How Oldboy inspired Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for Vita and 3DS

One of the biggest challenges of making a 2D Arkham game is adapting the "FreeFlow" combat system. Game director Mark Pacini says that Blackgate's combat needed to be built "from the ground up," and takes large inspiration from the 2003 Korean movie Oldboy.

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While all eyes may be on Batman: Arkham Origins, there's plenty reason to be excited about the 3DS/Vita spin-off game, Blackgate. Set after the events of Origins, the handheld game is being developed by Armature, a studio made up of veterans from Metroid Prime dev Retro Studios. Unlike the console game, Blackgate is a 2D Metroidvania game, which has Batman investigating the titular prison.

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of adapting the Arkham games to the second dimension is adjusting the well-received "FreeFlow" combat of Rocksteady's original games. Game director Mark Pacini says that Blackgate's combat needed to be built "from the ground up," and takes large inspiration from the 2003 Korean movie Oldboy.

"We made it so that Batman is still moving right to left, but the enemies have depth to them; they can be in the foreground or the background. So all of the free-flow system will still apply, but it’s just scoped for the handheld," Pacini told Game Informer. "What we wanted to do is make sure it felt more like Oldboy the movie than like Old School the game. That it wasn't just enemies lined up behind each other--that you still felt like that you were encompassed by enemies that were around you but you still have the limitations of right and left."

For those unfamiliar with the cult film, this is the scene that Pacini is talking about:

While Armature is working on their own take on the "FreeFlow" system, Rocksteady already proved that their battle system can work in a side-scrolling game. The "Freight Train Escape" map included in Arkham City's Robin DLC has players running through a classic beat-em-up inspired train level. See how it looks here:

It's clear that the Arkham combat system works in 2D. But hey, maybe Armature can sneak in a hammer in Blackgate to appease Oldboy fans.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 19, 2013 5:00 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, How Oldboy inspired Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for Vita and 3DS.

    One of the biggest challenges of making a 2D Arkham game is adapting the "FreeFlow" combat system. Game director Mark Pacini says that Blackgate's combat needed to be built "from the ground up," and takes large inspiration from the 2003 Korean movie Oldboy.

    • reply
      April 19, 2013 5:33 PM

      Oldboy inspired me to keep constant tabs on my family.

      • reply
        April 19, 2013 5:42 PM

        hot

      • reply
        April 19, 2013 6:18 PM

        EWWWW

      • reply
        April 20, 2013 10:01 AM

        Yeah....when I think about Oldboy, I don't think about combat. I think about my family, and how I love them but I dont LOVE them.

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      April 22, 2013 6:25 AM

      My wife and I watched Oldboy because my brother-in-law described it as "that movie is fucked up!" which , for him anyway, generally translates to "You should watch this!" It turns out that on this one occasion, what it actually translated to was, "That movie is fucked up!"

      • reply
        April 22, 2013 8:19 AM

        It's a movie that I really like, but don't recommend to many people I know. I... don't want to be judged for liking that movie. It's pretty fucked up.

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