Retro Review – Batman: The Rise of Sin Tzu

<p>With Rocksteady&&num;8217&semi;s final installment of their <em>Arkham<&sol;em> trilogy coming out very soon&comma; I decided to delve deep into some older Batman games that most people may have missed out on&period; My eye came across a game that I&&num;8217&semi;d never gotten a chance to play &&num;8212&semi; <em>Batman&colon; The Rise of Sin Tzu<&sol;em>&comma; released in 2003 for the GameCube&comma; Xbox and PlayStation 2&period; I picked up the GameCube version recently and began my time in Gotham as the Dark Knight&period; This game is based on the Animated Series&comma; and follows Batman on his quest to stop a new villain in Gotham&comma; Sin Tzu&period; Sin Tzu was created by comic book legend Jim Lee and brings some heft to this title&period; If you can snag a copy of the game with the manual&comma; you are greeted with a nice black and white sketch by the man himself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story is pretty simple&comma; in fact it somewhat mirrors the Knightfall story from quite a few years back&period; Sin Tzu wants to have Gotham&comma; but to do that he has to go through Batman&comma; so he needs help&period; Tzu breaks a few of Batman&&num;8217&semi;s rogues gallery out of Arkham to slow him down&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s your job as the player to make sure Gotham stays safe&period; Once you view the first cutscene you have a difficult choice to make&colon; Which part of the Batman Family do you want to be&quest; You can play as Batman&comma; Robin&comma; Batgirl&comma; and Nightwing&comma; I immediately chose Batman&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s the best and the most powerful&comma; and since this is a brawler he was my best bet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214650&sol;528821-sintzu4&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-85650" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214650&sol;528821-sintzu4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Batman" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Seeing that the game is brawler&comma; you mostly have to rely on two buttons&comma; the A button and the B button&comma; which act as your punch and kick&period; Batman can&&num;8217&semi;t block&comma; and can&&num;8217&semi;t really jump out of the way&period; The right trigger allows him to roll out of the way&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s just easier to punch the hoods in the face&period; Unfortunately after the great cut scenes and the animated style of the game&comma; you finally get into combat&period; This game&comma; while fun at the start&comma; really gets repetitive&period; In Crime Alley you are immediately tasked with saving hostages&comma; and man I thought it would be more exciting than that&period; I button mashed my way through the level&comma; and found myself in Chinatown&comma; facing the Scarecrow&&num;8217&semi;s goons&comma; and it was just as boring&period; During the Scarecrow levels there are some neat graphical changes if you get hit with fear toxin&period; Should that happen&comma; the screen get very wavy and the enemies change into something more &&num;8220&semi;terrifying&&num;8221&semi; due to the fear toxin&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s a nice little addition to a somewhat boring brawler&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you mundanely punch the baddies&comma; you are rewarded with points&comma; which allow you to upgrade Batman&&num;8217&semi;s karate arsenal&period; Sadly&comma; they do not add to the combat mechanic at all&period; The new moves that your learn are no more powerful than your standard &&num;8220&semi;kick three times&&num;8221&semi; that you were given at the beginning of the game&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re also given a Batarang to pummel evil with&comma; but it too is somewhat lame&comma; as you can only throw one&comma; and then have to wait for it to return&period; Plus&comma; it only stuns the enemy for about two seconds&comma; you barely have enough time to slap them silly before it wears off&period; There is a plus though&colon; You can throw the Batarang at explosive barrels and take out several enemies at once&comma; and that gets your blood pumping&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214639&sol;batmansintzugc&lowbar;004-large&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-85651" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214639&sol;batmansintzugc&lowbar;004-large&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Batman" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics are nice for the GameCube&comma; and seeing the Animated Batman kick and punch and run is a great treat for a fan of the series&period; The voice acting is great too&period; Kevin Conroy plays Batman and the rest of the voice cast from the animated series joins him&comma; as well&period; This game is a nice little treat for fans of the Animated Series&period; You can be any of the main Bat Members&comma; and get to fight through Gotham in Animated style&period; The game can grow boring though&comma; as you rescue hostage after hostage and diffuse bomb after bomb&period; Had they incorporated different tasks and objectives&comma; the game would have been much much better&period; If you can find this game lying around somewhere&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s definitely something you should take a look at&comma; mostly for nostalgia&&num;8217&semi;s sake&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;