Batman isn’t a superhero that comes into mind when you hear the words “festive”, “glee”, and “joy” but two Batman outings are holiday-themed: Batman Returns and Batman: Arkham Origins.
As the world celebrated Christmas, the masses remembered a 90s movie that isn’t Die Hard or Home Alone that you should add to your annual Christmas movie marathon. In fact, the Tim Burton film, which premiered in 1992 to mixed reviews, trended worldwide on X. In the sequel, Michael Keaton returns as the Caped Crusader in a film set during the festive season. It made bank at the global box office, making $266 million on a $80 million budget. Unfortunately, it marked the last time Keaton would don cape and cowl until the defunct DCEU’s The Flash.
The other one, which didn’t trend so much on social media platforms but did generate a bit of discussion on Reddit, is Batman: Arkham Origins.
Annual reminder that Batman Returns is a Christmas movie pic.twitter.com/1a9RdXC2tc
— DC Motherbox (@DCMotherbox) December 25, 2023
Ironically, both Batman Returns and Batman: Arkham Origins received mixed reviews when they first came out.
Batman fans, in particular, were unfairly critical to Arkham Origins, which, in hindsight, was a solid game. It may have had its fair share of game-breaking bugs and freezing issues at launch, but Batman: Arkham Knight eventually dwarfed these problems a few years later.
Perhaps what made both Batman-centric projects a problem though is they weren’t as good as their predecessors.
Batman: Arkham Asylum came out of nowhere and put Rocksteady Studios on the map, effectively making you feel like the World’s Greatest Detective. Its immediate sequel, Batman: Arkham City, doubled down on everything that made the first game work, refining its already excellent combat system and navigation but gave you a city as your playground.
The main problem with Origins was it didn’t bring enough to the table while detracting from the overall experience. To make matters worse, it had a lackluster freeflow combat system. To be fair, it did have a relatively good narrative. It’s also nice to revisit the origin stories of some of Batman’s most iconic adversaries as well the Dark Knight himself.
Nevertheless, Arkham Origins still stands out among superhero video games; it’s just not as good compared to the best of all time, which many consider to be Arkham City (the argument can be made that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, despite its relative lack of significant accolades, have now surpassed it).
We could say the same for Batman Returns, especially when asked to stand up to what would eventually become one of the most influential movies ever and the forefather of superhero blockbuster films.
In any case, as far as Christmas games go, both are fine if not perfect. There’s nothing quite like making up scenarios in your head about one of the thugs you’ll encounter looking forward to finishing their jobs early and going home to spend time with their families only for Batman to come swooping in to save the day.
