Quite possibly the best Batman game of all time.
Don't get me wrong. A lot of Batman games have come really close. But it seems this version, this little cartridge game on the SNES...nails it.
"Why does this little 16-bit game do better than all the other Batman games?" you may ask? "What does this game do that others have failed to come close to?" you may query? "Why do people put ham and pineapple on their pizza?" You may wonder? Well, I'll answer all of these questions.
First. Content. That's what this game does soooo well. It is based on the popular animated Batman series. And it is filled to the brim with all kinds of recognizable moments from the cartoon. First of all characters. The list is enormous! You got Batman, Robin, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Joker, Harley Quinn, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Riddler, Clayface, Man-Bat...among others.
Also, the game's levels are based on actual episodes from the series. If you're a fan of the cartoon (and if you're not you should be....get some class would ya?) you'll recognize all kinds of locations, plots, enemies, characters, and even musical themes that are straight from individual episodes. The level of attention paid to the cartoon is absolutely incredible. The developers of this game cared about what they were doing...and you can tell.
Finally, the animation is superb. The animation is so fun and bouncy and it feels like you are playing the cartoon. Other games have tried to emulate the look of the cartoon..but in 3-D. While it's cool to see our favorite characters in 3-D, the cartoon was 2-D...and that's why the SNES game is superior. It's a 2-D game and they are really able to capture that animated look. The designs are near perfect. And everyone seems really alive and they seem to move with such a fluidity it boggles the mind.
The gameplay is really pretty simple. First of all, you go through levels, beating up thugs in all kinds of ways. You have a ton of gadgets in your utility belt to use against the enemies. But you can also punch and kick guys like the street tough you are. Plus you can pick dudes up and throw them at other dudes. For the SNES, this was a big deal.
The game also does a good job of breaking up levels. There are some platforming levels, some racing levels, puzzles to solve, mazes....it's got it all. The difficulty increases as you play, but it never gets so hard that you want to curl your fingers, spread your arms apart and scream at the sky.
So that's why this game is awesome and why you should go find it and play it. As for the ham and pineapple on pizza question...it goes like this. Some people hate good food. And of those people, some of them really hate pizza. They treat pizza like a second class citizen and love to humiliate it and turn it into something it was never meant to be. Pineapples belong in 3 places. In a can, in a cake, and near a roasted pig in Hawaii. NOT on a pizza.
I have spoken.