Thursday, September 30, 2010

Brave and Bold, indeed

Oh, look, a video-game trailer...



I haven't been able to gauge what the general "fan-culture" reaction has been to "Batman: The Brave & The Bold" - currently wrapping up it's final season on Cartoon Network - but I dig it, and apparently it's big with the kids (as it ought to be.) If you haven't seen, the basic idea is HUGE helpings of Silver Age DC fan-service disguised as humorous, "all-ages" Batman cartoon. I won't say it's up to snuff with "Batman: The Animated Series," but the best of it ranks up there with the one-off "funny" episodes of "Justice League Unlimited" - think "This Little Piggy," same basic idea.
In a more general sense, think a more cleverly-scripted cousin to the Adam West "Batman," co-starring a big cross-section of DCU supporting-players and with a heavier emphasis on "get it past the censors" jokes for parents/older-audiences - for example, pay really close attention to the lyrics in this musical bit as the Birds of Prey rate the... "effectiveness" of their various male counterparts:



Unsurprisingly, you can thank Gail Simone [pause for fangirl squeal] for that one (which may or may not have aired in the U.S. yet)

Anyway, the GAME (Wii) is excellent, absolutely worth a buy (I'm told the DS version is good as well.) It's a side-scrolling 2D beat-em-up. The controls take a little getting used to, as it's built around a pretty deep combo-system for a kid-targeted Wii title, but overall pretty smooth once you get into it and looks like it'd be a lot of fun with two people. Developer was Wayforward Technologies, who've carved a niche for themselves as experts of retro-style side-scrollers with "Contra 4" and "A Boy & His Blob." Licensed youth-titles on the Wii are usually a red-flag for shovelware, but retrogamers and/or Silver Age superhero fans should absolutely give it a look.

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