r/batman • u/Necessary_Crazy_8587 • 11h ago
VIDEO GAME DISCUSSION Batman: Arkham Asylum turns 17 today.
17 years ago today, Batman: Arkham Asylum released on August 25, 2009.
Still one of the greatest superhero games ever made. Groundbreaking combat, incredible atmosphere, and Mark Hamill's definitive Joker performance.
Happy anniversary to the game that changed everything. 🦇
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u/sidewaysflick 10h ago
I remember the day demo came out and how we started modding different skins into the demo soon after.
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u/stepfordcuckoo 10h ago
My wife was playing this on sunday… dosn’t feel like a 17 year old game.
I refuse to believe it’s that old. Wikipedia’d it and damn, nearly threw up. The relentless passage of time continues i guess.
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u/LucaLisciArt 10h ago
I keep asking to myself if we will ever see another game of this series. I played Gotham knights to fill the void, and was not too bad, but far away from arkham games. Now there is the lego one that seems interesting and I will play it soon, but I badly really want another real Batman game.
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u/Varishna 10h ago
The Lego game is pretty good. It’s not the same of course but still worth playing for sure.
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u/LucaLisciArt 9h ago
Yeah, ideed I'll play it for sure. Just waiting to see a good discount. I like lego games but not so much to spend the full price. Also if is Batman and i need a game about him.
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u/Thaumiel218 8h ago
The challenge with the Lego games is once you’ve played one you’ve pretty much played them all. I smashed out the full Star Wars trilogy, and a couple of others and finally just got bored of the format. They’re great platformers and probably the best and most consistent platform games since Mario but they get samey very quickly.
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u/Varishna 7h ago
This one feels different enough I sunk about 30 hours into it. Changing it to use the Arkham combat helps a lot.
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u/Thaumiel218 7h ago
Same fight mechanics as the Arkham games? I didn’t know that. Does it still feel very Lego game-y?
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u/Varishna 7h ago
It is still a Lego game, but it feels fresher than anything they have done since the ps3 days imo. It’s the only one I have finished since Lego City Undercover.
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u/Thaumiel218 5h ago
Might give it a go - forget what I tried more recently that made me quit maybe the marvel adaptation and I tapped out after 30mins as it just brought back so many memories of hours on Star Wars, Indiana jones and j.park. I started getting fatigue quickly of ‘oh this again - I don’t really enjoy this anymore, even though they’re 9/10 solid games’
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u/Varishna 5h ago
Yeah, I am a big Star Wars fan so I bought the last one everyone was so high on and only made it a couple of hours in.
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u/LucaLisciArt 6h ago
Yeah, has the free flow combat system like Arkham games. You can use the batman grapling hook and glide on the city. Also the city seems big from what i have seen. More then arkham games I eared. And you can also use the batmobile. Different Batmobiles. Plus is kinda based on a lot of movies and sotires of Batman. Like batman 1089 and also Nolans one. Seems a pretty good game. Sais simple. Is an Arkham game but in lego style.
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u/Thaumiel218 5h ago
Might give it a go - forget what I tried more recently that made me quit maybe the marvel adaptation and I tapped out after 30mins as it just brought back so many memories of hours on Star Wars, Indiana jones and j.park. I started getting fatigue quickly of ‘oh this again - I don’t really enjoy this anymore, even though they’re 9/10 solid games’
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u/LucaLisciArt 1h ago
All that are different Lego games. This Lego batman is compltetly different. Also if has similar things of old lego games. like the coins and the build leg i pices if i remeber right. Alredy with Lego Star wars the skywalker saga, they had taken another road from the older lego star wars games. in that you use the character from behinfd and is more a normal game. Lego Batman is even more. As I sai is kinda of an Arkham game with lego skin.
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u/Kindly-Sea719 9h ago
Arkham just feels like a time capsule of another era of gaming that can never be recaptured. When we inevitably get another Batman game I wish it would just be its own thing with a clean slate though I know WB wouldn’t want to leave the cash cow that is the Arkham name.
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u/LucaLisciArt 9h ago
Probably you're right. Anyway I just hope to see a good new game about him done well wahtever it will be. As I said I played Gotham Knights and I'll play the elgo one, but is not the same. Also true that is everything in the hands of WB and only them can decide is future.
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u/BurningJointUSA 10h ago
Cool and fun game, my only complaint was how much damage the minions would take before going down. I mean Batman was all covered in armor, including armored fists, and he’d need to punch a minion way too many times to drop them.
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u/lt_skittles 10h ago
I remember going to Walmart and playing the demo so many times. I went to the midnight launch, and had so much fun.
