Batman: Revenge of The Joker is a Batman game developed by Ringler Studios and published by Sunsoft for the Sega Mega Drive. Despite being published by Sunsoft, it is not a sequel to their earlier Mega Drive game Batman, but is instead an entirely new game based on the comic books.This version of Revenge of The Joker was only released in the US.

Story

Masked vigilante Batman has been called by Gotham City to find metals stolen by his arch-nemesis, the Joker, one of which is highly toxic and used to build explosives for missiles. Batman must journey to the Island of Ha-Hacienda, the secret hide-out of the Joker.

Gameplay

Batman: Return of the Joker is a 1991 platform video game, the follow-up to Sunsoft’s first Batman game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Unlike that game, which was based on the 1989 Batman film directed by Tim Burton, Return of the Joker is entirely self-contained and based more on the modern comic book iteration of Batman, but the Batmobile and the Batwing are featured from the 1989 film. A remake of Return of the Joker, titled Batman: Revenge of the Joker, was released on the Sega Genesis by Ringler Studios in 1992. A Super NES version of Revenge of the Joker was completed but never officially released; a ROM image surfaced online in later years.

A completely different version of the game was released on the Game Boy in 1992.

In Batman: Return of the Joker, the titular hero is on journey to the Joker’s secret hide-out after called by Gotham City to find metals stolen by the Joker, one of which is highly toxic and used to build explosives for missiles. The NES version of Batman: Return of the Joker consists of seven stages, each of which have two sub-levels (except for the last stage) and a boss level (except for the second and fifth stages); from beginning to end, they are the Gotham City cathedral, the Joker’s warehouse, a snowy mountain, a refinery, an underground conduit, an ammunition base, and the Island of Ha-Hacienda. Although Batman has three lives, the game has unlimited continues and stage passwords that can be accessed by pausing the game. The game’s five bosses include the Ace Ranger, a Minedroid, the Master C.P.U. of the refinery, and two battles with the Joker; for regular levels, Batman’s health is represented in increments, but in the boss stages, both Batman and the boss’s life meters are represented in numbers.

Return of the Joker is a side-scrolling run and gun platformer. Batman’s weapon is a wrist projector which the player change its type of ammunition by collecting icons throughout the levels: “C” icons for the crossbow, which shoots arrows that makes an enemy explode, “B” icons for “Batarangs”, where its direction follows the movement of on-screen enemies, N for “Sonic Neutralizers” that shoots two patterns of Batarangs in a criss-cross shape, and “S” for “Shield Stars” that shoots three darts going separate directions. Batman can slide by pressing the A-button and down on the D-pad, a move that is also an attack (although it only works against some enemies). Batman can also collect energy capsules that, if eight are obtained, will make him become invincible for a few seconds.