Blair Farrell: I'm Damien the DM from adventures in Irelia, a collaborative storytelling experience told through a game of Dungeons and Dragons, part.
Chris Osborne: Of the Gunnageek network. Just like the show you're checking out.
Blair Farrell: Now, shows on the network are individually.
Chris Osborne: Owned, and opinions expressed may not reflect others find other epically geeky shows@Gunnageeknetwork.com. and welcome to play comics, where once again, we are here looking at a video game based on a comic property and how well it represents that source material. And today I am really, really excited because I have Blair Farrell here again to talk about some more wonderful things. You've heard him already talking about Catwoman and just all of the Tarak, the dinosaur hunter handheld roundup and a book that he wrote, the web of Spider man games. But today we are here to talk Batman and Blair, how are you today?
Blair Farrell: I'm doing good. On the day of this recording, it's Canada Day, so I've spent most of the day playing Luigi's mansion two and failing to stream because my xbox died.
Chris Osborne: That sounds horrible, but you got to play Luigi's mansion, so that's always a plus.
Blair Farrell: First time for me. I've only ever played three.
Chris Osborne: I'm in shock right now.
Blair Farrell: I played the first one, but I never finished it. And then I, um, three deciseconds. I only ever had a launch model, so it really hurt my giant hands, so none of that was comfortable for me. So now I just love it when things come on a I can sit down and enjoy it on my couch, on my tv.
Chris Osborne: Nice. But we're not here to talk Luigi's mansion today, we are here to talk the rise of Sin Tzu. So I just have to know, first off, what was it that made you jump on wanting to come on for another Batman character?
Blair Farrell: This game holds a special place in my heart. It came out in this crazy year for Ubisoft, it was the fall of 2003, so it was things like this and 13, the self shaded first person shooter, Prince of Persia Sands at time and beyond good and evil. And I don't think any of these games sold very well. In particular this one, because I picked it up for $29 about a month after release, and I bought it for my brother for Christmas. So on the holiday break, we just played through the entire thing together. And it's probably one of my favorite memories I have associated with a video game and my brother because we just, like, plowed through this and it made me go out and buy. I wanted my own copy, and I wish I bought the collector's edition and I had the Nightwing action figure, and I don't have it anymore, and I'm really kicking myself for not holding on to that.
Chris Osborne: That is so cool. You know, even for me, playing things with my brother growing up was always a lot of the funnest moments we had, especially moving over the summer. So I'm glad to hear that other people had similar experiences there, for sure.
Blair Farrell: And so when I saw on the list, I want to do really bad, and I even had the the companion novel, which I don't have my original copy, but I do have a very used library copy that I bought recently, so I wanted to try to read some of that before I got on the show. I didn't get very far, but it does provide some interesting context into the things that happen in this game surprisingly.
Chris Osborne: Well. Before we get into all that stuff, we do have to mention that this game is based on the super wonderful Batman animated series, although nominally it's the new Batman Adventures, which is just later seasons of that animated series anyway, and.
Blair Farrell: It came out at a time when the show had been off the air for a few years, I think. I'm not sure when Batman beyond ended, but this was in the era of Justice League. So for a tie in product to that show to come out this late, it's kind of surprising, and it makes me wonder. Sorry, I'm distracted by fireworks that are going off if this game was just the last in a contractual obligation from Ubisoft, even though they put in a lot of effort into this in a way, like hiring Jim Lee to come up with a brand new character, but then the game itself is just a competent 3d brawler, and that's all you really do, is scroll and punch people.
Chris Osborne: And for any younger listeners, you have to remember this came out in an era when once the show was off the air, it was pretty much gone, unless you'd gotten lucky and somebody decided it was time for syndication or you had copies of it that you either bought or taped off the tv yourself.
Blair Farrell: Or you found in a little streaming service called Kazaa Plus plus, which is dating myself hardcore right now.
Chris Osborne: I was more of a soul seek person.
Blair Farrell: Either way, we both ended up with viruses, probably.
Chris Osborne: Oh, definitely. And that's what reinstalling windows is for. But you mentioned they brought in Jim Lee to create a new character. I mean, that's a big deal because Jim Lee back then, just like he is now, just like he basically always has been. Jim Lee is a capital letter middle name, f all over the place. He's Jim Lee registered trademark.
