just wish that these preorders were available later on after the release of the game make us pay like a dollar or 2 for it. because some game have some sweet preorders but im not going buy the same game 3-4 times just for preorders i dont have the money for it even though i can return it and i am not that thirsty for preorders
Now I have to speak my mind, I cannot tolerate that some frauds (with the support of the developers or whoever gives them this "Robin pack") make us buy the game from some special place to get additional content that we should have with just buying the game! Don't sweat it, man, I was gonna get it anyway! I am from a far away country and I can't afford to "pre-buy" it from some stupid web site and then ship it to my country. Its frustrating to see these things happen, the hell with you Best Buy
hmmmmmm i might just have to pre-order it at best buy now... NOT....i can wait til it comes out later on gamestop here i come!!!
@MarioKovacic11 Cheers.
Oh and btw, get the dang game on PC, it's only $50.
I'm waiting for knight wing... Then I'm most definitely getting it
So some people are canceling their pre-orders because they aren't getting content that they didn't even know existed or even care about? if they never announced this and nobody knew about it until they got their physical copy from best buy, would anyone care? I think not. Just like nobody cared about the Joker on PS3. Sure it would have been cool to have, but it doesn't affect the game whatsoever.
how uninteresting...
All this does is push people even deeper into piracy. It's one thing to gamble $60 on someone's, "Art" with no return policy or protection. But to be bullied into shopping at certain retailers to get a digital tchotchke is driving PC gaming even further down the hole to Hell.
Robin looks awesome! I wish I had the cash to preorder this...
I don't support the idea of having a sidekick but it's cool for me as long as he is not in the main campaign.
I will buy it dammit !! I just don't want to preorder !
I wish they would release Robin as a buy-able DLC. By the way, I like Robins new look! Very cool!
As cool as the Robin character is I don't really care. I wasn't too annoyed by the lack of 360 Joker missions (that the PS3 got).
Getting tired of these Preorder bonuses.
I boycott best buy. I hope gamestop offers it too.
As long as i can get it if its atcually good after release, wahtever. i'll still be gettin it from Gamestop prolly
It's a best buy exclusive. That's the problem. They are forcing you to shop at a certain retail store to get all the content. Not only does not everyone have a best buy around them, but it's also a kick in the nuts to small mom 'n pop stores. You call it being dramatic. I call it being a rational thinker who isn't a mindless sheep that plays right in the hand of these greedy, slimeball executives
@KaBo0m All they're saying is if you "pre-order" you will get these extra items. It's just a pre-order, they aren't making you pay more. Quit being so dramatic.
Congrats. You just turned this game into a rental for me. I refuse to support such lame tactics. Also, Robin looks awful. What's up with the emenem look?
this better not be retailed exclusive, region exclusive and available for purchase after release!!!
I always hated robin the the picture above actually managed to make him look pretty cool, with that and the extra challange maps this may be worth a pre-order.
All Amazon has to do is get the Alfred Challenge with: -frying pan combo attack -steam iron to the jaw -broomstick to the nads People will forget about Best Buy real soon...
pre-order bonuses are fine on two conditions, first that the content can be purchased by everyone not long after release for a small fee, and second that it is not retailer exclusive. pre ordering is good for the industry, it helps prevent a rush to market of games that are not ready due to financial pressure, when the fiance people see good pre order sales they tend to leave the developers alone to do what needs doing.
I'm tempted to pre-order from Best Buy now, but a preorder offer this good will most likely become DLC eventually.
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Robin! That's pretty funny. I'll wait and see who Gamestop and Amazon get.
Don't care, I'll order from wherever is cheapest. If it's "optional" it aint gonna affect the gameplay in any way.
pssh.. this is nothing, Blacks Ops Prestige and Dirt 3 special edition is out of hand.
oh snap robin!!! wtf!
People, Its a pre-order bonus, you'll be able to buy this for 3 bucks prob. launch day
i'll pass i've never liked robin and i don't buy games from BB
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Guess I won't be playing as Robin...
I really wish people would boycott this sort of crap, i know i will.