Batman Returns 16-Bit Showdown

Almost every major blockbuster in the early 90's received a video game adaptation. Even Domino's and Seven Up's mascots received their own video games. If the Noid got his own game, there's no way the hype machine behind Batman Returns was going to let that 1992 smash hit pass through without an adaptation...or seven. Batman Returns is a seminal film for me--at eleven years old, I fell into the film's prime demographic, and I love it to this day. With a protagonist like Batman, major villains like Penguin and Catwoman, and a clearly designed group of underlings in the red triangle circus gang, a 16-bit video game version of Batman Returns essentially designs itself. Developers just needed to put Batman on Gotham's icy streets and let him punch and kick his way through an army of circus freaks, while periodically battling with the two major foes. Toss in some Christmas trees and giant presents in the background for good measure and viola: Batman Returns game. That's just what the three 16-bit adaptations of Batman Returns do...to varying degrees of success.


Batman Returns, Sega Genesis, December 29, 1992

Sega's Malibu-developed Batman Returns game was first to market. The game is a side-scrolling action-platformer, like many movie game adaptations from the era. The speed at which the game came to market betrays Sega's "that's good enough, let's hurry up and get this thing on the shelves" approach, taken with several of their adaptations at the time. This game was clearly not play-tested enough to make sure it was actually fun, though, and...it's not very fun. The absolute first moment of the Sega Genesis Batman Returns asks the player to take a blind jump from the top of the building. You can actually die during this moment, and it's nowhere close to the only blind jump Batman Returns for the Sega Genesis makes the player take. The controls aren't great, either. You've got one button for special items, one for jumping, and one for punching/kicking. You'll also have to use the grappling hook at times (using the jump button and directional pad), but unfortunately, the grappling hook is only even fairly reliable when you're standing still, let alone trying to swing around. You've also got to solve environmental puzzles at times, often on the fly, with death often nigh. With all that in mind, this game is alarmingly difficult. However, it does not earn that difficulty. Beloved legendarily difficult games are generally beloved because the control systems for those games are tight and reliable. You aren't dying because of flaws in those games, only because of your own lack of skill. Batman Returns for Sega Genesis is not that type of game--it is balls out hard because it is not very good. As for production values, the menu screens and pause screen (where you select what special, limited ammo weapon you want to use, i.e. batarang, etc.) look fine. The actual, in-game graphics are kind of simplistic, but solid. The graphics are certainly a step above 8-bit, but nothing great. Same for the music--you've got that trademark, bass-reliant Genesis sound, but nothing much memorable. I will say, though, that the game does capture a bit of the film's dark, inkwell atmosphere...it just doesn't do very many fun or satisfying things with it. Like most Genesis games, there's no save system (or password system). You can continue when you get a game over, but you have to start all the way at the beginning of that particular stage. Each stage has multiple levels, so if you get a game over during the final (generally unfair) boss on the final level of the stage, get ready to play through the entire stage again...not very fun. A disappointment.

Graphics: 6.0/10
Sound: 6.0/10
Gameplay: 4.5/10
Lasting Value 4.0/10
Overall (Not an Average): 4.8/10.0