Blair Farrell: And one of the things I love about this, because I played this last year as I found out it was backwards compatible on the original Xbox. So I had a PS two copy and then I bought an Xbox original copy of because there is incentive to replay it both with a friend and on your own. Because if you play on different difficulties, you earn tokens and you can use those to unlock bonuses. And one of those is like a pretty meaty behind the scenes featurette where they have. They talk with, like, the Ubisoft team and Jim Lee about the creation of the game and this new villainous. I'm really sad they don't have the, um, any of the actors. I'm not even gonna try to pronounce their name because I'm gonna butcher it. So I'll just say in a non dismissive way that the actor who plays Xin Zhu is the guy who played Shang Tsung in the 95 mortal Kombat movie. So that was, like, super amazing for me.
Chris Osborne: I am right there with you on not wanting to butcher names. I can't even get close right now. It has been a day, and I know with how my tongue has been working, it is not going to get close enough for anybody to know what I'm trying to say. And of course, being this era of Batman, you also have Kevin Conroy being Batman. Like, Kevin Conroy is Batman, period. The end. Close the book.
Blair Farrell: Yeah, it's going to be. I listen to a podcast called Justice League Revisited, and it's hosted, or co hosted, rather, by the voice of Wonder Woman, Susan Eisenberg. And she's constantly talking about, like, wouldn't it be great to see, like, a Justice League revival in the same way that Marvel did X Men 97? But I don't know how you do that without Kevin Conroy. Nothing short of something happens at Batman where his voice box gets punched out at the beginning and you can't talk because I wouldn't want to be the person who has to try to match that or slot in. Like, you're. You're not gonna have a good day in any of the recordings or any of the promotion afterwards, no matter how talented you are. Like, djerk Bader, even. Like, I would love to see him maybe slot in there, but I don't even know if he would want to do it.
Chris Osborne: This would be probably a harder move than replacing Uncle Iroh was in the last Airbender, even though with Batman, you could kind of use some multiversal stuff and, oh, this is a Batman from a different multiverse.
Blair Farrell: And it got me thinking about in the 2012 Ninja Turtles show, they switched voice actors from Jason Biggs to Seth Green for Leonardo. And they had a plot thing where they kind of did the farmhouse story from the comics. It's in the first Tiamnti movie where Leonardo gets so badly beat up that it affects his voice. And I almost thought about something like that. But then you have Batman beyond where we already know that Batman sounds like Kevin Condroy in the future, so you can't even do something like that.
Chris Osborne: I think it pretty much goes without saying that for both of us, whether we were watching Batman, the animated series as it was coming out, or if it's something that we picked up later in life, like that is pretty close to, if not our definitive Batman.
Blair Farrell: Yeah. Not just Batman, but as a human being in general. Like you hear the stories about, like on the Justice League podcast I just mentioned. They did an episode where they paid tribute to Kevin Conroy, and they had Phil Lemur and George Newbern, and they had Michael Rosenbaum come in and he filmed something because he couldn't do it and record it, rather. And all of them were just glowing about him and just talking about he wouldn't get up from a table at a con until everyone got to see him. And then there's that clip from I know that voice. I think the documentary is called where he was helping at Ground Zero during 911. So he was Batman both in and out of the recording booth, as far as I'm concerned.
Chris Osborne: I had to collect myself there for a minute because it's Kevin Conroy and that's just how it is with him.
Blair Farrell: Yeah, I did a podcast, shout out to games, my mom found. This is a show that I am on a fair bit, and we did a the animated series tribute episode, and I'm glad that the host, Mike Alperton, left the bid in, where I just openly started sobbing at the end thinking about the holiday nights episode. And I have to stop myself as I'm gonna do it again, where him and commissioner Gordon are like, hopefully we'll be doing this again next year. And that was a year that it wasn't going to happen, that next year. Well, thank God for Blu ray and dvd, is all I can say.
Chris Osborne: There are actually other characters in this game, and it's one of the few ones that we've looked at on the show, as well as the few ones that exist anyway, where you get to play as Batgirl. You can also play as Robin or Nightwing. So you've got that four person team there and it. It's a really nice change to have a Batman game that is both competent. I'm going to set the bar there and also be able to be somebody besides Batmandhood.
