Game: Batman: Return of the Joker
Release: 1991
Format: Genesis, Game Boy, Nintendo, SNES
This is only so high because of what the power-ups were,
since everything else can get a bye due to being on a first-generation system.
This "sequel" to the original Nintendo Batman casts off the movie plot
and returns to a premise more geared in what the comics had in mind. Even
better: the NES/SNES version was "Return of the Joker," while the Genesis
was—continuing from the movie kinda-sorta—"Revenge of the Joker." Makes
sense!
Oh and Batman used guns. His power-ups would provide him
tools that suspiciously look like the same guns from Contra that spewed
out a steady stream of batarangs. Which he would use to gun down crooks while
platforming across a level, much like in Contra. In fact, call us crazy,
but this played a lot like as if someone slapped Batman skins on a certain game
made famous by a certain code you could input. Still, maybe this would be the
last we'd ever see of the Joker.
