Some credit the renewed interest in Batman to the acting chops of Christian Bale. They cite his swagger and DC Comics-like darker imagining of the character for the revamped success of the Batman franchise. Others, however, realize this isn’t the truth; it’s not really the movie that got the folks interested again – it was the game, Batman: Arkham Asylum.
This dark journey through the richly imagined Gotham City and run-ins with DC classic characters such as the Joker, Zsasz, Scarecrow, and Bane, as well as antagonistic females like Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, helped Arkham Asylum become the best Batman game in the franchise and one of the most popular video games of the genre in recent memory.
Due to its huge success, fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the sequel, Batman: Arkham City.
In general, game sequels usually do well depending on the success of the first. People will always check out the game to see if it’s worth playing. You won’t necessarily hear about them being unworthy until months after they’re released. The same can’t be said about movies or even other types of games.
Although the game is not set to release until this fall, DC Comics will bridge the gap, so to speak, and tie the two games in together this May with a series of Arkham City comic books. The books will be written by Paul Dini, a true Batman veteran whose talents for character drama and action resulted in the first game. Carlos D’Anda will handle the illustrations.
Put down that weird Wii controller and log out of that online casino – it’s time to do some real gaming on the Xbox, PS3 or Windows PC with Arkham City.
How can anyone be sure the game will be a hit? For starters, it’s created by the same team to create the first. This isn’t like the movie franchise, switching from Michael Keaton to Val Kilmer to a grossly out of place George Clooney before ultimately landing Bale. Rocksteady Studios got at it again and produced a game that’s said to be even darker, more intense, and following more of the action of the comic series.
New screen shots released of the action recently have already created quite a stir. Most details of the game are being kept intentionally hidden, and the exact release date has been confirmed as October 18 for North America, but you can never tell.
One thing’s for sure, though: when Arkham City is released, people are going to quit their online roulette games, turn off their iPads, take their phones off the hook and power on the game console to the tune of a few million.
