Just as much as Batman: The Video Game is Batman by way of Ninja Gaiden, Batman Returns for the SNES is Batman by way of Final Fight. And that's just... alright.
The game becomes monotonous fairly quickly given the small roster of mooks to punch. You'll get familiar with them fast, and it doesn't take long before the amount of combinations the game is able to throw at you dries up and starts to repeat. Combat just gets very routine, and in an effort to break that up and keep the player engaged, Konami threw in a few levels where the focus is less on brawling and more on whatever stage gimmick they cooked up. This includes a stage where you need to use the grappling hook to clear gaps and a mode 7 Batmobile chase level, both of which are patently unfun (though the Batmobile level is at least flashy.)
Levels are richly detailed and do a good job of capturing that Tim Burton vibe - drab and grey though it may be - with the soundtrack doing every bit as good of a job emulating Danny Elfman's style as you can expect on 16-bit hardware. Give me a Revolution X style game based on Oingo Boingo, damnit. It would be terrible, I need it!
Boss battles are perhaps the weakest part of this game, which is especially unfortunate as I think boss battles are typically the high points of brawlers, especially licensed ones, which are able to leverage characters from the source material in ways that have more immediate resonance with the player. Catwoman and Penguin are really all you get as far as proper rogue's gallery villains, with the other bosses just being amped up versions of Penguin's goons. They're forgettable, and I wish Konami pulled a Batman: The Video Game and trotted out some d-listers instead.
Batman Returns is a real two-point-fiver, neither stellar nor so incompetent that it's bad. Its positives and negatives stand about equal, making for a perfectly average experience. Not the worst thing to waste an afternoon on, but if you dig even just a little bit deeper, you're bound to find a better brawler to kill time with.
Edit: I initially referred to the developer of this game as Capcom, which is incorrect. I've update the review to reflect that it's a Konami game. Batman should snap one of my legs like a dried twig as penance for this mistake.
The game becomes monotonous fairly quickly given the small roster of mooks to punch. You'll get familiar with them fast, and it doesn't take long before the amount of combinations the game is able to throw at you dries up and starts to repeat. Combat just gets very routine, and in an effort to break that up and keep the player engaged, Konami threw in a few levels where the focus is less on brawling and more on whatever stage gimmick they cooked up. This includes a stage where you need to use the grappling hook to clear gaps and a mode 7 Batmobile chase level, both of which are patently unfun (though the Batmobile level is at least flashy.)
Levels are richly detailed and do a good job of capturing that Tim Burton vibe - drab and grey though it may be - with the soundtrack doing every bit as good of a job emulating Danny Elfman's style as you can expect on 16-bit hardware. Give me a Revolution X style game based on Oingo Boingo, damnit. It would be terrible, I need it!
Boss battles are perhaps the weakest part of this game, which is especially unfortunate as I think boss battles are typically the high points of brawlers, especially licensed ones, which are able to leverage characters from the source material in ways that have more immediate resonance with the player. Catwoman and Penguin are really all you get as far as proper rogue's gallery villains, with the other bosses just being amped up versions of Penguin's goons. They're forgettable, and I wish Konami pulled a Batman: The Video Game and trotted out some d-listers instead.
Batman Returns is a real two-point-fiver, neither stellar nor so incompetent that it's bad. Its positives and negatives stand about equal, making for a perfectly average experience. Not the worst thing to waste an afternoon on, but if you dig even just a little bit deeper, you're bound to find a better brawler to kill time with.
Edit: I initially referred to the developer of this game as Capcom, which is incorrect. I've update the review to reflect that it's a Konami game. Batman should snap one of my legs like a dried twig as penance for this mistake.