Batman Returns, Super Nintendo, April 1993

Storied developing house, Konami, took the reins for the Super Nintendo adaptation of Batman Returns. Konami decided to take their adaptation down the 2D beat 'em up route, ala Streets of Rage and Final Fight. This decision, along with Konami's skill as a developer, and perhaps the extra four months Konami spent on this versus Malibu's Genesis version, results in a pretty special game. In opposition to the Genesis adaptation, the controls here are tight and reliable. Tap a button to punch, tap it rapidly to combo and kick. There's a button to jump. Hit jump again to use the grappling hook--reliably. There's a button to throw the batarang, which does minimal damage, but very briefly stuns foes. There's devastating cowl twist move done by holding two buttons that takes a little health off Batman's meter if it connects. There's even the classic beat 'em up "kill everyone on screen" special item. In some games, that item, which you only get so many of, is utilized by just pushing one button, resulting in the player often accidentally unleashing it. Konami solves that problem by having the player hold down the shoulder buttons (which also cause Batman to block), then push another button--a simple solution that helps the player avoid accidentally using the attack. Of course, with side-scrolling 2D beat 'em ups, the player can move up and down in the field of play, as well as left and right. There are no control issues there. However, this game doesn't just stick to the basics. There are bunch of cool little touches. Of course, if you get close to an enemy, you'll grab them and can slam them into the ground or other enemies, but here, if two enemies approach you from opposite sides at the same moment, you can grab them simultaneously and bash their heads together. If you grab an enemy and are standing near a window, you can slam them into it and shatter it--same goes for park benches or other breakable surfaces. Each level has a boss from the film at the end, including that organ-grinder with a monkey and a machine gun. There's even an awesome Mode 7 (faux 3D, scaling sprite) Batmobile stage that looks and plays great. The graphics as a whole here are beautiful, highly detailed, with large, well-animated sprites, and great backgrounds, and it all runs smoothly with no slowdown. The music is mainly 16-bit interpretations of the score from the film, and it sounds great. The Sega Genesis version doesn't have anything like that. This Super Nintendo adaptation simply crushes the Genesis one in both production value and gameplay. That's not to say it's perfect, though. Sometimes the action does grow a little stale. You'll be in the same area wanting to move on, and enemies will just keep flooding in. The length is also at that awkward 45-60 minute mark, where there are no passwords or saves available, and you've simply got to dedicate that big of a chunk, minimum, to get through. You can toggle the difficulty level and number of lives available from the option screen, and each difficulty level feels well-balanced and appropriate. The more I played, the better I got--Catwoman kicked my butt the first few encounters, but after a number of showdowns, I was wiping the floor with her. Overall, Batman Returns for the Super Nintendo isn't just a good adaptation of the film, but one of the better film adaptations of the 16-bit era.

Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 8.0/10
Gameplay: 8.0/10
Lasting Value: 7.8/10
Overall (Not an Average): 8.0/10.0




Batman Returns, Sega CD, May 1993

The 1993 Sega CD port of the Genesis' Batman Returns game proved to be the film's final 16-bit adaptation. Sega CD ports of Genesis games were often derided for simply being the same game with a slapped on Redbook soundtrack. Malibu's Batman Returns port received some attention for essentially being that, while adding an entirely new element: sprite-scaling, faux 3D driving. The levels and controls are exactly the same as the Genesis game, but now there are driving levels between each stage. These play and look similarly to the Super Nintendo driving stage, except the controls aren't as good. You've got to hold down the B-button, while pushing the A button to fire discs out, and press C to fire missiles, while using the directional pad for horizontal direction/to ram into foes. The driving stages are timed, and failing to destroy all enemies before the timer runs out results in death, so you've got to constantly hold down the accelerator while firing...meaning you've got to put your hands into some arthritis-inviting positions. I did not enjoy this aspect of the game. It's remarkable that Konami nailed the single driving segment in their game, which could have just been a throwaway stage, but Malibu made driving half of their game, and it doesn't quite work. The driving stages here don't even look as good as the one in the SNES game. The Sega CD Batman Returns' updated soundtrack, while of a much higher sample quality than the other two 16-bit adaptations, only consists of a few pieces recycled over and over again throughout the game, which are seldom interesting. The game's graphics as a whole, though, do look a little bit sharper than they did on the Genesis, but unfortunately, the gameplay is exactly the same--not fun. But hey, there are some new animated cutscenes that look...adequate. Overall, this Sega CD version of Batman Returns is only marginally better than the Genesis one. The driving stages are tedious, and when added to the already tedious action-platforming, just make the game even more tedious. Beating this game in one sitting--which is the only way to beat it since you can't save or use passwords--will take so long, you'll need the patience of a saint, and the masochist nature of a Cleveland Browns fan. This should have been so much better.

Graphics: 6.2/10
Sound: 6.0/10
Gameplay: 4.8/10
Lasting Value: 4.2/10
Overall (Not an Average): 5.2/10.0



I did one of these showdowns for Jurassic Park a while ago and have to admit, I had a bit more fun doing that one because 2/3 of the games weren't awful. Batman Returns for the Super Nintendo is the only 16-bit adaptation of that film that's worth playing. The other two have attractive boxes and that's about it. An objective ranking here is easy, with far more distance between one and two than there is two and three.

Merry Christmas, and goodwill toward men...and women.

