We’ve had some pretty good superhero games the last few years, and it feels like the genre’s in a mostly solid place nowadays. That didn’t always used to be the case back in the ’90s and early 2000s, particularly when it came to Batman. Like other games at the time starring high-profile heroes, there were some decent ones, but they didn’t always capture the character’s complete essence or appeal. Spider-Man and X-Men had semi-foundational games in Spider-Man 2 and X-Men Legends II, but the Dark Knight’s didn’t really come until Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The game was originally released August 25, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and Rocksteady Studios and Warner Bros. went out of their way to sell it as definitive for Batman in the medium. With an original story and universe instead of being based on the films or the classic Animated Series, and the inclusion of that show’s writer Paul Dini and its voice acting trio of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Mark Hamill, Asylum looked to be doing everything right. And at the time, it pretty much did: critical and commercial acclaim followed, along with numerous end of year awards and a Guinness World Record for the best-reviewed superhero game ever. Bad boss fights couldn’t steal its thunder, and it’s well-regarded as one of (if not the) best superhero game of all time.
Games released during the PS3/360 era can either be fairly timeless or dated as hell, and Arkham Asylum is definitely the former. I replayed the game over the last few weeks (thanks, Return to Arkham!), and it’s as great now as it was back in 2009. You wouldn’t know this was Rocksteady’s second game; it carries itself with remarkable confidence. From the very beginning, it paces itself pretty well. The blend of combat and stealth still works, and it’s always satisfying to clear a room or get a new gadget that opens up the asylum just a little bit more. Biased as it is to say, yeah, Batman: Arkham Asylum is really that good and still holds up 15 years later, minus the boss fights and the dated designs for Harley and Poison Ivy.
Arkham Asylum released at a key moment in the character’s history as a brand. When the game came out, it’d been over a year since The Dark Knight became one of the biggest Batman movies ever, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold was airing its first season on Cartoon Network. He’s always been a popular character, but the late 2000s definitely gave him a big profile boost. The world got Bat-fever all over again, and Rocksteady’s Arkham series became a key part of that whole endeavor. (There’s even a subreddit devoted to a nonexistent fourth mainline game.) Its influence on its source material may not be as easily mappable as Spider-Man after his 2018 game, but even just having Tara Strong replace Sorkin as Harley from 2011’s Arkham City onward shows the waves these games were making.
In a larger video game context, Asylum cast a much larger shadow. Nearly every action-adventure game (major or otherwise) in the past 15 years has something that could be traced back to Arkham Asylum. Whether it’s flowing, counter and stun-heavy combat, a vision mode that lets characters see through walls, or sneaking around and doing silent takedowns, they all share some DNA with Rocksteady’s series. The most obvious examples are Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, which borrow enough on a mechanical and intent level from Arkham that they’re contemporaries, and Monolith’s Middle-earth: Shadow duology. Even recent Batman games like Gotham Knights and Rocksteady’s own Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League from this year drew comparisons to the Arkham games, just with way less grace given.
Even with all the imitators that followed in its wake, elements of Arkham Asylum and its larger series remain wholly unique to itself. The game’s not lacking in atmosphere, and even with Batman being who he is, there’s a constant sense of unease as he makes his way through the asylum. When everything is clicking and in its best moments, the game really does feel like you’re reading a really good comic book arc or watching a high series of episodes. Somehow, other superhero game haven’t borrowed my favorite part of these series: game over screens where the villain taunts you after you die. Frustrating as it can be to fail, it’s sometimes worth dying just to see these taunts, and they go a long way in selling the immersion of being Batman.
There hasn’t been a new mainline Arkham game since 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight. While Rocksteady is sticking with Suicide Squad through its first (and likely only) year, WB’s making its first non-Batman solo game in years with Monolith’s Wonder Woman. The series is continuing with Camouflaj’s Batman: Arkham Shadow—a Meta Quest 3 sequel to 2013’s underrated prequel Arkham Origins—but its non-spinoff future is unclear. Batman never stays down: whether from Rocksteady or another studio, WB will pull that trigger, and we’ll all be living in Batman’s world once more.
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