Video: Batman Arkham Trilogy Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison

Arkham Asylum looks good, although the frame drops during combat are concerning. Probably will be patched quickly though.
Arkham Knight looks extremely rough. It’s passable when you’re outside of the Batmobile, but it is nearly unplayable once you get in it. Graphics aren’t good, but solid for the switch. Hopefully the frame rate can be improved in a later patch.

Honestly going to wait for a sale on this one. Knight running so poorly makes this not worth $60, but I would pay $40 just for Asylum and City. Hopefully the games are available separate from each other.

Of course Arkham Knight looks a bit rough, that game could barely run on PS4 and Xbox One, of course it's gonna look kinda ass running off a toaster.

Honestly, other than the Batmobile sections having piss frame rates, I'd consider this a technical marvel (or dc), especially for arguably one of the most beautiful games of last generation. Knight still looks pretty decent on Switch, all things considered. It's a really impressive port and I applaud the developers for not setting Switches ablaze worldwide.

The incomplete cartridge still stings though.

Incomplete cart. Rough performance on 8-14 year old games that may or may not be patched later.

Supporting this kind of crap will only encourage third parties to keep setting the bar lower.

But at least Nintendo players finally get bewbs.

Everyone looks like their on roids while Joker is in desperate need of a burger.

Ugh, Arkham Knight looks terrible.

I've played these games before and I'll keep it at that. They have very little replay value to me, so it's a hard pass for me.

@HotGoomba I like what you did there

I’m always up for a replay of City. Could take or leave Knight, but it’s exciting to have it on Switch. Asylum is fine.

@Sisilly_G They already had bewbs with Witcher 3, so it can't even lay claim to that.

I am not sure what people were expecting with Knight. I am pretty old and remember the old 15fps days so frame rates rarely bother me, but thinking back 6 or 7 years I think even I noticed some dips in Knight on PS4. So getting it to run on mobile tech from the same time is pretty impressive to me. If they can smooth it out with some patches then kudos.

@PoeTheLizard : L.A. Noire gives you the full monty, though all the laydeez are dead.

But there are some European exclusives that also contain full-frontal nudity.

Can't wait to get my copy today!
Hopefully, by the time I get to the third game, there will be a few patches to fix the frame rate for the batmobile parts.

Nope, I don't plan to buy it because of incomplete cartridge. Publishers should learn how to respect their consumers before release their games like that.

Would be nice if games unlocked at midnight, day of release. I'm not going to complain much...just want to be playing City on my Switch. I've only ever completed Asylum. Knight felt bloated, and I just never had the time to play City whenever I tried to get into it. Probably played like 10 hours of it. Annnnnyway, unlock the damned game, please.

Nothing really surprising here. First two games run good, as expected. Knight has issues, but to be expected for a PS4 game running on Switch that even had optimization issues on PC(PCs that were a lot stronger than the PS4 too) when it came out.

Still getting this collection, just happy these games are finally coming to Switch.

@blindsquirrel Nothing should ever be released and already count on patches! That’s unacceptable! The games got delayed for a reason and if it’s still bad, no buy!

@AnVold I wish they put Arkham City on the cartridge which is still the best one!

@Znake
So does that mean that the games shouldn’t be patched to run at a constant frame rate? Your right that this state of release is not okay, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fixed.

These games literally cost 1 pound second hand on ps3/ps4. Or a few quid new.
Why on earth should people spend for the full price on switch?? Unless it is the only console they own.

While Asylum and City look OK, Knight really doesn't. The eShop trailer looks like the PS4 version too. It's a shame they don't seem to be available for seperate purchase as I'd like to replay City on Switch at least. £50 though, with Knight looking as rough as it does.... I realise Origins was a different developer, but would have probably made for a better performing set of games here and they could have saved Knight for a possible Switch successor.

@Ristar24
Origins would probably work great on switch. It’s the same engine as City and has the same map and everything.

Hang on, is the Switch version of Asylum based upon the PS3/360 version? I'd pick that up if it was available individually as it's artwork is better than the "remaster"

Shame, if not unexpected that Knight is a complete mess

Forget about Akham Knight, those recent games are for more powerful consoles, maybe Switch 2.
Arkham Asylum and City will be a blast on Switch, though!

@RubyCarbuncle The first two shouldn’t have been an issue but Knight was always going to be a challenge for sure.

But yeah, I got all these and Origins for less than £10 on Steam Deck and they run beautifully. I’d like this to have it physical but only Asylum on the cartridge defeats the point. Maybe if I find it dirt cheap some day

Hard to justify this for £50 if Switch isn't your only gaming platform when the trilogy can be bought new for less than a tenner on other platforms (saw the PS Store is doing it for £7.50) and apparently in better quality. Like other third party titles (Bioshock, Borderlands etc), I expect this to be significantly reduced during the next year. No reason to rush for this at all.

