50 Fun Facts About Batman: Arkham

Which actor, already the hero's voice in Batman: The Animated Series, plays Batman in Batman: Arkham Asylum?

Kevin Conroy returned alongside two fellow cast members from the 1990s cartoon, and also voices Thomas Wayne in the game. He stayed in the role for Arkham City and Arkham Knight.

Which actor won a BAFTA for voicing the Joker in Batman: Arkham City, a role he first played on television?

Mark Hamill took the Performer prize at the 2012 BAFTA games awards, having voiced the villain since the 1992 animated series. He called Arkham City his farewell to the part, then came back for Arkham Knight.

Which villain traps Batman in toxin-fuelled nightmares in Arkham Asylum, then has Gotham evacuated in Arkham Knight?

Scarecrow returns in Arkham Knight voiced by John Noble, and his threat clears a city of six million people. Near the end he unmasks Batman as Bruce Wayne on live television.

Which former Robin, thought killed by the Joker, is unmasked as the militia commander in Batman: Arkham Knight?

Jason Todd, the second Robin, blames Batman for abandoning him to torture. He ends up saving his old mentor in the finale and is playable as Red Hood in an add-on.

Which vehicle is drivable for the first time in Batman: Arkham Knight, with a Battle mode that turns it into a tank?

The Batmobile was dropped from Arkham City because it could not handle the broken terrain. For Arkham Knight the designers widened Gotham's streets and made buildings taller to suit it.

On which night is Batman: Arkham Origins set, as eight assassins arrive in snowy Gotham chasing a bounty on Batman?

Christmas Eve is when the $50 million bounty draws the killers to Gotham, with Batman only in his second year on the job. The story add-on Cold, Cold Heart then moves on to New Year's Eve.

Which character has her own playable campaign in Batman: Arkham City, at first offered as a console download?

Catwoman fights with a whip, bolas and clawed gauntlets. Late in development the team added a choice to let her leave the city with her loot, a change made in two days.

Which villain never appears in person in Batman: Arkham Asylum and is heard only through Batman's hacked radio?

The Riddler is heard but never seen in the first game. In the prequel Arkham Origins he appears as a rogue hacker calling himself Enigma, before he takes the famous name.

Which part of Batman's costume did one Batman: Arkham Asylum developer reportedly spend two years animating?

His cape needed more than 700 animations and sound effects to move believably, a detail shared by Eidos president Ian Livingstone.

Which London studio followed its debut, Urban Chaos: Riot Response, by creating the Batman: Arkham series?

Rocksteady Studios was founded in 2004 by Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill with staff from the defunct Argonaut Games. Publisher Eidos offered the little-known team the Batman licence after seeing a prototype.

Which psychiatrist runs the Arkham City prison and reveals in the opening scene that he knows Batman is Bruce Wayne?

Hugo Strange was picked as the main antagonist because knowing the secret leaves Batman exposed in a way he had never been. Strange ends the game mortally wounded by his own hidden master.

Which crime lord's identity does the Joker steal in Batman: Arkham Origins to place a huge bounty on Batman?

Black Mask is really Roman Sionis, head of Janus Cosmetics, and the Joker had been posing as him for days. The steel mill that carries the Sionis name becomes the Joker's hideout in Arkham City.

Which character swaps a jester hat for a nurse-inspired outfit in Batman: Arkham Asylum, voiced by Arleen Sorkin?

Harley Quinn lost her classic full-body costume in the redesign. Tara Strong took over the voice from Arkham City onwards, and the character got a story expansion named for her revenge.

Which visual mode highlights enemies and clues in the Batman: Arkham games, reworked because players left it on?

Detective Vision proved so useful in Arkham Asylum that some players wore it for almost the whole game, hiding the art. The sequel made enemy blows blur it instead of adding a time limit.

Which villain refuses to join the alliance against Batman in Arkham Knight, then dies saving Gotham from a toxin cloud?

Poison Ivy empowers an ancient tree to neutralise the gas across the city, and the effort kills her. In Arkham Asylum she was a boss who overran the island with giant mutant plants.

Which villain, cut from Batman: Arkham Asylum for lacking a grudge against Batman, creates the cure in Arkham City?

Mr. Freeze was left out of the first game because he would not care about the other villains' plans. In the sequel he is the one scientist able to treat the infection, once Batman frees him from a kidnapper.

Which actor voices the Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins after playing both Robin and Two-Face in Arkham City?

