Batman Returns on Genesis is great, if a little too challenging.
You control Batman as you're trying to clear your name after Oswald Cobblepott, AKA The Penguin, frames you for murder, all the while thwarting off the Red Triangle Circus gang, moonlighting rooftop encounters with Catwoman, and dodging enemy Gargoyles and the like. Batman moves quite slowly across the screen for a 16-bit platformer, almost surprisingly so, but running and jumping will be the least of your worries. Combat is really the meat of the gameplay here.
As Batman, you have an inventory of gadgets/weapons to choose from, all of which are absolutely necessary for completion of this immensely challenging game. From the batarangs to the smoke pellets, these weapons are necessary to deal with the barrage of enemies you'll be facing, and this was a great design choice from the developer's perspective. This is the first Batman game I played as a kid where I felt his arsenal was not only correct, but very well implemented. Most enemies, at first glance, seem to have erratic and unfair attack patterns. Since Batman moves slowly, dodging enemies, while possible, can be tough, and certainly shouldn't be relied on. Since you do have your gadgets though, you'll have to think your way through this one. You can't throw these weapons about just to waste them on lesser enemies that can be taken care of with kicks or punches. As Batman, you'll have to survive. You'll have to know when to use the smoke pellets, the heat seeking batarangs, the bat-call frequency, etc., and the enemies herein are varied enough that the game never becomes stale.
The levels here are absolutely huge, and filled to the brim with hidden weapon pickups and extra-lives for the adventurous gamer. You'll really have to search these levels and know them forward and backward to get good at this game. Thankfully, level design is handled exceptionally well. Throughout, you'll fly through the sky with Batman's cape (off of buildings, no less), grapple onto chandeliers, traverse the top of a train, and battle your way through a deadly circus, to name a few. The best thing about these levels is that they're designed with Batman's arsenal in mind. When you reach the top of a trapeze and have scarce options of removing that clown from the next platform, you'll be thankful you saved those heat-seeking batarangs, and the game remains strategically challenging in its level design throughout the whole experience.
The boss fights are another story, though. Some of these are not well though out in the slightest. You'll have 3 encounters with Catwoman, with each fight playing out nearly the same as it did before, as well as 3 fights with the Penguin. The first two being ridiculously easy, the last being one of the toughest challenges I've seen in a game. Batman Returns has balancing issues, to be sure, but makes up for it by simply being an otherwise wonderful experience.
Graphically, the game looks nowhere near as good as its SNES counterpart, but the SEGA team deserves commendation for their visual design in respect to remaining faithful to the film, and the game is faithful enough in that regard that I have a hard time faulting it for its visuals. There are some impressive animations on not just Batman himself, but on the enemies as well. The spinning clown in the descending, broken down building comes to mind, lending a pseudo-3D effect to the game, and the levels themselves do look great, if a bit dark or grainy. The darkness I don't mind; it's faithful to the film in that aspect. The graininess, however, I don't care for. Simply put, there are much better looking Genesis games for the time, but that's almost not being fair to this game. Batman Returns does look good, and there's nothing that grossly offends me within its visual design. Just don't expect it to blow you away.
Sound wise, the developers really knew what they were doing with the Genesis sound module. There are some really memorable tunes here, ranging from dark bell tones to almost a synth-pop sound in some level themes, and there are some great nods to Elfman's score here. This is easily one of my favorite soundtracks on the Genesis and it helps Batman Returns stand out. The bass sounds full, the treble melodies aren't grating and don't sound as tinny as other Genesis games, and most, if not all, of the soundtrack is memorable. This is really, really great stuff.
The game's biggest problem, however, is its difficulty. While there are no difficulty settings, there is an option for extra lives, which I recommend cranking all the way up to get the most out of this game your first time through. There's also a stage select code if you feel like taking that route, but completing this game from start to finish without a stage select is really something you shouldn't pass up. Once you understand when to use your gadgets, how to avoid enemies to the best of your abilities and make it through levels without using up too many of the lives you have stocked, Batman Returns ends up being a really great, really challenging experience. For those uninitiated though, it's bound to frustrate, and I can see how that would turn a lot of people off to this game.
All in all, Batman Returns is a great Genesis game. It's not quite up there with classics like Gunstar Heroes, or the other great movie tie-in game Aladdin, and it definitely doesn't look or play as well as either, but its overall charm, strategic gameplay elements, wonderful soundtrack and brooding visuals certainly make for a great game that deserves a better reputation than it has. Just don't expect to get through this one on your first, or even fifth, try.