Superhero games have always been pretty rubbish, thankfully in Batman: Arkham Asylum we a candidate for game of the year….

The lengthy cut scene brings you right in to the dark world of Arkham Asylum. Batman has captured The Joker but he didn’t put up a fight which gets Batman worried. It’s with good reason too because it isn’t long before The Joker’s plan come to fruition and Batman finds himself trapped in the asylum.

It’s at this point you are introduced to the fantastically simple combat system, which involves a button to punch and kick and another to counter, moving Batman in various direction will send him crashing into his next opponent to keep your combo up, there are various combo achievements up to as high as 40 which will keep you busy.

Once you have been taken through the basics you start to really get into the story, completing different objectives and taking on Batmans familiar foes along the way. When you enter different rooms you get to use the fantastic detective mode which allows you to scan the room for enemies, from there you can decide whether to take the stealth or gung ho approach. If the enemies have guns you need to take the stealth approach or you will have no chance and will be faced with the fantastic game over clips.

Batman is helped by loads of great gadgets that you can collect at different points in the game. Completing story based objectives, beating up the bad guys and solving The Riddlers’ riddles all give you points that will allow you to obtain new moves and upgrade your armour or gadgets.

The visuals are brilliant in the game and the voice acting is really cool too, especially The Joker. He adds a great atmosphere to the game, especially when he is goading his own goons. Harley Quinn is another of my favourite characters from the game.

The game doesn’t stop once you have completed the main storyline, there are 240 riddles/trophies for you to solve or find which will help rack up your gamerscore. There is also a challenge mode full of different combat and stealth scenarios, and they will keep you entertained for a while too.

In the next few days there is some free Batman DLC coming out which will keep you at the asylum for a bit longer!

This game really surprised me and I’m can easily say this is the best game I have played this year, it’s unlikely to be the best at the end of the year because of games like Modern Warfare 2, but this is a game you really need to play.

9/10