What a tease! This game does not deliver!!I would feel guilty about reviewing a game that I was unable to finish, but in this case I feel the game is too unforgiving and I wanted to vent.
As a youngster, it was exciting that they offered to give you this game free if you bought the Lynx (I think that was the promotional offer). However, as a youngster I could never get past level 1! Now, as I have gotten older and wiser, I am able to beat level 1 okay, but then when level two starts it starts me out with the diminished health bar left over after the boss of Level 1, Penguin, kicked my butt!
Did the developers of this game never play Castlevania, or Ninja Gaiden, or any other action video game ever created? The industry standard is to replenish the player's life bar at the end of the level. Moreover, a single death means: game over for you!!! So, here I am feeling good about myself for using my wisdom to figure out that the best way to get through level 1 is to jump repeatedly rather than fighting the machine gun and explosives-wielding baddies, and at the beginning of level 2 the pitiful remnants of my once-formidable health bar are quickly eliminated in the opening moments by shotgun-toting law enforcement officials and I am warped back to the title screen.
Thus far, this has been more a rant about the game's single flaw than a review, but what point is there in reviewing a game that is designed in such a way as to prohibit the player from experiencing it? The developers might have programmed a boss of level 2, and maybe they programmed a level 3 and 4, but how would we know if they did?? The graphics are nice, Batman and the enemies are large, it is nice that he has both fisticuffs, batarangs and explosive chemical-vial bombs to dispatch his foes, the title screen music is nice although I don't really remember the in-game music, my concentration was focused on jumping over the foes so I could beat level 1... My main beef is with the lack of a life number or one-up system, lack of continues, lack of replenishing the life-bar after long boss battles with the Penguin... It is very upsetting to promise a youngster that he can play a 16-bit mobile Batman action game if only he asks his parents to buy a Lynx, only to crush his hopes and dreams by incompetently forgetting to make the game manageable or fun. Shame on you Batman Returns developers!!
UPDATE: okay, so after calming down I tried again and apparently, if I wail on Penguin with my explosive vials it IS possible to get to level 2 with a less-than-totally-depleted life bar, but level 2 is packed with pits to hop that kill you and cops who shoot shotguns at both face and foot-level, so even with a bit of health and a stock of batarangs level 2 is still really hard, so my rant is still somewhat valid. Just thought I'd warn you that it was not as impossibly difficult as I described it when I was still very upset.
Graphics
6 Sound
7 Addictive
2 Depth
4 Story
4 Difficulty
10