The Batman Board Game Has Rules For Playing in the Dark
Become the night in The Batman Board Game which uses glow-in-the-dark pieces to allow this game to be played in the pitch batness.
With the recent Batman movie being released, I wanted to capitalize on that interest and hopefully get some good SEO ranking. Thus, I figured it was time to discuss the Batman board game from 1989. Do I get points for honesty?
Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman
The Batman Game was released by University Game in 1989, for the 50th anniversary of Batman’s comic debut. But, not to be confused with the other Batman board game released the same year that is much more connected to the movie. Regardless, I highly recommend you put on the absolute ripper of a soundtrack while playing.
Gameplay
The Batman Board Game is a competitive roll-to-move game with some slight bat resource management and combat mechanics, but that’s pushing it. The objective of all players is to be the first Batman to visit the Batcave, then visit a specific villain hideout as determined by a card drawn when entering the Batcave. Each bat player will draw their own bat card, so will be going to a different bat location.
During their turn, players spin the spinner and move around the board. I know, it’s revolutionary!
Landing on a Batman symbol will have the player draw a black bat card which will either send the player somewhere random or grant the player a piece of bat equipment.
The Direction card has the player immediately move to that location, but the bat equipment cards are saved for later. Additionally, around the board are POW spaces which send the player directly to the closest other player, which triggers a bat-tle! Wanna take a stab at the complex combat bat mechanics this game employs? I’ll save you the trouble. It’s a roll off. Or a spin-off, I guess. The winning player gets to move as many spaces as they spun in the bat-tle.
As players move and “fight” their way across the bat board, they will inevitably reach the river. Crossing the river requires some level of bat gadgetry to cross. The Utility Belt, for example, allows the player to move through the tunnel. Because tunnels need Shark Repellent Bat Spray to traverse safely. Everyone knows that.
If you don’t have the Bat Utility Belt, maybe you have the Batcopter, which lets you move to any space adjacent to the river. Which might seem fine at first until you notice Catwoman and Joker’s lairs are both also on the river. So this is a 50% chance of giving you a huge edge in winning.
And then, the first bat player to reach the villain lair listed on their Destination card is declared the battest of Batmen!
I Am The Night
For the glow-in-the-dark rules variant, they remove basically all of the game’s mechanics. The rules suggest shining a bright light on the game board for about 5 minutes, then setup as normal.
However, with these rules, the players only use the outer ring and race from Gotham Institute of Technology to the Batcave. First to reach it wins. That’s it. It’s disappointing to say the least.
Final Bat Thoughts
Honestly, the Batman Board Game isn’t that bat. It has a lot of neat ideas which just are just implemented kinda of batly. The random bat-tles sending you any which way and the fact that certain equipment cards are so much bat-ter than others just make this game a total luck of the bat.
Unless you’re a bat Batman fan, I can’t really recommend you bat up this one. It’s not bat for some nostalgia bat. Bat, ultimately the batplay is just too bat and there’s not really enough bat to overcome bat, bat is a real bat.
Still, if bat bat is your bat, then bat this bat from bat bat and bat bat bat bat bat. Bat bat bat bat.
Bat.
