While all you guys are playing the latest Batman Arkham-whatever...

[CZroe]

...I just finally beat Sunsoft's 1989 "Batman" game on a real NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). I sat down, plugged the NES in, connected an NES Advantage joystick, and just decided to play what was in the console (pleasantly surprised).

It's a whole different ballgame when playing without the comfort and forgiveness of emulator save states. It's hard to truly appreciate the difficulty of these games on any modern system, even the ones that let you resume where you left off without the ability to roll back, like Nintendo's Virtual Console. Heck, I remember having a difficult time just getting to the title screen on the original console due to the game having a tricky "flash" sequence at boot that convinced me that I was experiencing the common NES reset loop, making me reset and try again even that 1 in 50 times it works for real! I did get to the last boss, the Joker (not really a spoiler ), many times in my childhood but you could only restart so many times in one sitting!

Despite the difficulty, I've always loved this game and previously only beat it on an emulator, though I did force myself to do it without save states long ago. It stands the test of time because it's very cinematic, has great music, and has a wealth of little animation touches for an NES game. I remember thinking that it was so cool that they have an extra frame of his cape settling when the Batman stops running in the game and the background always had something fluidly animating. For the longest time, I used it as an example of one of the rare movie-licensed games that was actually GOOD.

Being cinematic with great music and high difficulty reminds me of Ninja Gaiden, which I still need to beat without an emulator, which is something my twin brother can do and lords it over my head to this very day. I similarly made it to the final boss, Jaquio, many times but the game sets you back ridiculously far and you can't even realistically practice (just getting there again is a serious accomplishment).

I need a break from hard NES games though. Soon I'll get around to playing Arkham Asylum, which I bought long ago but never even installed (PC, of course). Good luck with Arkham City or whatever. I'll catch up to you guys in another 22 years.

[Mocha Man]

The NES version has always been one of my favorite Batman games despite not having very much going for it