Batman: Arkham Asylum Joker Hands-On
Eidos' E3 booth offered a chance to play as the Joker in the PlayStation 3-specific challenge rooms.
PlayStation 3 owners recently got one up on the Xbox 360 crew when Eidos announced that the Joker challenge rooms would be exclusive to the Sony consoles. We got to check the character out for the first time at E3 as he was appearing at the Eidos booth for attendees to play.
You control The Joker in a broadly similar fashion to Batman, but his moves are much more theatrical in nature. Whereas Batman goes for a brutally efficient combat style, the Joker adds more flourishes to his kicks and punches. He also has a suite of his own moves, including the ability to shoot laughing gas from his sleeves in order to stun enemies.
The best Joker moves come when you build up combos, which allow you to unleash special attacks on your enemies. These moves change depending on your position to the enemies, but all of them are really entertaining to perform. If you build up a combo of five or more hits, you can press the triangle and circle buttons together to pull off a finishing move. The Joker will either shake hands with his enemy using his electric buzzer, or he'll jump on his enemy like a monkey and repeatedly smack him around the head.
If you manage to build up a higher combo, then you can throw your enemies, and the challenge room features plenty of electric walls at which to aim. The final challenge room featured Commissioner Gordon, who we particularly liked throwing into the wall. The Arkham Challenge Rooms offer some great old-school beat-'em-up action, and we can't wait to play more of them. GameSpot's Tom Mc Shea has also been playing the single-player mode, so watch out for his preview hitting the site soon!
43 comments
should I get this for the PS3? I want the PS3 version for The Joker but the con for me is the trophies. I can't show off my trophies to my friends on Xbox Live. but if I get the 360 version I can show off my trophies but I won't get The Joker!
It sucks, it's exclusive to PS3, I really don't like buying games for the Ps3 if I have the choise of getting the 360 instead, the controlls on the ps3 are just plain jinky compaired to the 360 controller
Its these kind of things which put me off games, the game might be good but I wont be playing the full version on my 360 now, will I? Now I know how fallout PS3 fans feel... Oh well, maybe I will skip this as yes, I can get fussy about these little things... (the joker is my favourite character so...)
I think not adding the joker to the 360 version is unfair...because I was really looking forward to playing as the joker....=\ Although I was reading something and they mentioned ?downloading? the joker onto the 360 is that possible? (sigh)
I played the demo at target today!!! this game is AWESOME!!! finally an batman game that could get an AAA.
Played the demo @walmart, this game is incredible and thats just the challenge mode Cant wait for the full game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Joshuayeah: Yes he is, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Arkham_Asylum#Characters I love how the games looking, great combat and stealth, but it may need some extra variety, hopefully the delay will help. Hopefully this will be the start of a succesful new series for Eidos, british studio too... :)
@ Gelugon_baat i think this is just a bonus feature not actually in the story. like the challenge rooms in bioshock :) also, the joker desnt take over arkham asylum quickly, harley quinn does haha! she takes the warden hostage [as seen in the inset pic] and then takes over the security system and lets out the prisoners, which outnumber the guards due to the increased number of prisoners [transferred from black rock] and the strong villains like killer croc and so on... i hope thats cleared anything up :) also does any one have any news about two-face? i havnt seen any news about him being in it, i think it'd be great - esp since he is against joker!
I want to play this game. And maybe this little exclusive will be enough to get the PS3 version, if I have a PS3 by the time this game comes out. I hope I do.
Even though I'm always skeptical when games like this appear. I was greatly impressed with the game's visuals at E3, who knows huh.
Ugh, I really wanted to get the xbox360 version of this for the controller. Oh well, PS3 version here I come. I'm sure the game is awesome no matter what system I get it on.
tryagainlater: You're glad you bought your PS3 now because you get to play as the Joker? That's kind of...I don't know, sad? Anyway, I don't see why Eidos would shaft the 360 like this. Can't possibly think of a logical reason behind it unless Sony payed them off in which case I'm thinking Sony's money would have probably been spent in better places (like keeping Metal Gear Solid exclusive). Will probably be released as DLC later but for a price. Wack.
sweet!! can't wait for this game and to play as the Joker!! can't wait to pull off his cool moves!!
Joker only appears in the challenge mode, not the story mode. So no stealth stuff and story.
One thing though.. How will the Joker pull off the stealth stuff Batman does? :| Grappling to a gargoyle for instance.
I don't know if the Joker is enough to make me get it for the PS3 over the 360, I just hate the controller.
Wow, this game just seems to be getting better and better. I cant wait to play as the Joker in the PS3 version in his challenge rooms. His ability's are especially enough convincing for me to look forward to controlling joker.
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- Release Date: Aug 25, 2009 (US)
- Release Date: Sep 15, 2009 (US)
- Release Date: Nov 3, 2011 (US)
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Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Publisher(s): Eidos Interactive
- Developer(s): Rocksteady Studios
- Genre: Action
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