The Long Road to Perfecting Batman in Video Games

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We love Batman because he’s a multifaceted superhero. He’s a kung-fu master with a cool costume and an arsenal of fancy toys. He’s a billionaire playboy. He’s arguably the world’s greatest detective. And most of all, he’s an orphan with a mountain of trauma who takes it out on the criminals of Gotham night after night.

Plenty of Batman comics, movies and TV shows have explored the many sides of the Caped Crusader, but the video game realm has been a very different story. In fact, it’s only recently that the Batman games have really hit on the ideal Batman formula. Let’s look back at Batman’s long, if not always glamorous, history in games and why it took so long for developers to truly put us in the Dark Knight’s shoes.

Compared to heroes like Superman and Spider-Man, Batman made a relatively late debut on the video game scene. British publisher Ocean Software was the first to bring the Dark Knight to gaming, starting with an obscure 1986 game simply titled Batman, which was released on home computers like the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad PCW.

The very first Batman game is surprisingly different from the ones that would follow, as it’s more of an isometric exploration game than an action platformer. The game tasks players with dodging obstacles, finding the various pieces of the Batcraft and rescuing Robin. The rudimentary, low color graphics weren’t much to write home about even at the time, but the game certainly had its fans.

Ocean followed up Batman two years later with Batman: The Caped Crusader, an action-adventure title pitting Batman against the Joker and Penguin in two distinct chapters. The game is mostly notable for its attempt to mimic the look and feel of comic book panels. Think of it as an early prototype for