Nintendo Character Profile | Batman Page 1

Nintendo Character Profile | Batman

Batman
Nananananananananananananananana, Batman!

Batman is the hero of Gotham City, and multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne's alter-ego. He is known as the Dark Knight, and has been a staple in DC comics' roster for 73 years since their original name, Detective Comics. What can be learned that isn't already about known about this badass, though?

Statistics

Age: Determining his age is pretty tricky, since it's never specified, but one could guess that when Bruce Wayne becomes the Dark Knight he is between his mid-twenties to early thirties; not a bad age for a multi-millionaire hero to be.

Species: Well, unlike most comic heroes he's fully human, no super powers whatsoever, but that doesn't mean he's at a disadvantage, though!

Location: Wayne's mansion resides just outside of the fictional Gotham City, with most of his time spent in the crime-infested place stopping bad guys and going to parties and whatnot.

Family Matters: Bruce is the son of CEO and physician Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha. At a young age, Bruce witnessed the horrifying memory of them being gunned down by a mugger after watching an opera. He was then looked after and raised by the Wayne family's faithful butler - Alfred Pennyworth - until he graduated from university and went through training so he could stop crime in Gotham City.

Main Features: Batman has many features that have changed over recent years, but he's always been the alter-ego of now billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. He's thoroughly trained in martial arts, and bad guys better watch out because he's a Ninja, too, as of recent developments. Due to his billionaire status, his company has produced many gadgets that Batman uses from his utility belt, including the infamous Batarang, a Master Key, explosives, night-vision goggles, a collapsible sword, and even a flamethrower; seriously this thing has everything!

Then there's the Batmobile, the super car (or tank in recent films) that everyone seems to want, yet never gets stolen despite having an open top roof; must be the massively expensive security system, or the people and criminals of Gotham City are actually just really nice people.

He has few friends, with him adopting many different orphans whose parents died like Bruce's. They usually take the role of the Bat's sidekick Robin, with the most famous being Dick Grayson who became the leader of the Teen Titans and defected from Batman to become Nightwing, and even becomes Batman himself in the absence of Bruce who was assumed to have died.

Clothing: The Bat's mask has generally stayed the same being black/blue/purple with it covering everything except his eyes and mouth, with bat ears on his head. He always wears a cape, which seems to sometimes give him the ability to glide as well as frighten villains with his giant bat-like appearance. His main suit seems to vary the most, with the more recent movie interpretations having him wear leather or rubber with a facial appearance of muscle, with his original costume being tight spandex complete with underpants on the outside to show off his natural muscle, and the '60s TV series being pure West...The costume is complete with his utility belt, as well as gloves and boots, which also change in appearance with different interpretations.

Concept

Having had enough of the crime in Gotham City, and thinking the police were too incompetent to stop it, Bruce Wayne decided to take on the criminals himself. Training in a myriad of martial arts and using his money from his company, Bruce became the crime-fighting Batman who eventually became respected and relied upon as the hero of Gotham City.

Appearances

Batman has had many appearances on quite a few different systems from the original on the Amstrad PC right up to Batman: Arkham City on current consoles, including Wii U. Here are some of his major appearances:

Batman (NES/Game Boy)
[li]Batman: Return of the Joker (NES/Game Boy/Mega Drive)
[li]Batman Returns (SNES)
[li]Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (N64/GBC)
[li]Batman: Vengeance (GBA/GC)
[li]Batman: Brave and the Bold (Wii)
[li]Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC/PS3/360)
[li]Batman Arkham City (PC/PS3/360/Wii U)

Best Appearance:

Before Batman: Arkham City, and its predecessor Arkham Asylum, Batman games always restricted players to mostly average platformers in which players went from point A-to-B and defeated the bad guy. None of them were necessarily bad, but none of them made the player feel like being in the Batman's shoes as much as the recent games do.

Batman: Arkham City improves on its predecessor by simply making it bigger and better with a massive free-roaming city to explore. What's even more fun is using the Bat's abilities to take out or sneak passed an enemy however desired. On top of that, it has a great story that every Batman fan will enjoy.

Do Not Mention:

Pretty much any villain that tries to ruin or take over Gotham City. Batman loves his hometown and would do anything to keep it safe, including being part of the Justice League. He even once had a Kryptonite-embedded Batarang made to stop a rage-induced Superman, and if he can stop Superman, he can stop anyone, let alone the Joker, Penguin or even Bane!

Batman is an awesome character who is as relevant today as he was 74 years ago. Yes, his story and appearance may have changed over the years, but he's still the crime-fighting Caped Crusader everyone loves from all that time ago.