Technically impressive on both a graphical and musical note, 'Batman & Robin' is one of the best games on the system based on sheer ambition alone. The problem is that the game is absolutely ruthless. You'll need to spend the first section of the game leveling up one specific weapon just to ensure that your weapon is strong enough to keep you alive. Dying costs you two levels of upgrades and because of this, repeated deaths or using a continue in specific points can leave you in a near-unwinnable state. It'll take a lot of trial and error and how you do in the first few sections of the game will preview just how well you do in later stages but with practice, you might just make it.

(Review updated accounting for division of the Backloggd pages for the Batman & Robin games)

The Sega Genesis videogame programmed by Clocwork Tortoise is a run and gun that often veers into shoot em up territory with a brutal but rewarding difficulty, even though the levels tend to last excesively long with not enough variety and that's why I wouldn't score it a 6 like the other spectacular showcases on the system like Contra Hard Corps or Treasure's games.

The real showcase though, are the stunning visual effects work which was explained by Jon Burton from Gamehut in these two videos, even if the characther sprites tend to be pretty tiny:

Part 1
https://youtu.be/Z0S92Fs5gOg
Part 2
https://youtu.be/M7b0uUEl5hc
Music for the Boss of Level 3:
https://youtu.be/FA2pCqpfAkM

And also of note, the soundtrack by Jesper Kyd (known for scoring Hitman games, which I never played) give the game a distinct identity which, in mixture with the spectacular visual style, separates it from being a typical cash in on the animated series.

I don't remember when I beat it, but I can guarantee it's a heck of a time compared to the SNES one

Someone at Clockwork Tortoise saw Contra and Batman and showed up at the game design meeting like "Batman can't use a gun that shoots bullets, but what if we gave him the spread shot rifle but it shoots BATARANGS!!!!!"

I couldn't even beat the first level of this one but the 3D effect on the buildings in the background as you scroll through the level was very technically impressive. I heard most of this game is very technically interesting and impressive, so I'm eager to try and get better at the game so I can increase my rating and get better so I can see the rest of the game.

Ok le jeu est très beau, c'est plutôt maniable et c'est Jesper Kyd à la bande-son. Malheureusement, les mécaniques de jeu ne sont pas très intéressantes où on a l'impression de jouer à un shooter avec des tonnes d'ennemis qui arrivent de partout car oui, le plus gros défaut du jeu est sa difficulté qui donne envie de se tuer. Sinon, c'est bien d'avoir un nom à la bande-son mais le résultat final, une espèce de techno, ne colle absolument pas à l'ambiance qu'on attend d'un Batman. J'ai vraiment pas pris beaucoup de plaisir à le finir, préférez plutôt la version Super Nintendo.

I often confuse The Adventures of Batman & Robin for being a Traveller's Tales game, and not because Gamehut did an excellent video explaining how many of the it's graphical tricks work. Rather, like Traveller's Tales' games often are, Batman & Robin looks very impressive but is a total chore to play.

This is a run-and-gun, because Batman famously only does battle with his rogue's gallery by chucking a hundred and fifty thousand batarangs at their faces. This isn't really a bad thing, but levels drag on and on and on, often inundating you with ceaseless waves of spongy enemies. Your batarang can be upgraded by picking up power-ups similar to your typical shot upgrades in a shoot-em-up, and much like an average shoot-em-up, starting from a game over on a particularly hard stage with your piddly basic shot is abject misery, though far worse here give how resilient enemies become towards the middle to later half of the game.

There's also several levels that straight up are shoot-em-ups, with Batman gliding around in an overhead view taking on waves of attack helicopters and battleships, and these feel like total trash. Your sluggish movement coupled with how often enemies want to ram into you or fire bullet-hell barrages pointblank makes these incredibly irritating. Your best strategy to carry you through these levels is to pause the game and tap B, A, down, B, A down, left, up, C and just skip the god damn stage. Consider that code a Christmas gift from me to you.

Damn good looking game, though. There's some really impressive parallax scrolling to give the illusion of 3D, and the title cards before each chapter are incredibly detailed and faithful in style to those of the 90s cartoon. I feel that moreso than any other game in my Genesis collection, Batman & Robin is best experienced on a CRT. It's not too surprising to see a 1995 Genesis game swinging for the bleachers with its graphics, the tail-end of the system's library is full of titles that are more preoccupied with making an immediate impression with their visuals, often at the expense of good gameplay.

I decided to add this to my yuletide shortlist alongside holiday favorites like Clockwork Knight and Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, and I guess nothing says "Christmas" more than sitting hunched forward, glaring at the TV, controller in a death grip while constantly sighing and muttering "Jesus..." under my breath. Happy holidays!