@carlos82
Yeah, they are based on the 360 versions.

Is there going to be a Nintendo Life review on this release?

@carlos82 Yeah, both Asylum and City seem to be based on PS3/Xbox 360 versions. That is great news, since the lighting in PS4/Xbox One version is considerably worse than the original. Not sure about textures etc.

@Ristar24 They seem to want to ignore Origins ever happened for some reason. I don’t know why, I know it’s generally not as favoured as much as the others but I played it recently and it’s a really good game. I liked it more than Knight, never even finished that one. Would have definitely been a better trilogy to port over considering the specs

Is it me or are we just comparing cut scenes? Where’s the gameplay

Wow that is amazing. Cant wait to play it on switch. Just sitting on the couch playing handheld.
Is that ps4 normal or on PS4Pro?

@blindsquirrel Yep, I really enjoyed Origins and it's DLC on my PS3 after the first two games, I still have my copy! It would have been a much better fit for Switch. I got a PS4 around launch in part to play Knight (...and Bloodborne), but I think I actually preferred Origins in the end. I also bought the 'return' versions on PS4 and regretted it as City ran really bad.

@Sisilly_G “But at least Nintendo players finally get bewbs”

Bayonetta?

@sullivans2004 : Comparison video at 4:45.

It might just be because I was a bit more starved for games to play on my Wii U and 3DS at the time, but Origins and Origins Blackgate are the only Arkham games I've actually finished and I LOVED them, though I have played all of the games to varying degrees. Looking forward to giving the Rocksteady trilogy another go on Switch, but really hope WB releases an Origins collection at some point. I know it's treated as the stepchild of the series, but I just adore the Christmas in Gotham vibes of the main game. Perfect to play this time of year!

i passed on the switch version of hogwarts and will also do the same for the arkham collection hopefully when the switch 2 comes out i no longer have to make such choices...

I wasn't really expecting too much to happen with Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Arkham Knight was the real showcase, and I gotta say that while it's definitely subpar to other ports, it's not the worst and still captures the atmosphere of the game.

The rendering is noticeably slower and there are some moments of choppy frame rate, but I would've expected the graphics to have been compromised a lot more, but this actually looks not half bad.

@ModdedInkling

arkham knight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4aofGdBy60

the third game:
is almost unplayable with massive drops and a lot of struttering when using the car(and you will use it a lot), and even at foot there still some stuttering during combat or fast moving trough building

the other two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGewuRkhnOk
the first has some strange drops of framerate here and there only the second is running better so a patch will fix it

Knight looks terrible and performs awfully.

@HotGoomba Barely run on PS4? It pretty much sticks to the 30fps and looks gorgeous at it, the PC version was the one that had issues not PS4 or X1.

While I bought it today physically, I guess I'll send it to the backlog as it sounds like the problems with Asylum will be fixed with a patch.

I would prefer a second compilation with Arkham Origins, Arkham Origins: Blackgate and the Cold, Cold Heart DLC. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City have already been re-released and they had the 'Return to Arkham' collection not long ago that had newer and improved graphics but 'Arkham Origins' and 'Arkham Origins: Blackgate' aren't easy to get anymore and while 'Arkham Origins' works on the X Box Series X the 'Cold, Cold Heart' DLC does not and neither does Arkham Origins: Blackgate.

With WB Games Montréal working on the next Batman game and 'Gotham Knights' not being as successful as they hoped they could make an 'Arkham Origins 2' that bridges the large gap between 'Arkham Origins: Blackgate' and 'Arkham Asylum' that lets us play as Batman, Robin (Dick Grayson) and Batgirl and focuses on Dr Harleen Quinzel's transformation into Harley Quinn, Harvey Dent's transformation into Two Face and Dr Pamela Isley's transformation into Poison Ivy. They could also feature some of the villains they didn't have in the other Arkham games but had profiles for like Killer Moth, Prometheus, Great White Shark, Ratcatcher etc and have a huge map with all the areas from the previous games and the addition of Bludhaven.

@Debbiee No more Batman games for a while please. I'd honeslty like for lesser characters to get more games than Batman and Superman.

Those two out of all DC properties, has had the most games through the years, while the others barely have any.

It would be nice to take a break from Batman's universe and focus on other heroes for a change.

@Link-Hero I know its improved i was just saying the console versions were really well done and were better then the PC version at launch. Here's hoping a 60fps update drops for them this month so we can play at 60fps on PS5 and SX.

@Fangleman32 Batman hasn't had a game in 8 years and Superman hasn't had a game since Superman Returns a game so old its on PS2 plus Supes has never had a good game and is crying out for one. That said i want a open world Flash game more then any other.

