By Alec Meer on July 11th, 2011 at 4:32 pm.
The videogames promotional cycle can be so exhausting – take Batman: Arkham City, for example. It’s still three and half months away but already we’re at a sort of hype crescendo. Yes, I want it. Do you hear me, Warner Brothers? I am prepared, right now, to say that I want to play it and I am prepared to hand over in the region of £30 to make this happen. Do I still have to watch tons of videos that tease and torture me with the fact that it’s probably going to be very really good but I’m not allowed to have it yet? Do you want me to beg? Alright, I’ll do it.
Please, Mr Warner and your delightful brothers, can I have this game now? If I promise to watch another video, can I have it? Please? Please?
So that’s the Riddler. He’s like the Joker, except a bit more like a children’s TV presenter. Looks like he’s upped his game this time around, being very much an active antagonist rather than a Achievement-hiding annoyance. The video suggests a canny mix of the ludicrous excess of the 60s TV show’s crazy contraptions and the laser-focus on sadism that characterises latter-day Bat-villains.
I hope I get to punch the Riddler in the nose. I’d like that.
Is this the Riddler or Jigsaw?
report
Exactly my thought as well… Especially regarding those death traps with the blades….
report
The Riddler regularly set up ‘DeathTraps’ in his original, early comic book appearances… Long before ‘Jigsaw’ was a gleam in his daddy’s eye. The Riddler has an irresistible compulsion to put his victims in a life or death situation, to see if he can devise a challenge they cannot accomplish/solve. In one of his first proper stories in the comics, he constructs a trap involving a bridge hanging over a tank full of sharks. Then there was the trench he put BatMan in and slowly filled with water. And electrified the sides of.
report
Wow someone is arrogant. I also hope i can punch him in the nose. It should be most entertaining.
report
So long as the Riddles aren’t as pathetically easy as the first one* he could be a pretty fun main villain. Though I have to wonder about where he got minions from. I mean I get Joker recruiting the sadists, Penguin recruiting mercs, Two Face recruiting gangsters and so on. But what cut throat gang is going to spend the whole weekend painting question marks everywhere and rigging up massive death traps? Are there really that many unemployed sociopathic mechanical engineers in Gotham?
*With the exception of the question mark puzzles which were pretty clever.
report
Ah, well thats the greatest riddle of them all!
report
I would work for the Riddler, I’ll even send in my CV if you give me an address.
report
wait, I thought Black Mask had the mercs ???
report
You know it’s the darndest thing Alec, the game’s slipped! But don’t you worry, we’ve got plenty of videos for you to watch!!!11111!!!11!!@£$^$£^%&*^^!111!
Love,
Warner Botherer’s Marketing
report
Note to self: Go back and finish the first game tonight, it was awesome.
report
(Sigh) I should do that too. I got stuck at the fight with Bane, and then distracted with other games before figuring out how to get past it. I’m not good at twitch-button fighting games like this, but it’s such a well-designed game that I want to finish it.
report
It’s one of those games that’s like a delicious cheesecake. It’s great, but there comes a point where I just couldn’t stomach another bite. I think enough time has passed to get back into it though.
report
Just play the game on Easy; you get about 3 seconds of slow-mo time to counter every attack. It’s not like the combat is very rewarding anyway.
report
The combat was great!
Also I don’t remember Bane being very far in to the game. You should crack on.
report
I like the contemporary alt text of the picture, that did make me chuckle.
report
I only just noticed how adorable Batman looks on that top left monitor.
Wheeeee!
report
“Please, Mr Warner and your delightful brothers, can I have this game now? If I promise to watch another video, can I have it? Please? Please?”
Patience, Mr Meer, is a virtue. The secret to which, is doing something else in the meanwhile.
report
Patience will also save the lives of the numerous developers that Warner Bros will happily sacrifice to the gods of crunch…
report
I share the author’s confuzzlement in who exactly needs convincing at this point. Anyone who wanted this game is going to buy it, no further teasing necessary. Preaching to the converted and whatnot.
report
well, i didn’t play the original on PC, I will have to see if I want ze PS3 version or PC version
report
Hmm. Well I hope they don’t go too over the top with the Riddler here. I mean, most of the time, he’s pretty harmless, and Batman and he respect one another in ways. It would be a pity to make him an all-out villain.
report
Yeah. It kinda feels like they’re turning him into Lex Luthor or something.
report
Did he do much trap-building in the comics?
As in, “will turn you into a pile of red goop” traps.
report
Yes. He did.
report
You’ll never find the glowing context sensitive object in time to stop this deadly contraption, Batman. Might as well give up. Hahahaha.
report
Press X to foil the Riddlers dastardly plan Batman!
report
If they have a set-up like that, and activating the glowing Thing kills you, I may laugh. And then be very annoyed. And then laugh again.
report
Did you REALLY have to soil the Batman name with the mention on Carrey ?
report
I really liked Carey as Riddler!
Maybe I should seek help.
report
You didnt have to add “as Riddler”. Liking Carrey in general, if you are over 12, is already a worrying symptom of a chronic mental imbalance.
report
@karry
I thought the same until I saw him in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
report
Carrey is a genuinely great actor, his more serious works are far superior to the early comedy fluff.
report
Seems a fair enough connection to draw, the Riddler voice actor in Arkham Asylum certainly seemed to be channelling Carrey (with a dash, and thankfully only a dash, of Matt Frewer).
report
It’s mind blowing, but Jim Carrey actually had an acting career after 1997, and much of it was quite good. A shocker, I know.
report
“I’m Batman”…..
report
Congrats Alec, I think this article’s title should win the RPS Pun of the Week award.
Also, I would like an RPS Pun of the Week award.
report
The narration here really makes explicit something that’s struck me before as the basic difference between the Riddler in the Adam West TV show and the Riddler in Batman: The Animated Series and onward. Old-school Riddler really, underneath it all, wants you to know the answers to his riddles. He wants you to figure it out too late to stop his crimes, of course, but all the same, he always seems to be on the verge of blurting out the answers, you know? It’s all about the ritual of the question-and-answer form; leaving off the answer would be like the Joker leaving off a punch line.
New-school Riddler isn’t like that. He doesn’t want you to know the answers. For him, it’s all about knowing something you don’t. It makes him feel superior.
report
Punch him RIGHT IN THE NOGGIN.
*ahem*. Sorry about that.
Hot diggity, I want this game. No more teasing Rocksteady! My… “interest” is already piqued!
report
I’m an awful lot more excited about this game now I’ve actually finished the first one. Hell, I was so disappointed that I didn’t get to see The Riddler. This one should make up for it.
report