My first convention dished out the excitement like an all-you-can-eat buffet of awesomey goodness. The area surrounding Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment booth swarmed with crowds and security, but being inside the booth felt like breezing into a zen bubble that not even the loudest of fans could pop. Prying me away from Scribblenauts and Batman: Arkham Asylum was no easy feat.
Scribblenauts
Meet Maxwell, your 2D pal who looks like a elementary school kid who goes to a school on Mars. It fits, considering your goal in Scribblenauts lies with reaching for the stars … literally. Each level revolves around catching a starite. Armed with only the stylus and your imagination, you must help Maxwell overcome each new situation by typing the name of any object into your keypad. The different things you summon can assist you in your task and interact with each other depending on their nature. A hero and villain, for example, will duke it out on the screen.
In the demo, the starite teetered at the top of a tree. The WBIE team members at the booth encouraged us to put the game to the test. Type in “rope” and your character will climb to the top of the tree. An axe will chop down the obstacle, or you can even call a lumberjack to do it for you. The experience centers on approaching the same exact problem in different ways and pushing the game’s creative boundaries. You can even bring forth Keyboard Cat … for your own amusement, of course. Scribblenauts comes out on the Nintendo DS September 15.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
I couldn’t stop drooling over the Dark Knight’s video game come back, and this time his return won’t be like stepping in a fresh pile of guano. With famous Batman storyteller Paul Dini and popular voice talent Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill working behind the scenes, you’re definitely stepping into a new, yet classic world. Welcome to Arkham.
Batman: Arkham Asylum doesn’t try to emulate the movies. The emphasis instead falls on staying true to the dark yet strongly moral character. Like the Joker, I have a few tricks up my sleeve when it comes to sniffing out the real Batman, and the developers are doin’ it right. Batman won’t kill the goons and criminally insane villains he encounters; he can’t run straight into the heat of gunfire, either. Instead the game forces you to become the Bat: You’ll have to think quick on your feet, keep to the shadows, and find a way to take out your enemies without being seen. One wrong move could mean lights out.
Laugh your way through Arkham. Just watch your step.
The free flow combat system encourages the player to master the detective’s expert knowledge of the martial arts, employing a multiplier to build up a more competent Batman. Maintain your timing and the ease of combat, and you’ll pump up Batman like Bane on poison. By switching to detective mode, you’ll be able to detect which enemies (highlighted as red skeletons) carry weaponry and which ones are less likely to cause real trouble. You come bearing gadgets like remote-detonated explosive gel—which sprays on weak walls in the shape of a bat—and single and even multi-batarangs, which you can use both offensively and to create sounds to distract your foes. Enemies don’t follow any set patterns, so staying one or two steps ahead proves key to your success. They can fully interact with the environment, and just like all henchmen, they don’t always stick together. You’ll have to swing from gargoyles and hide under subfloors in order to sneak about and execute strategy.
Auditory and visual clues—like an update feed from Oracle and the Joker’s chattering teeth, which guide you toward his location in the edifice—make the experience richer, and the developers took the time to focus on the more gruesome environmental details of Arkham, as well. Collecting character profiles with concept art by Carlos D’Anda and patient interview tapes makes walking into Arkham as familiar as coming home. Wipe your feet, Bats, and let’s hope the Joker gives you a welcome we’ll all remember.
When Batman goes bowling.
Our WBIE informants also tipped us off about the viral sites ArkhamCare.com and GothamCityMunicipal.com, so be sure to pay them a visit before the game releases on August 25 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Scribblenauts is the kind of game I’d purchase a DS for…if I—you know, had a DS. =(
~sLs~
August 7th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I CAN’T WAIT for Arkham Asylum!!!
August 7th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Arkham Asylum looks awesome!!
August 8th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Jill! You need to set up an east coast gaming night for AA.
On a side note, I want that Harley outfit in a seriously obsessive way. Must. Have.
August 8th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I am going to preorder both of these games. Been itching to get AA home for a LONG time now! Great previews!
August 10th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I played the Arkham Asylum Demo on the 360. I really enjoyed it. It uses the Unreal engine so it looks fantastic to say the least and Batman is huge like Marcus Fenix, even sporting a real thick neck.
Game-play wise I was expecting your typical Doube Dragon Arcade fighter. Where you fight waves of repeated enemies. That happens here in spurts, but you also get upgrades and cool slow motion punching and kicking effects. There’s also stealth elements to break up the monotony. The best part is that you get to play detective and piece clues together with the help of the Oracle.
The game also has unlockables, which the demos gives you a taste of, like character bios and Resident Evil 5 style character figurines. Which you can rotate and look at from any angle. This is where you really appreciate the amount of detail they put into this game. Overall this demo leaves you wanting more. I think it’s safe to say that this one is a must buy.