Just HOW BAD is the Batman Forever Game, Really? | Kim Justice 

What are your memories of Batman Forever? How long did it take for you to figure out the grappling hook? Do you enjoy it or not? Have a shout in the comments, and thanks for watching. :)

I enjoy how when Robin is gliding from a height he adopts the position of a dog dragging its arse across the floor

This is the game I use most often to explain that when we didin’t have the benefit of free emulation and millions of other people’s opinions to tell us what to play, we just played imperfect games. Even as the worst co-op Batman game on Genesis, that leaves one other co op Batman game on Genesis, which was a much rarer game. Most of us got this in the bargain bin and were happy to just get a few hours of caped crusading in without having to pass the controller.

If you want to explain to anyone what videogames were like in 1995, this is the game. Dingy, low res digitised sprites, befuddling controls, gameplay involving large, sprawling levels that are very annoying to navigate. I remember so, so many games with at least one of these faults back in those days.

That was fun seeing you do a full playthrough/critique? I'd be up for seeing more games where you've obviously got a bit of history with...

I love this game. One of the initial 5 i got for my SNES back in 96. I played it a lot, but it was too hard for me and i never got past the circus stage, the part with the timer. I loved that it had co-op and a friend of mine always liked to play as Robin. The customizable gadgets were another cool touch. I figured out the grapple hook thing fairly quickly, as i remember, i did think it was a bit weird, but having all buttons do something was pretty cool. I liked the graphics and the fighting system, but years and many games later, I do see how it is flawed. Despite all the negatives it will always have a sentimental warmth and I hope to beat it one day :D

A few notes after watching the video: - I understand now why I had such a hard time triggering the gadgets, seems like the controls on the SNES version were horrible :D - The..safe level..wow, it never crossed my mind that it was a safe. When we were kids we always called it the train car level :D My god. - On the back of the box, there was a screenshot of one of the latter levels with the green mask goons with the flesh colored jackets. I always thought they were naked :D - This is the first time I'm seeing the dos port and wow, that Robin costume is awesome. The FMVs as well. - The bug with the circus level timer makes me want to play through the level again, to see if it's present in the SNES version as well. - For the life of me, I've never seen the Raiden special move in my life XD The roll i remember triggering by chance here and there, the same as a random gadget, but they sure would have made the game a lot easier. - The combat mode was awesome. The clown had some cool moves and animations.

Another excellent video Kim! there's a really good rom hack of the Mega Drive game called Batman Eternity which basically removes all of the puzzle/platform elements, making the game more of a straightforward brawler and its much more enjoyable.

My "experience" with this game boils down to watching the commercial when I barely understood how video games worked, then watching unforgiving reviews of it many years later. And also not knowing there there was a DOS version until this very video. I will say that I think the film's "dark sets + neon lighting" art direction translates pretty well to the Genesis version, even if it could've used some more work.

I went to see the film 8 times in the cinema when I was 11. Beaten only by Judge Dredd, which I went to 14 times. Innocent times. I still love both of them.

The SNES version of Batman Forever was total garbage!! It reconfirmed my opinion that movie based video games are almost always a waste of money.

I remember renting this game and I too, was a victim of not knowing how to properly use the grappling hook. It was easy to return disc based games and simply say it didn't work and replace it with a different game...that didn't work so well with cartridge rentals though. Also, you didn't mention this but I can't imagine trying to play the Genesis version with the standard 3 button controller. Surely it'd be neigh impossible, no?

The fact that it isn't even as good as Batman Returns from 1992 tells you all you need to know....also the fact that digitised graphics on the Genesis/Megadrive look very bad indeed...then again you can only imagine if this came out on the Sega CD and the grainy video...

Yeah genuinely only found out the game wasn't outright broken when I saw that speedrun. I assumed I had a broken copy from Blockbuster at the time.

I find it extremely hard to believe Tim Follin worked on this soundtrack. I think he and Geoff actually composed the SNES version, as Wikipedia lists Geoff as the SNES composer and Andrew Brock as one of the DOS co-composers, not to mention Tim's OST for Time Trax on Genesis is legendary.

MegaDrive's 61 simultaneous colors was NOT a good match for digitized graphics. All that dithering makes my eyes water.

