Batman & Robin - On this day
Batman is one of those characters who didn't do well at first by switching to 3D. After several excellent 2D games, a dark period of mediocre or below-average Batman games prevailed that lasted until the advent of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Among such games 23 years ago was Batman & Robin for the first PlayStation.
It was the first Batman game in 3D performance and quite ambitious. It didn’t look bad at the time and had sandbox elements, i.e. somewhat free movement around the city even before we welcomed games like Driver and GTA 3. Batman could run on the streets of Gotham or drive a Batmobile.
In addition to Batman, we could also manage Robin and Batgirl, and these characters also had their vehicles. The main villain in the game was Mr. Freeze since the game followed the launch of the film of the same name. The story partly followed the plot of the film, but it also had some original tasks.
Gameplay was reduced to research, ie collecting clues, and fighting. All this was under a stopwatch and some missions were carried out on time. None of this was particularly fun. The controls were awkward and the whole concept of the game, no matter how ambitious, ultimately resulted in a futile experience full of boredom.
No wonder Batman & Robin was a commercially unsuccessful game. The game developer later no longer got a chance to navigate in 3D because the studio closed a year after the launch of this game.