Next from the Makers of H2Overdrive & Dirty Drivin’, a Batman Arcade Game: Batmobile

arcadehero July 22, 2013 9
Next from the Makers of H2Overdrive & Dirty Drivin’, a Batman Arcade Game: Batmobile

(Newsfeed 1323 via The Stinger Report)

Ever since a Southern California company by the name of Specular Interactive was discovered to be behind the arcade racing title H2Overdrive, they have been on our map. I had a chance to visit their offices back in 2011 to get a hands-on look at their second arcade title, Dirty Drivin‘ which was a fun experience. Dirty Drivin’ came to the scene about about 2 years after H2Overdrive did and it being 2013, its been two years since that made its way into arcades.  The next game in their lineup is Batmobile, based upon the famous superhero driving machine from DC Comic’s Batman. Details have been found on it via an artist that has published a bunch of items about it online which you can see below.

One question that is sure to pop-up in just about everyone’s mind when they hear about this game is “Which Batmobile?”. Believe it or not, there have been so many variations of the Batmobile that there is a book about it as well as a website dedicated to the history of the vehicle since 1941. There is no “one” Batmobile and so Specular gives players choices from a selection of Batmobiles to drive but the exact roster is unknown at the moment. Some of those included are the Tumbler (from the recent Batman Begins/Dark Knight movies), the Tim Burton movies model and a few others as you can see from these pictures as found on the artist demo reel site.

Joker  Henchman Bus

Freeze Mech

Finget River Highway

Bane Henchman Tanker

Bus

batmobilearcade

As the Batmobile itself is a unique driving machine, the creators of this game have set about to create a unique experience among the many arcade driving game competitors out on the market. A vast majority of  driving/racing games have been variations on either closed circuit or branched course races. Batmobile instead appears to be an open-world driving game where you receive objectives to complete including goals such as “Takedown 3 Arkham Bombers”, “Stop 4 Art Thieves”, “Take out 3 Bane’s Mercenaries” “Take out Tanker Trucks” “take down Nuclear transport primers”, etc. There are also boss battles, such as battling Mr. Freeze’s Freeze Mech. Various famous characters are found in the game – The Joker, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Penguin, all who have their schemes to make Gotham a living hell, unless Batman can stop them. From the video below, the game has a Chase HQ2 vibe to it, although with much faster action and weapons.

UPDATE: While the video was originally posted a while back, it was removed yesterday just a few hours after we reported it. Here is some demo footage that has been discovered on an artists reel. The images above also came from this artist, Michael Tran. There’s no telling how “beta” these shots are – the video and screens were apparently posted this past April but we will be sure to share more as soon as we get it!

The video doesn’t allow for embedding here so just click on the hyperlink to watch.

In terms of a Batman game in arcades, there were some efforts in the 90s that gave us Batman (Atari Games, 90) and Batman Forever (Acclaim, ’96). Both were scrolling fighters, which the general story of The Dark Knight fits into. In more recent times, his last appearance in an arcade title was GlobalVRs Justice League: Heroes United and there also was Stern Pinball’s Batman which was based upon the newer movies of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He has of course appeared it numerous console games, the Arkham Asylum and City games being the most recent. Out of all the Batman games I have played however, I don’t know of any where you are focusing exclusively on the Batmobile (yes there was Batman Returns on Sega CD which is close thanks to extended driving levels but there was also some platforming parts too). Until now of course.

 

9 Comments »

  1. Gabe McGrath July 22, 2013 at 6:02 pm - Reply

    Oh… sad.

    “Sorry, “Michael V Tran Demo Reel 2013″ was deleted at 5:42:46 Mon Jul 22, 2013.
    We have no more information about it on our mainframe or elsewhere.”

    Looks like someone got spooked with the attention.

  2. Raiden July 23, 2013 at 10:33 am - Reply

    Oh wow another racer….. What a surprise…. I sure didn’t see that coming……

    • polster July 25, 2013 at 8:24 am - Reply

      what did you expect? Specular’s forte is old school 90s arcade racing games for the new generation!

  3. Phil "iTossWomenSalads" Arrington July 23, 2013 at 5:41 pm - Reply

    They finally ported the Sega CD version of Batman returns to the arcade?

  4. Foster VS July 26, 2013 at 12:19 pm - Reply

    Someone didn’t grab the video before it was deleted? Shame on you. Maybe it is sitting in your browser cache…?

  5. shawn July 30, 2013 at 7:40 pm - Reply

    Well I’m not excited about batmobile to be honest. But I have faith in them. This company and a few namco games are the back bone of the arcade world. And rang they can surely make an exciting and great experience. I collect arcade games and out of all my collection I put hydro thunder as being a classic right beside my ms. pacman cabinet. Set the steering to a good force feedback turn it up and you will be smiling from ear to ear. Shame arctic thunder didn’t have the depth of a racer that it could have been. Innovative though in look and design. Dirty driving is awesome. Trust the talent… That’s what I have to say.

    • Arcades4ever August 2, 2013 at 3:52 pm - Reply

      I agree shawn, only namco seems to be the wow factor for the arcade scene these days along with rawthrills. Namco come up with games that are better for the arcade market and rawthrills just improves year by year apart from Disney’s car racer which disappointed me. Sega on the other hand seem to be declining somehow with not just there arcade hardware being less powerful but I don’t come across many of their games that often post 2011 such as dream raiders, lets go island. Great games but operators don’t seem interested compared to namco and rawthrills offerings. As for konami, not worth mentioning

  6. rUbin August 16, 2013 at 5:03 pm - Reply

    Why would anyone want to play a Batman Returns racing game?

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