Robin and Two-Face in Batman: Arkham Asylum 2!!

I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I know that both myself, and Doc Kronner are both eagerly awaiting the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum. We’ve seen the teaser trailer which sent a great deal of clues our way concerning who the new villains may be, and led me to believe in a possible storyline as well, which I’ll talk about later.

IMDB.com has reported that the character of Robin for the sequel to Arkham has been cast, although not named. They also list Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike in J.J. Abrams Star Trek and pretty much any Canadian movie ever produced) as the voice actor for Two-Face. Now we had all pretty much deduced that Two-Face would be in this one, I mean, it is the second game, that is his M.O. but I will mostly be discussing the inclusion of Robin in the sequel.

I believe that there are three main factors when bringing Robin into the game. These are as follows: What his role in the game entails, the apparent time line of the game, and the recognition of the character, for the comic fan or the nube.

Now we can only guess at his role in the game, but I like to guess so here goes. I’m imagining this game based on my perceptions of the teaser trailer alone. I believe we will be experiencing a No Man’s Land type game based on the condition of the city and some of the characters alluded to, such as The Penguin and Black Mask. Also the bat symbol at the end of the trailer starting to break down and crumble was another nod to the earthquake theory. I’m not sure how they would keep the game mechanics similar as Arkham was in a set location with borders, which is hard to do in an entire city and usually leaves it bland and repetitive, much like the Spider-man games. However they already gave us some clues as to locations that we may be at, such as The Iceberg Lounge (Penguin’s business front), Sionis warehouse building (Roman Sionis/Black Mask), Joker’s Amusement park, etc.

Regardless of these potential game aspects, I don’t see Robin as necessarily being a playable character in the co-op sense of the word. This is not a game I can envision as going split-screen; it would lose most of its visual appeal and amazing fight mechanics. However on the flip side, it would be cool to be able to send Robin to distract while you swoop in behind for the stealth attack. And that may be all it entails…the occasional help of your doting sidekick. Or possibly voice communication only, such as Oracle was in the first game. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Oracle’s part in the first game was awesome and added well to the story. So where does Robin fit in? Assuming they keep the status quo, it would be awesome to attempt some of the challenges with a different character, different fighting and stealth styles. And there is always the possibility for different characters to be doing the different levels. Batman sends his team out and you play that character at different points of the story. Too many options right now to choose one, but so many different ways for Robin to be included. The question is, which Robin?

Over at games radar.com they have an article discussing this same question, with a write-up on the various Robins throughout the time line. Feel free to check it up for information on the multitude of Robins we’ve seen but for our purposes here, I’m not going to get into them. I know my fellow nerdians well enough to assume that they know their Robin’s, and hate them, for some reason. I personally love Robin in a totally non-homosexual way myself, but I digress.

The main contenders for the role of Robin in my eyes are Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne. I doubt they would ever use Jason Todd or either of the female Robin’s as they were both small additions to the Robin legacy, set in only a few story lines. Now, based on the time line of the game I immediately eliminate two of my contenders. Time line of the game you ask? Oh, you didn’t ask…well I’ll tell you anyway.

There are many features to Arkham Asylum that place the events into the time line of the Batman continuity, arguably. The biggest factor in this is, of course, the inclusion of Oracle in the game. Oracle AKA Batgirl AKA Barbara Gordon only becomes Oracle at a certain point in her life. This is at a time considerably past the point when Dick Grayson left the role of Robin behind and became Nightwing. And after Tim Drake had proven himself as successor to at the time deceased Jason Todd. So the inclusion of Oracle in the first game in my opinion denies the developers the ability to use Dick Grayson as Robin. And why would they want to? Grayson as Nightwing is a better character than Grayson as Robin ever was. If they wanted to include Grayson I say man up and just throw Nightwing into the game.

Again, I said I eliminated two of my possibilities based on the time line of this game. We know that this is the Bruce Wayne version of Batman, as Oracle calls him Bruce and various fear elements from the Scarecrow scenes all relate back to Wayne’s parents. Since this is the Wayne Batman, based on the comic timelines, Damian Wayne would not yet be Robin until Bruce is “killed” and replaced by Grayson.

It’s been a while since I played through the game but other factors add up to the time line. Different villains found throughout the Riddles such as Hush seem to infer a more current Batman. I seem to remember the Joker making a quip about Batman sending his Robin’s out with no pants on, inferring that we have seen more than one Robin in Arkham’s continuity. But that’s just it, this game is not necessarily considered canon with the comic series. So all of this is conjecture based on a fanboys rules of continuity. I’m fine with that.

Now as for recognition of the character, this can be tricky. To a non-fanboy, the idea of Robin may be recognized, as most are not ignorant to Batman and Robin, they date back to the 40’s. Terrible Batman movies featuring Robin, that brings in average Joe Q. Public. We’ve seen a lot of video games to feature Robin, so that brings in the gamer community. And of course, the comic fans know of Robin, and the various individuals to fill that role over the years. All of these factors point to probably the most recognized Robin in all the various forms of media… Dick Grayson. Logically to have everyone involved in the recognition department they would be safest to use Dick, probably most remembered for his part in the Adam West era of Batman.

All of these points aside, here’s my call. Robin will be Tim Drake. Tim Drake is most associated with the Batman of this Arkham series in my opinion. With the emphasis on the Detective Mode in Arkham Asylum, Tim Drake is easily the most skilled of his brother Robin’s…er, and sister’s I guess. Drake earned his role of Robin by deducing that Dick Grayson was Robin, eventually leading to the discovery of Batman’s identity. This young punk figured out Batman’s most secret of secrets on his own, and proved to Batman that he needed a Robin, and Tim was that Robin. Wow, I really geeked out over that, my bad. So if we are looking at character’s with detective skills, that’s Tim Drake. He fits best in the role of Robin and allows for characters like Nightwing and Red Hood (Jason Todd) to be introduced.More than likely we’ll see a very similar game to Arkham Asylum, and the casting of Robin could simply be used as another voice for Batman to listen to on his communicator as he navigates through the mean streets of Gotham. Possibly used as something to replace the riddles of the first game. Deducing clues that you send Robin to report on to further the game, the possibilities are endless. Again, it’s all conjecture on my part. But I can’t help it; Arkham Asylum was such a great game I can’t help wondering about the sequel. Yes, it was a great superhero game, undoubtedly the best Batman game ever, but it’s also a great, playable, fun, challenging game. With some cool achievements and trophies for the gamers out there.

Will we see a multiplayer aspect to this game? I’m thinking it’s unlikely, but if it does go co-op we could see a totally new development to this game. What do you think? Did you like the first one and what do you want to see out of the sequel? Do you think we’ll see any other DC games come out? That seems to be how WB works, if Batman does well at anything they throw a bone to other heroes. Well, this is SupaScoot (also my gamertag on Xbox Live for those looking to game) and I think that’s ‘Nuff Said.