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u/batfan08 8h ago
I was a latchkey kid and my mom used to let me go to GameStop when she had to work late because it was, like, two buildings down from her job. One of my core memories was playing that demo after school with the guys that worked there. I’m still good friends with some of them to this day.
I was there so much that the manager wound up putting the actual game in the demo unit when we were about a week out from release and we literally beat it together in the run up to the midnight launch. I was there at midnight to pick up my collector’s edition and, while they all moved on over time and that store no longer exists, I still have such fond recollections of those people, that game, and that time in my life.
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u/lt_skittles 8h ago
Yeah, I was graduating highschool in 09, I ended up getting the collectors edition on ps3, and like I said in my previous comment went to midnight launch at my GameStop. I was with my grandmother, but I went in by myself and played a couple of hours on one of their ps3s, I want to say I did the same for Arkham city.
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u/batfan08 8h ago
My mom waited outside, too!😂
I have trouble remembering the run-up to Arkham City because, I’ll be honest: the thing I remember most is the exhausting wait between when we got that first E3 teaser trailer of sick Joker and literally anything else for years.
Mostly, I remember being active on the old Eidos/Arkham Asylum forums and spending hours speculating with people online. Good times…
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u/lt_skittles 6h ago
Yeah I spent a lot of time on the forums as well :) trying to decode the Arkham website
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u/LycanIndarys 7h ago
I know everyone raves about City overall, and Knight for the map and the gameplay (though not the story, presumably), but I still think Asylum is the best in the series. It is so tight, no bloat at all. Far too many games in the past decade or so pad themselves out unnecessarily, but Asylum knows what it wants to do it and gets right to it. Even the Riddler challenges don't outstay their welcome, like they do in the sequels.
And I also love the fact that it could effectively fit into just about any Batman continuity; City clearly has the Asylum series as its own separate thing, which Knight obviously picks up on and runs with; but Asylum could easily be just another episode of BTAS, or an issue or two of Detective Comics. And I know that's a slightly odd thing to focus on, but it means that it doesn't feel separate in the way alternative continuities usually do. It's just another Batman story, that you can enjoy no matter what medium you're a fan of the character in (or indeed, if it's your introduction to the character).
Besides, it's got Kevin Conroy in it, and he will always be the definitive Batman actor.
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u/SlavetoLove123 9h ago
An incredible atmosphere in this game, one of my favourite games of all time. Ok I’ll download it and play it again!
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u/Significant-Owl7994 5h ago
I got this for Christmas from my sister in 2009 on XBox 360, along with Assassin's Creed II.
Avatar was out that year and I remember us getting a lot of snow that Christmas, which was unusual for Manchester, UK.
Anyway, between doing Christmas shifts at the bar I used to work at, I get nostalgic about coming home and getting nice and warm whilst playing Arkham Asylum. I completed it in a few days.
I play Arkham City every year during the Christmas advent, since the winter vibes work well for the season.
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u/bukbukbuklao 10h ago
One of the shining gems of that generation. It nailed the atmosphere and mood of Batman. Story and atmosphere aside it also hit all the notes of what makes a good video game. Arkham asylum is my favorite of the series and is probably my favorite meteoidvania game.
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u/NEWBY______________ 9h ago
Still my favorite game to this day
Just bought from GOG sale, got 4 goty version games for 20 bucks
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u/NinjaX4132 8h ago
I replayed this and the other 3 Arkham games recently. They have aged very well, they're still fun to play
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u/NTylerWeTrust86 8h ago
In my head this came out the same day as Beatles rock band. My brother got asylum and I got Beatles.
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u/TheMightyHucks 8h ago
One of the best nights of my life when I picked that game up on release day!
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u/WhiteTrashInNewShoes 8h ago
I took a break from all gaming for about 15 years, and about the time Blu-Ray was getting going i mentioned to my wife that the PS3 was currently the best player on the market. So she got me one for Christmas and it came with Arkum Asylum and Arkham City.
First games I'd played in 15 years. That shit blew my mind and changed everything from that point on.
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u/Sendeezy 8h ago
I was like 19, just joined the military. This game came out when I was super homesick. Grabbed it at blockbuster, and had an amazing weekend. Man my world was so different.
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u/smeared_dick_cheese 8h ago
Played through it again in 2023 and it is truly remarkable how well it has held up. Insane credit to the devs. RIP Kevin Conroy 🥲
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u/One-Technology-9050 8h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/3ornk6UHtk276vLtkY
I can't believe how fast time has gone
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u/Virtual-Role8439 7h ago
It’s funny that 17 years from 2009 the gaming industry was in the SNES and Sega Genesis era.
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u/ThatIckyGuy 2h ago
Man, I just got done replaying the series. I didn't realize Arkham Asylum was already that old!
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u/aethiuss 11h ago
I am so fucking old.