Batman: Arkham City/YMMV

"This ain't no place for a hero... this ain't no place for no better man..."
 * Alas, Poor Villain: You have to admit, although  pretty much had his death coming, it's hard not to pity him during his final moments, especially when
 * This doesn't count as a death, but Harley's defeat in the Harley Quinn's revenge DLC is also pretty sad
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: Arkham City will be on the Wii U. For Nintendo fans, at least.
 * Furthermore, Nintendo's 2012 E3 added that all DLC will be included with the game, as well as armored costumes for Batman and Catwoman.
 * Catwoman being a playable character in the Story Mode.
 * Robin announced as a playable character for Challenge Maps.
 * And the later announcement that Nightwing will also be playable in Challenge Maps.
 * The Reveal that Batman Beyond, 70's Batman, The Dark Knight Returns Batman, DCAU Batman and Earth One Batman are as alternate skins.
 * Arkham City keeps Asylum's Game Over screens.
 * "Harley Quinn's Revenge", the post-game DLC additional quest, where Batman and Robin deal with Harley following the ending (see above) of the game proper.
 * Anticlimax Boss:
 * In fairness, the main challenge for most of those guys is getting to them, a lot of them wouldn't be a good physical match for Batman anyway, and Batman has already tangled with two of them in Asylum.
 * Awesome Music: The first gameplay trailer uses The Heavy's "Short Change Hero" as the soundtrack. It's appropriate, awesome, and will stuck in your head for hours after watching it:
 * Awesome Music: The first gameplay trailer uses The Heavy's "Short Change Hero" as the soundtrack. It's appropriate, awesome, and will stuck in your head for hours after watching it:
 * Awesome Music: The first gameplay trailer uses The Heavy's "Short Change Hero" as the soundtrack. It's appropriate, awesome, and will stuck in your head for hours after watching it:


 * Lykke Li's "Get Some" for the Catwoman also qualifies. The really Nolanesque theme from the Hugo Strange trailer does, too. Heck, if you watched any trailer for this game with the sound on, it was awesome for your ears.
 * "Mercenary" by Panic! At The Disco on the official soundtrack is the perfect song to play the combat challenge maps to.
 * The main theme perfectly captures the awesome feeling of Batman and also feels like it's been mixed with the music from the Nolan films.
 * This Court Is Now In Session aka Two-Face's Boss Theme.
 * The piece of music that plays while Batman is paying his respects to his parents in Crime Alley.
 * Award Snub: Spike's Video Games nominated Arkham City (and by extent, Rocksteady) for many things, notably Mark Hamill for best male voice-over. In the end it lost several awards to Skyrim, Bastion or Portal 2. Most frustratingly, Mark Hamill and Tara Strong lost to GLaDOS and Stephen Merchant (the two did not complain that they lost, rather that the awards ceremony was rather shabby).
 * To be fair, the game still won Best Xbox360 Game, Best Action-Adventure Game, Best Adapted Game and the Joker received the Best Character award.
 * Badass Decay: Poor, poor Bane... While for the most part fans love what the Arkham games have done for the series' villains, the same can't be said for the man who broke the Bat. In this game, Bane's side mission is pretty much a fetch quest where you go around the city in order to destroy containers full of Titan. While Asylum wasn't exactly kind to Bane either, he at least had the excuse of looking like a dumb brute thanks to being suddenly exposed to a ton of Titan and at least got a proper boss fight. And it's especially jarring due to his portrayal in Origins where he's much more of a Genius Bruiser true to the comics.
 * Best Boss Ever: A lot of people consider Mr. Freeze to easily the best boss in the game, bar none. It's easy to see why as well, because his boss fight puts your intelligence to the test by forcing you to ambush him in all sorts of ways, and each time you hurt him, he'll make sure that you can't use the same method against him twice. You will basically have to know how each piece of your equipment works, especially in New Game Plus mode where he's a lot more difficult than usual.
 * is also considered to be a fantastic boss, especially since you're, which causes you to hallucinate the battle taking place in a vast desert landscape where you get to pull off feats like taking down a huge sand monster, as well as counter twenty opponents at once, where you can usually only do that with up to three enemies.
 * And as well, it's just so thrilling to  Overall, this game REALLY improved off of Arkham Asylum's somewhat lack-luster boss fights.
 * Broken Base: The reactions towards Arleen Sorkin being replaced by Tara Strong as the voice of Harley.
