So before we get into this week's review I'd like to thank LadyZyre for participating in last week's challenge! She will be awarded with 3000 Wasabits and of course all internet front page fame. There will be no challenge this week unfortunately. Awwww, so sad.

Yes, the title of this article is correct. No, there is not a flash game for Arkham Asylum nor did I fall down a large flight of stairs and hit my head really hard convincing myself there is. I just felt that it would be appropriate for this Workless Wednesday article if I reviewed the game I was too busy playing to actually write a Workless Wednesday article. How ironic, I know. Now stop playing that Alanis Morissette song on loop in your head. There is nothing ironic about a black fly Chardonnay, moving on.

Ahem, I'm here today to talk to you about Batman:Akrham Asylum which is a steathly action adventure title with a linear sandbox gameplay.  It's brought to us by developer Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics. The basic storyline of the game is that the Joker has taken over Arkham Asylum through his sneaky ways and has released all the inmates while trapping you, Batman, on the island. Here's the short of it for those of you who are comic challenged. You are on an island filled with deranged psychopathic super villains. You have a batarang. Surely this is what people mean when they say, "Up shit creek without a paddle."

More After The Break

The good news here is that you're only up said creek for a short time. Batman is before all things a detective and those playing this game should do well to remember that. I found that one of my favorite aspects of the game is the in game riddles. Once you've gone through the rigmarole of the tutorial and walk out to your first area you will notice that there is a riddle present at the top of the screen. It will prompt you to find something in that area that would be a "solution" for the riddle and take a picture of it. Sounds pretty easy right? It's really not. I found that there was one in particular that could only be seen in detective mode and you had to look at the solution in a certain angle to line up the pieces making an exclamation mark. Wow, talk about some serious thought that went into these. Definitely a trademark of the Riddler.

The thing most people have asked me about since I've been playing BAA has been the Freeflow Fighting System, which I must admit is pretty cool for a two button mashfest. Those two buttons you start with are attack and counter. While you can just attack full on you will eventually get surrounded by thugs who will flash a blue lighting sign above their head signaling they will be attacking. If you press the counter button Batman will not only stop the attack but send one right back out for them. There are countless combos for the attack and counter buttons which makes fighting never get boring. Later they throw in thugs with knives and stun rods that require a different technique that really require you to think when fighting them in large numbers. Remember, Batman's biggest advantage is his brain, so use yours too!

Speaking of the brain, this brings me to one of the coolest parts of the game, in my opinion. I'm talking about stealth. There's nothing like using your grappling hook to get to the top of a room and then stealthily taking out 7 dudes with guns. Why do you have to do it stealthily you ask? Batman is a normal guy with no superpowers. If he gets shot its gonna do some serious damage. Don't believe me? Go try it...No, I'll wait. See how fast you're back? Didn't work too well you say? Yeah, that's what I thought.

BAA also includes one of my favorite gameplay elements that I think more superhero games or games in general should try to incorporate these days. Leveling and XP! It's the backbone of modern gaming I tells ya. Batman does it to an awesome degree by giving you XP for everything from beating up thugs to solving the in game riddles. It also has a decent amount of achievements which is important to me being an XBOX 360 player.  I like to feel as if I've earned something and done something cool which Batman truly delivers on. The game itself caters to the casual player as well as the hardcore by giving them an easy controller configuration to learn which could also be used in advanced ways with a little bit of play time. The learning curve isn't steep what so ever and platforming feels at ease with the fact that if you fall, the game prompts you to use your grappling hook to save yourself leaving less of those "FFFFFUUUUU-" moments.

Look, I could sit here gabbing away about how awesome the game is or you can just take my word for it that this is THE BEST superhero game out there period. Hell, the game holds a Guinness World Record for ‘Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever’. If you haven't gone out to purchase or rent this game because you're waiting on something better to come along go ahead and slit your wrists right now. They're even launching more free DLC on Sept. 17th which is less than a month after the games release. I could sit here and give you more reasons to go get it but I'm not, I'm just going back to playing the game now. Yes, I like playing this game more than I like talking. Hell may have just frozen over.

Check back next week for Workless Wednesday as we will be back on schedule.