A full history of the Batman game franchise. From Ocean Software’s original Batman game in 1986, to his upcoming appearance in Rocksteady’s highly anticipated “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.”
Celebrate 37+ years of one of the most iconic heroes in all of video gaming. Batman has evolved significantly in gaming form, starting off as a series of movie tie-in platformers and beat-em-ups, into the massively popular Batman Arkham series by Rocksteady. This documentary will cover it all, including: Batman the Movie, Batman Returns, Batman Begins, every mainline Arkham game, and everything in-between!
(The following were excluded either because they weren’t relevant to the discussion, or because I plan to feature them in a separate video: Batman: Brave and the Bold on Wii, Lego Batman 1-3, Justice League games, and the Injustice series.)
Join me as I detail each and every game, breaking down their development history, storyline, gameplay features, visuals, and their critical reception, all backed with each game’s original soundtrack.
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GOGcom Sponsorship Information:
This video is brought to you in part by GOG.com. Use the link to buy several Batman games for cheap! Any purchases made using the following link will help support this channel.
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Twitter: @nick930gaming
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Patreon:
Even the smallest donations help me make these videos! (I record all of my own footage and need to purchase several old games for the footage)
This video was an immense undertaking, more so than any other video I’ve ever worked on. I initially planned to only cover the Arkham games, but decided that you all likely expected to see more – so I went out and purchased dozens of classic Batman games, read through hundreds of comics, watched EVERY batman film, EVERY television show, and poured countless hours in to make sure things were accurate. But even so, there are bound to be errors as I’m doing all of this work solo. Please feel free to let me know in the comments if you spot one! Now sit back, grab a drink and enjoy the ENTIRE History of BATMAN!
This one’s for you Kevin Conroy.
Table of Contents
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00:00 Intro
01:17 Summary
02:46 Batman in Comics
05:48 Batman in Television
06:40 Batman in Film
07:41 Bat-Man (1986)
08:48 Batman the Caped Crusader (1986)
09:17 Batman: The Movie Videogame (1989-1990)
12:17 Batman: Return/Revenge of the Joker (1991-1992)
15:20 Batman Returns (1992-1993)
17:01 Batman the Animated Series (1993-1994)
19:56 Batman Forever (1995-1996)
22:01 Batman & Robin (1998)
23:59 Batman PS2 Games (2000-2005)
24:53 Batman Vengeance (2001)
26:00 Batman Rise of Sin Tsu (2003)
26:47 Batman Dark Tomorrow (2003)
31:30 Batman Begins (2005)
36:55 Rocksteady’s Origin
39:31 Batman: Arkham Asylum Development
46:38 Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
01:01:26 Batman: Arkham City Development
01:04:43 Batman: Arkham City (2011)
01:20:18 Batman: Arkham Origins Development
01:24:27 Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)
01:36:55 Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (2013)
01:43:30 Batman: Arkham Knight Development
01:46:41 Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)
02:04:31 Batman: Arkham VR (2016)
02:09:40 Batman: The Telltale Series (2016)
02:13:12 Batman: The Enemy Within (2018)
02:15:49 Gotham Knights Development
02:17:44 Gotham Knights (2022)
02:25:50 Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2023)
02:27:31 Conclusion
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Special thanks to:
EpicTrailerMusicUK – Check out his Batman-themed orchestral scores here:
Digital Foundry’s John Linneman – we discussed putting in a cool Scarecrow sequence, but I came down with an illness in the last week and had to shelf the idea.
#Batman #Documentary
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Corrections/Notes:
-LEGO Batman, Injustice, and Batman: Brave and the Bold are not included either because I plan on covering these in separate documentaries, or because they weren't relevant to the evolution of Batman in gaming.
Special GOG.com Batman Sale:
With the help of my partners over at GOG, I was able to coordinate a special sale on Batman games to accompany this documentary! Grab some DRM-Free Batman games for dirt cheap while also supporting this channel using the following link: https://af.gog.com/partner/Nick930?as=1779645473
That first Batman game in 86 is a reskin of a game called Head Over Heels….
