Experiencing the Arkham Games for the first time

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I like to think of myself as a fan of superheroes; I had a wide variety of those Lego Marvel games as a kid, played my fair share of Injustice, and have (like the rest of Gen Z, I know it's not special) seen my fair share of both the MCU and DCEU (or whatever they're calling it now) and am proud to be part of the consensus that Spider-Man: No Way Home was the peak of cinema.

Part of my love for the superhero genre is playing Insomniac Studios' Spider-Man series, released for PS4 and PS5 in 2018. These games won me over with their creative stories, fresh takes on the comic universe's various characters, and frantic gameplay, and while the 2nd title left some things to be desired (giving MJ a gun did not, in fact, make the stealth sections less difficult), I still am proud to call it a series that changed superhero games. Or was it? A series of games I've had recommended to me dozens of times over is Rocksteady Studios' Arkham series, and as a kid, I thought these games, like many Batman stories, would be too edgy for my tastes; last week I finally picked up the remastered Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I found out that my younger self was very, very wrong.

The gameplay in Asylum is great, especially for a 2009 title. Some things are on the basic side; despite the remastering, the retrofitted animations are a little clunky, and I'm never a big fan of having to progress the story in order to figure out how to get some collectibles; however, the puzzles and riddles involved with finding said collectibles are awesome. They're never unreasonably complicated, but just complicated enough to have to actually think about what you're doing, which is a welcome break from games that focus entirely on constant mindless fighting to get what you want (cough, Yakuza, cough). The fighting mechanics are cool, though, and after playing the Spider-Man series, it's very funny to see just how much in common this 15-year-old game's combat has in common with the 1-year-old Spider-Man 2.

The story is also amazing; I'm not completely finished just yet, but so far, the game has had a lot more humor, albeit dark, than I expected from a Batman title. Mark Hamil, as always, simultaneously makes the Joker a little scary and pretty funny. Kevin Conroy's Batman is as iconic as ever, and a lot of the little NPC interactions you get throughout the game highlight his consistency.

All in all, I was surprised at how much Insomniac's Spider-Man had in common with the venerable Arkham games since I had never played the latter before. I can't wait to tell you all about the sequel, 2011's Batman: Arkham City.