Batman Forever

Batman Forever
a game by Acclaim, Probe Software, and Probe Entertainment Ltd.
Genres: Action, Fighting Games, Platformer
Platforms: Sega GenesisGenesis, SNESSNES, Playstation, GameGear, GameBoy
Editor Rating: 6.8/10, based on 11 reviews, 12 reviews are shown
User Rating: 7.0/10 - 6 votes
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See also: Superman Games, Marvel Games, Batman Games

With a megawatt cast and wall-to-wall special effects, Batman Forever was one of last summer's biggest movies. Unfortunately, Acclaim's attempt to capitalize on the film's success results in a truly mediocre title for the Game Gear.

Riddle Me This

When Edward Nigma teams up with the evil Two-Face, the pair brings Gotham City to its knees - until the Dark Knight comes through in the clutch. With Robin nowhere to be found, the Caped Crusader (that's you) faces four levels of beat-em-up gameplay.

Drawing on a huge armory of bat gadgets, you must rescue hostages at the Gotham bank, disable a bomb at the circus, chase Two-Face through the subway, and rescue Dr. Chase Meridian on Claw Island. All in a day's work for Batman.

Although Batman has an arsenal of fighting moves like uppercuts and leg sweeps, they can be tough to pull off in a pressure situation. The slow gameplay gives you plenty of time to try. Using your grappling hook and bat glide is no picnic, either.

Blind as a Bat

Although Batman and his enemies look decent, the lack of onscreen objects and background effects quickly induces boredom. The repetitive music and weak sound effects will let Game Gear fans down.

Acclaim tried to pack a lot of options into this cart, but the sluggish gameplay, mediocre graphics, and weak sounds really kick this cart to the bat curb.


  • Sometimes you can't see the floor above you, so fire your grappling hook straight up to reach it
  • Destroy the few onscreen objects to find hidden power-ups.

Download Batman Forever


System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Game modes: Single game mode

Player controls:

  • Up, Down, Left, Right - Arrow keys
  • "C" button - Left Shift (Item select)



System requirements:

  • PC compatible


System requirements:

  • PC compatible


System requirements:

  • PC compatible


System requirements:

  • PC compatible

Game Reviews


Holy Retread, Batman!




  • Batman is invincible while swinging from his grappling hook.
  • Use the grappling hook to reveal items hidden above.



Not at the Movies



Save the Batman


Based on this summer's movie, Batman Forever is being developed with the aid of Acclaim's custom blue-screen and motion-capture techniques. In this 24-meg, two-player action/ad-venture caper, you play as Batman or Robin and fight crime through eight run-n-gun levels, including a battle in the Batcave. Famous villains include Two-Face and the Riddler.

Based on early looks, this game has gorgeous graphics that utilize digitized footage of live costumed characters. The arcade version will incorporate actual stunt footage from the movie.

It's another bat-a-riffic adventure for Batman and his bot wonder. Batman Forever for the PlayStation plots both crime fighters against the Riddler and Two-Face just like the feature film. In the style of Final Fight, Batman Forever uses the sidescrolling fighter engine to let Batman show his enemies what pain is all about. The game features combos instead of the average, everyday punch-and-kick moves that most other side-scrolling fighters are known for. The animation is excellent including dozens of frames of animation so the characters move and fight in a realistic manner. The graphics match the look of the movie-dark but at the same time ornamental. Each character has special powers and gadgets he or she can use in battle against various thugs and villains.

Who is Batman?" This was the question posed by the Riddler in the blockbuster hit movie, Batman Forever. Avid video game I players know Batman (or the Batman, if you will) as the 1 star of numerous games for a variety of game systems.

Batman has made appearances on such platforms as the NES, the Game Boy, the 116-Bit systems and even Atari's Lynx. Now the Caped ,Crusader and his plucky Sidekick Robin are making their first appearance on the 32-Bit systems.

The premiere Batman game for the Saturn and PlayStation is based on the latest Batman movie, Batman Forever. Don't worry, this game isn't based on the mediocre Batman Forever games for the Genesis and Super NES, this one is based on the Batman Forever arcade game.

If you haven't played the arcade game, it is a two-player, simultaneous beat-'em-up in the style of Final Fight.

Actually, that might not be the best way to describe it. Remember Konami's old Batman Returns game for the Super NES? Imagine that type of gameplay without the driving scenes and with about 100 times the intensity.

If there is one thing that Batman Forever: The Arcade Game delivers, it's fast and furious action. Every second of the game is the type of button-pounding, side-scrolling fighting that's becoming more and more rare on the new systems.

If you've seen the movie (and let's face it, you probably have), the game's plot should sound rather familiar: Gotham City is once again under siege by another pair of ruthless villains, Two-Face and the Riddler. As usual, it's up to Batman to save the day with his crime-fighting skills and his selection of "wonderful toys."

Even with all his amazing abilities. Batman's no dummy. Taking on Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey at the same time would prove difficult for anybody, so Batman decides to gain a Boy Wonder to help him in his fight. This, as we all know, is Robin.

In the game, two players can team up as Batman and Robin to fight against Gotham's worst menaces. Both players can even choose the same character. How or why there would be two Dark Knights is beyond me, but hey, it's a good feature. If you prefer to fight your crusade for justice alone, there's always that option as well.

As in any good fighting game, your standard weapons are your very own bat-fists and bat-feet. Just by pounding the controller buttons, you can pull off a variety of different attacks. There are even moves where you can grab enemies and throw them into the background or right at the camera, where they hit your TV screen and fall down.

While punching and kicking may be enough for the typical street fighter, a superhero has many more techniques at his disposal. This is where Batsy's collection of crime-fighting gadgets comes into play.