You should talk about Five Nights At Freddy’s.
Dude I just stumbled across your videos and im SOO happy I did, instant sub!! You have incredibly high quality videos bro! It's insane you do all this for free on YouTube! I'm homeless rn, and it's been bringing me a lot of comfort watching your videos.
Batman Forever is not that despised and Batman Returns had its own camp. Batman Forever was a fun blockbuster that made an effort to tell a good Bruce Wayne story. I hate this revisionist history where Batman Returns is good and Forever is awful.
Great video, thanks
I'm watching your videos since a couple of years and now I just found your "History of"-Videos.
It's pretty amazing which huge effort you put in those videos.
I would definitely love such a video of the Elder Scrolls series.❤
Greetings from Germany🤚
I’m new to the Batman games, is there any that anyone recommends me playing first
🇲🇨👍☘️
Man, Arkham VR made me want a full VR Batman game SOOO bad. Sadly, all these years later, still nothing. Only major studio supporting VR is Capcom. Still hoping other studios see how well Capcom's hybrid flat/VR model works.
I think Twisted Metal deserves a bit of a retrospective, doesn’t it?
I’m playing through this again today and still impressed with the graphics
What an immersive and amazing documentary! Amazing work man!
Gotham knights makes Batman begins look like a masterpiece am I right????
44:51
My most requested documentary:
History of The Legend of Zelda (1986-2023)
My very first Batman game was Batman begins. I played it when I was younger and I just got It again and I still like it
I remember I played dark tomorrow and I did not know that it is a terrible game. My dad rented it and I wish he didn’t do that
A perfect video! thank you!
Waiting for street fighters now
Love your content. Found you beginning of this week and I'm on my 5th video of yours already, love all of it so far
It's impressive the amount of innovations and new mechanics that Arkham Knight brought to the table compared to Arkham City, it just struggled with how it utilized (or over-utilize, the batmobile) those mechanics. A sequel with a different Bat-family member that keeps the same mechanics and iron out AK's pacing issues and mission structure could've been an absolute masterpiece. But we got Gotham Knights instead…
This documentary is outstanding!
There's no way u really got the BSOD.
This is probably one of the most informative Batman videos I’ve ever watched, I just loved the way you did this. Need some more Batman content!!!
Kevin Conroy is both Batman And Bruce Wayne. Just like Mark Hamill is the Joker. No one can make that iconic and recognisable laugh. His villainous laugh is the main reason why the Joker became my all time favourite villain. When I learned that Conroy died, I felt like the Bat died too, but there's always someone, who's willing to voice the Bat again.
Spider-Man next pls
this guy is just to good
I'm the real deal batman but no sponsorship
just like your MGS video, THIS is quality content!
History of Arkham Games (brief introduction to Batman games incl.)
Loved it! Maybe the history of pokemon??? Looked everywhere but can't find a proper one.
I can’t believe you never mentioned the Dark Knight Rises mobile tie in game by Gameloft. That game was surprisingly ambitious in mimicking the Arkham style gameplay on a phone. You could even ride the Batpod and the Bat. It even came with its own set of achievements. Definitely a game worthy of being on here.
Would love to see a History of Spyro documentary
Holy shit, the animations in Batman Begins are awesome. That is indeed state of the art for its time.
I have all the Arkham games in collector editions.
That being the 4. 3 from PS3. And the last on PS4.
All of those games were Batman masterpieces. I love them all.
Batman Arkham origins is an underrated masterpiece.
What I would really like to see in the future from rocksteady is a Superman game. 🦸🏻
I gotta admit, two series have best superheroes games, Insomniacs Spider Man series and Batman's arkham series
everytime a developer say we are going to develop for new modern audience we know it is going to suck.
Blackgate also released on wii u bro