Batman: The Video Game hit the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989, developed and published by Sunsoft, and it shares a title with a Game Boy game that is a completely different piece of software. The NES version is the one that stuck. It ties into the 1989 Batman film, but only on paper — the plot bears very little resemblance to the movie. What it has instead is five levels, a wall jump, three projectile weapons, and a final fight with the Joker in the bell tower of Gotham Cathedral. It earns a 7.4 out of 10.
Gotham City Streets to the Gotham Cathedral Belltower
Sunsoft built Batman: The Video Game as a side-scrolling platformer with five stages. They run in order: the Gotham City Streets, the Axis Chemical Plant, the Gotham Sewers, the Mysterious Laboratory, and the Gotham Cathedral Belltower. That last stage is where the game ends, with Batman facing the Joker.
The structure is straightforward. Each stage pushes forward, and the game does not pretend to be anything other than a platformer with a licensed hero on the cover. The film’s plot is not the game’s plot. Anyone expecting the movie’s beats will not find them here.
What they will find is a game that looks and moves better than most of what surrounded it on the NES in 1989.
The Wall Jump Borrowed from Ninja Gaiden
The feature that made Batman: The Video Game unusual for its time was the wall jump. In a side-scrolling platformer on the NES, that was rare. The move is reminiscent of the wall scaling in Ninja Gaiden, and it changes how the levels play. Batman can climb vertical surfaces rather than only run and jump.
This is not the same Batman that Sunsoft put on the Mega Drive/Genesis. That version features the grappling hook. The NES game does not. Instead it gives the player a wall jump and asks them to use it.
The distinction matters. The NES Batman is a game about momentum and vertical movement, not about swinging from a line. Sunsoft made a choice, and the choice gave the NES title its own feel.
Three Projectile Weapons and Their Pellet Cartridges
Batman carries three projectile weapons in Batman: The Video Game: the batarang, the batdisk, and the batpoon. All three are powered by pellet cartridges. The player picks a weapon and manages the ammunition that feeds it.
Three options is more than most NES platformers offered. It gives the combat a small layer of decision-making on top of the jumping. The batarang is the one everyone knows. The batdisk and the batpoon are the ones that make the loadout worth thinking about.
The weapons are not a gimmick bolted onto a platformer. They are the game’s main offensive tool, and the pellet cartridges are the resource that limits them.
Killer Moth, Firebug, and a Device Called the Machine Intelligence System
The boss lineup in Batman: The Video Game draws deep into the DC Universe. The bosses are Killer Moth, a device called the Machine Intelligence System, the Electrocutioner, a machine known as the Dual-Container Alarm, Firebug, and the Joker.
That is six encounters, and only one of them is the Joker. The rest are a mix of costumed villains and hardware. The Machine Intelligence System and the Dual-Container Alarm are not characters in the usual sense. They are machines, and the game treats them as bosses anyway.
The game also fills its levels with low-level minions pulled from DC’s roster. Deadshot, KGBeast, Maxie Zeus, Heat Wave, Shakedown, and Nightslayer all appear. These are not throwaway names. They are recognizable villains doing grunt work, and their presence gives the game a comic-book texture that the film adaptation did not have.
One quirk is worth noting. The penultimate boss will be skipped in continued play if the player reached the Joker previously. That means a player who got to the Joker and lost can fight him directly next time. It is a small mercy, and it is unusual for the era.
Two Sunsoft Batmans, Two Different Traversal Moves
| Batman: The Video Game (NES) | Batman (Mega Drive/Genesis) | |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Sunsoft | Sunsoft |
| Signature traversal move | Wall jump | Grappling hook |
| Projectile weapons | Batarang, batdisk, batpoon | Not specified in source |
| Levels | Five | Not specified in source |
| Final boss | The Joker | Not specified in source |
The comparison is not a knock on either game. Sunsoft made both, and the two versions solved the same problem — how do you make Batman move — in different ways. The NES game went with the wall jump. The Genesis game went with the grappling hook.
The NES version is arguably the best known of the games carrying the Batman: The Video Game title. That includes the Game Boy release, which shares the name but is a different game entirely.
The Numbers Behind the 1989 NES Release
- Title: Batman: The Video Game
- Developer and publisher: Sunsoft
- Platforms: Family Computer, Nintendo Entertainment System
- Release year: 1989
- Genre: Platform
- Theme: Action
- Mode: Single player
- Perspective: Side view
- Levels: Five
- Stages: Gotham City Streets, Axis Chemical Plant, Gotham Sewers, Mysterious Laboratory, Gotham Cathedral Belltower
- Projectile weapons: Batarang, batdisk, batpoon
- Ammunition: Pellet cartridges
- Bosses: Killer Moth, Machine Intelligence System, Electrocutioner, Dual-Container Alarm, Firebug, the Joker
- Minions: Deadshot, KGBeast, Maxie Zeus, Heat Wave, Shakedown, Nightslayer
- Published critical score: 7.4/10 (IMDb)
Where the Movie Went and the Game Didn’t
The most interesting thing about Batman: The Video Game is how little it cares about the film it is named after. The game ties into the 1989 movie. It is officially tied to the live-action adaptation. And yet the plot bears very little resemblance to the story of the film.
Instead of retelling the movie, Sunsoft built a five-stage tour of Gotham and filled it with villains the movie never touched. Deadshot, KGBeast, Maxie Zeus, Heat Wave, Shakedown, and Nightslayer do not appear in the 1989 film. Killer Moth, the Electrocutioner, and Firebug do not either. The Machine Intelligence System and the Dual-Container Alarm are inventions of the game.
This was received well despite the changes from the movie. That is the part worth pausing on. A licensed game in 1989 that ignored its source material and still landed well is not the usual outcome. Most licensed platformers of the period were content to replay the film’s set pieces badly. Batman: The Video Game went the other way. It kept the name and the Joker, then built its own game underneath.
The result is a platformer that stands on its mechanics rather than its license. The wall jump is the reason. The three projectile weapons are the reason. The five stages are compact and they escalate, ending in the bell tower where the Joker waits.
What 7.4 Out of 10 Buys You
Batman: The Video Game is a solid NES platformer with one genuinely distinctive mechanic and a roster of villains that gives it more personality than its license required. The wall jump sets it apart from its contemporaries and from Sunsoft’s own Genesis Batman. The batarang, batdisk, and batpoon give the combat enough texture to hold up across five levels. The boss list is uneven — Killer Moth and Firebug are more interesting than a device called the Dual-Container Alarm — but the climb to the Joker in the Gotham Cathedral Belltower is a clean finish.
The weaknesses are the usual ones for the era. Five levels is short. The plot’s near-total divorce from the film will bother anyone who came for the movie. The penultimate-boss skip on continued play is a strange design choice, even if it is a generous one.
None of that changes the core. Batman: The Video Game does the thing a licensed game should do and rarely did in 1989: it works as a game first. The wall jump is the proof. Sunsoft could have shipped a movie tie-in and coasted. It shipped a platformer with its own movement system instead.
The published critical score is 7.4/10, and that sits about right. It is not a landmark of the NES library. It is a well-made, distinctive, slightly short platformer that made a smart choice about how Batman moves and built five levels around it. For a 1989 licensed title, that is more than enough.
Score: 7.4 of 10.
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