Hello everyone, and Merry Christmas. Today is an important day for many reasons, both religious and secular. But all of them pale in comparison to the fact that there is no better time of the year to defendBatman: Arkham Origins, one of thefew true Christmas games we have. In the past, when I’ve written about howsuperheroes are perfect for Christmas games, I have leaned far more onMiles Morales, themost popular entryin this all-too-thin canon. But I will be ashamed no longer - Batman: Arkham Origins deserves the love, on this day of all days.
Right off the bat (now that’s a thinker), let me just say that I’m not here to say it’s better than City or Asylum. Those two are easily the best Arkham games, and neither Origins nor Knight comes close. I might even concede that I prefer Knight, but that’s not the damnation of Origins you think it is. I have a very high opinion of all four Arkham games, and much like Knight bets too big on its predictable twist, a lot of what Origins does is thrown away by bringing back Joker. A bad call, I admit. One that only looks worse after Birds of Prey did so much more with Black Mask in a tale where Joker’s shadow loomed even darker.
But let’s put that aside for now in the spirit of Christmas. It’s a poor mistake by the game, and one that marks it as the worst in the series. But that simply makes it the Ringo of The Beatles. Joker aside, Origins does a lot well. Firstly and most fittingly, it is the best of the four at nailing the aesthetic with its thick snow blanketing the darkness; City and Knight try a little too hard to justify the style of the city while Origins lets the oppressive elements speak for themselves.
Then there’s Batman himself. If he were a woman, he’d be called a Mary Sue on every other thread on Reddit. Batman is simply too good at everything, with too few weaknesses, and always has his handy dandy carousel reversal spray. Origins shows him starting out, trying to make his mark on the city, as a less accomplished and more reckless hero. This is reflected in his more balanced relationship with Gordon and the foes he fights, too.
And the foes - even the bad Batman villains would be legends in any other hero’s rogues gallery, barSpider-Man. Origins has a particularly memorable fight with the Electrocutioner, one of the funniest encounters in superhero game history, that manages to pay off with some emotional force later on, all while linking into the mechanics. The Electrocutioner is often forgotten, or if remembered, only as a cheap laugh. But his integration into the game itself is one of the best uses of a boss fight in the entire series.
Time has not been kind to the public perception of Arkham’s boss battles, but between Scarecrow, Freeze, Mad Hatter, Professor Pyg, Poison Ivy, and Electrocutioner, the series has swung from overrated to underrated.
Origins occasionally taps intothe Metroidvania feeling of Asylumwhile offering the openness of City, and it’s a shame the end result isn’t greater than the sum of its parts - and an even greater shame that being unable to reach this level is deemed an outright failure. It captures a unique and yet oddly familiar feeling of Christmas, while telling us a fresh story about a new interpretation of Batman that would grow into the Arkham version we knew and loved. The lack of confidence to cut Joker out of the story, and the messy tangle of chaos that left the game with, has cost Origins everything. This Christmas, give it the gift of a little slice of the respect it deserves.
