Tag Archives: metroidvania

January 15, 2026

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

By Joe

When Batman: Arkham Asylum was released in 2009 it ushered in a new era for the caped crusader where video games were concerned. Prior to that, Batman had not had a good video game in a long, long, time. Depending on your opinion of his efforts, you may have gone all the way back to The New Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Super Nintendo, or even further back to the Sunsoft classic Batman for the Nintendo Entertainment System. His outings on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 weren’t particularly memorable and he all but skipped on the PlayStation 2 era. The low point may have been the cancellation of the The Dark Knight video game tie-in as it felt like DC throwing up their hands and saying, “We can’t make this work with Batman.”

Rocksteady Studios was up to the challenge and Arkham Asylum proved so good that Sony basically ripped it off for its successful Spider-Man video games. Rocksteady was able to craft a simple, but relatively malleable, combat system for Batman that had some challenge, but mostly succeeded in making the player feel like they were playing as Batman. Random thugs weren’t going to get the better of Batman unless they were in mass quantities and heavily armed. The one-button attack system made handling Batman a breeze and the stealth elements added on top of that complemented the action well. If there was one critique, it was that the environment was a little closed off so for the sequel Rocksteady gave Batman run of the city. Arkham City was more of a sandbox game, but mostly played the same. Boss encounters also had more variety and many still view it as the pinnacle of Batman video games.

In this one, Batman has to work with Catwoman to quell a prison riot.

For the sequel, Rocksteady bowed out. Enter WB Games Montreal which crafted Arkham Origins for release in 2013. The game was mostly well received, but not as enthusiastically as its predecessor. WB Games Montreal did receive praise for largely carrying forward the game mechanics fans had grown accustomed to and the franchise continued to roll along. Developed alsongside that release, was Arkham Origins Blackgate. Blackgate was the handheld version of the game released on the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS. Development on Blackgate was entrusted to Armature Studio which had cut its teeth previously on the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection also released on the Vita. Blackgate would be the studio’s first original game and it too was released in 2013.

When Blackgate came out I was instantly intrigued. As an owner of the PlayStation Vita and the 3DS, a portable take on the Arkham series of games held some appeal. Blackgate also wasn’t a direct port of any of the console games. It was its own thing and is technically a sequel to Arkham Origins as far as plot goes. Batman (Roger Craig Smith) encounters Catwoman (Grey DeLisle) at the start of the game which serves as the tutorial mission. Shortly after, there’s a prisoner revolt in Blackgate prison and Batman heads in to investigate. Three of the biggest crime bosses in Gotham: Joker (Troy Baker), Black Mask (Brian Bloom), and the Penguin (Nolan North), have taken over and each rule over a segment of the prison. Catwoman is also there, but willing to aid Batman in helping to free the hostages the criminals have taken and ultimately save the day. Batman will have to explore Blackgate in a non-linear fashion acquiring various gadgets to help him progress through the prison.

This is how you will be viewing Batman most of the time – from the side.

I did not play Blackgate in 2013, but always wanted to. Recently, I had a chance to rectify that and I was intrigued by what I found. I know I read reviews in 2013 for the game and ultimately passed, but what I had read I had mostly forgot. What I did know going in was that Blackgate was a 2.5D action game. The environment and character models are all rendered in 3D, but gameplay is largely restricted to a 2D plane. There are some moments in the game where Batman can move into the foreground or background, but they are few and far between. Other times the environment will curve or swing into either the foreground or background, but having Batman just walk in a straight line will cause him to just follow the path. It’s also what the cool people on the internet refer to as a Metroidvania. That’s a non-linear action title that plays in a style similar to Metroid and the nonlinear entries in the Castlevania series.

Utilizing stealth and Batman’s Detective Mode is crucial to surviving Blackgate.