 * For some Scarecrow not making the cut into the game despite being one of the most popular members of Batman's rogue's gallery. Even with the ending scene in Arkham Asylum confirming his survival and his segments possibly being the most memorable aspects of the first game.
 * The ending scene of Asylum doesn't unambiguously confirm Scarecrow's survival. One of three villains reaches their hand out of the water to ; which one is selected at random. Not to mention that Scarecrow is in the game; he simply doesn't figure as part of the storyline.
 * To access the Catwoman segments one has to input a code that comes with the instruction manual and only works once, which means anyone who has bought the game used has to pay for content that some people think should have been part of the game. Regardless of the fact that the game is still several dozen hours worth of content without it.
 * Now there's the Riddler putting innocent people into deathtraps that Batman must rescue, prompting cries of "They turned the Riddler into Jigsaw!"
 * Riddler's been doing that since the 1940s.
 * A good villain needs to establish a credible threat. There's not much menace to a guy dressed in question marks who just leaves a bunch of riddles lying around for no apparent reason.
 * Robin being available as a Challenge Map character probably counts.
 * The fact that this Robin is Tim Drake, and his entire costume. This has probably been rectified by the announcement of Dick Grayson as Nightwing, though.
 * The reveal of the new skins is bringing this, particular the Batman Beyond and Batman the Animated Series skins. The complaints about the Beyond skin focus around the fact that it portrays Batman as being bulkier than he was in the show, despite the fact that its Bruce Wayne wearing the suit, not Terry McGinnis. The complaints about the TAS skin focus around its deliberately cartoony design and how it doesn't fit into the realistic game design, ignoring the fact that the 70s Batsuit is essentially a realistic rendering of the TAS suit. And they've even managed to combine them both with "Why couldn't they make the Beyond skin cartoony like the TAS skin?"
 * Complete Monster: The Joker is as bad as ever, what with him mailing his toxic blood to all the different hospitals in Gotham, holding Nora Fries as a hostage to get Mr. Freeze to cooperate with him, ... Not that it stops
 * The Penguin has been turned into a sadistic cop-killer in this continuity, so it's no surprise that he qualifies for this. A lot of the criminals in Arkham City are terrified of him, some even view him as being worse than the Joker, which is saying a lot.
 * Professor Hugo Strange tries to present himself as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but is still ultimately a monster due to the atrocities he ends up committing. It's safe to say that he's just as bad, or maybe even worse than the criminals he despises so much.
 * Once again, Victor Zsasz is still psychotically obsessed with murdering people. It's worth telling that the local criminals who are pretty okay with assisting people like the Joker are unnerved by him, with career criminal Catwoman flat-out refusing to enter his hideout.
 * Calender Man could qualify as well, seeing as how he's committed all sorts of repulsive deeds including matricide, patricide, and multiple accounts of murder even against his own goons for petty reasons over the years, and smugly reminisces about them without so much as a hint of remorse.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Harley Quinn gets a lot of sympathy for her distress over the Joker's illness, though these people end up forgetting about her carrying out Joker's orders to brutally execute doctors who fail to cure him, , and being an all around psychotic individual.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Mad Hatter is this to many players as his only scene in the game is one of the most memorable portions of the game. Like Scarecrow from the previous game, many found his side mission to be Nightmare Fuel and
 * Mister Freeze also counts as he's not even really a villian and is seen in a very sympathetic light by many players. It helps that his boss fight is awesome and very memorable.
 * Even Better Sequel: Many of the reviews posted agree that Arkham City is much better than Arkham Asylum. And considering the reviews for that game...
 * Evil Is Sexy: Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Talia Al-Ghul are all incredibly hot villainesses. Catwoman isn't quite evil, but is still incredibly sexy.
 * Fake Difficulty: Not much, but it subtly exists when fighting against max-difficulty thugs such as in the bonus mission at the end of the main story . Communication between them becomes instant; as soon as one (conscious) mook knows where you are, they all do, even before the thug that spotted you speaks.
 * The second half of Augmented Reality training also counts. The controls are much too sensitive and the precision required much too high in order to get one of the best, quickest ways to move around the city and an absolute requirement in order to meet the "get to the phone" parts of Zsasz's side mission.
 * The same can be said for the Predator challanges, which come in two flavors: Normal and Extreme. The Extreme difficulty variations of maps equip all thugs with thermal googles, ludicrous weapons , and the ability to alert others instantly. To make things even more unfair, there will always be a thug with a detective vision jammer thrown in, who always either a)has an incredibly awkward route that overlaps with other mooks and/or goes to a difficult to reach area; or b) must be taken down last for all level medals.
