Batman: Return of the Joker[a] is a 1991 platform video game, the follow-up to Sunsoft‘s first Batman game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Unlike that game, which was based on the 1989 Batman film directed by Tim Burton, Return of the Joker is entirely self-contained and based more on the modern comic book iteration of Batman. However, Batman rides the Batmobile and the Batwing from the 1989 film. A remake of Return of the Joker, titled Batman: Revenge of the Joker, was released on the Sega Genesis by Ringler Studios in 1992. A Super NES version of Revenge of the Joker was completed but never officially released, however a ROM image surfaced online in later years.
A completely different version of the game was released on the Game Boy in 1992.
NES version
In Batman: Return of the Joker, the titular hero is on journey to the Joker’s secret hide-out after called by Gotham City to find metals stolen by the Joker, one of which is highly toxic and used to build explosives for missiles.[1] The NES version of Batman: Return of the Joker consists of seven stages, each of which have two sub-levels (except for the last stage) and a boss level (except for the second and fifth stages); from beginning to end, they are the Gotham City cathedral, the Joker’s warehouse, a snowy mountain, a refinery, an underground conduit, an ammunition base, and the Island of Ha-Hacienda.[2] Although Batman has three lives, the game has unlimited continues[3] and stage passwords that can be accessed by pausing the game.[4] The game’s five bosses include the Ace Ranger, a Minedroid, the Master C.P.U. of the refinery, and two battles with the Joker;[2] for regular levels, Batman’s health is represented in increments, but in the boss stages, both Batman and the boss’s life meters are represented in numbers.[5]
Return of the Joker is a side-scrolling run and gun platformer.[6][7] Batman’s weapon is a wrist projector[8] which the player change its type of ammunition by collecting icons throughout the levels: “C” icons for the crossbow, which shoots arrows that makes an enemy explode, “B” icons for “Batarangs”, where its direction follows the movement of on-screen enemies, N for “Sonic Neutralizers” that shoots two patterns of Batarangs in a criss-cross shape, and “S” for “Shield Stars” that shoots three darts going separate directions.[9] Batman can slide by pressing the A-button and down on the D-pad, a move that is also an attack (although it only works against some enemies).[8] Batman can also collect energy capsules that, if eight are obtained, will make him become invincible for a few seconds.[9]
