Products You May Like
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, basic Batfan Gavin considers if Switch can handle this much Arkham…
Fair warning, DC fans. I’m the quintessential ’80s kid for whom Keaton, the Burton Batmobile, and Elfman represent the archetypes, the high-water marks by which all other caped crusaders, cars, and composers are measured. I can’t say where I fall on the scale of Batman fandom — I’m not a comic book guy, so that probably puts me at a 5/10 max in some people’s book — but I do own a Lego Batmobile, the Burton films in 4K, the Animated Series on Bluray, and The Killing Joke. Pff, yeah, I’m one of those people.
Metal Gear enthusiasts may disagree, but the upcoming arrival of the Arkham games on Switch was one of the biggest announcements of Nintendo’s June 2023 Direct for me. Not only do they represent the peak of Batman’s lengthy career in interactive entertainment, but they would be excellent video games even if you removed the Dark Knight power fantasy element and the vocal talents of the much-missed Kevin Conroy. I never properly played the third entry, but the first two are all-timers; in superhero video game terms, it simply doesn’t get any better.
However, it’s that third entry in Rocksteady’s celebrated Batman Arkham Trilogy which gives me cause for pause. Moments into the Direct reveal trailer (see below), it was obvious this was Arkham and with a big grin I wondered if it was just Asylum or if Arkham City might also be coming. City launched on Wii U, after all, so Switch should be able to handle it. Perhaps a Return to Arkham port with the first tw—
‘EXPERIENCE THE AWARD-WINNING TRILOGY’ flashed onscreen. Really?! No ‘Cloud Version’ nonsense? A full, proper, bespoke Switch port for all three of them!?
It’s exactly what I’d wished for, but given Arkham Knight‘s scope and the reputation it acquired back in 2015, concerns began to sprout in my mind. That ominous ‘GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE NOT FINAL’ at the end didn’t help.
For those who don’t recall Arkham Knight’s less-than-steady launch, the game’s PC version dominated the dreaded ‘discourse’ in mid-2015. Generally considered an ambitious and engaging end to the series, the Batmobile sections and an overall feeling of bloat garnered mild criticism. The technical struggles of the Windows version were so severe, however, that Warner Bros. removed it from sale for several months.
Performance on consoles was, in fact, fairly impressive, but the PC debacle is my lasting memory of Arkham Knight. Even discounting that, the fact remains that the third game was specifically built for Xbox One and PS4 rather than their predecessors, and a game of its style and open-world scope is precisely the sort of thing to rapidly stretch Switch’s seven-year-old+ mobile chipset to breaking point. It would take a very brave and bold team to tackle this particular port.
So who has taken on the Arkham Knight, then? As revealed by the logo at the end of the trailer — just above that gameplay footage disclaimer — it’s Turn Me Up, an LA-based studio with good form in the Switch port field. The team has handled It Takes Two, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, Borderlands Legendary Collection, Journey to the Savage Planet — all very solid performers on Nintendo’s handheld hybrid. Reading that list of credits gives me hope.
Rocksteady itself is busy with the much-delayed Suicide Squad on other platforms. I haven’t been following its progress too closely (5/10 Batfan that I am), but from a distance it seems to demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of what made the Arkham games so popular: the appeal of being The Batman. I’ve got no interest in wandering around Gotham as Deadshot or the other squad members, but perhaps that’s just me. The most exciting news I caught about that game was that Kevin Conroy’s Batman is in it. As with Sony’s recent Spider-Man hits, it’s the attention of the more casual fanbase — you know, the only-read-The-Killing-Joke fans — that the Arkham games did such a fantastic job of grabbing. If this Switch port showcases these games’ brilliance in solid fashion, the package has the potential to be one of the very finest on the system.
That’s a sizeable ‘if’, though. On Turn Me Up’s website you can find the following comment about the Arkham Trilogy:
Leaving our fingerprints on such a beloved franchise and faithfully bringing it to Switch has truly been a privilege.
This one’s for Kevin.
This team appears to have the right attitude and the technical talent to perform a minor Batmiracle, based on its past credits. This collection really is the news Switch-owning Dark Knight lovers have been dreaming of, and I can’t wait to jump into the Burtonmobile (which is part of the included DLC) and properly play Arkham Knight for the first time.
Fingers crossed that Turn Me Up is up to the challenge, because it will take a team of Switch-port superheroes if we’re going to get the Batman we need.
Do you think Batman Arkham Knight can run well on Switch? Let us know your hopes and fears below.