Plot summary: Batman races to rescue Robin and Jim Gordon from an alliance of Gotham’s most notorious criminals, powered by the finest graphics video game consoles could manage in 1995.

(Originally published on The Reel World May 15th, 2021)

Notes

Release Date: July 1995

Directed: Bruce Timm

Written: Paul Dini

Animation: Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., LTD

Music: Jesper Kyd

Given the enormous popularity of the show, a tie-in video game was obvious. Produced by Konami, The Adventures of Batman & Robin was originally released on the SNES in 1994, and got decent reviews, with the audio/visual component praised.

What we’re more interested in here is the version released for Sega-CD in 1995, as it featured a number of short cut-scenes between levels, directed by Bruce Timm, written by Paul Dini, and animated by TMS. It also featured a number of voice actors from the show. Because of all this, fans dubbed an edited together version of these videos ‘The Lost Episode’.

As video game censorship rules are different to those of TV, the fight scenes are a touch more violent, if that’s the kind of thing that excites you.

You can watch the whole 16-minutes here thing here:

Recap

Batman stands ominously in the Batcave before receiving an alert that something is going down at a bank, speeding off in the Batmobile to investigate.

After dealing with some henchwomen, Batman is attacked by a crossbow-happy Poison Ivy. She tosses out a small plant that quickly grows into an enormous bipedal tree monster, allowing her to casually stroll away while Bats chops it down to size. With an axe and everything.

Running Ivy off the road, she teases a larger challenge ahead. Harvey Bullock arrives to confirm Robin & Jim Gordon have been kidnapped and then leads Ivy away in handcuffs.

Deducing from Ivy’s cryptic message that The Riddler is involved, Bruce confronts Nygma in a toy store. Distracting our hero with a metal decoy, Nygma is able to force a VR headset onto him, taking us back to a version of his cyberspace from ‘What is Reality?’

Defeating Riddler’s game, Bats breaks free and knocks him out. Rescuing Jim Gordon, he learns Joker is holding Robin at an abandoned amusement park. Duh.

First dispatching Harley Quinn, Batman navigates a gauntlet of exploding bumper cars, rescues Robin and makes short work of Joker in a fistfight.

Deducing Rupert Thorne arranged the evening’s events, Batman & Robin take to the skies and assault his battleship. Yep. A battleship. Only when they confront Rupes it turns out it’s Clayface in disguise!

The Dynamic Duo catch a beating but are able to force Clayface topside where he uses a gun for some reason. Batman responds in kind, blowing a hole in him with one of the ship’s canons!

Clayface escapes in a helicopter so our heroes give chase in the Batwing and manage to shoot him down, with Gotham bay causing him to melt like in ‘Mudslide’, only we actually see it this time and he doesn’t look like he’s having a great time!

The End!

Best Performance

Lending their talents: Kevin Conroy, Loren Lester, Bob Hastings, Robert Costanzo, Mark Hamill, Arleen Sorkin, John Glover, Ron Perlman, Diane Pershing and John Vernon. Though not in any of the cut-scenes, Adrienne Barbeau also appeared in the game as Catwoman.

Nobody appears long enough to stand out, but everybody’s work is about on par with the series. Let’s go with Mark Hamill for old time’s sake.

‘Episode’ Review

Look. It’s not really an episode, and it barely makes sense without the interstitial gameplay elements, but it’s kind of cool they made an attempt given the technical limitations of the era. Speaking of which, it obviously looks and sounds clunkier than even the worst episodes of the show, but the dialogue is surprisingly well mixed/produced.

Batman murdering Ivy’s plant creature is shockingly violent, and while they mostly use silhouette to portray it, there’s buckets of green ‘blood’ flying everywhere.

Clayface using a gun seems out of character given he’s a walking weapon, and for many, Batman using even a ship’s canon is breaking his cardinal rule.

Video games fundamentally have to last longer than TV episodes and even movies, so there’s a compulsion to include as many characters as possible at the expense of a more focused and satisfying story. Yes, I’m also taking shots at the Arkham series. Are those games really good? Yep! But are their stories as good as what you can find here in BTAS? Nope!

Rogues Roundup

Again, an incomplete picture as we’re purely talking about the ‘episode’ content, but the big names all seem pretty fun, in particular Poison Ivy and Riddler.

Apparently The Penguin was planned for inclusion but got due to deadlines.