Despite the perspective change, Blackgate plays a lot like its big brother on the home consoles. The systems are largely still intact. When it comes to combat, the player is encouraged to chain attacks together with just the press of one attack button. There’s a separate parry button with onscreen indicators for when to use it as well as the ability to perform a cape stun maneuver. Successful attacks continue the chain as do successful paries. Early in the game, enemies will likely be a cakewalk, but tougher ones are introduced later that either have weapons or a means of defending themselves. For criminals armed with firearms, Batman can’t take them head-on. For those enemies you’re expected to play it sneaky either via alcoves high up or by utilizing passages in the ground. Batman can perform stealth takedowns when in the proper position and they are preferable to running in Leroy Jenkins style.

Why does he always need to re-find his equipment every game?

As Batman makes his way through Blackgate, he will encounter gates that prevent him from progressing deeper. In order to progress he will have to either upgrade his hacking device or uncover a new tool. At the start of the game, he is only armed with a Batarang and grapnel gun, but along the way he’ll acquire the Bat Claw, the line launcher, and an explosives gel gun. The claw allows Batman to pull down things like vent covers while the line launcher lets him cover long gaps and even opens up the background and foreground elements to a degree. The explosive gel can only be used on specific spots to blow holes in the environment. At any point Batman can also enter Detective Mode as he can in the other games which can reveal weak points in walls and other secrets and help Batman progress. The three boss characters can be encountered in any order and as such it means there aren’t any items tied to any of them. Most just require you to use Batman’s base abilities in a certain way to clear the encounter. Also hidden throughout Blackgate are weapon and armor upgrades, new costumes, and collectibles that just add a little extra length to the game. One playthrough takes about 7 – 8 hours and the only reason to go back is to defeat the boss characters in a different order to unlock another costume.

All of the boss encounters are uniquely constructed – none of that “Ride the big guy” stuff from Arkham Asylum.

Playing through Blackgate is largely an enjoyable experience, but there are some quirks that hamper things. The locked perspective takes away the ability for Batman to just point and shoot his grapple gun and can make navigation a chore at times. There is one area in particular where Batman has to deactivate a bomb with a timer on it and I could see where I needed to go, but the rules of the game wouldn’t let me just go there because it was in the background. A lot of context items are all assigned to the X button as well which can get clunky when you don’t want Batman to interact with the environment. X also makes Batman run so you can imagine how that might get in the way. Blackgate is also broken up into different maps and navigation can be a chore. The map system isn’t particularly intuitive and it’s also locked to the menu screen so you constantly have to refer back to it. Batman also can’t simply exit a section and has to work his way back to an exit which gets very tedious. There is no fast travel system. There’s not a lot of variety to the scenery, though apart from that the game generally looks and runs smooth. Story advancement is done with stylized still image cutscenes, but fully voiced which might feel like a downgrade for the handheld, but I honestly didn’t mind. Voice acting is strong while the overall sound design is fine, though a bit repetitive. Music is a little sparse, but it suits the vibe of the game.

Back in 2013, I passed on Blackgate because the reviews were just kind of ho-hum. No one seemed impressed by the game and since there was Arkham Origins available for the main console experience it probably made Blackgate seem worse by comparison. More than ten years removed from that environment, Arkham Origins Blackgate plays like a slightly different sort of game and it’s honestly pretty fun. It probably drags on a little too long as it feels like that 8 hour runtime is padded out by lots of backtracking. Repeat playthroughs would certainly go much quicker, but there’s really no reason to go back. The extra costumes are all pretty terrible and of the era. There are no classic looks for Batman which is a little disappointing, and while I like the standard costume enough, it would have been cool to go old school. The boss encounters also aren’t great. They’re not as repetitive as they were in the original Arkham Asylum, but they are underwhelming. Especially the final boss which left me thinking “That’s it?”

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate must have sold well enough because there are plenty of copies floating around for a decent price. The Vita experience was a good one and I don’t know if the same is true of the 3DS. The game is also available on Steam so it’s rather playable. What works best is the novelty of a portable Batman experience on par with what the console games were doing while also not trying to be an exact copy. I’d like to see another Batman adventure in a similar style, maybe one that plays a little faster and actually does more to separate itself from the console games so we’re not constantly comparing the two as we play.