Blair Farrell: Yeah. The only downside I'll say about that is the game has pre recorded cinemas. So if you play single player like I did, I finished this, I did two sessions on stream and I got through to the end. So if you pick Nightwing, he doesn't have a different story. Like, each of them have a few lines when they get into a level, but the cutscenes will always be Batman, which could have helped with some replay value. But I know this was before the era of in game cinematics, really. So this was all pre recorded to always be Batman. I guess they assume all player one were going to be Batman, but on stream, I played as nightwing because I think I played as Batman last year. But some of the faster characters, like in particular Batgirl, are really fun to.
Chris Osborne: Play, as I usually like those faster characters anyway. You've got just something about it that just fits better with me. I think it's because you've got a little bit of a chance to sit there and kind of reevaluate and actually pick up a new strategy going into things. But also, I just. I like being characters that don't get ton of games. You know, if I want to be Batman, I can grab a anything. So if I'm gonna be playing this, I want to be somebody who's not Batman.
Blair Farrell: And it's almost what I mean, we have things like the Lego games and even the Arkham games to some extent, where you can play as other characters, but it wasn't really till night where it was part of the story. So it wasn't until what, Gotham Knights and almost 20 years later where you had the opportunity to play as Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, and have it actually have story moments for them. You know, that one didn't have Batman at all. And it's divisive. It's okay. I've reevaluated. I've come to terms with it.
Chris Osborne: Oh, we're gonna let our personal character choices sit here and stew while I dropped some promos for a few other things. Welcome, fellow lumineers, to quest for five, your guide to the enchanting world of Disney Lorcana, where your hosts, I'm faith, and with me is my co host.
Blair Farrell: Michael Quest for five is a true fan podcast for the Disney Lorcana trading card game. We're no experts, but we are dedicated players who love to talk about the game.
Chris Osborne: So join us while we cover the latest Lorcana news, community stories, and so much more. And every other week we watch a new Disney or Pixar movie and share.
Blair Farrell: Our favorite new card ideas that we think should be in the game.
Chris Osborne: Stay tuned for lots of exciting stuff, and thanks for checking out quest for five. Until next time, keep summing, questing, and may your inkwells never run dry.
Blair Farrell: Video games are a unique medium. They can tell stories, immerse us in strange, fantastic worlds, blur the very boundaries of our reality. But at the end of the day, video games are fun. Whatever fun is to you.
Chris Osborne: I'm Jeff Moonan.
Blair Farrell: And I am Matt, aka Stormageddon.
Chris Osborne: And on fun and games, we talk about the history, trends and community of video games.
Blair Farrell: It's a celebration of all the games we play and all the fun we find within them.
Chris Osborne: And there's so many more games out there, so we hope you'll share in that conversation with us. Fun and Games podcast with Matt and Jeff.
Blair Farrell: Find us on certainpov.com or wherever you.
Chris Osborne: Get your podcasts and happy gaming. Those are some great things to check out. But first, let's finish up here. So, Blair, as we said, this game, the Rise of Xinzhu, came out later in 2003. Produced, developed, published, all that fun stuff by Ubisoft. I could have written down exactly which studio, but then I would have 5000 different Ubisofts listed here and I just don't feel like having that.
Blair Farrell: I'm pretty sure it was just Ubisoft Montreal at that point. It wasn't like Assassin's free where they needed an entire planet to build the game. I think it was just the Montreal team. I could be wrong, though.
Chris Osborne: Well, that is just super appropriate timing on a recording then being Canada day and all.
Blair Farrell: For sure. I have two copies. I'm trying to see if one of them has a manual. Oh, and it does. Um, sometimes they have the credits in here. Ah, it doesn't. Ah, well, I'm just gonna assume it's Ubisoft Montreal.
Chris Osborne: That's what Wikipedia does. They're kind of hit and miss on some of these super weird, end of nerdy things.
Blair Farrell: Yeah, I just know it was before the era where you needed a village or a world to build a game. This is probably like a C team in the back somewhere doing the licensed Batman game while the main people do your splinter cells, your prince of Persias and whatnot.
Chris Osborne: This game was released on the GameCube PS two Xbox and a slightly different version on Game Boy advance, which makes perfect sense because Game Boy advance cant exactly do the same things that those big Boy home consoles can do.
