Warning: Spoilers
*WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS* Batman Arkham Asylum is the first game in the Arkham series, and it is a great game. In some ways I have more respect for this game than any of the others, because when this game was made, superhero games weren't a sure thing at all. The other three are all good, sometimes even great, but there was never as much doubt about whether they would be any good. Asylum is a lot different than all of the other games, which gave you an open world, a main story, and various side missions which you could do at any time you wanted to. In here, all you have is the main story, with the one sole side mission of the Riddles. Also, calling this an open world is a bit of a stretch, you can't go everywhere, you're confined to one island, which makes this game a lot more tense. Batman, alone, in an asylum full of psychopaths who are all organized by the Joker. I know the later games had similar elements, but this was by far the scariest of all the games, particularly in this aspect. Later on, it's just standard procedure by that point, here, it was original. I know citing originality as a point in the favor of the first game is pretty lame, but hey, it is true. Now let's talk cast. Kevin Conroy is a great Batman, one of my favorite Batman actors, and Mark Hamill...man, he's great as the Joker. He also doesn't rip-off Heath Ledger at all, he's a completely different take on the Joker. Now let's talk about the bosses in this game (yes there are other cast members but those are the ones that really stand out). I really liked how you go through different sections of the game, where you're working against one particular super villain, like Joker, or Poison Ivy, or Scarecrow. It was always, okay, I'm going up against this guy, and you would go through several missions where that's who you were working against, so each villain got plenty of screen time. Even Bane who was just there for the one fight still got enough time to shine (because that fight was great). I know the Titan Joker thing ruffled a lot of feathers, but it didn't really bother me all that much. It served to contrast Joker and Batman even more. I didn't like the actual fight all that much, but the idea was okay. Oh, and I just want to say, I have to admit, I've never really liked the ending of any of these Arkham games as much as what came before it. I don't know why, but I just always seemed a little disappointed in the resolutions (more on that in future reviews). The game play is also really great. You feel like Batman; you get to sneak around, surprise henchman, and then take them down. I really like the stealth missions, those were really fun and tense. That's not to discredit the free-flow system, I loved that system as well, I liked being able to bounce around from one thug to the the next and keep hitting them; I just think they needed a little more variety in the enemies (which we got in later games). I also really liked the gadgets, which were all useful and helped you get past all kinds of obstacles, or just get Riddle trophies. In the end, this was a great game, and I would strongly encourage you to check it out. I know praise for Arkham games is pretty generic, but they earned it.