Batman has a pretty big file when it comes video games, starring in many games for almost every system ever released. Too bad the file that he has is probably nothing more than a criminal file stored in the virtual heck of video games. Nearly every game created involving the famous Batman is so terrible that you start to question why these games even left the drawing boards in the first place, and Batman Forever is another one of those instances. The now-defunct Acclaim really dropped the ball on this one, and it's so bad, there's a good chance they just didn't care. What makes this Batman game so terrible? Gameplay, for the most part, is the culprit. Everything about Batman Forever was executed in the most horrible way. The enemies have NO AI whatsoever, which is made up for the fact that Batman's awesome strength is marred by some of the worst beat-em-up techniques ever devised. You generally have 2 things you can do while fighting. You can repeatedly punch over and over again endlessly, and after about 20 punches to the face of the most basic enemy, they could go down, or you can kick the same way over and over. Trying to find a better way to attack an enemy requires that you put in a huge combination of buttons together in an extremely elaborate way that would put Street Fighter's combos to shame. The only problem is, the move that comes is only marginally tougher than one kick, or just doesn't do anything at all. Jumping is worthless in the game, along with trying to use Batman's grampling hook, which not only looks bad, but is also the one of the most inefficent required tools ever devised in video games. You have several things you can equip before each level, but nearly all of them are either useless, or are impossible to pull off because of the rediculous combo needed. Robin is also available for you to play, and has different attributes, believe it or not, than Batman. He's faster, but it takes double the time to take down one enemy, and his tools are just as useless as Batman's. Level design is incredibly linear as well, btw. It's generally a straight line to pass through with enemies to beat up and occasional jumping. Terrible. Well, not everything Batman Forever has is going to get a 1 in my book. Because of the detail on the characters in Batman Forever, the graphics get a plus. Too bad this is incredibly marred by the background's lack of detail, muddy textures, too much darkness, and grainy look of all the enemies in the game. Talking about enemies and characters, the animation is totally abysmal at BEST. They tried to take a piece off of the original Mortal Kombat games by putting in motion-captured animation, but the problem is that they just simply didn't put enough animations in the characters, making everything look incredibly choppy, and if you look at it for too long, you might end up getting quesy from the animations, making you wonder again what Acclaim was thinking when they put this game together. And it doesn't end there either. With the one relatively "good" part down, we go back to the horrendous area of Batman Forever in the sound department. Acclaim actually did bother throwing digital voices in the game, too bad the sound is far below Genesis standards (which are incredibly low to begin with) and sound more like a goose dying than an evil-doer. Batman and Robin have no voices, which could be counted as a good thing, since you can't understand a thing that anyone is saying in the first place. I can understand Charlie Brown's teacher better than this racket. The sound effects besides that are grainy sounding as well, which is a huge question mark, because that could be an easy plus, but Acclaim amazes me again with their lackluster work in sound effects as well. Oh, music? The first time you hear the theme song, you'll end up rolling on the floor laughing it's so bad, and it just gets worse from there. Well, I guess if this was SUPPOSED to be a funny game, then the sound could get an 8. But, since it's Batman, it's wrong to have the music being more of a punch-line then an exciting music sequence. IF, and I mean, IF you can POSSIBLY stomach through Batman Forever, you would have to have one of the strongest stomachs on the planet, are totally devoid of quality, or are forced to to write a review on it, there is absolutely no reason to come back to play it again. It'll probably end up being in your local bargain bin or attic than ever being 30 feet from your Genesis again. I can't blame Batman Forever for one of the reasons Acclaim went under, but with games like this, anyone can understand why it happened. This is a painful staple in video game history, and if you had any sense of respect for video games, don't come within 20 feet of this game. And I've heard that Batman and Robin is worse... imagine that.
The Good: -the Free Fight mode isn't awful The Bad: -broken controls -scenery gets in the way -forrgetable songs -can't pause the F**KING game -I can do this all day...... Batman Is one of the greatest super... Read Full Review
Batman Forever, based on the atrocious film of the same name, is yet another half-assed movie license. The game loosely follows the plot of the film, but, like many old school action games, the plot soon becomes irreleva... Read Full Review
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