Blair Farrell: And I have played it, its repetitive and frustrating and you only get to play as Batman do not recommend at least because they did the Batman Vengeance game also, but actually that had more playable characters as I know there was Euclida's robin in the GBA game for that who wasn't in Batman vengeance and consoles at all. And I think Batgirl, you may have been able to play as Batgirl though I'm not sure, but I know in that she was basically just tapping away at a computer.
Chris Osborne: This game has a brand new big villain Xinzhu, who was created by Jim Lee specifically for this game. Xinzhu has appeared in other things since then in the comics and stuff, but not really grown as big as some other character you might have heard of that originated in the animated series. You know, Harley Quinn, I don't know if that rings a bell to anybody, but, you know, this is a character that just didn't cling on quite as well. But I think works well enough for this game, especially considering it's a brand new story that they're introducing him to in a game where they can't really control the narrative 100%.
Blair Farrell: Yeah, and I, I don't know how hard it is to speak to people with an Ubisoft, but I would desperately love to speak with someone about this because as I was going through it, it felt at the same time like a contractual obligation to get rid of a license. But at the same time, this multimedia push, like we're doing a novel and we're doing, we're getting Jim Lee to get a new character because I mean, Batman has never not been popular, but around 2003, like, the license wasn't a on fire like it is now. Like we mentioned, animated series is off the air just as Luke is on the air. Batman beyond possibly over and begins is not for another two years. So there's no cartoon, there's no live action film, there's comics, of course, but Batman isn't in the zeitgeist. Like it would be just even two.
Chris Osborne: Years later to think of a time period where there's basically relatively no Batman. Like, I know you're never going to completely get rid of Batman, but you've got a lot of people who are into Batman, Spider Man, Superman especially, that their entire experience with it is tv shows and movies and video games and making a Batman game. I think will always make sense. But making one so heavily based on a tv show that is maybe not even findable for people to get that background knowledge of, I mean, that's definitely a choice.
Blair Farrell: I think it's a way to kind of catch a net for a large audience because teenagers, and like, I was in my almost twenties when this came out, so I grew up with that show, and there was probably kids who grew up with it. And it's only a t rated game, so they can get more people to buy it because it's not mature and it's easy to understand. Although like I mentioned at the top, it is like a 3d brawler. Like your, your final fights, your streets of rage, actually more so a fighting force, which is coming back, apparently. And it's pretty challenging on normal, but that's mostly due to the obnoxious time limits. So when I always play this, I always play it on easy, but then you don't get the tokens you need to unlock stuff. So it's kind of a pain in the butt that way.
Chris Osborne: The basic plot for this game is that Sun Tzu has appeared and he lets a bunch of people out of jail and out of Arkham. And Batman and his bat family have to go stop everything so that they could stop Xinzhu so that Gotham is not thrown into a completely hell world.
Blair Farrell: Existence in a stretch. It's almost a nightfall scenario where it's, we're gonna throw everything in Batman to kind of wear him out. Because in the novel, they talk about how he broke a bunch of people out of Black Gate. Like, using his mystical powers, he was able to communicate with everyone to stage this massive breakout. And even gets into why he selected the villains that he did because he mentions, oh, I could pick the Joker, but the Joker is way too unpredictable. I need, like, generals I can control on the battlefield, like chess pieces. So I thought that was interesting. But then you have to go sync up the companion novel to what is effectively an arcade game.
Chris Osborne: And who you end up getting out in the game is Scarecrow, Clayface, and Bane. And I mean, that's a pretty solid, albeit mainstream, dream set of Batman villains to have as bosses in the game.
Blair Farrell: And like we already mentioned in length about Kevin Conroy, but some of the heavy hitters on the villain side, I'm not familiar with who boys Bane in the new animated series. I know some people probably sharpening their pitchforks, but Jeffrey Combs is backed as Scarecrow and Ron Perlman as Clayface. Tara Strong is Batgirl. And the, I think it's not the same actor as Robin, I think, is the person from teen titans taking over around this time. He was probably too old sounding for the recording.
