In the landscape awash with Batman media, there have been more villains than storylines. But despite the oversaturation of many adaptations, a slew of new enemies spawned over nearly 100 years of continuity, and a vast amount of required plot recreations, he remains a villain who has never been dethroned as the archenemy of all times of the caped crusader. .

Whether he goes by Jack Napier, Arthur Fleck or even The Joker, it’s not only arguable that he’s the pinnacle of comic book villainy, but it’s arguable that he’s bigger and more influential — if not more iconic – than the eponymous Batman who produced it. Both in the comic book pages and in terms of Bill Finger and Bob Kane’s brilliant writing.

Since he made the leap to video games in the late 1980s, there have been countless manifestations of this purple-clad sadist to choose from, some malignant to positive reception and others simply viciously. bombarded with existential criticism.

Which will prevail over the others? Well, there’s only one way to find out.

Here we go again.

Games: Batman The Caped Crusader, Batman (1989/1990), Return of The Joker, Revenge of the Joker, Batman: The Animated Series.

In the early days of companies that had a penchant for lucrative video game sensibilities becoming true revenue generators, almost every popular license in existence was outsourced to different developers.

Coincidentally, Batman had a gargantuan pop culture resurgence around the same time, and with the explosion of Tim Burton’s theatrical interpretation at the box office, plans to create tie-in video games were quickly hatched. .

The overriding problem that plagued many of these titles, both at the time and in retrospect, was that the game was not as technologically advanced as the cinema, and a few elements were lost in translation because of this. .

Mainly, the mischievously cheerful personality of Nicholson’s performance as the Crown Prince of Crime. The main antagonist that featured in each video game accompanied the source material.

Perhaps people were able to rely more on their imaginations during this infantile era. How deplorable the lack of personality imbued here – depending on your position – is either ridiculously bad or no laughing matter. The Joker’s first appearance(s) – while profitable – aren’t exactly prolific.