1. Batman Returns (Super Nintendo, 1993)
2. Batman Returns (Sega CD, 1993)
3. Batman Returns (Sega Genesis, 1992)

Clock Tower (English Translation)

Released in Japan on September 14, 1995 for the Super Nintendo by Human Entertainment, the 2D, side-scrolling Clock Tower is one of the first survival horror video games.

I don't remember the first time I saw screenshots of Clock Tower, but it was long after the Super Nintendo's heyday--after all, the influential game never came to the good ole U.S. of A. In fact, Clock Tower was never released anywhere outside of Japan. Pictures of the game revealed great, atmospheric graphics. Later superlatives praised Clock Tower for pioneering the survival horror genre popularized by games like Resident Evil, but still, I figured I'd never get a chance to play it.

 

Human Clock Tower?

Well, in the past few years, video game reproduction carts may have oversaturated the market with a bunch of cheap fakes, but they've also allowed players to experience once exorbitantly expensive and rare titles, as well as English translations of once Japanese-only games. With that said, just in time for Spooky Season 2021, I've happened upon and played through a cheap, English-translated copy of Clock Tower.

 

The kind of place where they speak English. "Nice" is relative.

After playing through, I can say that this game definitely looks as good as advertised. You're introduced to your character and the setting through a cutscene composed of stills and text. You plays as Jennifer, a teen orphan being relocated to a remote mansion with several other girls. As the girls arrive at the mansion, the guide suddenly vanishes into the house's dark, huge, and scary halls. Jennifer decides to start wandering around...and that's when the murder begins.

 

She was a bit too contrary

I recently watched Dario Argento's Suspiria, and the style and influence from that film are apparent here. A girl is wandering around a spooky old mansion, the occult might just be involved, and there's not really any depth beyond that. Clock Tower even includes the Suspiria sequence where someone gets shoved to their death through a stained-glass ceiling.

 

Clock Tower is Argento-esque, but with a big pair of scissors

Rooms are highly detailed, atmospheric, and somewhat interactive. As far as music, there's not much, with most of the game being scored by ambient sounds and prolonged, creepy silences. However, the soundtrack is sufficiently suspenseful when it does creep up.

Scissor Dance, all the kids are doing it!

As Jennifer, you wander through the randomly generated mansion, picking up and using items. You look for keys to unlock rooms, solve rudimentary puzzles (i.e., this wall looks cracked, maybe I can smash a hole through it with this rock I found), and try to avoid a psychotic, scissor-wielding, adolescent mansion resident who sometimes pops out of nowhere. The scissors are...quite large. Every now and then during your mansion search, you happen upon your fellow orphans' corpses. Sometimes, you look into an evil mirror and die of terror. Speaking of terror, your character's anxiety often comes into play. If you've constantly been holding down the RUN button (which you'll frequently do because of how slowly Jennifer walks) and been getting freaked out by scissor kid, you're his easy prey. If not, you might just be able to fight him off and run away... 

And that's it: you traverse the mansion halls and rooms, trying to gain access to more and more areas, which unlock more turns in the story, until the end.

Some of those story turns are surprisingly grisly, though sadly, not surprisingly grizzly

So the atmosphere here is top notch for a 16-bit game, and the bones of survival horror are here. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of meat on those gameplay bones. Yes, Jennifer's digitized animations are stunning, but she walks like a slug crawling up a sun-baked hill. Moving around the house is frustrating enough when nothing is chasing you, let alone when there's a psychotic child bounding behind you with over-sized scissors. The controls are also clunky and unintuitive. Sometimes, picking up and using an object takes an act of congress. Also, your game saves automatically when you die. 

What happens if you die in an inescapable situation where you just happen to be pinned up against the wall by scissor boy? 

Why, you've got to erase that save and start the entire game over from the beginning! 

Granted, you could play through this game in two or three hours if you know exactly what you are doing, but if not, losing two or three hours of putzing around and finally getting close to the finish is maddening.

Metaphor for this game

This is a shame because there's clearly a special game underneath all of this frustration. The production values, despite the game's reportedly small development team, are excellent, but it appears they've come at the expense of the gameplay. However, if you can work through these frustrations, Clock Tower shows a striking attention to detail, with multiple story paths and endings--I just wish more effort had gone toward making the game fun.