For more Bat-content, check these out:

Batman: Caped Crusader

In the far off land of 2021 we received word that a new animated Batman series was in development and attached to it was none other than Bruce Timm. Timm was one of the main creative minds behind Batman: The Animated Series and the DC Animated Universe it spawned so this news was met quite…

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by Joe

Batman – The Adventures Continue #50: Batman

If you’re a repeat visitor here at The Nostalgia Spot, then you’ve probably noticed that around here there is a high opinion of the television show Batman – The Animated Series. I did a re-watch of the series that spanned more than two years and also checked out the various films based on the property.…

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by Joe

Batman Beyond – The Complete Series (Blu Ray)

Last year, when Warner Home Media announced a new Blu Ray set for the series Batman Beyond, I decided to wait. I had been an early consumer for the similar Batman: The Animated Series set the prior year and had some misgivings. The price on that set fell and a slimmed down version was even…

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by Joe

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March 4, 2012

Greatest Games: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

By Joe

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

There are several core genres of video games, but few games can actually be summed up as one genre.  A game can be called a role-playing game, but there’s a big difference between Chrono Trigger and Baldur’s Gate.  The same can be said for platform games, as few will confuse Super Mario Bros. with Ratchet and Clank.

The Castlevania series has long struggled with genres.  The original game is often described as a hybrid action-adventure title.  Famous for its great, but punishing, gameplay it’s no surprise it spawned several sequels.  The first of which, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, was a radical departure.  For that title, Konami decided to take the non-linear gameplay fans seemed to enjoy so much about the first game, and expand upon it by introducing many RPG elements.  Simon’s Quest was an ambitious title, but probably one that had more failures than successes.  As a result, Konami would simplify the many sequels and slowly work its way towards something more complex.

With new hardware and many more attempts are crafting quality Castlevania games, it was time for Konami to get bold once more.  The arrival of the 32 bit era brought about realistic opportunities for 3D gameplay design.  Not 3D as we know it today (the optical illusion), but 3D polygons instead of hand-drawn 2D sprites as a visual and gameplay style.  If Konami was attempted to explore this style with Castlevania, it wisely held off and stuck with what worked.  Symphony of the Night was born on the Playstation and unveiled to the world in 1997 in a very quiet manner.  Because it was not 3D, and was up against the massive hype-machine known as Final Fantasy VII, it was overlooked initially.  Review outlets were generally impressed by the title, though some would probably like a do-over as even many of those old reviews look like they were done as after-thoughts.

In Symphony of the Night, players will take control of Alucard; son of Dracula!

No matter, Symphony of the Night would receive its due eventually.  SotN took Simon’s Quest and married it with Nintendo’s Super Metroid.  This has lead some fans to affectionately refer to the title as “Metroidvania,” which should not be mistaken as an insult.  SotN sees the player dropped into a familiar setting; Dracula’s Castle.  Only this castle is different than before.  The player can explore it at will as the game doesn’t merely force the player to go left to right.  There are many ledges and secret rooms to find and explore and roadblocks, especially early in the game, are quite frequent forcing the player to back-track.  This emphasis on exploration made the game more than just an action title and really put the focus on the adventure aspect.

In the starring role this time was a familiar, and yet unfamiliar, face.  Alucard, son of Dracula, is the primary protagonist.  The first scene of the game teases a starring role for Richter Belmont, but Alucard is the one who will receive the majority of the playing time.  Alucard plays very differently from the other protagonists to appear in a Castlevania game before him.  As a half-vampire, he’s far more powerful than any Belmont.  He can dash, leap to impressive heights, and change his form.  He has spells at his disposal, input like fighting game commands, and can be built up to god-like levels.  As he kills enemies, Alucard gains experience and levels up.  When the game first starts off he’s fairly weak and most of the player deaths experienced in the game will come in the first hour or so.  As the player “level grinds” and explores more weapons and abilities will be found.  Alucard does not use the traditional whip, but can use pretty much every other type of weapon one can think of.  Most will include various swords and spears but tough guys can also roll with just their fists if they wish.

