• Emulator used: FCEU 0.98.16
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Abuses (minor) programming errors
  • Genre: Platform/Action

About the game

"Batman - Return of The Joker" is the sequel of the first Batman game for NES and consists of 13 levels and 5 bosses. This game differs from the first Batman game in many aspects, i.e - they have added a slide movement similar to the one in the Mega Man series, it now also have autoscrolling levels and there are no longer any close combat weapon, just guns. The graphics in the first game is good but here it's even better, could in fact be the best on NES.

Game plot

The game itself does not give you much information about the plot so I'm not sure about it at all. Apparently Joker some how survived the fall in the first game and is back to cause Batman more trouble, that's all I now for sure. This thin plot could perhaps be explained by the fact that the first game was based on the movie with the same name and thus the developers already had their story. This game is not based on a movie and thus they did not bother with a concrete story, perhaps.

Weapons

I only use two the weapons for good things, except 6 shots with the normal weapon right at the beginning, so I only explain these.

N-weapon

Each shot fires two bullets which goes in waves through the air. Very powerful, especially in a TAS since you can fire in 30 hz. However there can only be 14 bullets (7 shots) on the screen at the same time so it's most useful when you're close to an enemy.

C-weapon

Fires one big bullet that explodes when it hits a wall or enemy, these exploding pieces can hurt enemies too. Will come in good use at two bosses as you will see.

About the run

I decided to skip the no damage rule and Batman now takes as much damage as he (or I) want.

Tricks/Glitches I used (names created by me)

Slide-over-small-gap-glitch:

You can't normally walk or slide over gaps, I guess that's why they're there. However, if you are a very few pixels away from a small gap (not larger than Batman basically) and slide, Batman will just ignore it and be brought safely to the other side of it. This is because Batmans x-coordinate is moved forward as the slide starts and thus skips the pixels where the gap is.

Bounce-after-an-edge-trick

If you slide of an edge, hold a-button and the opposit direction your facing, then after some frames hit the other direction - you will do a small bounce and if a platform is not very far away you can save your life. In the run I also included the b-button in this process to turn faster.

Other things

If you think I need to add information about something, feel free to tell.
I thank the people who has done some discussions in the forum of this game back in time. I especially thank Guybrush who I contacted before I started making this and who has come up with some positive feedback about my work, he might be surprised I submitted this so fast:)

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Oh! I also corrected the ROM name.
  • You indicated Batman - Return of the Joker (U).nes
  • I updated it to Batman - Return of the Joker (U) [!].nes

adelikat: Accepting for publication.

adelikat: And processing.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15576
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1898: Aglar's NES Batman: Return of the Joker in 11:21.57
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3573)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
I've waited for a submission of this game for quite some time. And it indeed met my expectations. Easy yes vote.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Joined: 3/18/2006
Posts: 81
Location: Finland
Like adelikat, I've waited this submission for ages. I really enjoyed this TAS =) It's much more entertaining than my playthrough which I posted here and also better than my few minutes improvement which I did after my playthrough (however, I didn't post it here because there were no interests towards this game) But thank you Aglar for doing this run which I've desired so much :) Easy yes vote!
Editor, Expert player (2478)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Nice run. Yes-vote. This game has much better graphics design and atmosphere than the Genesis counterpart. NES: Awesome! Sega Genesis: Horrible!
Former player
Joined: 10/6/2007
Posts: 330
Location: B.C Canada
I voted meh. It was good and all, but the amount of side scrolling levels annoyed me.
Skilled player (1652)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Yes vote. I enjoyed how much you insulted the game engine's hitbox on forced scrolls. Also, this game is so very true to the source material. Batman is always using guns, and getting struck by lighting. He also used a jet pack all the time.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Joined: 9/26/2007
Posts: 55
Location: Michigan
This right here is a prime example of why I check the submission list multiple times a day, and this is not the first time that I found myself completely surprised by the addition of a video I have been highly anticipating. Easy yes vote, and I don't think you could've ground down those boss' health meters any faster unless you were throttling a chainsaw inside of their necks. The only possible complaint would be that you didn't tap shots with the beat of the music more often and that's very easily forgiven considering how good the music sounds by itself. Excellent work, Aglar!
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
DarkKobold wrote:
Batman is always using guns, and getting struck by lighting. He also used a jet pack all the time.
The way he moved around, it seemed more like The Flash in Batman's clothes. Of course, that kind of absurdity is only an asset in a TAS. I enjoyed this mockery very much. The not touching the mines was cool, too. Yes vote.
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1365
Location: Minnesota
I was entertained as hell... I think it would have been humorous if Batman faced joker the last time carrying a boombox that was playing "Welcome to the Jungle" "You know where you are? Youre in the Jungle, baby! Youre gonna DIE!" yes vote
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Joined: 5/11/2006
Posts: 71
Yes vote from me. Loved it! I like the way you toyed with mines and enemies and such. Don't know why heath ledger rode in Dr. Wiley's robo-copter thing, and why he had Bubble Man's Bubble Lead power. Guess he killed megaman right before your battle? Is that why his power rating was "OVER NINE THOUSAND!!??!?!!?!" :) didn't batman have some non-gun shooting policy? I must have missed that one...
Samus taught us that a girl doesn't need brains to be successful. Brains are giant, evil, and vulnerable to missiles.
Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
Is it possible that this was a non Batman game that had some graphics switched to turn it into one later? Anyway, the game was kind of meh-ish, but the run itself was... I can't really recall and I just watched it. I guess I'll just vote meh.
Expert player (3643)
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
It's quite expected that not everyone likes this game as a speedrun, mostly due to the rather large amount of auto-scrolling levels. I'm glad to hear, though, that it's not a disappointment for who have waited for this. I also seem to have managed getting this submission between two Mario runs, that's pretty sweet:)
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Former player
Joined: 3/31/2005
Posts: 192
Location: Argentina
A very good run of a very good NES game. Voted yes.
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
I was just about to comment on your WIP when adelikat talked about encoding this run. You were faster than I thought! Man, awesome work here! Voting yes judging from the WIPs I've seen.
Expert player (3643)
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
Guybrush wrote:
You were faster than I thought!
I guessed that:) I simply wanted to have it done before school started so I worked like a slave the last days. Here's some bonus material if anyone wants: I here complete level 6-1 7 frames faster than in my run, but it forces you to take the C-weapon which would make the next boss fight approximately 25 seconds slower.
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15576
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1087] NES Batman: Return of the Joker by Aglar in 11:21.57
Joined: 7/7/2007
Posts: 161
A Fan of both Journey of Silus and Gimmick! videos, it's interesting to observe the evolution of Sunsoft's platform "engine" between these games. All three feature the same PCM bass hit and similar explosion effects but otherwise play entirely differently. It would seem Sunsoft is the unsung hero of twilight era NES development. Also, all three of these Sunsoft games have some of the best graphics for the system. Speaking of which, the NES version of Return of the Joker has better graphics than its unreleased SNES counterpart.
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Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.