With summer coming to a close and many of us going back to school*, it seems only logical that game companies are starting their annual "drop a crap ton of games on them" season.  However, before you get carried away by the tidal wave of the holiday season, I hope you have time to play the best Metroid games ever... Batman: Arkham Asylum.



I know what you're saying, "That's not a Metroid game."

Au contraire, mi amigo**.  It is, as I've said previously, the best Metroid game yet made.  Let me break it down for you.

As much as the Metroid Prime series was a critical darling during the Gamecube days, I felt the first one dragged on way, way too long.  I started the second Prime, but became frustrated by it's difficulty and never finished it.  Also, the story in both seemed a bit bare to me.  It ultimately became a "you are here and need to go there, don't ask questions, just do it," kind of game.  No characters you cared about, nothing that made you laugh or cry, just action.  Don't get me wrong, there is a place for such stories, I just am pointing out what I see as the flaws of the most beloved game in a series.

Which brings us to Arkham.  You start the game learning the basics of being The Dark Knight, beating criminals to a pulp, hurling batarangs, striking from the shadows and figuring out the Riddler's sometimes simple/somteims hard puzzles.  The great thing about all of those is each one, while simple at first, ramps up at just the right speed to consistantly make you feel like a bad ass in a cape and cowl.  All parts of the game feel exquisetly polished and work to make you inhabit Batman, a feat unequaled in any other superhero game since Spider-Man 2 (and very few prior).

What makes it unmistakably Metroid is the constant upgrading of your suit and gadgets.  This not only makes sense as a game mechanic, but also in the fiction.  Batman doesn't always carry every single one of his toys into battle, but adapts as he sees the problems that arise.  Since all he was doing in the beginning of the game was returning The Joker to Arkham Asylum, most of his stuff was left in behind, in his car or in his cave.  Gradually, he recollects these items and uses them to great effect.

Metroid joking aside, Arkham Asylum is an amazing game that completely pulls you into the world and tells it's story very well.  There are points where you'll fear for the life of the Asylum's warden, for Commisioner Gordon, even for your own existance in some of Scarecrow's more convincing fear dreams.  It is the supreme example of a license used properly, and we can only hope other developers notice and follow the example.  Good work Rocksteady, keep it up!

Of course, the true test of Metroid will come with Team Ninja's Metroid: Other M.  We'll see, Bats, well see...

*Myself not included.

*Apologies to any French/Spanish readers, but I'm sure you mock us plenty on your blogs.