Have I mentioned recently how much I love Arkham Asylum?  Yes, yes I have.  Eidos bumps up my love another degree with its details for FREE DLC, which will be available on Thursday.

Two more challenge rooms come with The Insane Night pack, a supposedly unforgiving combat room called “Totally Insane” and “Nocturnal Hunter,” a predator mode.

Sounds good, though I’d love a combat survival mode, where you fight an endless onslaught of thugs.  The fighting system is just that good.

Now that Arkham Asylum has descended to near universal acclaim (and believe the hype folks, it’s one the absolute best of the year) and Batman’s troubled video game legacy finally gets a win, what other caped or non-caped superhero should score a console offering worthy of his or her tights?

Dave:  Superman would be the obvious choice, but since I never succumbed to the legendary awfulness of Superman 64 let’s talk–Batman.

Fine, I’m cheating a bit, but the simple fact is this: thanks to the glory of Arkham, I am now addicted to playing as the Dark Knight at this level of quality in many, many, many more games (preferably all made by Rocksteady).  I looked long and hard for a good Batman game back in the day, even sinking hours into the decidedly mediocre beat’ em up Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu.

My history with the Caped Crusader’s pixellated antics began a long time ago with the Batman game for the Commodore 64, based on Burton’s film.  I so wanted to love it that I convinced myself it wasn’t horrible despite th fact it could be beaten in ten minutes and in the platforming levels Batman couldn’t jump.

Anyway, all this to say as much as I liked the latest Batman game, please keep it coming–I have much sadness to wash away.

Ecch.

Adam: One word: SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

The Tick has received one video game, a poorly received side-scrolling beat-em-up on the Sega Genesis and the SNES. It sucked. It was boring and lame with none of the joy or thrilling irreverence that made the comic book and cartoon so fantastic.

This is bad advice. Do not press START.

Give me a game where I can bound into and through the rooftops (not over) shouting fantastic catch phrases, chasing down villains and teaming up with ridiculous heroes. Heck, just imagine the game mechanics for The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, but make it funny? Man, that would be awesome.

Took the 1.5 GB demo of Eidos’s much-anticipated take on the Caped Crusader for a spin over the weekend.  I really liked it, but I’m not totally sold.

I’m all about Batman, and have been longing for any kind of sweet Dark Knight video gaming that I’ve embraced such iffy stuff as The Rise of Sin Tzu.  Arkham Asylum, when it was first revealed, showed big promise, and judging from the brief time I had with the demo, it looks like it might live up to the expectations.

First off, the production quality is top-notch.  Built on the Unreal Engine, the game sports some impressive graphics.  Batman looks great, gray tights and all, and his surroundings are well-detailed (though the relentless Arkham venue could grow tedious, but rumor has it there will be other settings Bats will be gallivanting off to).

Though the combat is essentially one-button based, I found it fun and viscerally satisfying.  Dudes gang up on Batman, and send out a quick signal before attacking, allowing for a sweet counter.  Last guys standing are dispatched off with a cinematic flair.  Simple?  Yep.  But I had fun.

The stealth/detective stuff is handled well and very Splinter Cellish.  A full-on assault of armed bad guys means death, so you’ll have to swing around up top, glide kick, silent KO or hang upside down and pimp-slap your opponents into submission.  I liked what I played but feel I’ll need more time with the system before landing on a full verdict.

Lots of questions remain, of course.  How will the boss fights be handled?  Is the game too claustrophobic and linear?  Will combat get old?  We’ll know eventually, but as of now I’m still excited for what I hope to be the greatest virtual outing of the greatest superhero ever.