 * Foe Yay: As one would expect, Batman and the Joker engage in lots of this with most of it coming from the Joker's end. Not only do his phone calls to Batman sound like they're coming from a spurned lover (with the Joker even playing it up to comedic effect in his first phonecall), but
 * And with Talia al Ghul being present, she and Bruce have their fair share of flirting (though like with the Joker, most of it is from Talia's end).
 * Game Breaker: While there aren't really any for the main game, Bat Swarm is extremely handy in Combat Challenges; it gets everyone off of you, can get you a few thousand points if your combo is high enough, and makes the Liuetenants a piece of cake (do the move close to them, pummel them to get your combo gold again, then do it again as they start to recover).
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere:  can come off as one if you're not familiar with him from the comics or cartoons. One of the Arkham City Stories does do a bit to foreshadow it, though.
 * Harsher in Hindsight:
 * In Batman the Brave And The Bold,
 * He's Just Hiding:
 * Jerkass Woobie: As psychopathically evil as she is, it's hard not to pity Harley Quinn as her puddin' is deathly ill, and you can tell she's doing her damndest to keep her head screwed on. This status increases even moreso when.
 * Like You Would Really Do It: A real-world example: before the game was released, several news outlets spoiled the plot point that in the first two hours of the game. Most of the outlets expressed shock and near-indignation that something this shocking could have happened that early in the game, and there was an immediate backlash from fans who thought the plot was completely spoiled..
 * Joker's sick? He might die? Yeah, right. This was even Lampshaded in the enemy chatter at one point.
 * Takes on a meta-plot thing, as the twist is that
 * Then in the bonus mission.
 * Luck-Based Mission: The Augmented Reality Training sequences. The tiniest slip up, a light touch, will veer you off course and screw up the challenge.
 * Helpful hint for some of the Advanced AR Challenges: After you start a power dive, first mash the directional stick to down, then take your finger off the dive button. You will still be traveling straight down at high speed, but now you can pull out of the dive at a controllable rate by gradually easing back on the stick instead of automatically returning to level flight instantly as soon as you release the dive button. It's the only thing that made the Advanced AR Challenges #1 and #2 possible for me. (Note: In order to have enough speed built up for the downward run, do not release the dive button until after you're about to pass through the second horizontal ring on your way down.)
 * Magnificent Bastard: Hugo Strange, invoked by Catwoman.
 * Riddler almost applies, but he gets out bastarded by Strange and, of course, the man himself.
 * It would be a sin if Joker wasn't on here. It's practically tradition.
 * Memetic Mutation: "Two guns, bitch!"
 * Moral Event Horizon: Penguin's nightmarish torture of a cop over his museum lair's intercom just because said cop mouthed off to him definitely counts, though him trying to beat Bruce Wayne (who he doesn't know is Batman) to death does as well since for all he knows, Bruce is just a rich guy whose family was more successful than his. Bruce (as far as Penguin knows) did nothing wrong to him personally.
 * Hugo Strange creating Arkham City counts as a whole, as the whole thing is essentially a concentration camp not just for criminals, but those who either outlive their usefulness to him or speak out against him. And that's not even going into him feeding Mad Hatter's killing urges, torturing and brainwashing people to serve as his private military...
 * While he didn't quite cross it, Ra's gets him dangerously close to it due to the fact that
 * Then there's Riddler snapping and putting Arkham City's medical team in various horrifying death traps, showing that his obsession with trying to outsmart Batman has very likely put him past the point of no return.
 * Most Annoying Sound: "Augmented Reality Training started." "Augmented Reality Training failed." Unless you're crazy skilled or decide to forgo the rest of those missions, you will be hearing this a lot.
 * If an enemy spots you while you're fighting a group of enemies out of their reach (Such as if you're fighting thugs in the streets while they're on the rooftops or vice-versa), they'll start shouting taunts at you and will not shut the hell up until you go to them and beat them senseless.
 * "This is hardly a surprise. I always knew I was better than you!" "Well, well, so the shaved monkey has failed! How utterly, utterly expected." "What's wrong? Has your primitive brain given up and accepted that I, the Riddler, am better than you?". Needless to say, the Riddler having only three death quotes for all four characters in Riddler's Revenge soon gets very, very annoying, if his insufferably smug attitude didn't piss you off already.
