Batman: The Video Game (NES, 1990)

Batman: The Video Game hit in February of 1990, several months after the moody Tim Burton film it was based on, and forever altered my sense of what the Nintendo Entertainment System was capable of. It’s not that the devs at Sunsoft squeezed more raw power out of Nintendo’s aging hardware. It’s that they used its limited capabilities with remarkable artistic panache to capture the distinctive, noir-ish atmosphere of Burton’s blockbuster.

The opening street scene’s use of shadows suggests the gloomy vastness of Gotham City stretching behind you. In stage two’s Axis Chemical plant, spinning background fans and droplets of green acid give the treacherous environment a foul industrial life. My favorite detail of all: In stage four, the visage of Jack Nicholson’s Joker, laughing of course, is caught on three green video screens, taunting Batman in a haunting, endless loop.

Batman for the NES is a staggeringly gorgeous game, and a testament to just how far great use of color and attention to detail can go in conveying a mood, even when working with very limited resources. — Carolyn Petit