Troy Baker took over the Joker from the series regular for the prequel, then voiced the masked Arkham Knight as well. He returned for the VR sequel Arkham Shadow as both the Joker and Harvey Dent.

Which villain poses as a healthy Joker throughout Batman: Arkham City and turns out to be the final boss?

Clayface plays the part at the ailing villain's own request. In Arkham Asylum he was only a cameo, taking the guise of other characters to trick the player into freeing him.

Which of Batman's abilities was secretly disabled in pirated computer copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum?

Gliding stopped working in copied games, so pirates could not get past a certain point. The trick drew press coverage as a novel kind of copy protection.

Which studio developed Batman: Arkham Origins while the series' creators were busy building Arkham Knight?

WB Games Montréal was handed the prequel because Warner Bros. felt the wait for the next main entry would be too long. The same team had earlier adapted Arkham City for the Wii U.

Which writer of Batman: The Animated Series scripted Batman: Arkham Asylum and co-wrote its sequel, Arkham City?

Paul Dini was approached by DC Comics in 2007 to devise an original Batman story built for play, not adapted from a film. He was absent from Arkham Knight, which the studio wrote in-house.

Which mercenary does Amanda Waller recruit for her task force in the post-credits scene of Batman: Arkham Origins?

Deathstroke is asked to join the Suicide Squad, a scene that first raised the idea of a Squad game in the series. Earlier that night Batman beats him aboard a gun-runner's ship.

Which assassin deduces that Batman is Bruce Wayne in Arkham Origins, then loses the memory to a steroid's side effects?

Bane injects himself with a steroid called TN-1 that turns him into a hulking beast but wipes his memory. Before that he breaks into the Batcave and nearly kills Alfred.

Which villain's sewer lair holds the only spores that can make an antidote in Batman: Arkham Asylum?

Killer Croc stalks Batman through the tunnels and even drags another villain underwater mid-chase. In the prequel he is the first of the hired assassins Batman has to beat.

Whose blood completes the cure in Batman: Arkham City, leading Batman to an underground lair and a Lazarus Pit?

Ra's al Ghul turns out to be the true mastermind behind the prison city. He kills himself to avoid capture, and a later Arkham Knight mission has assassins trying to restore his health.

Which formula does Dr. Penelope Young develop in Batman: Arkham Asylum, turning the Joker's men into monsters?

Titan is a stronger form of the Venom drug, meant to help patients survive harsh therapies. The Joker had secretly paid for the research, and his overdose is what leaves him dying in the sequel.

The combat of Batman: Arkham Asylum was first built as which kind of game before the final system took shape?

Rhythm action was the first of three attempts at the fighting system. The second, a 2D prototype of coloured circles crashing into each other, became the basis of the finished version.

Which game matched the 96 scored by Batman: Arkham City on PlayStation 3, Metacritic's highest-rated release of 2011?

Skyrim scored 96 on Xbox 360, level with Arkham City on PlayStation 3. Metacritic split them by a few decimal points and named the Batman game its 2011 Game of the Year.

Which edition of Batman: Arkham Knight did Warner Bros. pull from sale after launch over severe performance problems?

Windows PC sales were suspended while an outside partner studio, Iron Galaxy, worked on fixes, and the game did not return until late October 2015. The console editions had launched in June.

Under which codename does Barbara Gordon feed Batman intelligence from Gotham's clock tower in Batman: Arkham Knight?

Oracle appears to die in Arkham Knight, a scene later revealed as a toxin-induced hallucination. An add-on set years earlier shows her in the field as Batgirl.

Which villain, voiced by Nolan North, sells weapons from a ship called the Final Offer in Batman: Arkham Origins?

Penguin fitted the ship with a casino, a fighting pit and a sales floor for guns. By Arkham City he rules from a fortified museum, where the zombie Solomon Grundy is his imprisoned monster.

Which fixtures placed high in the stealth rooms of Batman: Arkham Asylum give Batman a perch above armed guards?

Gargoyles let Batman hang upside down, snatch a passing guard and leave him strung up. Each victim makes the remaining enemies more panicked, and they change their patrol routes.

Which Gotham landmark explodes at the end of Batman: Arkham Knight, moments after Batman activates his Knightfall plan?

Wayne Manor blows up with Batman and Alfred seemingly inside, right after his identity is exposed on live television. An epilogue hints that a more frightening protector still stalks Gotham's alleys.