 * Harley Quinn in general, especially thanks to Tara Strong's performance. Acknowledged in-universe where a lot of the Joker's henchmen and even the Riddler himself consider her to be incredibly annoying.
 * Nightmare Fuel: Just watch the Hugo Strange trailer without cringing, you'll find it very difficult.
 * The Joker trailer. Take EXTREME caution if you're afraid of clowns.
 * That Goddamn great white shark.
 * Made all the more amazing when Batman PUNCHES IT IN THE FACE!
 *   *shudder*
 * Batman's bunny mask in the Mad Hatter side mission. It will make you regret that this game is played in third person instead of first.
 * Of course there's
 * The end of the Penguin trailer gives us The Reveal of Solomon Grundy. The music that plays afterward makes it even creepier.
 * The Riddler trailer has a serious Saw vibe going on.
 * Nintendo Hard: The Augmented Reality Training sequences.
 * No Problem With Licensed Games: Like the first game, Batman: Arkham City has received universal acclaim. Many critics have even stated that to call it the greatest comic book game of all time doesn't do it any justice proclaiming it as one of the finest action/adventure games ever released.
 * One-Scene Wonder: The Mad Hatter's bit only lasts for one creepy intro and one fight scene, but damn if it isn't memorable.
 * It's very brief and easy to miss; being accessable ONLY when after you fight Ra's Al Ghul, but players have found Killer Croc's Easter Egg appearance in the game to be very cool and wish he had a bigger role like he did in the previous game.
 * While he gets more focus in Harley Quinn's Revenge, Robin's scene where he helps Batman fight off a couple of League of Assassin's members is pretty memorable, leading some to wish that Robin had a bigger role in the main game proper.
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: Calendar Man full stop. Whilst his status as a Scrappy is debatable, there was no doubt he was hardly a respectable villain before this game came out. Once it was, there's little doubt Rocksteady really changed people's perspective on the character when he was made into a Nightmare Fuel story telling Easter Egg that legitimately is terrifying. In fact, the character may now be seeing a receiving a fanbase.
 * Depending on your tastes, the Penguin is this for some people. While he's supposed to look ridiculous in the comics so he can get his enemies to underestimate him, a lot of people simply found him lame and love his characterization in this game as a brutish, psychotic thug with a love for torture.
 * Straw Man Has a Point:
 * That One Boss: Mr. Freeze on New Game+. To be more precise, Mr. Freeze on a normal playthrough is considered by many to be quite fun. But during a New Game+ run, he gets controller-breakingly frustrating. First, he's more aggressive than usual and faster. Second, if you keep your Detective Vision on for an extended period of time, he jams it. Third, and this one requires some explaining... There are a total of twelve ways to damage Mr. Freeze. On a normal playthrough, you only need to use five or six of them to defeat him (depending on difficulty level). But on New Game+, hits don't do as much damage on bosses, just like the mooks, so you'll need to use almost ALL of the techniques to defeat him.
 * The battle in the Sionis Steel Mill near the end of the game against the Joker, a huge amount of henchmen, Mr. Hammer, and a Titan henchman is as difficult as it sounds. While the Joker fights like any other of his mooks he's a lot more resilient and will continue to be a nuisance throughout the entire fight, all of the mooks get in the way whenever you're trying to hurt Mr. Hammer or the Titan, and if you try to focus on whittling down the mooks instead, the hard hitting Mr. Hammer and Titan will obliterate your health if they end up hitting you. Combine all of that with the fact that there are rollercoasters that will ram you and damage you if you hang around on the tracks in the room, and you have one hell of an irritating fight on your hands.
 * Two-Face can easily be this for Catwoman: like Freeze, it's a predator battle, but he's guarded by numerous armed mooks, damaging him naturally alerts him to your presence and after they figure out you're there, any mooks you take out will be quickly replaced by Two-Face: due to the above and Catwoman's limited number of gadgets and lower health, you're either forced to take potshots at him while he's separated and hope you get away before the reinforcements arrive (which isn't helped by the finickiness of her wall-climbing) or just beat the hell out of him, do your best to disarm any mooks that arrive to help him and hope you can deplete his health before you're overwhelmed.