I had confused this game with Batman & Robin on the PS1 and was wondering how you could possibly defend it. Anyway I rented Batman Forever on SNES as a kid and I thought it was OK. Some things you had to look up in the manual, but I read every manual back then, being trained by PC games where you had to have a manual to even run the game.

never made it past the circus level and jeez I tried and tried. Ridiculous game

Watching this has given me strength to tell my truth finally. I'm a gamer, born early 70s, brought up with a cx10 wielded backwards to account for my sinistrel limitations. I was, for want of a better term, groomed to think that up to jump was normal. In fact I remember when other options became available on the nes or master system I thought they were unnatural.

I watch your stuff for about ten years now and I have yet to be let down by even a single video. Here as well: Awesome video. Just plain amazing, that the love and enthusiasm is all still there. Thanks for your work and the fun topics you research.

I had similar experience with Batman and Robin game on PS1, it is legendarily horrible in many ways, but it has incredibly fun moments of playing detective and roaming Gotham city in your vehicle of choice, finding clues and secrets then analyzing them in Batcave... it just has even clumsier combat than this (Tekken inputs with view stuck to your back and tank controls). I wonder if there's a hack to make that game less frustrating? I want to enjoy the roaming and detective part without endless level restarts... savestates do help a lot. Also bonus points for playable Batgirl.

Batman Forever walked so that MK Mythologies could… run?

35:12 Another World (Out of this World in the US) and Mickey Mania also have loading screens that the Genesis version doesn’t have

I remember really enjoying the game when I played it, on Megadrive (or Genesis to folks in the US), and I have great memories tied up with it too. It's one of those games that no matter what's said about it, I've never been able to hate on it. I did manage to finish it too. I think back then, as a kid, I had more patience. I was willing to overlook stuff, and I played games that had really tricky controls. And it was a batman game. Times were so much different. The Batman games up to the 16 bit era had far better quality than they had from the 32 bit era onwards. I mean, Batman and Robin is a rushed mess from a studio that was about to go under.

Batman Forever: The Arcade Game (brought home on the Saturn) is B-A-N-A-N-A-S. A beat 'em up neon explosion!

I always thought this game never got a fair shake. A lot of reviewers just say it's terrible full stop, when it's obvious they didn't spend more than 10 minutes actually playing the thing. I played the PC version of this and (while it did take me ages to figure out the climbing "puzzle" in the first level) it ended up being one of my favorite games from that time. With no Internet or game manual, discovering all the moves and secrets in the game by myself (or with a friend) was a lot of fun. It was also a time when there were very few beat'em-ups on the PC, so it was a big fish in a small pond. It's certainly not a game that has aged well, but it was definitely a lot better at the time than most people give it credit for.

Kim Justice doing a recap of the great forgotten genre that is terrible Full Motion Video(tm) titles would be worth the price of admission.

omg I had the SNES version of this! I loved playing with the Chainsaw Thug in practice mode, but remember I couldn't go very far in the main story mode

I still watch the games master episode where the boss review’s the CDI portable but at 1200 quid they were bound to fail

When I was a kid I knew this games was worst than every other Batman videogame I've played. Give me the Nes Batman every day.

38:45 Oh, don't forget about the Indented Bat-Insignia. That was a cool twist on the suit from the first two IMO. TBH, the Batsuit from Forever is actually one of my favourite designs.

I remember seeing this on Bad Influence back in’t day and feeling wowed. Never played it tho. Damn, a lot of my comments on videos start with me saying “I remember” followed by some kind of forlorn waffle. Hope this isn’t the start of a midlife crisis. Better reminiscing on SEGA videos than riding around in a car I can’t afford with shitty gas mileage I guess 🤔

Haven't finished the video yet, but got to the part where you talk about other versions, the one I remember was the PlayStation version of Batman Forever being a completely different game, a beatemup like Streets of Rage (you could go into background or foreground), and it was actually really good, very fast-paced, had cool combos for both Batman and Robin, plus bosses with multiple healthbars, and tons of interactive objects on stages. I am pretty sure it was an actual arcade game just ported to PSX... which makes it the only good PS1 Batman game, ironically.

