Bat-Octoberfest - Batman: Return of the Joker (Game Boy)

Fair warning, if you decide to challenge the Game Boy edition of Batman: Return of the Joker, the words GAME OVER will be burned into your retinas. You might be the type of person who never shies away from a challenge, and that's good! The only problem is that this game has an all-or-nothing approach to difficulty. What you might consider a tiny mistake is treated as a fatal error. Mistiming a jump and falling into a bottomless pit is one thing, but here you can be punished simply for not immediately recognizing what's expected of you. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but the punishment is almost always a GAME OVER. Before long, you'll be intensely scrutinizing every move you make.

Playing a game often means adhering to the rules set by its creator. There is a clashing of ideals, since both player and creator have their own histories with the medium as well as their own expectations. I can't claim to be an expert at them, but I've been playing Sunsoft games for long enough that I assumed I'd be ready for whatever was thrown my way. Before the first stage ended, that assumption blew up in my face multiple times over.

Look directly above and you'll see an example of what I'm talking about. The average gamer sees Batman falling onto a ledge to grab a power-up. Sunsoft sees this and chuckles to themself. I can't even look at this without cringing. This? This is Batman falling to his death. It turns out that the collision detection isn't as lenient as anyone would expect. What happens next is that Batman can't wedge himself into a gap that's clearly 1.5 times larger than him, so instead he continues falling until GAME OVER glides its merry way across the screen. An unexpectedly harsh punishment for a slight miscalculation, which I'd better get used to if I want to see anything past the first minute of the game.

Forgive me for getting tied up in the minutiae before properly explaining what the game is all about. In Batman: Return of the Joker, you'll jump, swing, and punch your way through four stages. There is actually a mechanical richness to it that I haven't experienced since Sunsoft's first date with the Dark Knight. Wall-jumping has returned. As you've likely surmised from the screenshots, platforms tend to be thick enough to use as walls for jumping off of. Batman's jumping height is pretty low, reaching only slightly above two "squares", so incorporating the wall-jump is a necessity to progress. The "swing" in this case refers to the bat-rope, which is used by pressing up on the controller. It flies at a 45-degree angle and latches onto ceilings. Practice it as much as you can, preferably in a safe area with no bottomless pits.

Besides the bat-rope, there aren't many toys to play around with like in other games. Batman will have to rely on his punch to deal with most opposition. Batarangs can be found throughout each stage, but some enemies deflect them as if they were harmless paper. Punching works well enough, besides one odd limitation. It's impossible to turn around while crouching. If an enemy gets behind the Dark Knight, he can't simply duck, turn, and punch them. He has to stand up - get smacked in the back of the head - and then he's allowed to respond. I'm sorry, but if Batman can't turn around while crouching, then maybe he needs to hang up the cowl. Kidding! Kidding... Please don't break all of my limbs, Mr. Bats.

While I have my nitpicks about the combat, they pale in comparison to the Castlevania-like methods enemies will utilize to ruin your day. For example, stage 2 has a ninja problem. These masked jerks love to throw kunai from off-screen. One particularly loathsome individual will wait for Batman to swing across a chasm before he makes his move. If you guessed that the move would be a well-placed kunai that knocks Batman into a pit, then congratulations! Your reward is another GAME OVER. There aren't many enemies in each stage, but you only have four continues. 

You're probably tired of seeing GAME OVER all the time, but that's just how it is. Unlike every other Batman game I've previously covered, there aren't any lives whatsoever. A successful playthrough takes less than half an hour, so Sunsoft ensured that players would have to suffer through several unsuccessful playthroughs before finally getting the win. That means tons of bottom-less pits, crushing traps that'll make bat-jelly out of the unwary, that ninja I mentioned a paragraph ago, and more. On the bright side, the first three bosses aren't extremely tough. If you can obtain the max-health upgrades, then you might even defeat them on the first try. The hardest part is reaching them with your sanity intact. Stage 4 features bazooka soldiers who fire the instant they appear onscreen. Either you know where they spawn, or Batman eats a rocket. Some of the most devious traps can only be solved one way. Trying anything else will result in... Okay, I won't say it this time. 

It's too damn bad that the game's only intention is to kill. The wall-jump and grapple abilities provide a huge opportunity for all sorts of interesting platforming sections. During the first stage, I discovered that it's possible to wall-jump off of falling water. I won't question it, but there's a mechanic that could've led to some creative challenges. Instead of engaging with the fun ideas, I have to do exactly what the game demands. This feels like a kaizo.

Ultimately, the Game Boy edition of Batman: Return of the Joker left me feeling cold. It has some impressive ideas, but rather than lean into them to create a memorable and entertaining adventure, it chose to pelt me with GAME OVER screens instead. All this game really needed was some more stages and an actual lives system. Instead, Sunsoft chose to stuff as many cheap deaths as they could into a very short timeframe. I'd still recommend giving it a look, just to witness the unrealized potential for yourself.