For 2001, this could look a lot worse, and having the cast of the animated series helps it a lot, but the game itself is not good at all.
The controls are way too loose, especially when it comes to aiming: there were so many times that I missed an opportunity to damage a boss because the crosshair just wasn't cooperating.
The platforming is very wonky, worsened by the occasional odd collision on certain platforms. Your glide is incredibly unreliable, its speed and height seemingly random. I think if you do it immediately after a jump you go faster and higher, which makes no goddamn sense. There was a particular jump where logic denoted waiting until the peak of the jump then gliding, but I'd miss every single time. For whatever reason, doing it as soon as I jumped got me to where I needed to be.
Combat is flat-out broken. When you engage in it, you're locked into it and can only exit by pressing Y, but if an enemy hits you when you do, you're immediately locked back in again. If an enemy grabs you, you have to wiggle the analog stick to escape, and as soon as you do, the game exits the combat stance and costs you the chance to punish every time. When it's semi-functional, it's really stiff, your attacks are very delayed and enemies can start attacking while you're mid-combo, completely snapping the balance in half. By the end, I just started blocking everything, getting potshots in to fill my special meter, and spamming the special moves that deal a shitload of damage.
There are a lot of really poorly designed setpieces throughout with very little conveyance as to what it expects of the player or if they're even performing it correctly. There are some fundamental design decisions that are questionable as well, like having finite ammo and Batcuffs. There are always conveniently respawning pickups for them when they're needed, so they're already practically infinite. Why waste the player's time with having to keep picking them up?
I wanted to give this game a chance because I knew it had its fans, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.
The controls are way too loose, especially when it comes to aiming: there were so many times that I missed an opportunity to damage a boss because the crosshair just wasn't cooperating.
The platforming is very wonky, worsened by the occasional odd collision on certain platforms. Your glide is incredibly unreliable, its speed and height seemingly random. I think if you do it immediately after a jump you go faster and higher, which makes no goddamn sense. There was a particular jump where logic denoted waiting until the peak of the jump then gliding, but I'd miss every single time. For whatever reason, doing it as soon as I jumped got me to where I needed to be.
Combat is flat-out broken. When you engage in it, you're locked into it and can only exit by pressing Y, but if an enemy hits you when you do, you're immediately locked back in again. If an enemy grabs you, you have to wiggle the analog stick to escape, and as soon as you do, the game exits the combat stance and costs you the chance to punish every time. When it's semi-functional, it's really stiff, your attacks are very delayed and enemies can start attacking while you're mid-combo, completely snapping the balance in half. By the end, I just started blocking everything, getting potshots in to fill my special meter, and spamming the special moves that deal a shitload of damage.
There are a lot of really poorly designed setpieces throughout with very little conveyance as to what it expects of the player or if they're even performing it correctly. There are some fundamental design decisions that are questionable as well, like having finite ammo and Batcuffs. There are always conveniently respawning pickups for them when they're needed, so they're already practically infinite. Why waste the player's time with having to keep picking them up?
I wanted to give this game a chance because I knew it had its fans, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.