 * Harley's Revenge contains a predator battle much like above, and since Robin has access to grappling hook and smoke bombs as well as having the same amount of health as Batman does, the mission is much easier when it comes to taking Harley down, not to mention the fact that there's much fewer reinforcements. However, to compensate for it, not only do you have to take down all thugs in addition to Harley when Catwoman's predator room ended the second you took down Two-Face, but there's 2 hostages in the room as well.
 * That One Sidequest: Augmented Reality Training. Most of them are merely hard. But there are a few in there that are button-destroyingly difficult, requiring not just god-like reflexes but insane amounts of luck to complete. Get used to hearing the Batcomputer's voice.
 * Some of Riddler's gliding/pad puzzles qualify as this. Not because they're hard to figure out, but because there's often no room for error. Forget what he does to the hostages; you are going to want to punch Riddler in the face for having to hear that awful pad-has-been-reset sound over and over and over.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Penguin's redesign is this or Took a Level In Badass.
 * Robin's redesign definitely seems to be evoking this from certain parts of the fandom. In particular since this Robin is Tim Drake.
 * Robin's newly revealed characterization as a brooding, introverted man with a hair-trigger temper who cagefights in his spare time is also evoking this in parts of the fandom. Again, mostly because this Robin is Tim Drake. If this was Jason Todd or Damian Wayne, or hell maybe even Dick Grayson, it would be more in-character.
 * Fret not: Dick Grayson is playable as Nightwing in challenge mode.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: One can't help but feel a little this way with
 * On a related note, one of the Riddler's interview tapes with Strange implies that Strange has a replica of Batman's suit hidden in his office. We never get to see him wearing it and he never tries to replace Batman directly.
 * That's a reference to the Prey story arc that reinvented Hugo Strange. He does the same thing, and displays a lot more open jealousy for Batman than he does in this game.
 * A minor instance of this trope would be the inclusion of Jack Ryder, who throughout the game is only ever seen in his civilian identity instead of his superhero alter ego, The Creeper.
 * And ultimately, there's both the Catwoman and Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC. Catwoman's DLC could have presented a great opportunity to show what all is happening in Arkham City while Batman is busy with finding a cure to Joker's poisoned blood while trying to stop Protocol 10, and Harley's could have However, Catwoman's DLC focuses around her simply trying to recover all of her confiscated goods from Strange's vault along with a feud with Two-Face that is only present at the start and end of her DLC, and while her DLC is integrated into the main campaign, you only play through her parts sporadically with each chapter being very short. Harley Quinn's DLC however is simply a quick romp around the Industrial District with a new part of the Steel Mill, and there's still no real closure with, leading many to think that both DLC's really lack potential.
 * Uncanny Valley: Joker sometimes looks almost plasticine,.
 * The Joker always looks different than your average clown, but in Arkham City
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: Seriously, just check out the Hugo Strange trailer. It looks almost real! Seriously, it takes you a couple seconds to realize it's animated!
 * What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Like it's predecessor. Yes, it's has the USA rated of Teen, which is the equivalent of the PG-13 rating. Is this game for children? Most definitely not.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: At least some of the fans interpretation of the game.
 * The Woobie: Batman when
 * Mr. Freeze, of course.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Victor Zsasz. He's a true monster, but with his meek sounding voice, his ferret-like physique and depressing backstory you can't help but feel at least some pity for him.
 * The Mad Hatter, especially in his audio tapes, just sounds so pathetic and unwell. He needs some real medical and psychiatric care, not Hugo Strange. And
 * Talia Al Ghul. Despite being badass and sort of evil, she loves Bruce and is used by her father like a simple tool, even trying to stop Batman when he says he's going to kill (the first time, anyway).
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: Seriously, just check out the Hugo Strange trailer. It looks almost real! Seriously, it takes you a couple seconds to realize it's animated!
 * What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Like it's predecessor. Yes, it's has the USA rated of Teen, which is the equivalent of the PG-13 rating. Is this game for children? Most definitely not.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: At least some of the fans interpretation of the game.
 * The Woobie: Batman when
 * Mr. Freeze, of course.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Victor Zsasz. He's a true monster, but with his meek sounding voice, his ferret-like physique and depressing backstory you can't help but feel at least some pity for him.
 * The Mad Hatter, especially in his audio tapes, just sounds so pathetic and unwell. He needs some real medical and psychiatric care, not Hugo Strange. And
 * Talia Al Ghul. Despite being badass and sort of evil, she loves Bruce and is used by her father like a simple tool, even trying to stop Batman when he says he's going to kill (the first time, anyway).