''Batman'' is an arcade

vehicular combat Vehicular combat may refer to: * Armored warfare, the use of armored fighting vehicles in combat ** Combat vehicle, a military vehicle designed for such combat * Vehicular combat game, a game genre focused around fighting while driving ** List of v ...

game based on the

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

character

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

, developed by

Specular Interactive Specular Interactive, Inc. is an arcade game entertainment company based in Foothill Ranch, California. It is best known for developing arcade games H2Overdrive, Dirty Drivin', and Batman (2013 arcade game). History Specular Interactive was f ...

and released by

Raw Thrills Raw Thrills, Inc. is an arcade video game entertainment company based in Skokie, Illinois. It is best known for developing arcade games based on films. History Raw Thrills was founded in 2001 by Eugene Jarvis, Deepak Deo, and Andrew Eloff. E ...

in 2013. The game can be single-player or multi-player (if there is a linked cabinet).

Gameplay

In ''Batman'', players control

as he drives the

Batmobile The Batmobile is the fictional land vehicle driven by the superhero Batman, used both to patrol Gotham City looking for crime and to engage in car chases or vehicular combat with the city's criminal underworld. The Batmobile is one of a suite o ...

through

Gotham City Gotham City ( ), or simply Gotham, is a fictional city in the Northeastern United States that serves as the primary city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his List ...

to recapture supervillain escapees from

Arkham Asylum Arkham Asylum () is a fictional psychiatric hospital appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in stories featuring Batman. It first appeared in ''Batman'' #258 (October 1974), written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Irv N ...

. Players can choose to pursue the Joker,

Bane Bane may refer to: Fictional characters * Bane (DC Comics), an adversary of Batman * Bane (''Harry Potter''), a centaur in the ''Harry Potter'' series * Bane (''The Matrix''), a character in the ''Matrix'' film trilogy * Bane the Druid, a Gua ...

, or

Mr. Freeze Mr. Freeze is the name of two supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Dave Wood and artists Sheldon Moldoff and Bob Kane, the character initially debuted in ''Batman'' #121 (February 1959) as Mr. ...

; each of these gameplay routes, available in "easy" and "hard" variations, features a predetermined set of six

missions to complete. Players must use the Batmobile to chase and eliminate specified targets, such as vehicles filled with henchmen. Certain missions feature other Batman villains, such as the

Scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin that is often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops. ...

, the

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

and

Catwoman Catwoman is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, she debuted as "the Cat" in ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' #1 (spring 1940). She has become one of the superhero Batman' ...

, while one mission in each gameplay route sees the player fly The Bat from ''

The Dark Knight Rises ''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the final instal ...

''. Weapon upgrades such as a Sky Drone,

Batarang The batarang is a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon used by the DC Comics superhero Batman. Etymology The name "Batarang" is a portmanteau of ''bat'' and ''boomerang'', and was originally spelled baterang. Usage Batarangs are customizable t ...

s and a Battering Ram can be collected to more quickly and effectively destroy targets. A timer is constantly decreasing during gameplay; the remaining time is extended with each mission successfully completed. The game ends when the timer fully depletes or the Batmobile is destroyed, at which point the player is given the choice to insert additional credits to resume play or abandon the game. The game has a profile system for players to save their game progress and resume at a later time. Ten different Batmobile designs from previous ''Batman'' media are available for use in the game. The full list includes the following:

Cabinet

The arcade cabinet for Batman consists of over 500 color shifting LEDs, a Batman-styled seat and steering wheel with force feedback, as well as a large glowing Bat emblem above the cabinet. Different on-screen action will trigger the various lighting effects and patterns of the cabinet.

Development

Development for ''Batman'' started in 2011 at Specular Interactive, who worked with

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

to build all of the Batmobiles and the Gotham City environment. According to Steve Ranck, the Specular Interactive team spent a lot of time building Gotham City, which in this game "is nearly 10 square miles of various suburbs, unique neighborhoods, elevation changes, tunnels, bridges, hills, dirt roads, jumps, secret paths, etc." Also according to Steve Ranck, the game contains 20 characters "with nearly 1,000 lines of spoken dialog, 3 fully animated boss characters" and 36 missions over 6 stages. ''Batman'' uses licensed visibility software, Umbra 3, to handle the occlusion culling in its game. The system has been developed by Umbra Software.

References

External links

Specular Interactive page

Raw Thrills
{{Portal bar, Video games 2013 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Racing video games Vehicular combat games Batman video games Joker (character) in other media Superhero video games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the United States Raw Thrills games Single-player video games