Bane and Harley Quinn in Arkham Asylum

Colour me excited: I've just watched the two teaser videos on IGN disclosing the appearance of both Bane and Harley Quinn in the forthcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum game.

They were short snips but showed off the Rogues at their best (or should that be worst?): Bane all grunt and muscle, busting down walls and throwing the Dark Knight around like a chew toy; and Quinn full of quips, acrobats and scarcely-veiled sugar-sweet menace - loved it!

Both characters have a slightly revamped look in the game that really gels with the hard metal and oppressive rust-dark milieu of Arkham; Harley Quinn more so than Bane, who maintains his wrestler's garb and trademark mask, albeit with a hefty rack of pipes and machinery in lieu of his usually slighter venom-injector. Quinn is sporting bodice, knee-high boots and leather, opposed to her cutesy pseudo-clownish attire. It totally works (the new look is even acknowledge during character dialogue, which was a nice touch), and, as mentioned, is in keeping with the game's tone, whilst still maintaining all the essential elements of Harley Quinn.


I'm being cautiously optimistic about this game and am warming up my 360/clearing my schedule for late June so I can have a good session playing it (providing the reviews don't totally stink). As a huge Batman fan, there's been little to cheer about, games-wise, for the Dark Knight with a succession of fairly dreary, un-atmospheric and uncharacteristic efforts churned out over the years.


True, Lego Batman was a nice distraction (though, easily the weakest of the awesome Traveller's Tales movie tie-in efforts, including also Indiana Jones and Star Wars), but it's not real Batman, now is it. Fun, but without the atmosphere we true Dark Knight fans really crave.

Arkham Asylum has it all going for it, at least it would seem that way: cool setting (doesn't get much better or more Batman lore-centric than the asylum), a stunning voice cast (most of which seem to hail from the superb Bruce Timm animated series - I wonder if Andrea Romano is responsible for the voice direction?) including, most pointedly, Mark Hamill as the Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman; could've sworn I heard Arleen Sorkin reprising her role as Harley Quinn, too - it was like coming home.


The graphics and overall tone looks very gritty with the gameplay relying on stealth as well as thug battery.

Earlier trailers suggest that you get to play some chapters outside of the asylum grounds, bat-lining around crumbling towers to get to otherwise inaccessible areas of Arkham - nice. It also appears that rescuing Jim Gordon is part of the mission brief, as well as apprehending the rampant Joker, of course.

I'm very intrigued to learn what other Rogue's Gallery arch-criminals will be appearing in the game. Killer Croc also features, but after that I'm drawing blanks - here's hoping it's a lot.


My fingers are firmly crossed that the game will be a winner. I'll be adding it to my wish list along with Ghostbusters methinks.

Better get clearing a space in my calendar right now...