I got the Batman: Arkham Asylum Collector’s Edition in the mail today. I was super-excited about it because for just 20 quid extra, I would get a bonus disc, bonus challenge maps, a booklet and a fucking full-size Batarang! I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now, even making space for it in the flat so it could sit proudly on display.
And then I opened the box and saw this…
The collector's edition Batarang: A cheap plastic toy.
It’s a solid block of cheap, black plastic molded onto a cheap, plastic stand. Oh, but they have machined scratches! oooooh! What the hell? According to the promotional material it’s meant to “match the design” of the batarang in the game. Obviously, this is true if you look straight on at just the silhouette of this dingy plastic toy, but they didn’t bother to make it look even vaguely metallic. I hadn’t expected a fully functioning, metal batarang, but at least something more exciting-looking than this moulded plastic trash. Had it been at least painted in a metallic colour, used a thinner mould that looked vaguely sleek and maybe even had the bloody seams polished off, it would have helped.
It does come with an extra booklet and some behind the scenes stuff, so the rest of the extras are nice, though I don’t quite understand why the discs had to be in a non-standard paper box that has no space for the instruction booklet. What’s wrong with a nice, metal box like most other “special edition” PS3 games give you? Why do I have to store my manual separately from my game?! What? You couldn’t afford to give it a proper cover because you spent all the money on the massively expensive plastic toys?!
I feel cheated and pissed on, but at least the game is good.
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Arkham Asylum looks rather nice, based on the video review and trailers I’ve seen. It’s good to see they got much of the cast from the animated series to reprise their roles, and it sounds as though they did a good job with the game overall.
I’ve never really been one to buy collector’s editions of games. It does seem a number of people are disappointed with the extras included in this one though. After reading your post here, I did a quick search for an unboxing video, and found this one, where the unboxee didn’t complain about the batarang, but didn’t really seem like it was their reason for buying the collector’s edition either.
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/batman-aa-ce-unboxing/328680
It doesn’t really seem like something worth the added cost, though the other extras aren’t bad. I then watched another video and noticed that the European collector’s edition is actually different from the North American one. As seen in the video, the US version comes with much nicer packaging. The entire set is housed in a large plastic bat-shaped case, and the character book comes with a leather outer cover, along with other small packaging refinements. Those might be relatively minor differences, but they could certainly help improve one’s overall impression of the set.
As for the batarang itself, from what I’ve seen, it does look fairly cheap. Worse yet is that horrid plastic ’stand’ that they’ve affixed it to. The guy in the video described it as a ‘pretty decent stand’ but it looks more like a cheap plastic stand to me. : P I can see the logic in not making the batarang removable, or using a heavier material like metal, as that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. I do agree that they should have put higher production values into it though, seeing as it’s the main draw of the set. If you’re going to permanently affix a supposedly collectible item to a stand, at least make sure that stand looks half decent.
On paper, a collectible batarang sounds like a great idea to include with a collector’s edition Batman game. Unfortunately, I think someone went too far in reducing production costs to maximize their short-term profits. They might have made some money by cutting costs down to almost nothing, but they’ll likely turn quite a few people off from pre-ordering collector’s editions in the future.
Now, I’d like to see someone transform one of these into something worthwhile. With some sanding, metallic paint, and a change of stand, I imagine these batarangs could look more like how people expected them to. : )
Yeah, the American set looks a lot more exclusive. The leather booklet and all that. I find it hilarious that I bought it off GameStation in the UK and am holding the very comic book he’s insisting is an Amazon exclusive.
He seems to have very low standards what what he wants from the package. “Oooh, colour manual!” kind rang a few alarm bells for me, especially since he hadn’t even opened it yet. Most manuals have glossy colour covers. Of course, those bells were already ringing when he described the batarang and its stand. Yeah, it looks even cheaper in real life.
I have considered going down the sanding/ painting route, but if I do that, I might as well trace the (admittedly fairly accurate) outlines of the plastic ‘rang and get a block of wood stencil-cut so I could shape the edges and all that myself before I paint it.
Like I said in the post, I certainly didn’t expect them to go with a metal batarang (that would have been monumentally idiotic though cool) but I did expect at least a slimmer and painted model than it currently is. This thing is probably MORE dangerous than a slimmer, “sharper” one would have been, due to the added weight. had they made it thinner, it would have been impossible to hurt anyone by throwing it. You could still ram it into someone’s eyes, but you could say the same for any action figure or indeed the edge of the box it came in.
The biggest initial disappointment was the batarang, but I think the biggest annoyance given some time will be the idiotic cover for the discs, which is just a cardboard holder without space for the manual. I’ll take a picture of it to show it.
I don’t often buy collector’s edition things, but the ones I have bought have usually been a lot better than this. I have the Morrowind, Oblivion, Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft CEs, and they’re pitch-perfect examples of what a CE should be. They have huge art books with beautiful print, maps of the games’ areas, making-of stuff and even sometimes figurines. The tiny, tin figurine of a Vivec ordinator from Morrowind is great. Also, with Fallout 3, I got a fantastic Brotherhood of Steel poly figurine that actually didn’t cost me a penny extra. The other Fallout 3 CE I’ve seen comes in a fucking metal lunch box. How cool is that?!
So yeah, the extra material for the game might be awesome, but the set for B:AA is missing that collectible, physical thing that you look at in your bookshelf and go “God Damn, that was cool”.
The comic was exclusive to Amazon in the US, while in other countries the exclusives went with other retailers. The other European unboxing video I saw didn’t make any mention of it. Apparently GameStation was the UK distributer that offered the comic as an extra.
As for pointing out the color manual, it’s probable that he previously looked through the set and repackaged it prior to making the video, or at least read about its contents online, since he seemed to have a good idea of what it contained. That may have already lowered his expectations for the batarang as well. He might not have offered much in the way of a distinct opinion on the package, but at least the video offered relatively decent production values. : )
Decent production values? You mean that he wore gloves and purple jacket sleeves? ^_^
Oh by the way: The game is fucking awesome. I can’t stop playing the Challenge Modes, even with the game itself finished. It’s very moreish. Also, important if you’re a completist like me: You don’t have to find all the secrets during the game, at least not in the PS3 version. You can go back into Arkham after finishing to pick up the rest of the trophies and riddles and stuff. I’d say it’s worth it, too, because it unlocks challenge modes and character profiles and all sorts of neat stuff.
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