The controls make it impossible to fight a bunch of dudes at the same time and not get juggled all over and die. I rented this on Snes as a teen and tried so hard, but even with everything memorized I couldn't make it past like the 3rd level. I avoided playing the arcade game of this movie, but it kicks ass and is different.

I love these videos, a genuine pleasure to watch

Where can I find the behind the scenes video of the enemies shown? I've been trying to do so on RU-vid, and I can't find it.

Does the baddy in sunglasses remind anyone else of a young to middle aged Elton John?!

The kid down the street had this game and for some reason we called it Batman Mofo. The kid himself was a little special and he’d come up to us in school and say “y’all wanna play some mofo?” I don’t know why I remember this like 30 years later but.. there it is.

I get the feeling that they chose the Mortal Kombat engine, aside from saying the obvious about saving time and effort, was one of those "why didn't anyone think of this before?" deals. Like why has no one thought to make (passe) Beat 'em ups more like (current money making) Fighting games, thinking. Of course it becomes more like "why has no one ever thought to eat a rock" rationalization because there's clearly a reason why no one did it in the first place. It seems like a lot of effort went into every other aspect of the game, but when you put in so much effort into everything BUT play control, it's all wasted. The SNES Batman Returns has its issues with platforming, but it comes off much smoother than anything they attempted here. There was NEVER a good reason to use a fighting game engine for a platforming beat 'em up.

This game is as grim and bad, as the Ps1/arcade game is campy and exhilarating

Some of the music just sounds like it was not programmed correctly or there’s a bug or some kind of glitch making is so strange

Create distance and spam the Baterang as fast as possible and the game is easy. The thing I got stuck on was not knowing how to dodge the train.

It's always interesting hearing more about this game after growing up with the SNES version. My brother and I could never get past the 4th level and we could never pull off any of the special moves. I always assumed its because we were kids and bad at games. But it turns out the enemy AI and the controls are just broken!

This may just be me, but I always thought the Riddler thugs were topless which confused me. I suppose I thought that Riddler's goons would be as pseudo-intellectual as he is.

Have you ever reviewed the Arkham quartet? If you’re a Batman enthusiast, they’re quite excellent. They do assume some familiarity with the comics lore, but they’re really atmospheric and rich. Arkham Asylum (2009), Arkham City (2011], Arkham Origins (2013) and Arkham Knight (2015). Would love to see your reactions to them.

Me and my friend spent so long resetting the game just to get the character select screen to say 'WHO IS robin?'

Yeah my childhood experience of grappling hook issue and stop there is the same. However I picked up gameplay years later in my teens, but realized as I figured that out and went on, the game still is not a good game. It is somewhat sad really as I could see there was a lot of ambitions behind the development and that they wanted to test the waters of realistic combat fighting (as seen in the MK games) and be more in line with the comic books nature. But what KILLS the game is its relentless BAD CONTROLS! They are not smooth one bit due to its CRYPTIC button layout regardless of version and the gameplay feels very stiff, unbalanced and slow. And how they could not give Robin his proper colors and just its bland red & green combo taken right from the 60's was just lazy programing.

9:20 I love the fact how that quote is used so much in Forver's promo's and merch yet it was TAKEN OUT of the final film for what seems like no reason whatsoever. I think Two face just laughs instead, Why?

30:02 things like this is is why I love your content

I remember renting it after seeing the trailer on the Batman Forever VHS, needless to say it went back to Blockbuster that same day

Back in the day, I loved this game. I even took the time to find all the hidden areas and secrets.

Since I have played MK, I hoped for a game with similar controls and move set and always asked myself why they just dont make anything like that. So when this came out I was all for it. Obviously I liked the controls and the idea, but the slow and repetitive gameplay killed this game. Afterwards my dream actually came true with MK Mythologies SZ. I loved the shit out of this one and hoped for more of its kind. Always wondered why it never happened. Just recently it came to my attention, that MKM is/was widely disliked. It blew my mind....

