Batman Forever

Batman Forever, released in 1996 and tied to the Joel Schumacher film, is a beat-em-up that rode the wave of digitized-actor fighting games kicked off by Mortal Kombat. Developed by Acclaim — the same publisher then riding high on Mortal Kombat's home ports — it used photographed live-action sprites for Batman and Robin, complete with motion-captured moves, giving it a superficially flashy look for the mid-1990s.

In practice it became something of a byword for a licensed game that looked the part but played awkwardly. The control scheme borrowed the multi-button special-move complexity of fighting games and grafted it onto a side-scrolling brawler, resulting in a combat system many found needlessly convoluted and clumsy. It has its defenders for the ambition of its presentation and its faithfulness to the film's aesthetic, but it is more often cited as a cautionary tale of the movie-tie-in era. As a period piece it is interesting; as a game it demands patience.