I have only played Asylum on the 360. I never tried the other 2 because there was just way too many games back then calling my name. Recently I thought about picking this or the Metal Gear Collection up because I missed out. Most of the time when I buy a collection, I end up playing 1 maybe 2 of the many games loaded in the collection....then I just move on. So I'm not sure it's worth it for me.

I think this looks rather good, and I’ll probably get this when it goes on sale. My other alternative is to not play at all since my nextgen play time on a tv is usually in bite sized amounts.

@DennisReynolds I know Batman hasn't had a game in 8 years. I'm saying he and Supes has the most games in the entire DC library when compared to everyone else.

Superman is do for a proper game agreed, but Batman had almost 10 years worth of dedicated media to him.

Since the release of Arkham Asylum there has been:

1. Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame
2. Batman: Arkham City
3. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
4. Batman: Arkham Origins
5. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
6. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
7. Batman: Arkham Knight
8. Batman: The Telltale Series
9. Batman: Arkham VR
10. Batman: Return to Arkham
11. Batman: The Enemy Within

Then there's the game set within the Batman universe:
1. Gotham Knights
2. Suicide Squad

Batman may not have had a game in 8 years, but he's had so much within the last decade that I think it's enough.

I mean we are just now maybe possibly getting a Wonder Woman game. Flash himself has only had two minor games from years ago. One on Sega Master System and GBA.

DC has such a huge library of characters and I think they should focus on giving some of them a chance to shine. Batman has had his.

@Fangleman32 You understand the Suicide Squad aren't part of Batman right? They're as connected to Batman as they are The Flash or Superman.

@DennisReynolds Yes, which is why I said set within the same universe. More specifically Rocksteady's Arkham. Deadshot and Harley are the same characters from the Arkham games. in Deadshot's case the "real" Deadshot.

This needs Switch 2 with T239.....sooner then later....

@Fangleman32 There is a Wonder Woman game in development now and I have been really looking forward to it 'cause they have had multiple Batman and Superman games out but never one of Wonder Woman and there are so many Wonder Woman villains they could use like Circe, Silver Swan, Medusa, Cheetah, Giganta, Decay, Doctor Poison etc they could make it like the Arkham games and have Wonder Woman face the whole lot of them and also have the Wonder Girls (Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark) as playable characters.

I would love Birds Of Prey and Teen Titans games too with the full rosters.

@Debbiee NIce. I don't hate Batman games. I think they are well done. Just I would like to explore the gigantic universe of DC outside of Batman.

Martian Manhunter
Green Lantern
Aquaman

In Wonder Woman's case, I would enjoy exploring her part of the world. It would be nice to see something outside of Gotham.

@Ara you do understand that you can't just press a button to port it over to the Switch, don't you? There is actually a lot of labor and people involved and all these people have to get paid.

He is the night of course it's got dark lighting! It's Gotham for crying out loud! 🤣

Did anyone get this physically? If so are you able to load/play Asylum from the cart?

@Lord Cutscenes sync better for comparison.

@dkxcalibur
City is worth it. Best Batman game ever made. Asylum's Metroidvania style set-up is awesome, but City feels like a Zelda-style Batman game. I own it on 3 (now 4) systems and have never regretted it.

@DennisReynolds and yet the perception is otherwise. Sounds like DC's fault..superman is boring, Batman has been done to death, and it's all from WB so they're going to destroy any good will anyway.

tbf
i realy like the darker setting on the switch compared to the ps4 version.
when batman enters the policestation and you see joker, it looks wat better imo, the ps4 version is just way too bright.
dunno if this is caused by the game setting of the person who record this, annyway it is a ***** setting.
ofcourse the ps4 version has nicer details, still not a gamebreaker for me, the switch version looks amazing.

@LikelySatan
boring?
have you ever persevered into to these games and used his awesome gadgets? it is a mysterious game

@PALversusNTSC I was talking about Superman.

So many questions here.

Why does Arkham Knight look like a work done by Low Spec Gamer? Remember The Witcher 3, another AAA blockbuster from 2015 with equally the same demand as Arkham Knight, and an excellent Switch conversion.

The most baffling to me: Why are Arkham Asylum and City based on the 7th gen console versions instead of the Return to Arkham remasters? They were done by VIRTUOS, of all studios! The same studio known for their respectable Switch works and pushing the envellope of what's possible there (cough The Outer Worlds), they were expected to be pausible on Switch even years ago, that's how it was supposed to happen!
Maybe they both run better than Arkham Knight, but there is still a big loophole there.