 

Wait, this one's better

Graphics: 8.5/10.0

Sound: 7.0/10.0

Gameplay: 5.5/10.0

Lasting Value: 4.0/10.0


Overall: 6.0/10.0

Hook

Released for the Super Nintendo in 1992 by Sony Imagesoft, and developed by Ukiyotei, Hook is a side-scrolling, action-platforming adaptation of the 1991 Spielberg film of the same name.

Love it or hate it, Steven Spielberg's 1991 Peter Pan as an adult children's film, Hook, sure produced a lot of video game adaptations. Most SNES and Sega Genesis movie adaptations followed the same basic formula: Movie protagonist + 2D stages based on whatever was in the movie + jumping and hitting things = profit.
This formula resulted in a large number of sub-par action-platformers, with just a few diamonds in the rough. Does the SNES 1992 action-platformer, Hook, featuring a flying, knife-wielding Peter Pan shine, or is it as dull as the titular Captain's black heart?

 

The graphics department at Tri-Star didn't go through all the trouble of designing this logo for it to NOT be on 10,000 different things, including a SNES game

One thing stands out immediately once you boot this buccaneer up: the production values are through the roof. You're immediately greeted by long, animated cutscenes, detailing the plot of the movie, and high-quality 16-bit recreations of John Williams' film score. This game is no cheap, throwaway adaptation. Once you jump into the gameplay, the production values feel even higher. The graphics, featuring highly detailed, beautifully drawn, sometimes animated backgrounds, and highly detailed, well-animated character models, are excellent. I may look more like Robin Williams than the Peter Pan in this game, but he and his wind-billowing cloak look great, as do all of Pan's varied, but mostly pirate enemies, as they strut around in a charmingly realistic, great for SNES manner.

 

Wait...are you Spiderman?

As stated, the music here is another high point, with the legendary John Williams done justice by the SNES' nearly just as legendary sound chip. The same pieces aren't just repeated ad nauseum, either. There are a lot of different songs featured here. The sound effects aren't the best, but they get the job done. Overall, the music and aesthetics of this game create a pretty stunning package--which makes the sluggish gameplay all the more disappointing.

 

Nothing like stabbing some children to get the blood flowing

When I think Peter Pan, I usually think of a fast, agile, and highly maneuverable character. However, I guess the developers here were thinking more the peanut butter brand, because Pan moves around in this game like he's wading through a jar of the stuff. Peter walks SLOWLY and you can't make him run. It feels like it takes forever to get Pan from one side of the screen to the next. Get under some fairy dust at select moments of the game, and you can fill up a meter that lets you fly for a limited amount of time--SLOWLY. Fall in some water. No problem. You can swim--SLOWLY.

 

The good thing is, most of your enemies, including the bosses, also move pretty slowly. Maybe I should have put "good thing" in quotes.

The controls here are pretty responsive (you're just moving/jumping around and swinging your dagger at stuff, and sometimes swimming/flying), but the slowness takes a lot out fund out of the game, and makes certain sections of Hook needlessly difficult. Add in what seems to be a hitbox that stretches a foot or so past Pan's body, and you've got a recipe for frustration. There are some cool ideas here, like hidden leaves that add to your limited life meter, a power-up that lets your dagger shoot beams of light, and a handful of level-ending boss fights (there's a boss at the end of just about every other level), but the slow movement speed just crushes everything. Maybe, with all of the graphical excellence onscreen, the developers couldn't get Pan moving any faster. Movement isn't the only frustrating element here, either.

Little shop...little shop of horrors...

Hook features 12 moderately long levels that become marathons because of Pan's slow movement speed. That would be mitigated if there was some type of saving or password system, or even a level select cheat, but there's nothing of the sort here. While you do get unlimited continues, dying always starts you back at the beginning of a level, unless you've reached the boss (and continuing means you've got to start at the beginning, regardless). This means, especially considering the game's difficulty, that you're going to have to spend hours upon hours getting to the end of this thing. And considering the slow movement saps a lot of the fun away anyway, those aren't hours you're likely going to want to waste here.

Graphics: 9.0/10.0

Sound: 8.0/10.0

Gameplay: 5.0/10.0

Lasting Value: 5.0/10.0


Overall: 5.8/10.0