Batman: The Caped Crusader

Batman: The Caped Crusader is a videogame inspired by the DC Comics comic book. It was created by Special FX initially for ZX Spectrum and also ported to Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and other platforms. Ocean published it between 1988 and 1989.

In the game, the famous superhero Batman has to face his two main enemies, The Penguin and The Joker, in different adventures that can be done in any order. Both levels are pretty challenging, but The Penguin section can be very tricky.

The software house was founded in Liverpool by former Ocean programmers that had worked previously on the Red Heat adaptation (and later would create RoboCop 2). They decided to build a game that is a mix between a platformer, a beat-em-up, and an arcade adventure. This mix sometimes is a bit strange, but thanks to excellent visuals and a fantastic soundtrack, the game experience is memorable.

As usual, when talking about 8-bit games ported to 16-bit, it happens to comment how the game on the C64 was something extraordinary, while the Amiga version (that was, in turn, a port of the Atari ST version) is just average. However, Batman is always Batman. Who doesn't love to beat enemies with the batarang? Plus, as I said, the music is excellent. It's not a surprise that some magazines gave a very high rating (e.g., CU Amiga 89%) and others a shallow one (e.g., Amiga Computing 52%). This is a game you must play and see for yourself. Have fun!