As part of this month’s Beyond Game Club, we’re revisiting Batman Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady’s debut game featuring the Dark Knight, which arrived in 2009 and laid the groundwork for Arkham City and Arkham Knight. As much as we adore the massive open-world Gotham City, in a lot of ways, Arkham Asylum is the perfect Batman game: a mix of action-packed combat and detective work in the form of puzzles and navigating the labyrinthine penitentiary for Gotham’s most twisted denizens. So, what went wrong? Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League swung for the fences in multiple directions at once and ultimately struck out, while Gotham Knights sent us back into Gotham, but not as the character we’d most like to play as. Is it so hard to make a good Batman game? Well, yes, it’s hard to make any game, good or otherwise, about anything, let alone a character with this much lore and history and reverence. But still, a Rocksteady take on Batman Beyond and/or the Arkham formula retooled in a Bruce Timm-style cel-shaded Gotham both seem like missed opportunities.

This week’s show is Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, Akeem Lawanson, Brian Altano, and is produced by Nick Maillet

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