The Batman: Arkham series includes some of the best action-adventure games in history. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City particularly stand out as being some of the best examples of what superhero games can be. From the free-flowing combat—which inspired games like the PS4’s Marvel’s Spider-Man—to the intricate plots, these games showed how it can be to become Batman. The franchise has earned its mark in video game history.
That said, it isn’t perfect. For something so ambitious, it has quite a few misses—which most people ignore because the good parts mainly overshadow them, at least in the first two games. However, when considered in isolation, there are parts of the series that just don’t make a lot of sense, whether they are confusing gameplay options or questionable decisions by some of the characters.
10 The Villains’ Asylum Clothes
Arkham Asylum is host to the most notorious villains in Gotham City. They can kill guards with the most basic items, if not their own fists; and more than a few of them have supernatural abilities. So, it makes one wonder just why these villains are allowed to wear their trademark costumes in the facility.
Is it an oversight? If it is, it’s not a small one. Did the asylum suddenly decide that the worst of the worst can do keep their costumes and not change into the official facility attire?
9 Batman Refuses Robin’s Help
Fans don’t get to see Robin until Arkham City. However, his presence is short-lived. He enters Arkham City, which is now full of villains and their henchmen, so he can lend a hand to Batman. The Caped Crusader, however, refuses Robin’s help, and even sends him back to Gotham.
Batman’s choice makes no sense. He can’t take on the hundreds of goons in Arkham City single-handedly. To make matters worse, he’s dying from being infected with Joker’s poisonous blood. So, this is one of the occasions where he needs all the help he can get.
8 Titan Production At Arkham
In Arkham Asylum, Joker’s grand plan involves setting up a Titan production plant so he can make his henchmen superpowered. The thing is, he set up the plant inside Arkham Asylum itself, right in the heart of the botanical gardens.
How could Joker have set up something that elaborate in the middle of a facility high-security like Arkham Asylum? Did no one notice it being built? How did Joker even manage to smuggle the equipment he needed inside if he was outside the Asylum? This is something that needs a huge leap of faith to believe.
7 Having Batman in Arkham Asylum
In Arkham Asylum, Joker attacked Gotham City Hall so that he could be arrested and sent to the Asylum. For someone as dangerous as Joker, it was fairly obvious that Batman would be the one to take him down and bring him to the facility. He continued with his plan even when Batman was in the facility with him. He might have restricted other people from entering the Asylum, but that just meant he was trapped with Batman.
Joker’s plan was doomed to fail from the moment he locked down the Asylum with Batman inside it.
6 Hugo Strange’s “Strange” Plan
Protocol 10 is Hugo Strange’s masterplan in Arkham City. He creates Arkham City so that he can put in all of Gotham’s villains, then he executes Protocol 10: slaughtering all of them. His goal is to execute Protocol 10 all over the world and cleanse it of its criminals.
However, there’s one strange thing about his plan: once he executes Protocol 10, what next? He will have cleansed the city of criminals, yes—albeit in the most horrific way possible—but what does he stand to gain? He doesn’t mention desire for a reward, and he doesn’t have anything against criminals.
5 Batman Has A Tank
Batman transforms his Batmobile into a tank. He equips it with an overpowered gun that is more than capable of blowing up everything it targets. This doesn’t seem like a weapon Batman could—or should—wield. Even if he only targets buildings and inanimate objects, there’s a chance people can get caught in the crossfire. And when that happens, chances are that they will succumb to their injuries.
Batman has a strict no-killing rule, but his tank is clearly built for death and destruction. It would be more at home in a warzone than in the streets of Gotham.
4 Hush’s Bruce Wayne Disguise
Hush shows up in Arkham City, though he never actually fights Batman. Instead, Hush disguises himself as Bruce Wayne and commits crimes using Wayne’s identity. When Batman finally catches him, he finds that Hush has fully recreated Bruce Wayne’s face, and is wearing it to commit his crimes.
In Arkham City, Hugo Strange and a number of villains are on the hunt for Bruce Wayne. So, when he commits crimes in Bruce Wayne’s image, this should have drawn them to him like flies. It’s improbable that they wouldn’t go after him.
3 Batman’s Immunity To The Explosive Gel
The explosive gel is one of Batman’s most useful tools in the games. He sprays it on weak surfaces and blasts through them. The problem is he stays way too close to the gel whenever he detonates it.
The explosive gel, like its name implies, explodes, and takes down walls and other surfaces that Batman wouldn’t be able to with his other tools. So, he should take some distance from the gel whenever he detonates it so he doesn’t get hurt. Instead, Batman is always a foot or two away, which should injure him each time.
2 Penguin Captures Nightwing
Nightwing might not have any superhuman abilities, but he’s nearly as good as Batman in almost every way. The Dark Knight trained him, after all. So, he’s one of the best fighters in Gotham City and a brilliant tactician.
Nightwing tracks down Penguin because of some dealings they had in Bludhaven. Then, the improbable happens: Penguin captures him. Penguin is not a genius tactician or a skilled fighter. He’s just a gangster with a slight mutation. So, it makes little sense that he can capture Nightwing without help from another villain.
1 Scarecrow Surviving Killer Croc
Killer Croc is a pure, terrifying monster who can easily be at home in a horror movie. When Batman encounters the Croc, it’s a tough and intense battle where even the slightest mistake can mean death. To make things harder, Scarecrow also shows up. He tries to mess with the Dark Knight’s mind so that the hero can be taken down by Killer Croc. However, Batman is not that easily defeated, and Scarecrow ends up getting snatched up by Killer Croc, who takes him into the water.
Scarecrow is not a fighter or even that strong, so it makes no sense that he survived his encounter with Killer Croc, especially in the sewer water where he couldn’t breathe.
NEXT: Batman: 10 Storylines The Arkham Series Could Adapt In The Rumored Next Game
