Fans of the Batman: Arkham series have spent half a decade waiting for another installment to the series. Instead, the October release of Gotham Knights is set in an entirely new universe. Fans of the Arkhamverse have to wait until 2023, Rocksteady and DC are releasing Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
Rather than focusing on release preparations for Gotham Knights, Arkhamverse fans prepare are focusing on revisiting the Arkham games. They’ve been cracking jokes, making, and sharing memes about the original series’s gameplay mechanics, plots, and characterizations, with an entire section of the Batman Arkham Reddit dedicated to memes.
Jump Scare Outta Nowhere
One of the most iconic jump scares in the Arkham series comes from Arkham Knight. While exploring the city, Batman comes face-to-face with Man-Bat on top of a building to introduce the "Creature of the Night" challenge. The setup for this side challenge is based on the repetitive motion of Batman grappling from building to building.
Even though the background audio at times literally reveals the presence of Man-Bat before the player encounters him, this sudden and slobbery cut scene gives even repeat players a quick scare, which results in responses like user Zander-dupont's meme.
The Three Worst Challenges
Since the Gotham aspect of the game series seems to have come to a close in preparation for the release of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, players are revisiting the Arkham series, particularly in order to complete the game, new game+, and DLC 240% completion rank. In order to do so, players must complete a series of challenges.
TapeSplicer points out three of the most difficult achievements. Each of them is difficult for varying reasons, but all of them require patience, dedication, and an incredibly high level of skill when it comes to gameplay mechanisms and in-game combat.
Flying Under The Radar
After the success of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, Arkham Origins was a significant deviation from the established game design designed by Rocksteady. Some fans were hesitant to embrace WB Montreal's take on the title, but others feel like the game was significantly under-appreciated by the rest of the fanbase.
In this meme from a since-deleted user, they highlight the following of the die-hard fans of Origins's challenges, maps, and multi-player options. These passionate fans feel strongly about the playability and under-appreciation of the prequel title when compared to other games in the Arkham series.
Prequel Bane Is Disproportionately Difficult
While Arkham Origins didn't receive quite the same acclaim as other games in the series, it offers some intense challenges compared to other iterations of the characters in the series. Reddit user ADVags12 compares the more docile Bane fight in Asylum with the more aggressive version players face in Origins.
Of course, even though the Bane battle in Origins is more vicious and complicated. It requires more planning and technique than some of the other boss battles players face. This is what helps rank the Bane battle as one of the very best villains battles players undertake in the game.
A Collector's Paradise, Brick By Brick
The sheer number of Riddler trophies in the Arkham games is overwhelming, to say the least. But like this meme from Potatocrust2 on Reddit shows, there's no escaping the Ridder’s challenges even in the other Batman-branded games. Destroying the Riddler trophy hidden in Lego Batman 3 results in the player being awarded a new achievement, entitled “Now, That’s Impressive!”
Riddler trophies have made their undeniable mark on Batman’s mythos in the Arkham series as well as on the Batman games mythos as a whole. Much like the Joker, there’s no doubt that they’ll continue to appear when players least expect it.
This Is My Surprised Face
In order to achieve a perfect 240% rating on the Arkham Knight game and unlock one of the series' most exclusive Bat-suits, players have to complete the entire game 100 percent on all modes and complete the addition DLC in order to receive the sought-off score and suit.
That does mean that’s a few less surprises in store on the second play-through of the game, which inspired Vengeancefuledmaul's meme on Reddit. Since the player already knows what's going to happen and how to respond, it leaves some of the Riddler's actions and dialogue feeling a bit redundant.
For The Aesthetic
As the Arkham game progresses and the Joker becomes more ill from the Titan disease, Joker's fashion choices reflect his mental state. Rather than appearing in one of his more brightly colored suits from some of his previous iterations, Joker appears in a tattered, torn, deteriorating suit. User ADVags12 creates an image that plays off that choice using the iconic Drake meme.
Since Joker is actually dying from Titan Disease in Arkham City, the real-life response is that his suit is just worn. However, with a character like Joker, everything is calculated and planned to elicit a specific response.
No One Ever Stays Dead
Discovering the identity of the Arkham Knight was a major plot point of Batman: Arkham Knight. As soon as it was teased, fans suspected the character would be a variation of Jason Todd, having returned from the dead. However, Rocksteady kept teasing that Arkham Knight was an entirely new character.
This led to some fans being disappointed when Jason Todd was revealed as the antagonist in the game, believing it to be a watered-down Red Hood reveal. okevinb223 demonstrated the fan response when they posted a meme to Reddit that emphasized the fan's frustration with Rocksteady’s misdirected marketing attempt.
Distressing Costs Extra
The intense nature of Batman's fights in the Arkham games would undoubtedly cause damage to his suit. The visual representation of that tops Reddit user's Triplou's favorite things about the game design. Batman's cape is undoubtedly one of the most iconic of his costume. In the Arkham series, it takes quite a beating as one of his weapon and defense mechanisms.
For Arkhamverse fans, his cape represents the amount of effort and passion the developers put into the games, as one designer put in two years of work on developing and programming the cape in the first Arkham Asylum game.
Arkham Fans' Wishlist
When fans were awaiting the announcement of new games, rumors ran rampant that the title would be continuing the Arkhamverse. When it was revealed that Gotham Knights was a separate universe from the Arkhamverse, and there was still an Arkham title in development, fans on Reddit went wild with the hope that they'd be returning to the Arkhamverse with updated visual graphics and audio.
Of course, it's since been revealed that the Arkhamverse game is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but there was a shining moment of hope that the original title was getting a remaster and re-release.