Batman: Arkham Asylum [PS3]

Good Batman videogames just don't come around very often. Outside of last year's Lego Batman, it's been about 15 years since a Batman game -- The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES, specifically -- really knocked anyone's utility belts off. It's a bit perplexing that DC Comics' richest character rarely gets his digitized due; you'd think a guy described as "The World's Greatest Detective" would lend himself to untold awesome game concepts.

Fortunately, it looks like developer Rocksteady Studios (who you may remember from 2006's Urban Chaos: Riot Response) found one. Batman: Arkham Asylum unshackles the Caped Crusader from tie-in hell, instead spinning an original story courtesy of longtime Batman writer Paul Dini. I recently took the first two chapters of Arkham Asylum for a spin -- and I couldn't help but recall the following four classic Batman tales (comprising both comic book and screen stories) as I played.

Arkham Asylum

"No duh," the Batman faithful are probably saying right now. Yes, it's an obvious choice... but Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's warped window into the nuthouse that Amadeus Arkham built serves as an obvious inspiration for this particular Batman adventure. It's clear from the start -- as you somberly escort a ranting, raving, and recently apprehended Joker through the halls of Gotham City's revolving-door psychiatric facility -- that the developers put plenty of emphasis on the setting itself. Arkham is a creepy place, with plenty of dimly lit corridors, eerily colorless medical chambers, and distant cries of madness from the resident population. And once the Joker quickly frees himself (with the handy help of some inside men) and establishes control of the facility, it becomes an out-and-out spook-house with danger at every turn.

The Joker serves as a twisted narrator during the game, egging you on as you comb the asylum and its expansive island grounds for the clown prince and his captive police commissioner. A map of the island points you ever-forward toward your next objective, and what starts out as "Find Commissioner Gordon" quickly turns into a cavalcade of mini-missions that include everything from protecting Arkham's staff to deterring a gang of miscreants away from vandalizing the Batmobile. One particularly memorable sequence of events -- which I won't spoil here, save to say that it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end -- takes place in Arkham's morgue, and almost made me wonder how this game escaped the hawk-eyed ESRB with a Teen rating.