Batman: The Movie

Batman: The Movie followed the player through the plot of Tim Burton's film of the same name, splitting the gameplay into several distinct sections meant to evoke key scenes from the movie. In the first part, the player fights through the Axis Chemicals plant as Batman in a platform-action sequence full of traps and enemies; the next section offers a Batmobile ride through the streets of Gotham, dodging obstacles and shooting at pursuers, and the game culminates in a Batwing flight over the city during the final showdown with the Joker. This alternation of genres within a single game was unusual for its time and gave the title a cinematic pace, even though each part was essentially a simpler minigame.

On the ZX Spectrum, Ocean Software tried to preserve the film's visual identity, with fairly detailed static images between levels and a recognizable silhouette of Batman in motion, although the technical limitations of the eight-bit machine did not allow the dark atmosphere of the source film to be fully conveyed. Controls changed between the individual sections, demanding flexibility from the player, and the difficulty was uneven — some passages, especially the platform section in the chemical plant, were among the game's more demanding moments. The music and sound tried to evoke Gotham's mysterious atmosphere within the Spectrum's limits.

The game benefited from the film's huge popularity and became a commercial success, although reviews were more mixed due to the uneven quality of its individual parts. Still, Batman: The Movie is remembered today as an ambitious attempt to translate the cinematic experience into interactive form on an eight-bit machine, and it stands as a typical example of the film licenses of the Ocean Software era. For today's player it offers more of a nostalgic stroll through varied gameplay styles than a cohesive experience. Interestingly, the individual sequences were handled with different levels of detail across the various eight-bit and sixteen-bit platforms, so comparing versions was a popular topic in the gaming magazines of the day.

Why play it: Batman: The Movie, with its nostalgic stroll through several distinct film-inspired gameplay styles, will appeal more to collectors of Ocean Software's licensed titles than to players expecting a cohesive experience.