#31: Batman (Ocean, Amiga, 1989)

While there have certainly been video games based around other comic book superheroes, they are, on the whole, considerably less successful. In their original medium, Superman arguably just about beats Batman to the title of ‘Most Iconic Superhero’, but in games, their fortunes aren’t even close. The only Superman game of any renown is known as one of the worst games of all time. It really feels like Batman, as a character, is suited to games in a way that other superheroes aren’t.

This is, perhaps, because the ‘super’ part is something of a misnomer in his case. Batman doesn’t actually have any superpowers beyond being really damn good at everything, because he practiced hard. Batman wins through the flawless application of a carefully planned strategy. Batman stories provide a comforting fantasy that such planning is possible, that there exists some perfect sequence of actions that can be used to solve any given problem. That this can be applied well to video games is almost self evident; finding the correct sequence of actions to solve problems is basically one definition of the medium.