Small-scale escapades with Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

Once I’m done with a few other games on my plate, namely Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion, I plan to move on and finally play Batman: Arkham City. Well, start it again; I did play a wee bit of it on the ol’ PlayStation 3…uh, some long time ago. Anyways, I got another copy of it in a Black Friday bundle last year with Batman: Arkham Asylum for Xbox One, which I’ve already played and enjoyed, but it was actually cheaper to get both than purchase Batman: Arkham City on its own. Yeah, go figure, right? My cart total came to…$5.33. I’m all about them cheap-o gaming experiences. But that’s not at all what this post is about; I’m here to talk to you about Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, which is a big Batman game on a tiny screen.

Taking place shortly after the events of Batman: Arkham Origins, Blackgate attempts to bridge the story gap between Batman: Arkham Asylum and its recent prequel. In this one, Batman learns of a robbery that leads to his meeting the feline burglar Catwoman. As events quickly unfold, the temptress leads the Caped Crusader to Blackgate Prison, home of Gotham’s criminals who haven’t been deemed criminally insane and consequentially sent to the much more infamous Arkham Asylum. The villains already behind bars, the most nefarious being Penguin, Black Mask, and the Joker, have managed to escape from their cells and take control of the joint. With the rest of the inmates at their employ, Batman must stop the complete takeover of the prison. It’s a decent setup, but it does feel a bit samey when you think of how events went down in Batman: Arkham Asylum.

What is Blackgate, other than a mouthful of a game title? Well, it’s a Metroid-style Dark Knight adventure designed by a few of the top people behind the three Metroid Prime games on GameCube and Wii. Their new studio is called Armature, and this is their big debut. In this, you are the titular Batman, exploring Blackgate Prison, automatically filling out a map as you search for clues about how to get from one part of the game world to the next. As you go, you’ll discover obstacles that are in your way and then, somewhere down the road, find new abilities and gadgetry that let you pass those obstacles. Shocking, I know. Also, there are enemies to fight, and the combat is handled similarly to the main entry series, wherein rhythm and timing is your best bet to remain standing at the end. Blackgate is two-parts detective work and one-third combat.

As I’m wont to do, I played a small amount when I first got Blackgate…and then put it down and completely forgot about it after a few days. Shame on me, but also…that’s just totally me. Well, I loaded it back up recently. My save slot says I’ve played a total of one hour and twenty-four minutes, which puts me at a 21% completion rate. All right then. Thankfully, it immediately told me where to go to next to move the story along–the lighthouse. However, getting there still proved troublesome as I completely forgot all the controls or how anything works, such as using detective mode to find clues in the environments you are navigating. Don’t worry, it eventually all came back to me, just took a few attempts.

While the story itself is not very engaging, the way it is told is super stylish, using somewhat animated comic book-like panels for its cutscenes, with strong voiceover work from the eclectic cast. That said, everything else visually is a bit bland and samey, and many of the environments are simply gray and drab, which makes it hard to know where you are because every place looks identical. There’s a map, but I didn’t find it too helpful when I really needed it; that said, the menus for the cases you are investigating and the gear/armor you have found are nicely done and full of vital information.

I truly intend to keep going with Blackgate and not immediately drop it like a bag of bat guano in a few days, but truth be told all it is doing is getting me excited for the larger-than-life series on the Xbox One, of which I’ve already installed Batman: Arkham City. I suspect I’ll be better at the combat when I can actually see what is going on instead of squinting at a tiny screen and hoping for the best.

Nintendo 3DS and the final two months of 2013

The next two months are looking to be pretty fantastic for the Nintendo 3DS, with a lot of big name games coming out for the holiday season. However, there’s also a number of smaller, indie-esque titles that look just as interesting, so many that I felt the need to make this post to keep everything clear and tidy and all in one place, as well as a good reminder to myself to spend that cash money for digital entertainment when all of these things drop.

Now, I’m not covering every game coming out for the Nintendo 3DS over the following sixty days (a rough estimate), just the ones that I’m genuinely interested in. Sorry, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies. Let’s take a look then at those vying for my attention.

Pokémon X/Pokémon Y (October 12)

Ever since Pokémon HeartGold, the unwritten rule in my life now is that I will buy every new Pokémon game that comes out, no hesitation. And then I’ll play it for a bit, get stuck at a certain gym, and put it down for some time until I get that itch to go back. The newest iteration looks really neat, and I love that the battles will now be more animated. Plus, sounds like you can ride some Pokemon around town. That take, bicycle. From early reviews, it sounds like not a whole lot has changed gameplay-wise, but I’m okay with that. I just now have to figure out which one to get, X or Y, and I guess that really depends on what version Garbador is in, as that hunk of junk is my absolute favorite. Guess I gotta do some light research later on…

Hometown Story (October 22)

Having almost nearly given up all hope on a North American release for Fantasy Life, it looks like Hometown Story will have to fill my “take on a non-traditional role in an RPG” gaming void. It’s a life simulation game created by Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada wherein you run the small shop you inherited from your grandmother. You can interact with customers and watch both your shop and town grow in response. That’s all I know so far, but it looks cute and charming and I never did get around to trying out Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale, so this will be my first taste of this niche genre.

Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate (October 25)

I don’t know much about the Batman games as of late, though I did eventually purchase Batman: Arkham Asylum for five bones during a PSN summer sale, but haven’t played it yet. Hopefully before the year’s out. Anyways, this Blackgate Metroidvania romp through a 2.5D prison space looks a lot like Shadow Complex–which I actually dipped back into recently and continue to enjoy–more my thing, and I’m real curious to see how faithful to its genre it stays or sways. I’m not a huge Batman fan, and not even LEGO Batman could sway me, but if this what I think it is and the billionaire’s array of expensive and effective gadgets are innovative enough to use, I’m in.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (November 22)

My love for A Link to the Past demands I get this and see what Nintendo has construed in this so-called sequel to one of the best SNES games of all time. I am worrisome in that it looks kind of…lazily designed, and by that I mean that the world looks like a simple update of graphics, but I guess there will be all new dungeons. I also don’t yet grok the whole “turn into a piece of wall art” element, but I want to give this a fair shake. It might be riding a bit too freely on nostalgia’s back though, if you get what I’m saying, and that would be a dang shame, but a new Zelda game is few and far between these days, so this is a must-buy regardless.

Grinsia (Release date TBD)

This Grinsia looks like some straight-up, old-school JRPGing, and I’m a-okay with that, especially since it’ll be a downloadable title from the eShop. Sounds like some treasure hunters looking for special relics or something like that. Isn’t that the plot in Wild Arms? No matter! Give me, give me, give me.

Treasurenauts (Release date TBD)

In Treasurenauts, which comes from the same team that made the delightfully challenging Mutant Mudds, your goal is to collect enough treasure to pay for an escape from a perilous, uncharted island. It is an action platformer, and when you get hit, your treasure explodes from your body like those gold rings when Sonic would land on spikes, and then you have to maddeningly hurry to collect all your jews. Here’s an early tip then: don’t get hit. It looks like quite a lot of fun despite the simple premise, and hopefully there is more to the gameplay than what I’ve seen in trailers so far.

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And that’s all I can list for now, otherwise my wallet will just up itself from my pocket, flip me the bird, and run off into the Pennsylvania woods, to see if it is better off without me. Chances are it probably is.