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I am the creature that stalks in the night...
Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu is praised as being one of the better
Batman games ever created. I tried it out already, and found that it makes a pretty
good two player game. A little background on this game: it all takes place in the world
of Batman and Robin the Animated Series. Everything's cartoony yet is presented very
seriously. It works great.
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 Monday Game Time -
38:32
Before anything began, I got to choose which hero I wanted to play as. Of the playable characters,
there is Robin, Knightwing, Batgirl, and of course, Batman. I went through two levels today which, even though
took about 15 minutes apiece, went by pretty fast. The game's story goes something like this: a mysterious
villian new to the Batman universe has released all the city's villians. I guess that's pretty much the story.
Although the second level begins the multi-level hunt for the Scarecrow, the first level is essentially a warm-up
in the slums where Batman's parents were killed. "Some call it vengeance. I call it practice."
Final
Thoughts - Monday: So far the game seems to be running off Streets of Rage type of beat-em-up formula. This
really isn't that bad considering how fun the Streets of Rage games were. Still, in two levels I haven't seen a
lot of variety, besides the fact that Scarecrow's henchmen toss gas bombs that cause the screen to go all
psychodellic. The head bashing mayhem and the prospect of chasing after Batman's favorite villains should keep
this game fresh for the next four days. |
 Tuesday Game Time -
56:54
Yeah, I'm really feeling more of the same. Batman is running around slowly beating up henchmen and then
running some more and beating up more henchmen. It's kind of slow, but it does have its high points. My Tuesday
with Batman started with yet another level against the Scarecrow's thugs and the psychodellic smoke bombs. This
was followed by the fight against Scarecrow himself. This is kind of what you'd expect from an action platformer.
Scarecrow tossed one of his smoke bombs, which brought out plenty of green gas and Joker- and Harley Quinn-shaped
phantoms. The trick is to watch for a parting in the green gas then attack the invisible Scarecrow. Do some
beating down, endure another smoke bomb, repeat as necessary. The next set of levels is all about chasing after
Clayface. I think he's so cool. Major differeces in these levels include enemies with certain clay-like
attributes, dodging falling missiles, and diffusing bombs rather than rescuing civilians. I did two of these
levels then called it a day.
Final Thoughts - Tuesday: I've decided that one thing keeping this
game going is the amount of strategy involved. Ok, I realize that there isn't much. I mean, I really just mash
the punch and kick buttons like a coffee addict with Tourette's. But I've learned the importance of linking combo
attacks and that smoke pellets can be very useful. Other than that, the gameplay is sticking to the same as the
Scarecrow's levels, so I'm starting to yawn a little. |
 Wednesday Game Time -
44:54
Today the game started getting hard. In one of the levels I came very close to losing all my lives. Then
I made it to the boss battle against Clayface. Then I did lose all my lives. Twice. It was about then that I
turned off the Playstation. The levels were pretty much the same as yesterday, except now that they took place in
a chemical factory, toxic bins prone to exploding were spaced throughout. Clayface is a somewhat unique boss. I
hope you know of his powers, but if not, I'll inform you. His body is made of a clay-like substance which enables
him to take any shape. Personally, I didn't think he was that hard, but Batman's controls just aren't quick
enough.
Final Thoughts - Wednesday: Ok yeah, I went with the old blame-it-on-the-controls excuse.
But really, at one point Clayface knocked me down with the scythe protruding from one arm. Just as Batman got
back up, he took another hit and was back down. It's really sad to end the day in the middle of a boss fight,
but I guess I'll have to start off there tomorrow. |
 Thursday Game Time -
49:40
Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to be going your way? Then right before you decide to
give up, you think 'To heck with it.' I had one of those days today. I finally beat Clayface. Surprisingly
enough, I took him out on the first try. He is pretty tricky though. To weaken him, your hero needs to hit two
separate electrical generators three times each to give Clayface a buzz. This happens while dodging his
arm-scythes. After that, he tries smashing you with hammers coming out of each arm. Then you must fight off
hoards of his clay-minions before the cycle repeats itself. I thought the next level was pretty easy, since
regular thugs are easier than clay-minions. I finished that level and realized that in this game, "regular" thugs
are obsolete after the battle against Scarecrow. Now defending the docks, I learned something interesting as
Batman. Using the shoulder throw move, Batman can throw weaker enemies off the docks into the bay. This saves
much time, but also means that beat up enemies won't drop power-ups. Also in the last level I completed today
were guys with rocket launchers, crews with crowbars, and ninja-esque dudes with endless supplies of molatov
cocktails. Before finishing, I played this level three times.
Final Thoughts - Thursday: Definately
can't say that this game is easy. Actually, I didn't set it to easy. Maybe I should do a second run later to see
how much easier. The cutscene following my last level of the day gave some more insight into Sin Tzu's past. Even
though we have never heard of him before, he's no stranger to Batman. I find myself in the third section of the
game (sections ending in a boss battle), but I'm not really sure who the boss of this section is. Surely I'm not
about to fight Sin Tzu already. |
 Friday Game Time -
25:23
Alright. I pretty much got nowhere today. So I'm on this big ship, right? And there's supposedly a
weapon of mass destruction on board, which I'm supposed to disarm before time runs out. Except before I can do
any such thing, I'm given about 15 minutes to take out 75 thugs. Yeah, that's what I thought. I got about halfway
through the bad dudes my first run through when I lost all my lives. Let me tell you; this is one level that is
no fun to restart. My second shot at it got me within about 10 thugs to the end of the level. Then I died again.
So I called it a week and who knows when I'll pick this game up again.
Final Thoughts - Friday:
Dare I say this game is too hard? After all, it's set to Normal difficulty setting. In previous days, I mentioned
how the levels were just a little more of the previous levels. Well, today's ship level was a little more of
before. And then a lot more of itself. And it just got really old, really fast. So I gave up. *Insert remorse
here* |
Total Time - 3:35:23
Felt More Like: 4:00:00
Estimated Time to Complete: 5:30:00
Final Thoughts - Week: The perceived and actual time difference is very small. You might think it would
be pretty big considering how things went for me in the later levels. Actually, the earlier levels - when the
game and story was really driving - seemed to have gone by pretty fast. Aside from that, I'm a little upset at
how the game turned out. The levels didn't have a whole lot of variety and I thought it was pretty hard. I had
initially hoped I could beat it this week, but the difficulty slowed me down quite a bit. Had the game been set
to Easy, I may have beaten it with time to spare.
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