Have You Played... Batman Vengeance?

I don’t want to go on about my age here - it makes certain members of the team a bit annoyed - but Batman Vengeance came out when I was 7, nearly 8, years old. It’s a game I remember fondly playing with my dad at a computer that looked a lot like a microwave, getting stuck trying to traverse corners, and making a very blocky Harley Quinn cry. Batman’s chin has never looked so square.

Batman was a lot kinder to the Joker’s thugs in those days, politely beating them up and then handcuffing them to the ground, none of this “string ‘em up by their feet” rubbish. No wonder - their outfits were adorable, the Joker’s (quite literal) henchmen wearing beanies with pom-poms, and Mr. Freeze’s hoodlums sporting furry little hoods. Gotham City was a lot more, well, grey. Looking back now at what I thought was one of the best things to ever happen since the Batman Animated series, I am blown away by how small and plain everything was.

I don’t think it would hold up very well these days. The doors never did - I remember trying to get through them and Batman just punching them down instead. The very specific trigger points wouldn’t suit repeated playthroughs either. It’s still a better Batman than any of the Arkham series. I’m joking, but it was a game that gave me many hours of entertainment when I was younger, and probably cemented my love for games. Lovely, grey cement.