And since Alucard is the son of the game’s main antagonist, many storyline possibilities are opened up.  While this game came before story became a major point of emphasis in video games, it manages to weave an interesting tale.  SotN sets out to finally bring all of the previous games together under one massive narrative.  Old questions are answered, and new ones born, and for longtime fans it’s a very satisfying experience.  The only drawback is with the voice acting.  Voice acting was ever growing in popularity at the time, but few did it well.  SotN is no exception in that regard and the original release features some atrocious acting.  It’s not used a lot, thankfully, but is pretty groan-inducing.  Ports of the game have improved upon it, though I can’t say how much since I’ve never bothered to play them (I still have my PSX copy).

Symphony of the Night takes a traditional visual approach for the series and even returns many familiar foes.

Visually, the game is a delight!  Alucard’s sprite has smooth animation and nice effects to go with it.  The game makes liberal use of all of the 2D tricks perfected in the 16 bit era and enhances them.  There are some polygons in the game, but they’re mostly used to dress up the background.  Because of this approach, the game holds up quite well to this day.  Some of those old Playstation and Nintendo 64 games that were much heralded in their day cannot say the same thing.  This is still a pretty game, by any standard.  And since it’s a Castlevania title, the soundtrack must be mentioned.  It contains many of the old tracks made famous by the series, but also has a ton of new compositions that all suit the game’s mood.  The synth-metal approach to many of them is a great deal of fun to listen to and there are numerous elements of techno, classical, and other genres blended in.  This is still my all-time favorite video game soundtrack.

The game controls tighter than any previous Castlevania title.  Perhaps it’s because of Alucard’s inhuman nature, but he is much more nimble than any Belmont before him.  This makes controlling him a more enjoyable experience, but also makes the game much easier.  As I mentioned before, the early part of the game can be a challenge as Alucard is de-powered early on, but as you level up and find new weapons and spells the game becomes increasingly easier.  There are a couple of items that practically break the game because of how over-powered they are.  You can, of course, choose not to use them but it’s hard to resist.  There are many boss battles though, and most are fun affairs and offer some of the game’s best challenges.  There are also multiple endings as this is one of those games where just when you think you’ve finished, more is revealed.  Get to 100% completion and the castle gets literally flipped upside down and the game practically starts over again!  There’s also a code to play the entire game as Richter, and later ports include a third character as well; Maria Renard.

Fans looking for a more traditional experience could take control of Richter Belmont in lieu of Alucard via code in the original release.

When I first set out to cover my favorite games I mentioned I was going to mostly stay away from the consensus classics.  Symphony of the Night is probably one of those classics, but to me it has always felt overlooked which is why I chose to include it.  It was largely ignored by audiences when it was first released but as time went on gamers went back to it.  I was one such gamer who first ignored it.  I don’t even remember there being much coverage for it at the time, but I eventually made the time for it and picked up a used copy.  And even though I grabbed that used copy a couple years later, I was still ahead of a lot of people to even be able to find a used copy for cheap money!  Now that black-label game is considered a collector’s item, and while it doesn’t go for huge money in the secondary market, it’s not likely to be found in a bargain bin.

Symphony of the Night, for me, represents Castlevania at its absolute best.  Some long-time fans think it’s too easy to be the best of the best, and since the main gameplay does not feature a whip of any kind it can turn off some traditionalists.  It’s still the most fun I’ve ever had with a Castlevania title and the one I remember most fondly.  Several of the new handheld games have copied the style of SotN but I’m not sure any have truly improved upon it.  Oh, those games are good, but the crown still belongs to the game almost no one played when it was first released nearly 15 years ago.

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