Those McDonald's Batman Forever cups you see in a commercial near the beginning are LEGENDARY in our house - we've bought them a few times over years when we'd move, they're worth nothing and would always turn up at thrift stores. They're indestructible, or at least as close as any glass cup I've ever encountered. It's trashy, but they're our family's compromise between elegance and durability. Also I had the game for SNES as a kid, it's not any better... actually from what little I've played of Genesis version, I think SNES version is even worse in gameplay department. I couldn't ever figure out how to use items as a kid. I looked up guides and couldn't get it to work, even though I could do Street Fighter specials and MK fatalities all day long. Played Genesis version once in emulator goofing around many years later, and the batarangs just start flying. Loaded SNES version... still couldn't get them to work. I legitimately think SNES Batman Forever special moves are harder to pull off than the specials from the FIRST Street Fighter nobody likes to talk about.

Been saying this for years. I had the same interaction. If you look at this as a batman game, you’re doomed. If you look at it as Mortal Kombat the beat em up (precursor to Shaolin Monks) it actually was fairly deep.

I've heard a lot of bad things about this game, but I did think the concept was quite unique. Watching this video also reminded me what an exciting time 1995 was for gaming, what with the rise of CD-ROMs and the release of 32 bit consoles.

Two things I didnt expect to see in this video: teabagging Jim Carrey and the 1995 England World Cup Squad on a helicoptered safe!

I really like you Kim Justice.

What was the other version like control wise

Another great video!

I somehow had this on my Snes as a kid - no idea where it came from. Even more baffling was the fact I played it enough that I completed it multiple times.

Never bought this game, but I somehow got a copy of the strategy guide.

This is one of those bad games I completed many times as a kid. I got it for Christmas in 96 just like you Kim.

Another good one Kim. I personally prefer Batman Forever over Batman Returns. Yes it's a noisy, camp, popcorn blockbuster but it's fun and doesn't try to be anything else wheras I felt Returns was always trying to be something more "highbrow" than the original film but was in fact messy, disjointed and garbled (I should emphasise I mean the movies not the games). Other than the Ocean games based on the comics and the original Burton movie I've never been a huge fan of Batman games on the whole

It was the last game I ever rented right at the end of primary school. Somewhat bittersweet but mostly bitter. I moved to PC soon after and got stuck into Quake, Command and Conquer and Warcraft 2

I remember Nintendo Power giving the SNES port positive reviews. But they would also defend the fact that there was loading in this version..The SNES port is the version that I played first, and I did not like the game at all. It seemed like an interesting idea, with the digitized graphics and MK style fighting engine. But the game felt rigid and clunky. It seems like an ambitious game. But I still do not care for it at all.

Ah Kim, I cannot tell you how much one of your excellent deep-dives is *exactly* what I needed today!!!!!!

Thank you for this video! Batman Forever is still a bad game with baffling design decisions, but it's obvious that a lot of effort and passion went into it's making. It's a swing and a miss, but what a swing it is.

I didn't think sunsoft had any part of batman returns on genesis.

I didn't have many games growing up so I played the heck out of this on the MegaDrive and completed it many times and still have it. I didn't find the control scheme too bad on a 3 button controller, it was more intuitive than the Snes version which is a worse version for the controller layout and loading. Could of been a better game certainly but it was repayable once you put a bit of time into it. The gadgets were fun and always fun knocking the thugs down holes

The first time I played this was in high school but on Game Boy. Its kind of impressive that they got the entire game on there minus some frustrating bits but its nothing to write home about.

hello from buenos Aires, Argentina!

Fuck yeah Dan Bell shout out! Love his channel, and yours as well

You should do a movie review of the Christmas Classic "Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer" just for something different.

wasn't gonna watch this till I saw its a Kim video

Well, I might just try the Genesis version, as I've only played the SNES one and did not know there was a meaningful difference in the controls. I like the idea of the game and the digitized look, I mean I tried to have fun with my version. I prefer the Robin suit in the game to the one in the movie, as well. Batman Returns on SNES is great, but it's kinda just Final Fight with a Batman skin on it, which is why even though it is half broken and less fun, I liked the Genesis one better, because that plays and feels more like an actual Batman game. I also pick the SNES Adventures over the Genesis one, because that's just Contra with a Batman skin on it, but the SNES one is a slow paced, thinking platformer. Overall I'd rank Forever as the third worst Batman game, after Dark Tomorrow and Batman and Robin (PS1), and I'd place it right below Return of the Joker, the garbage SNES version.