@LikelySatan Superman is far from boring and Batman has hardly been done to death, i mean come on Spider-Man has had more games then Batman. End of the day Batman sells hence why he's never going away, DC/WB don't care what a small minority think.

@kalosn Arkham Knight is more demanding then TW3 and more graphically advanced hence why TW3 is starting to show its age while Arkham Knight outclasses both Suicide Squad and Gotham Knight and can hold its own against many current gem games.

Switch owners really to understand just because TW3 was ported doesn't mean every game can be, TW3 is not the "can it Crysis" game Switch owners think it is. Its biggest hurdle was the open world and if you can solve the open world problem (a world mind you mostly contained of towns, trees and seas) then the rest of the game won't be too much of an hassle.

@DennisReynolds Spider-man and Batman are about even. Spider man has starred in 40 games while Batman has starred in 42.

Either way they are pretty close eachother. Both characters combined has had more games than any other Superhero.

All that aside, no is asking for Batman to go away forever. How can another franchise shine, if WB/DC is not willing to atleast greenlight it? Wonder Wonder has been greenlit, and if she succeeds, this can open up the door for other characters to finally have their proper game debut.

@Bratwurst35 Because all WB care about is money, its easier to take a chance on Batman then Green Lantern and unlike Marvel they can't fallback on a popular film character to generate hype, Batman sells and its actually quite shocking its been nearly 9 years since his last proper outing in gaming. Anyway Suicide Squad is out next year, we had Gotham Knights last year and Wonder Woman is coming at some point and none of these games have Bats as a playable character or a main character.

@DennisReynolds I am not sure Wonder Woman would be my go to move if all I cared about was money. Maybe the game was started before WW84 though. And if so, that's hilarious.

@blindsquirrel Oh, so it's just DLC???
...sorry, I'll stop. I think I remember you from Dtoid like a long time ago.

@LikelySatan
Definitely, if you disregard the brand new story, characters, mechanics, etc, Origins is basically just City 1.5.

@blindsquirrel I was making fun of the TotK refrain. It's a weird one I never heard about Spiderman 2 or like the Yakyuza games.....

@LikelySatan
Yeah, I get it, was doing the same thing. Never understood why those games and more get a pass, but TOTK is committing a war crime with reusing the world.

@WhiteTrashGuy Thank you! I'll keep that in mind. I heard it was really good, just never really got a chance to play it.

@dkxcalibur
I started it last night (the last of the three I tried) and my mind was blown. AC runs near perfectly on Switch. Easily the best of the three ports. I would pay $40.00 USD just to have this on-the-go! I hope you are able to play it!

@WhiteTrashGuy Was the third game as rough as people are saying?

@dkxcalibur
Yeah... It's pretty bad. Looks like OUTER WORLDS before any of the patches. Lots of texture load in and janky frame-rate. I mean, I think it's playable, especially using first-person for the driving. I feel like if they would have stripped out the rain and got rid of a lot of the lighting effects it could help, but it's most likely due to the memory bandwidth of the Switch and how the original PS4 release used UE3.

@dkxcalibur
After spending time with all three ports tonight, I would give Asylum an 8, City a 10, and Knight a 6. So an average of an 8.0 for the entire collection. I am sure that many people will give Knight a 4 or 5, so look for collection scores to sit around a 7.

@WhiteTrashGuy Thanks for the update!

For me it's going to come down to this: Is $60 worth it to play City? Because I've already played Asylum and it sounds like Knights is borderline unplayable on the Switch. I may need to wait this out until it lowers in price or goes on sale.

@dkxcalibur
Yeah, good call. I've beaten Asylum probably 5 or 6 times, City 3 times, and Knight once. I will absolutely play all three. I traded in Gotham Knights for my pre-order, so I only paid $27 USD out of pocket. If you can just download City for $20 on the eshop that might be the best route because only Asylum is actually ON the cartridge.

@DennisReynolds Batman Arkham Knight, more demanding than TW3? Show me the numbers to prove that statement is true and not a negatively unbalanced thought based on some kind of... preference.

Just remember, both games ran on almost the same equivalent settings on PS4 and Xbox One, while Arkham Knight's PC port was definitely unfortunate. Not only it was all about optimization there, it was the artistic direction that made it even more refreshing than the previous games in the series, and gave it more visual praise than Witcher 3's generally dull direction. Both games still had demanding engine features.

@kalosn Arkham Knight is is one of the most graphically dense games out there and even now it holds up very well. The issue with the TW3 is its on the Red Engine an engine designed for PC and a engine that was fairly buggy but by the time TW3 was ported to Switch a lot of the issues with the engine were sorted. Unreal though doesn't like open words and Unreal doesn't like Switch hence why AK is more demanding, AK stood no chance on Switch.

Dang... Well there's always room for improvement.