Chris Osborne: Well, that makes perfect sense too, because 2003 is when teen titans came out, so they had to have known before that who the actor was going to be. So, yeah, just go ahead and make the continuity work. Yeah, we've kind of alluded to a little bit of how this game actually goes. You're going through the levels and your objectives are pretty much either save people or beat up villains or a third thing that is basically the same thing in all practical purposes.
Blair Farrell: Yeah, diffuse bombs and all are activated by walking next to something and then your time limit goes up because you're racing a clock. More so than. That's where the real challenge comes, is making sure you get rid of everything before the clock ticks down to zero. Because if it does, then you lose a life. Like, I think I tried to play this on normal sometime last year and I was in the final area and now this is a PS two Xbox GameCube game. And I was playing on normal and I just could not beat the Arkham asylum area and I couldn't dial the difficulty back down. I had to start the whole thing from the beginning.
Chris Osborne: Oh, that sucks.
Blair Farrell: I would kind of describe this game as the anti Batman vengeance because I feel the way I describe Batman vengeance, which is this fame's immediate predecessor, is a bunch of people got into a meeting and said, what game are we gonna make? It's like, oh, a platformer, a fighting game, a driving game, a first person shooter, and then someone says, guys, guys, guys, you're all right. We're doing all of them. And it makes for an interesting and diverse experience. But it's also a little bit unfocused. Whereas this is just squarely moving upwards, fighting some guys, clicking onto a bomb or a person, going forward, fighting some more guys, and fighting one of the bosses that we mentioned.
Chris Osborne: It's really weird because you have Batman as such dumb ersh character. You can have Detective Batman or sneaky around Ninja Batman, or like you have here fight your way and punch your way through everything Batman. And most of the time you get a little bit of mixture in that in other Batman games, even if it's not a main focus. But this is just straight up, let's go punchy Batman. And I mean, I like that. I have no problem with that. I just kind of wish that it was. Had a couple things. Like even the Nes Batman was okay, let's sneak around some enemies, if you don't want to fight them, kind of thing going on.
Blair Farrell: Yes, you even have a few gadgets, but in my experience, they're mostly useless. Like, the. The Batarang is effective once you, because you can, you earn currency and you can buy new moves. And the combat system is actually pretty robust. Like, it's a lot of timing. Like, you have to hit, punch, punch, then wait, and then punch again, or punch, punch, then wait, then kick. And if you don't time it right, then you miss. So it engages you on that level. But then you throw in, like, smoke pellets and a grappling hook. But the grappling hook is just a pointless little swing kick that does nothing. Like, the Batarangs are good. Cause eventually they can ricochet around and electrocute people, so you can stun them and get your combo higher. But I remember my brother and I bought the grappling hook for the sole purpose of, at the end, when you have to go into the bat circle, we would time it and go one, two, three, and just swing into it just for a dramatic effect. That's the only thing that we can find a use of that tool for.
Chris Osborne: I can admit, though, that is a pretty good use for it.
Blair Farrell: Outside of that, like, I think you. Only the, um, I think you have smoke pellets, which eventually evolve into flash pellets, but it's almost too cumbersome to flick between the three of them. Like, you do it on the right. Analog stick. I believe I just finished this last week, and I already forgot, but I just always stuck to my batarangs. Like, that was the best tool for me.
Chris Osborne: As you're going through this one, what does it really get right about Batman?
Blair Farrell: I think the world, I think this is a much better looking game than vengeance. I know when I first saw that in magazines, and people say it now, like, it looks like the cartoon, but I think some of the models in that don't age well, where in this, they're really sharp. Like, it looks like they translated them, like, darn near perfectly from 2d characters in the 3d. So I like the atmosphere and the world. The character design, of course, he's already talking about the. The acting. Other than that, I mean, it's. I mean, there's so little else because it's just like, Batman is a trained fighter, and you get lots of that, and he has gadgets. You get some of that, and that's all we're really doing here.
Chris Osborne: This one is, I think, great. Like, the perfect image of Batman where an image is you're taking a screenshot of the game because those individual moments of everything, I mean, it looks just like the cartoon would look. Like you said, everybody that is in there looks exactly how you would think they should look. They. They're not doing anything ever outside of some weird gameplay things that I'll always give a pass to that you wouldn't expect them as a character to do. It's like everybody focused so much on the aesthetics of it that they kind of forgot to make the gameplay feel like Batman.
