10 Years Later: ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ Is Still The Apex of Comic Book Video Games

Batman: Arkham Asylum was the twenty-first-century masterpiece that revolutionized the video game adaptation genre through its phenomenal voice cast, character diversity, challenging detective work, and gothic setpieces.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Not anymore. Unless you love bats over spiders, then there's a new apex.

[DeadManMMX]

Spider-Man wasn’t better all the side content is garbage that actually takes away from the game. Chasing pigeons doing environmental projects for Harry. Fixing steam pipes even Todd himself admitted it they made mistakes there. All the side content in the Arkham games added to the game. For that i give it the nod because both have great campaigns.

[TheKingKratos]

Really ?!
I love all batman games but what Riddler side missions add to the gameon top of my head ... all the side challenges and Batmobile what did they add to the game
I'm not saying Spiderman was any better both had their faie share of crap side missions that add nothing
I love them both for their different strength ...and can't wait to play more of the best superhero games of all time

[RabbitFly]

@TheKingKratos we are talking about asylum not knight. Get your games straight

[CorndogBurglar]

Spider-Man basically was Arkham with a Spider-Man skin...

[ThatArtGuy]

Combat was different enough. The spider-sense slow down actually made sense in this game too.

[CorndogBurglar]

lol 25 disagrees. haha. Can't we just stop being Sony fanboys for like one conversation? I love Sony too. I own a PS4, PC, and Switch. But lets open our eyes for a minute.

The only thing that makes Spider-Man better than the Arkham games is that its newer and improved on some things, like having citizens in the streets, for instance.

But lets not pretend for an instant that combat, the open world setting, quests, side quests, and general set up of the entire game is exactly like the Arkham games, all the way down to adding gadgets, which Spidey is absolutely NOT known for using outside of his Spider-Tracker, Web Shooters, and Belt Light (a long time ago). But almost all the gadgets in the game were totally made up.

Its perfectly okay too. Thats the thing. Lots of games take inspiration from other games and improve on them. it doesn't make them bad in any way.

[Razmiran]

Spider-Man was good
But the story was not as compelling, and the gameplay was not as tight

[Killustrious]

Gameplay not as tight? I don't know if you've played the Arkham games recently but the gameplay is pretty clunky compared to Spider-Man. I can agree with the story part but it's not like Spider-Man's story was lacking or anything, the narrative was one of the best parts about it.

[TheKingKratos]

Gameplay not as tight?!
What?!....WHAT?!

And lol spidy Story was by far the best along with Arkham Origins and Asylum in superhero genre

[RabbitFly]

Gameplay is much tighter in the arkham games by design. They are much much harder to master, especially asylum, because they require the player to be much more precise.

Combat in spider-man is much more free flowing. I love it, but it is definetally looser. No doubt about it. Still tight though.

[Razmiran]

Yes, the gameplay was not as tight. Mary jane parts sucked, so did miles parts although a bit less.
Also, bossfights sucked.
Story was good, just not as good.
Stop being delusional

[goldwyncq]

I'm a Spider-Man fan but the Arkham games are still better.

[darthv72]

No doubt spider man is really good but... it's like spider man 2 but on steroids. When Batman AA came out, it felt like a proper batman game. Batman begins on xbox was sort of the precursor to AA and you can really tell it had some influence on Rocksteady. Just like you can see games like Ratchet and Clank and Sunset overdrive had some influence on Spider man for PS4.

I can enjoy both games for their improvements to their character. There is no need to call out one over the other. Spider man is the cream of the Marvel gaming side and Batman AA is the cream of the DC gaming side.

[generic-user-name]

Asylum was definitely the high point in the Arkham series, I liked the others too, but Asylum was *Italian chef kissing fingers*

[Flewid638]

Each one was better than the last for me. And I bought Origins a few years after all the bugs got ironed out so my experience with it was also great.

[yellowgerbil]

Still consider the xmen arcade game the best. Especially as nightcrawler

[darthv72]

The four player brawler, not the one on one fighter... right? I still play that on my modded xbox.

[Donnie81]

It’s very good no doubt but I might argue Arkham City is by far the best comic book game ever made. Just so much stuff to do. If anyone thinks Spider-Man is on the level of Rocksteady's work you are absolutely kidding yourself.

[Double_O_Revan]

As good as the open world Batman games were, I still prefer Asylum for it's tighter narrative. It felt more real to me. Which I know is weird to say when talking about a comic book game. I remember when they were promoting the game, Rocksteady kept said "It's about the worst day and the worst night that Joker can put Batman through." and it really nailed that feeling.

[anonymousfan]

I preferred arkham city but I gotta say open worlds are overrated

[Pennywise138]

Asylum also came at a time when not only was the market starting to see a flood of open world games, which Arkham city did, but also at a time when we weren’t getting a lot of Metroidvania style games. Especially not in triple A 3D form.

[darthv72]

Have you played batman begins on the original xbox? It is very similar to AA. I believe Rocksteady even said that game helped influence AA.

[neutralgamer1992]

Agreed best comic book game

[Xaevi]

Ultimate Spiderman is the best comic book hero game imo

[Youngindy21]

Man, I forgot all about that game. That was a good game.

[RizBiz]

Batman Returns for SNES is better.

[InKnight7s]

The Apex of comic book video games is Ultimate Spider Man 2005. That thing still looks cool.

[Segata]

Not as long as Comix Zone exists.

[Silly gameAr]

In your opinion. You forgot to add that to your little headline.

[Juusterey]

Well it's an opinion piece
So no
They didnt

[KwietStorm_BLM]

But Arkham City is better than Asylum.

[goldwyncq]

This is true. Arkham City took everything great in Asylum and made it much better.

[AK91]

Eh I still think Spider-man (2018) surpassed it in every way but then again there's a 7 year difference between the two games, which is plenty of time to improve on the formula of Arkham Asylum.

[Flewid638]

The entire series was a masterpiece.....but Spider-Man done apex'd that shit with a vengeance.

[roadkillers]

Fucking 10 years... omg, my head.

[goldwyncq]

Nope, Arkham City is.

[Stanjara]

Arkham Asylum was best Batman for me. The asylum was dense and puzzles were great. It was so fresh at the time.

[Sirk7x]

Can we put Wolf Among Us on this list? I know Fables isn't a very popular graphic novel series, but the storytelling in that game was top notch.

[Kavorklestein]

That really was such an Underrated game. I couldn't stop once I started playing cuz the story sucked me in!

[r3f1cul]

Asylum is my most beaten game since the 7th gen of consoles tbh. Never get tired of the story or combat, both are just insanely satisfying through and through.

[Juusterey]

Nah man
Spider-Man knocked it out of the park
Pretty much a flawless game to me
One of the most amazing games this generation