During your battles, you can collect different tools to help you fight. These weapons can be powered up to three levels to make them even more powerful.

Batman just wouldn't be Batman without his Bat-a-rang. You can also find grappling hooks, tasers and smart bombs. One of the stranger weapons is a device called the "Bat Call" that will summon a barrage of bats. They will act as a shield for you or even attack the enemy. Strange, perhaps, but effective.

Well, so far this sounds like a typical "walk-and-punch" game. If a game wants to survive nowadays, it had better have some sort of special feature or new play technique to it. Batman Forever comes through on multiple accounts.

I Many of the one-on-one fighting games today have some sort of combo feature. By hitting sequences of buttons or chaining special moves, you can pull off some impressive combo moves.

Batman Forever takes the combo system from fighting games and incorporates it into its gameplay.

Both Batman and Robin have their own set of combo moves to learn. If you can properly chain moves together, you can pull off combos that feature over 100 hits!

The one thing that you need to remember about the combo feature is that you can only pull them off when your combo meter is full. The combo meter is located below your life bar, and it can be filled by collecting the power-enemies drop when they are defeated.

In addition to the meter-filling power-ups, there are also special pressure pads that appear every so often. When you walk over these, it causes some reaction in the game. Stepping on a Bat Signal drops special tools into the area. Two-Face's Yin-Yang will do one of two things. It can create a good effect such as invincibility, or it can bring you harm, like shrinking you down to a itty-bitty Batman. The third pressure pad is the Riddler's question mark. This will randomly give you one of the beneficial effects.

If these features aren't enough, there is another special feature that rewards you for excellent performance during the game. At the end of every level, the game tallies up different statistics and allows you a choice of power-ups to start the next stage with based on how well you did.

Awards are given for defeating the most enemies, hitting the most villains with the Bat-tools, throwing the most villains into the screen, picking up most of the three pressure pads, getting the highest round score and for getting the highest combo attack.

When two players are playing together, they have their own statistics and try to beat each other out to earn the desired power-up. This creates a sense of competition during a cooperative two-player game. There's just a strange feeling of satisfaction when you pull off a huge combo at the end of the level and end up stealing the one power-up that the second player thought he would be using in the next level.

If you've played the game at the arcade, the graphics should seem just about the same. There is a little drop in the amount of character animation from the arcade version, but the computer-rendered graphics look amazing.

The game's music is along the same lines as the movie's soundtrack. It's a lot of dark, moody "Batman-ish" tunes that fit the game rather well.

Gamers who long for the olden days when games like Double Dragon and Final Fight reigned supreme should get a kick out of Batman Forever: The Arcade Game. Both the Saturn and PlayStation versions are virtually identical, so whatever 32-Bit system you own, you can get that side-scrolling Bat-fix you've been jonesin' for.

Gamer's EDGE

When a game like this is released on two dueling platforms, someone is bound to ask. "What's the difference between the two versions?" Well, if you only have the Saturn or the PlayStation, you have no reason to bejeal-ous of others.

Both versions of Batman Forever are virtually identical. Sure, there are minor differences: The Batmobile drives into the game faster on the Saturn version: the PlayStation version has a prettier loading screen, but it's all just cosmetic No matter what system you get Batman for. you're getting essentially the same game.

People say:


Batman Forever is a poor game. The graphics are very grainy and everything is hard to see. The worst feature has to be the frustrating control. The gameplay is so unresponsive and confusing, I was tempted to stop playing altogether. Everything about this cart screams that it was rushed. The use of digitized characters hurt this game more than it helped. They just don't animate right. On the bright side, it is better than the 16-Bit versions.


For a Game Gear title, Batman Forever boasts some very impressive graphics. When a game comes out for cross-platform systems such as the Genesis and the Game Gear, most of the time, the game suffers significantly in the looks department. Batman Forever was surprisingly very similar to its 16-Bit brother, but with only three buttons to use it becomes very difficult to use all the special moves that are incorporated into the game.


Batman Forever's graphics, moves and levels are identical to the Super NES and Genesis (despite the fact that you do not have a grappling hook in this version). Overall it is a great translation. The control of the game is a whole different story. On top of the fact that it moves slow as molasses, one tap of the punch button unleashes a flurry a punches that can become annoying and sloppy. This is one of those games that you should try before you buy.


The first and most noticeable feature is the graphics. The characters and movements have been faithfully reproduced into the Game Gear with astonishing accuracy. However, control is a different story. The limited buttons combined with very slow play make the characters feel delayed and sluggish. Punching enemies is nothing more than a delayed sequence that continues well after the enemy is dead. Use Bat-repellent spray on this one.

  • Genre: action
  • Players: 1 or 2
  • Publisher: Acclaim
  • Developer: Probe
  • Available: 1995






Guano, Anyone?




Holy Bad Audio!





Lousy Forever











Batman Forever features:










Batman Forever is a faithful translation of the arcade game. Unfortunately, what may be enticing in an arcade becomes repetitive and dull on a small screen.

Play solo or team up with a friend as either Batman or Robin in eight levels based on Batman Forever. You face standard punch-n-kick action against waves of cloned enemies with a boss at the end of each level. The graphics, although sharp, are hindered by stiff animation, and lackluster sound effects deter from the overall ap peal. Gameplay offers little beyond limited fight moves and power-ups; the most fun comes from two-player action. Save your loose change to play Batman Forever in the arcades.


  • Use gadgets, such as the grappling hook, to take out multiple enemies at a time.
  • Cover your back by forcing your enemies to one side.

Snapshots and Media

Playstation Screenshots

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Screenshots

SNES/Super Nintendo/Super Famicom Screenshots

GameGear Screenshots

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