Blair Farrell: Yeah. And I mean, it's interesting, the world we live in now where games have five, six, seven year turnarounds, and this was probably turned around in a year or two, maybe even less. But something I'll give it credit for, even though it's, you know, a simple brawler. I liked how kind of the. The thugs for the enemies change. Like, in particular the scarecrow ones at the beginning, because they have, like, the fear gas bombs. So they'll just be regular criminals, but then the bomb will go off and everything just. They'll turn into weird Halloween monsters. And then in the clayface area, it's almost like extensions of him as opposed to an army, per se.
Chris Osborne: Yeah, that part is just so cool and feels so much like what scarecrow would be doing if you were finding this story in a comic.
Blair Farrell: And even the boss fight, because it's really tricky, because it's like the toxin is in the air and you have to follow. You can't see him. You just kind of have to follow his footsteps. And then once you punch him, that makes him visible. Then that's of the four. Like, that's probably my. My favorite. Bane almost is like a rhino boss fight, where it's like, make him run into a wall, which is something like, bane is like this brilliant tactician, but it's like, okay, we're gonna rhino you into, like, a thing so I can then punch you.
Chris Osborne: What do you think this one really gets wrong about Batman?
Blair Farrell: Well, I think we've kind of touched on it where it's like, Batman is a cerebral ninja tactician detective, and you only get the, like, the brawler in this. Like, there's no stealth levels, there's no figuring something out, there's no driving. Even the bonus area. Like, you have arenas that you can kind of play after you finish it. It's just more fighting of the same guys. So it's just one part of what makes Batman great for me.
Chris Osborne: I kind of back to your thoughts of why was this made? I'm kind of twisting it around for like, who saw this game that was being worked on by Ubisoft and thought, oh crap, we need to have a Batman game and just slapped a Batman skin on it. Because this thing, like, it's an alright game. But I feel like people might, I don't know if they would remember it better or worse if it didn't have the Batman name on it. Because we're definitely remembering it because it's Batman, but because it's Batman, we have all these expectations for how good it should be and it's not really there.
Blair Farrell: And it's interesting, it's not only are we talking about it because we remember it, but one of the additional writers on Gotham Knights, their name is Ashley Cooper, or they're working on the Iron man game right now at EA motive. And if you dig into the emails in Gotham nights, they snuck in Sinzu references. Like, there's lines taken wholesale from the cutscenes that are in the emails. You have to dig around to, like, all the characters. I'm not sure where they are, but they're in there. So the fact that this game lives on in another Batman game developed in Canada is something that kind of makes me really happy.
Chris Osborne: It's just in this really weird space of, I want to say it's garbage, but it looks so good. I mean, it's almost like the garbage food at the bar that, you know, is horrible for you and you're gonna feel bad the next morning, but it tastes so good and you're gonna eat it anyway.
Blair Farrell: Yeah. It's a highly recommendable six five if you're into the license. If you're not, then there's not a lot here for you.
Chris Osborne: I mean, speaking of that, if you had somebody who wanted to get into Batman, ignore all the other games that exist because there's obviously better choices, but would you give them rise of xin Tzu as a bit of a primer course for Batman?
Blair Farrell: I think I would. Because one of the things I would recommend to anyone if they wanted to know where to start would be the animated series. Like, if you want a primer on every single villain, what makes them important, why they're so iconic, how they relate to this person, like this hero. That's what I would give anyone. Just go get a dvd box set, go subscribe to HBO Max or whatever. It's wherever it's streaming in your region. And this is something like, if you had like a younger player, where it's, oh, yeah, I really love that cartoon. Like, well, here's this thing that's an extension of that, then it's easy to pick up and understand. Dial it down to easy. You hit a few buttons, you're punching some bad guys. Like, it's a almost called, like a younger brother or younger sibling game. It's like, you know, if you have kids, it's like, oh, yeah, my daddy's gonna be Batman, or mom's gonna be Batman. You can go be Robin or Batgirl or someone else, or even you can be Batman, I'll be someone else. Like, that co op is something, and it really bums me out that it's only two players. And I'm not sure if that's a limitation on the hardware of the time or if it's because the PlayStation two was too much of a headache because you had to get the multitap, because the Ninja Turtles game that came out based on that cartoon came out around the same time. That was also only two players, and it was until the second go around where you can play four players in a 3d brawler. So maybe that's what it was. But I mean, I can only imagine having a Gamecube and four controllers and four people who love this license and playing this game, how much fun that would be.
