As the new movie Batman approaches, I look back at the long-term relationship between the Cape Crusader and the video game industry.

With the approach of the movie blockbuster Batman and the exponential expansion of the DC Universe to reflect the success of its main competitor Marvel, Caped Crusader has never been more ubiquitous. In addition to his own movies, the world's greatest detective has also appeared in many cameo roles in other DC works, countless animated avatars, and video games enough to fill the bat cave.

"Suicide Squad: Killing the Justice League" will launch another Arkham series in 2022. Now is the best time to review Batman's 35-year gaming career. Like his infamous thieves gallery, the dark knight's past catalog contains some fascinating games.

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"Batman: Arkham Asylum" was released in 2009 and received a warm welcome from fans and critics, and ushered in a ten-year sequel and derivative product, continuing its epic story. However, before this modern body, Batman has appeared in countless video game adaptations, starting in 1986. His first outing was called Batman for short and was published by Oceansoft for ZX Spectrum and other home computer systems. The game has an isometric perspective and the incarnation of an early game save system, and has received praise.

The Ocean is followed by another game, Batman: The Cloaked Crusade in 1988, and then the partner of Tim Burton's blockbuster in 1989, again named Batman. Both games have been highly praised, and Batman is among the best on the sales charts and was named the best game of the year by Crash magazine.

The Batman craze seems to have spread from Hollywood to the emerging video game media. Soon after, the NES Batman game was also released in 1989 and was well received. In 1990, with the release of Batman on arcade games made by Game Boy, Sega Genesis, PC Engine and Atari, movie derivatives continued. At this time, the game has switched to a side-scrolling platform game format, which is suitable for when "Batman: The Return of the Joker" was released for Game Boy, NES and Genesis in 1991, and this trend continued.

Throughout the 90s, these games largely reflected the release of Caped Crusader's various television and movie avatars. In 1992, Tim Burton's film sequel "Batman Returns" received a mandatory video game match across multiple consoles, while "Batman: The Animation Series" Animated Series) received the Game Boy adaptation in 1993.

Another noteworthy release was 1995's "Batman Forever", which introduced a gameplay to the franchise that beat them, but was criticized for its slow gameplay. Also unfortunately in 1998, Batman and Robin's new PlayStation version was similarly welcomed. In just a few years, the film franchise and its video game representatives have gone from award-winning to widely condemned.

However, this mediocrity has not stopped the popularity of new Batman partners. A series of titles appeared in the new millennium; from the racing game of "Batman: Gotham City Racer" in 2001, to the partnership with Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" movie in 2005, and even 2008 The Lego Batman: Video Game released in 2016. None of these have withstood the test of time. The Protector of Gotham seems destined to be a more frustrating video game existence than the riddler's puzzle.

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When Batman: Arkham Asylum was released on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2009, it was hailed as a masterpiece by fans and critics. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill replayed their famous roles in the popular animated series of the 1990s, playing Batman and the Joker in the dark adventures of Gotham's infamous lunatic asylum.

This provides an opportunity for developer Rocksteady Studios, including a series of other popular Batman villains, all of whom are happily released from the prison of the criminal clown prince and are eager to torture the Dark Knight. Most notably, this list includes Harley Quinn, voiced by Arlene Sorkin, who made the character hugely popular when she made her debut in the "Batman: Animated Series".

The game combines an innovative combination of movie narrative and 3D action adventure, fighting and Metroid gameplay, as well as smart puzzles, and has been praised by critics. The Arkham Asylum currently holds the Guinness World Record for "the most acclaimed superhero game of all time".

Its huge success led Rocksteady to develop many sequels to continue the game's broad story, which led to the 2011 release of Batman: Arkham City to be very popular. This time, the series showed off its open-world muscles, allowing Batman to explore an area five times larger than the original "Batman: Arkham Asylum", and once again pleased fans through the voice talents of Conroy and Hamill.

The next Arkham game is a prequel called "Batman: Arkham Origins", not developed by Rocksteady. Both "Arkham Origins" and its sequel "Batman: Arkham Origins: Black Gate" were released in 2013, but received mixed reviews due to technical issues and lack of originality. Rocksteady returned to lead the development of Batman: Arkham Knight, which was released on Windows, PS4 and Xbox One in 2015. Although the game has received generally positive reviews, the excessive use of the Batmobile and some storytelling decisions have also attracted criticism. However, this did not prevent this game from becoming the best-selling game this year.

The widely criticized VR game "Batman: Arkham VR" was released in 2016, and many people think it is nothing more than a showcase of Sony's new technology. "Batman: Return to Arkham" is a remake of "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and "Batman: Arkham City". It was released in the same year, but due to its remake of lighting effects and frame rate. The ceiling is 30 FPS and has been criticized.

The key and commercial success of the Arkham series led to another upcoming DC game; Rocksteady's "Suicide Squad: Killing the Justice League" is scheduled to be released in 2022, the same year, "Batman" another blockbuster "Gotham" "Knight" will also be released in 2022. The game is developed by WB Montreal and is set in the dead world of Batman. Players must control other members of the bat family, such as Nightwing and Batgirl. It has nothing to do with the Arkham game, but will establish its own new continuity.

In the past ten years, there have been other non-Arkham Batman versions. Before the company closed, Telltale released a critically acclaimed series in 2016 with five episodes and a sequel called "Batman: The Enemy Within." Batman: The Brave and the Bold-A video game released in 2010, as well as two other Lego Batman versions, and even an arcade driving game from 2013, simply called Batman. The Dark Knight has also appeared in guest roles many times in other games, including playing as a playable warrior in fighting games such as Mortal Kombat Vs. DC universe and injustice: the gods among us.

With so many games to choose from, fans of the world's greatest detective are waiting for the release of "Batman" in early 2022, and there are plenty to satisfy their desire for bats. Just like movies, Batman’s video games appear in quality and success, but it’s clear—unlike the storyline of the Gotham Knights—the Dark Knight’s crime-fighting career is far from over.

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Jon Richter is a dark novel writer and connoisseur who likes video games that are as disturbing as possible. For more information about his books, please visit www.jon-richter.com.