by Billy Wang

Games about superheroes have always been a hard narrative to properly achieve and portray. A lot of past superhero games tanked because they failed to properly connect a fun experience with a good storyline and gameplay. Sure, you can play Superman and beat 10,000 enemies but that will get tiring after a while.

On the flip side, who would want to play a superhero with no powers!

With that said, Batman Arkham City finally achieved the mecca of pure video gaming bliss. Top notchpresentation, excellent voice acting, an engaging story, precise yet not difficult gameplay and an itemcollectible system that definitely rivals its predecessor. Right off the bat though, once you immediately get into Arkham City, the game is definitely going to assume you have played Arkham Asylum. With that said, a lot of established gameplay mechanics are carried over to the sequel with little explanation.

In the DC Universe, it’s claimed that Batman is the best pure martial artist. In Arkham City, unleashing his fury on foes and enemies alike comes so natural, thanks to the game's signature combo/counter melee combat system. Expanded in the sequel were the number of animations and fighting moves available to the Dark Knight. Even after submitting 25+ hours into the game and destroying countless foes, I still see a new takedown, face punch of a body thrown into a wall that makes me smile.

New combat additions include multiple/simultaneous counters, the ability to counter thrown objects and improved usage of gadgets during combat. One addition I really liked was the very powerful multi-strike beat-downs. It was an unlockable perk, which earning a combat multiplayer, you can pull-off an insanemulti-strike combo that would instantly incapacitate an enemy; very useful for taking out that tricky foe, compared to Arkham Asylum, Arkham City is around five times larger. You'll be traversing through a vast number of areas, many of which were designed to reflect the different gangs whom inhabit them -- thus creating new challenges to the player.

What's Batman without his gadgets? Players familiar with the first game will know that the deliberate passing of Arkham Asylum was necessary for the game's presentation. But in the sequel, you're given several gadgets right off the bat, including the batarangs, explosive gel and the hacking sequencer. Thanks to some good gameplay design, every time you're given a new gadget, there will be immediate gameplay areas to try them out on. The only gadget I had trouble fumbling with was the remote control Batarang; I must have thrown at least 10 of them before finally hitting my mark.

There are a wide number of classic villains and supporting characters from the vast Batman universe. All of your favorite major players are showcased in Arkham City, complete with awesome voice acting, excellent animations, stunning cinematics and great story telling. Every time a new villain appeared on screen, I was smiling. Lastly, many villains are incorporated within the game's number of side missions.

I have to say that The Mad Hatter's appearance was VERY memorable and pretty unexpected. Unfortunately while all of the featured characters were very cool to see on-screen, I feel that as a whole, there wasn't one character that stood out and was totally awesome, like the Scarecrow from the first game.

I would give Arkham City my game of the year. It's not overly difficult, yet there are a lot of challenges and extra gameplay modes to satisfy your hunger. At the same time, if you're not into completing all of the extra things or collecting every last trophy, there is still over 30 hours of gameplay for the game.

Arkham Asylum was a rare gem in the world of gaming. Arkham City successfully adhered to all of the reasons why Arkham Asylum was great and added plenty of its own. Not only is Arkham City a wonderful sequel in itself, it's also a fantastic and fabulous game; rivaling films or books.

Score: 5 Wing-wangs out of 5

Developer: Rocksteady Studios

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii U, OS X
Genre: Action/Adventure