What name do the Batman: Arkham games give their combat system of chained attacks, stuns and counters?

Freeflow makes Batman faster and more agile the longer a combo runs, and it needs only three main buttons. Arkham City let him counter several blows at once and catch thrown objects.

Which Breaking Bad actor voices Commissioner Gordon in Batman: Arkham Knight, where Gordon feels betrayed by Batman?

Jonathan Banks, who played fixer Mike Ehrmantraut, took the part for the final chapter. Co-star Bryan Cranston had voiced the same policeman four years earlier in the animated film Batman: Year One.

Which move, new in Batman: Arkham Knight, lets an undetected Batman drop up to five enemies in slow motion?

The Fear Takedown slows time after each knockout so the player can pick the next target. Enemies gained new tricks too, such as medics who revive fallen allies.

Which 2024 game set in Metropolis continues the Batman: Arkham story five years after Arkham Knight?

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League sends four villains after heroes brainwashed by Brainiac, Batman among them. It keeps earlier plot threads such as the public unmasking of Bruce Wayne.

Which Gotham prison names the handheld companion to Batman: Arkham Origins, a side-scrolling game set during a riot?

Blackgate lent its name to a 2.5D game by Armature Studio for two handheld consoles. Set three months after the main story, it has three crime bosses carve up the jail between them.

At which Gotham venue does the Joker stage the final confrontation of Batman: Arkham City, directly above a Lazarus Pit?

The Monarch Theater is where the ailing Joker demands the cure, then blows up the floor to expose the pit beneath. Batman destroys the pit before it can be used to restore him.

Which villain, a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne in the comics, impersonates the billionaire in Batman: Arkham Knight?

Hush is Thomas Elliot, a gifted surgeon whose comic-book counterpart remade his own face to look like his old friend's. In the games he shares a voice actor with Batman.

Which assassin does the Joker throw to his death from the Gotham Royal Hotel in Batman: Arkham Origins?

Electrocutioner leaves behind his Shock Gloves, which Batman takes and later uses to revive Alfred. Batman had already beaten him once aboard a ship earlier that night.

Which Arkham Asylum warden takes credit for stopping the Joker's siege and becomes mayor of Gotham before Arkham City?

Quincy Sharp uses his new post to close the old asylum and wall off Gotham's slums as a giant prison. He is secretly being manipulated by the psychiatrist he puts in charge of it.

Which writer's graphic novel A Serious House on Serious Earth helped inspire the look and tone of Batman: Arkham Asylum?

Grant Morrison created the book with artist Dave McKean, and the influence ran both ways. Morrison later said playing the game inspired the comic Batman Incorporated.

Which Nintendo series did Batman: Arkham Asylum's director credit, alongside The Legend of Zelda, for its gadget design?

Metroid and Zelda both hand out tools that can be combined and used in new ways, which is what director Sefton Hill wanted from Batman's gadgets. Reviewers also likened the island's layout to Metroid.

Which real landmark inspired the Art Nouveau spire that serves as the villain's headquarters in Batman: Arkham City?

The Eiffel Tower was the model for Wonder Tower, part of a 19th-century Art Nouveau style used across the map. The missile strikes on the inmates are launched from a base inside it.

Where in Batman: Arkham Asylum did the developers hide a secret room of sequel plans that went unfound for six months?

The warden's office concealed hints, blueprints and concept art for Arkham City. Nobody found the room until the studio itself revealed it, and the blueprints closely match the finished sequel.

What codename is given to the plan to wipe out every inmate of Batman: Arkham City with mercenaries and missile strikes?

Protocol 10 hangs over the story as a mystery until it is triggered mid-game. Batman shuts it down from inside the villain's tower, which is then destroyed by a self-destruct order.

Which private military firm guards the prison in Batman: Arkham City and arrests Bruce Wayne at a press conference?

TYGER mercenaries seize Wayne as he speaks out against the prison, then leave him among the inmates. When the purge begins, the same troops start executing prisoners.

Which technology was Batman: Arkham Asylum built on, later reused in modified form for Arkham City and Arkham Origins?

Unreal Engine 3 came from Epic Games, and the studio's modified build carried the series forward. The 2016 remaster of the first two games moved them to the engine's successor.

Which 2016 Batman game puts players in first-person as Batman investigates the disappearance of Nightwing and Robin?

Arkham VR was the series' first virtual reality release, made by the original studio for PlayStation VR and later other headsets. Its story sits between Arkham City and Arkham Knight.