Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu Review

Developer	Ubi Soft
Publisher	Ubi Soft
Genre	Action

Over the past twenty years, the video game world hasn’t been incredibly kind to the Dark Knight. In fact, game designers have been downright insulting to Batman’s legacy and Batman’s fans. To be fair, they didn’t decide to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, but that’s a rant for another article. This generation of consoles has had its ups and downs in Gotham City. From Ubi Soft’s own Batman: Vengeance, which adequately immersed gamers in the world of the Warner cartoon, to Kemco’s despicable Batman: Dark Tomorrow, a game whose bitter taste still hasn’t left the lips of this reviewer.

Hopes were high then when it was announced that Ubi Soft, a developer who had handily resurrected the Prince of Persia franchise, would once again be handling the gaming exploits of the world’s greatest detective. However, rather than feeding fans loads of bat gadgets and gritty underworld mayhem, what we’ve received is a dumbed-down, button-mashing brawler similar to this year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.

Gameplay - Sometimes one has to wonder whether or not game developers read Batman comics before embarking upon a Batman game. Batman is feared. Batman is mysterious. And even the somewhat watered-down Warner cartoon this game is based on doesn’t depict Batman punching and kicking through wave after wave of mindless, though somehow incredibly brave street goons. Once again, a figure intended to strike fear into the hearts of the lowly criminal is represented as bumbling, clumsy, and a fair match for your average purse snatcher.

In Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu, your mission is to press the X button repeatedly in order to pound cloned villain after cloned villain, rescuing a set number of civilians who magically free themselves once you touch their captors. Somehow along the way, you’ll unravel the story behind your new nemesis, Sin Tzu. While the developers have thrown in a load of little features and items to unlock, the gameplay never really rises above this simple premise. The enemies are slow-witted, brutish, grunting morons so scratch any hopes you had for at least experiencing some interesting hand-to-hand combat. Sure, you can kick, jump, and even pick up your enemies, and as you progress through the game you’ll earn more moves with your points, but why bother when incessantly mashing the X button will do the job?

Ubi was kind enough to mix things up a bit by allowing up to two players to play as either Batman, Robin, Nightwing, or Batgirl as well as throwing in a Challenge Mode. This somewhat shallow feature requires you to pass certain objectives like Beat the Thugs, Beat the Clock, Last Man Standing, and Pick Up Monger. The game also has some somewhat interesting unlockables in the Trophy Room and Bonus Feature sections, although unlocking these features will require you to play the snot out of the main game. And when unlocking a small bit of concept art or a 3D model of your favorite character costs 12,000 points, the value of this feature is diminished greatly.

Unfortunately, the enemy bosses are some of the lesser-known Batman rivals. Scarecrow, Clayface, and Bane just don’t have the name recognition of the Joker, Penguin, and the Riddle. And Sin Tzu, the villain created specifically for this game, just isn’t all that compelling; at least not as he’s portrayed in the game.

Graphics - Like Batman: Vengeance, the look of Rise of Sin Tzu is lifted directly from the Warner animated series. It has a dark, 40s gangster appearance and is easily the best aspect of the entire game as Gotham City has never looked better in a videogame. Also, the scenes between levels are identical in style and presentation to the show and do a great job of helping you forget about the somewhat dismal gameplay.

The characters themselves are also wonderfully portrayed, although the cloning of the goons gets a little annoying after a while. When every other bad guy looks alike, it’s hard to stay interested from a visual standpoint. The game also features some neat flame and smoke effects and the wind blowing through Batman’s cape is also impressive.

Visually, Rise of Sin Tzu is easily the best Batman game to date.

Sound - What would a Batman game be without whacks, bams, and biffs? The sound effects are surprisingly varied and there’s enough diversity that listening to a street thug get pummeled never gets old. The soundtrack is also very appropriate and captures the gritty feel of the Gotham City streets with a techno-like beat.

The voice acting is also top-notch and right on par with the animated series. Kudos to Ubi Soft for nailing this portion of the game as each of the characters sound distinctively like their television counterparts.

Bottom Line - While the audio and visual departments have been done in exemplary fashion, I just can’t let the game off the hook for its gameplay. No, it’s not nearly as bad as Kemco’s travesty, but there’s nothing compelling about it. Having all of the unlockable moves and techniques means nothing if there’s no real need to have them there. As mentioned above, simply mashing the X button will get you from start to finish with little trouble.

Why developers cannot nail the true essence of Batman is a complete mystery and Ubi Soft has actually taken a step back from the admirable job they did with Vengeance. The game plays similarly to Konami’s throwback Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle title from earlier this fall. However, while TMNT had the benefit of the nostalgia factor, there has never been a great Batman game.

Batman fans, let’s pray for that day to come.

Review by John Luedtke