There’s a lot about Batman: Arkham Asylum the fandom loves, but the Joker boss fight isn’t one of them. Considering that the Joker is meant to be Bats' greatest enemy, the battle lacks lustre and makes for a disappointing conclusion to a “masterpiece” of a game.
Maybe this is why most gamers hail Batman: Arkham City as the best of the trilogy...? After all, it widens the scope of villainous intent thanks to the inmates terrifying citizens. Not forgetting how epic most of the boss battles were, and that poignant ending to the Joker and Batman’s problematic relationship.
Anyone who hasn't played Batman Arkham Asylum is missing out on a truly incredible game.
But the Joker in Arkham Asylum? Well, he ruins the atmosphere of the entire game with his mutated boss fight. Described as “tonal whiplash”, it went against the grit of what had gone before, leaving fans with a revamped version of the “giant Titans mooks” we’d battled earlier. It had no substance, no meat for us to sink our teeth into.
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Even those who can understand why it was included still aren’t sold on it suiting the tone of the narrative nor Joker’s character. “Did it make sense within the plot of the game? Sure, we had seen they had been doing experiments with Bane, and you'd already fought Venom infused Minions. But it was so weird,” argued one fan.
Another continued with this thread of thought saying, “If it was a different villain it might make a bit more sense, but giant rampaging punch beast is wildly out of character for the Joker.”
Arguably, this is the main issue here: Joker wouldn’t behave this way. Anyone who’s read the DC comics and/or watched the animated series – a series regarded as the best depiction of Batman – has to agree that Joker is many things, but he isn’t one to wildly experiment on himself.
We expected more from the Joker, as JOHNSONBURGER on Reddit explains so well, “It was like I didn't even fight Joker. I fought his minions the whole time and shot the batclaw into his back three times to pull him down to the platform to hit him once each time. Poison Ivy was a harder boss than Joker.”
Featured Image Credit: Eidos InteractiveTopics: Batman, DC, PlayStation, Warner Bros, Xbox, Nintendo