Chris Osborne: The co op, I think, is what makes it something able to give to people. Like, I don't know if I would want to give this to somebody as a single player thing, but I would for sure definitely sit there and play it with them, you know, and then we talk about stuff as it comes up or we don't, you know, just kind of see what happens. But just the co op there, just like the Batman family. I mean, Batman needs his people. So whoever I'm going to be sharing this with, they need their people, too, which is going to be me. And it also means I get to play with them and, you know, I playing games, so that makes it fun.
Blair Farrell: And if you have an Xbox 361 that works, unlike mine, apparently, and a second controller, this isn't a very expensive game, I think I went to look it up because I know a lot of these licensed games now are going up in price. Like, the Marvel ones are like, shatter dimensions, web of shadows, things like that are $100 now. It's absolutely insane. But I still think this is inexpensive. So, like, if you have a 360 lying around or if you're just buying one now to play some games that you love, like, it just. It just works. And it works well because, I mean, I played it on stream when my Xbox worked without a hitch.
Chris Osborne: And finally, if you were going to pick one muppet to join the bat family here, which Muppet would you pick?
Blair Farrell: Oh, Sam the eagle, maybe because he's just so, so serious and focused. Like, you wouldn't have animal. Like, he's just too crazy. He would hang out with, like, the joker. Like, he would be like, harley's like, pet. They would hang out and they would probably get rid of the hyenas. But, like, Sam the eagle maybe just like someone who's like, very dedicated and stoic and serious. And that's what I think of when I think of that character, that Muppethen.
Chris Osborne: Oh, I didn't even think about him. Would you finally get Batman telling somebody to lighten up?
Blair Farrell: Probably.
Chris Osborne: Well, Blair, it has been great talking to you about all of this. If people want to hear more from you, where else can they find you around the Internet?
Blair Farrell: Um, you can look up my name, or you can search Blarcade. That's what I am on most socials because there's like four or five now. I don't know which ones are not permitted. I think I'm still most actively on Twitter or X. You can go read my work, including my review of this that I wrote, I think, before Arkham Knight came out on comicbookvideongames.com. and you can find me streaming games like this as of this year on Twitch TV, Blarcade streaming all types of retro superhero games. I just did Spider man two because that turned 20 years old, and the NES Batmandeh, the Genesis Batman game, the Punisher. We had some Ninja Turtles games coming up, and 20th anniversary of catwoman, so look forward to that.
Chris Osborne: And as always, we'll have links to all that down in the show notes because clicking links is so much easier than trying to remember how to spell things. Also, as always, if you want to know where to find me, the best place to do that is over on playcomics.com where there's links to all the social media things. Right now it's mostly just Twitter because, I don't know, it's a thing and a place, and I'm stuck in my ways. Like a hermity old man who is stuck in his ways. If you want to join this Hermity old man on the show, then there is a link down in the show notes where you can find a list of the games that I am looking to get booked the soonest because they're older or, you know, just older relative to the other things on the list mostly. Or I miss them because there's some other older things in there. But, you know, check that list out and, you know, there's some ways on that page where you can keep informed on what's coming up. Cool things like that. If you want to help support the show, then the best way to do that is to tell a friend about it. Or you can be like, oh, no, look class or Dan McMahon and give the show money because that is a thing that needs to happen for podcasts. But you just mostly tell friends about it. Leave reviews, all that fun stuff. Don't forget that play comics is a part of the Guinea Geek.com network, home to such wonderful, geeky shows as Legends of S H I E l D. That's cool, mostly because I'm on it, and right now we're going through evolution. Eventually we're going to pick back up and look at Agatha after all, because after all, Agatha will be out and that it's just a thing that we will be doing. If you like the music that I'm rudely talking on top of right now, head on over to backingtrack GG to check out the great music that backing track is making. But mostly just grab a game, grab a stack of comics and go find yourself a new favorite character. And welcome to play comics, where once again we are here looking at a video game based on a comic property, and my mic dropped down. Which way is left.