Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu is a beat 'em up pure and simple, and if you're not a fan of the genre than you have no business playing this game, because you'll hate it. Having said that, for fans of beat 'em ups and the Batman series of comics and the Warner Bros. animated TV show, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu is a good videogame to add to your collection. The game lets you (and another player if you so choose) take on four chapters of a Batman adventure featuring some familiar faces along with a brand new villain named Sin Tzu. In a nutshell players can play one of four characters - Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Bat Girl to take on Scarecrow, Clayface, and Bane -- followed by a final showdown with the new villain Sin Tzu.
The new villain was created by veteran scriptwriter Flint Dille and reknowned comic book artist, Jim Lee , if you're wondering, and the art style of the game will be familiar to anyone that's followed the animated series of cartoons on the WB. Cutscenes are played out at various points in the game to tell the backstory to the game and explain why you've gone from the not-so-friendly streets of Gotham to the docks and beyond. The cutscenes only feature Batman, no matter who you're playing, which is a bit odd considering that three other players are on the case if you choose to use them, That quirk aside, the visual quality combined with the cutscenes and animations are a nice fit overall.
The new villain was created by veteran scriptwriter Flint Dille and reknowned comic book artist, Jim Lee , if you're wondering, and the art style of the game will be familiar to anyone that's followed the animated series of cartoons on the WB. Cutscenes are played out at various points in the game to tell the backstory to the game and explain why you've gone from the not-so-friendly streets of Gotham to the docks and beyond. The cutscenes only feature Batman, no matter who you're playing, which is a bit odd considering that three other players are on the case if you choose to use them, That quirk aside, the visual quality combined with the cutscenes and animations are a nice fit overall.
The meat of the game is the story mode, which you can use to grow your character; As you successfully beat each level you earn points based on your performance, fighting style and the objectives you met along the way. These points can be used to buy more powerful punches, kicks, power moves, grabs and Bat accessories like more powerful batarangs, bombs and grapples. Players can also use cash to buy tokens, which unlock extras in the Trophy Room and the Bonus features in the game. As players battle through the levels, and beat the four main bosses they also unlock the multiplayer levels. We'll discuss all the unlockables later, but the important thing to note is that there is an incentive to play the game to the end and to play it on harder difficulty levels if you're a hardcore Batman fan. Successfully beating the game once will also unlock some additional costumes for our four masked heroes.
Players will have to do a lot of punching kicking and using the environment to succeed and that's why I already mentioned that if you're not a beat 'em up fan, then you're going to loathe this game. There's a lot of fighting, and though this game has a heavy Batman flavor to it, at its heart is pure unadulterated fighting. Each character fights differently and has different abilities that make them unique. For instance, Bat Girl and Robin may be weaker than Nightwind or Batman, but their fighting styles are also a lot more fast paced, while Batman and Nightwing are slower but are a lot tougher and dole out a lot more damage. Nightwing is the best middle-of-the-road character because he's relatively fast and deals out some nice damage.
No matter who you use, as you progress through the game, you'll find yourself upgrading for more powerful attacks and using the environment to your advantage. The environment and the objects therein can be manipulated to a small degree against the enemy. For instance, players can pick up objects and throw them at enemies, hit explosive barrels with batarangs to make them explode or lights to cause a stun. Players can also do extra damage by fighting near a wall or other objects - and the terrain can sometimes take damage, which is a nice touch on top of the other benefits.
Ubisoft did a couple of things right with this game that I have to pint out. First the game lets you play as one of the four popular heroes from the animated show, and while some might think that's not a big deal, it is to fans of the series. Each character plays differently and using one character as a replacement for another can be a good thing in spots where a certain fighting style is better suited to get the job done. They could have easily just gone with Batman and left everyone else out of the loop - which probably would have worked but wouldn't have been as much fun. It should also be pointed out the the co-op play is a nice addition in story mode, and it allows both kids and adults the opportunity to share the experience together - and if your fans of the Batman series, do a little role-playing as either a sidekick or a front-row hero. The game rewards this kind of play by offering unlockable double team moves that do extra damage. These moves are a lot of fun and having an extra set of hands and feet to help kick some bad guy butt is never a bad thing.
There is a little life beyond story mode in the game, in the form of several levels designed as a two-player multiplayer challenge or as a single-player affair if players so choose. Called Challenge Mode, a lone player can take challenge through four levels (three of which are unlocked when you beat the main bosses) in either Beat The Thugs or Beat The Clock. In the first mode players must beat a set number of bad guys to complete the challenge, and in the other mode beat as many bad guys as quickly as possible before the timer runs out. With two players, the battles can be either cooperative or against each other for fun. While these modes don't really accomplish anything, they are a nice change of pace from the story mode. It would have been nicer if these were made into four player affairs, but what's there is adequate.
Also outside of story mode is the Trophy Room, which offers 3D Models, Toys, Concept Art and Graphic Novel covers. Players can unlock these extras by buying tokens during Story Mode. The Bonus Features section offers a few "Making of" extras, a trailer for the new Batman animated film and an ad for the Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu novel. Whether these baubles are worth it or not is really a decision that hardcore Batman fans will have to make, but perhaps the developers should have used the resources taken up by these things to add support for Xbox Live multiplayer or extra downloadable content. What's there isn't all that flashy but it is fun. Whether or not it's worth purchasing tokens for is debatable, but we'll leave that debate for our readers.
