If one wonders how Super Metroid would be look like as a fully realized 3D game, look no further than Batman Arkham Asylum. Batman remarkably emulates the same sense of exploration, dread, and growth that Super Metroid does.
The level design is outstanding is regards to its three basic gameplay types: exploration, combat, and predator.
The landscapes are visually dazzling and hold true to the grim and gritty style of the Batman comics. Elevation changes and obstacles make exploration challenging and varied. Areas that inaccessible at first can be revisited with the help of new gadgets--harking back to the Super Metroid template of new abilities unlocking new areas.
Arena-levels serve the combat system to ensure that the camera is always on the action. Combat is amazingly fluid and makes multi-enemy encounters an absolute joy. A mix of techniques that include jumps, blocks, parries, grapple hooks, and batarangs make the process of beating up bad guys a game of "what awesome thing should I bust out now?"
The best part of the game are the predator-style challenges where you can take out a whole room of bad guys in true Batman fashion--stealthily. The game gives you access to all of batman's most famous tools like the grapple hook and even his detective skills, which manifest in the form of "detective-vision" to plot out a plan of attack.
Perhaps the only slight I can put against Batman: AA is that the detective elements don't require too much thought. It simply boils down to following bread crumbs. As great as the environments look, the characters are a different story. I don't know if its a symptom of the game's art style, but every character in the game is ugly. I don't expect the denizens of Arkham Asylum to look like Rob Pattinson mind you, but their blocky bodies gives me flashbacks to PS2-era character modeling. Other than that, the game runs very smoothly.
The world is rich with small details and things to do. You can smash the Joker's clattering teeth, solve the Riddler's riddles, or continue with the main quest and take down Batman's greatest foes one by one. The challenge modes gives the game replayability but the outstanding single-player makes the game worthy of any serious gamer's collection.
While some may view The Dark Knight as the greatest superhero movie ever, Arkham Asylum goes one step further and establishes itself as the greatest superhero video game ever--even better, it's one of the greatest games of this generation.
At least until Arkham City comes out.