Man the 90s editing in that promo video really takes me back. The early days of digital non linear editing stations was wild.

I remember working in Electronics Boutique when it was released and getting a lot of returns on it "because it wasn't working" on their machine 🤔

The Game Boy port looks so bad that someone would move the cart while playing for the graphics to be glitched and you wouldn't even notice the difference.

cine fusion..... as in cinema :D

after all these years, Kim is still extremely underrated. I blame Trump

Batman Forever is a very underrated game but flawed. It has a lot to love about it. The SNES version is very disappointing although it has a fantastic intro. The MD version is the best as long as you use a six button controller. The biggest flaw becomes apparent with the circus level that ends up being too difficult for its own good with the MK controls not being suited to platforming. But Batman Forever is one of my favourite Batman games because it captures the tone of Batman very well. I don't think it's a bad game so I disagree with this review. Probe did a pretty good job.

Good 😊work Kim :)

Someone was paying Mean Machine with Bat Bucks!

Wasn't it in Saturn 🪐 as well (though a port of the arcade game)?

please do a review of that Blade movie game!

Because of the hype I bought it for the PC. It was newer but on clearance for a reason. I took it back thinking it was broken or was a bad copy since my Gravis gamepad was useless playing it. Unfortunately it is just an unplayable piss poor designed game that should have never been released.

I remember playing this on two player with an old elementary school buddy of mine and he was having a blast. I hated every milisecond of this game lmao

I gave up on this on the SNES version. I needed to get up to a higher level and couldn't figure it out for about 20 to 30 minutes. The training mode was pretty fun though.

Good video I agree this game could have been so much better and I saw someone said in the comments there is a rom hack called Batman Eternity I got to try that

Ill stick to the crazy Batman Forever arcade/PS1 beat em up game 😂

This is a game that I remember well in a sense. I remember the bad GamePro review, but I never really trusted them anyway, aside from 1993, they'd always score Genesis games unfairly low. I remember all the bad comments online when I started looking into retro game reviews online in the early 2000s. However, about a year ago, I finally got a copy for my genesis because it was a good condition complete copy and I always enjoy expanding my Genesis collection. After playing it myself I have this to say. At the end of the day I compare it to ET for the Atari. People love to crap on it, because that's what one is supposed to do apparently, to prove their retro gaming cred! Is it a great game? No. Is it a good game? Probably not. Is it an acceptable game? Depends on personal taste. I've obviously played better games, but I've also played worse. Much worse. I like where the ideas behind it are trying to go. But they certainly weren't executed well. It's possible, due to the fighting game/platformer hybrid it was, that they COULDN'T be executed well. But I've played it multiple times, and intend to play it more. Not sure I'll beat it, but I'll give it what I got. Can't say the same about say... Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Ballz 3D, or (the for some reason praised) Granada, to name a few off the top of my head.

12:32 Nope. When you fuck up at presentation that badly in the first section of your game, its a bad game. It's not a well tested game, or a well balanced game. That first section being that confusing to almost everyone who played it to the point of utter frustration, no. Play Batman Returns or Batman The Animated Series. They're way, WAY, better on SNES/Genesis.

What the heck causes rhotacism? Does it have something to do with the shape of the tongue or how the muscle bends? Is it about the shape of the roof of the mouth. All I want to do is open my mouth as wide as possible and point at the shape my tongue is making. Is rhotacism caused by an actual physical impairment? The incapability of being able to flex the middle of the tongue upward? When I search online, there doesn't seem to be a clear answer.

But how do you go down a level

For me, I only really enjoyed digitised sprites in the mortal Kombat series and even then after the first two it got a bit old. Never played this tho. Probably never will!

I still have those batman forever cups!

I had that Glass Mug !!! Remember this from Genesis yes it was terrible but gold shite

Wow, the batman forever batmobile is probably the worst one ever Looks more like a type of toy from a adult website

I actually enjoyed this game back in 90s. Maybe because I didn’t have access to youtube or any reviewers who could tell me how bad it was 😂

I think it is a pretty interesting game. I don't dislike it, it isn't as horrible as many people say. Played the Mega Drive version, but never got close to completing it. But yeah, it isn't worth 90% either. Batman & Robin on PlayStation, also by Probe is much worse.