Batman: Arkham Asylum/Awesome

• Batman: Arkham Asylum - This isn't from the game itself, but from the developers. A person pirated the game and started playing. Strangely, when they tried to make Batman glide, he simply fell down, surrounded by poison gas. They went on the Eidos forum to report the bug and got this in response: "The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free. It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code."
  • That is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for copy protection EVERYWHERE. Fuck crippleware, fuck securom, fuck starforce, fuck Sony rootkits, THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE! To this date, this troper has only seen this implemented once before. In the GBA Samurai Deeper Kyo game, if you've dumped it or are playing the ROM or are playing a copied cart on the DS, the second boss will regenerate health faster than you can deal damage. LEARN YOUR CRAFT YOU RETARDS, and then you won't have piracy problems ever again.
    • Ghostbusters the Video Game does this a well. Pirate it, and the little candelabra ghosts will have a hitbox of exactly one pixel, rendering the hotel level completely unwinnable.
    • It is still awesome despite the fact that there was a fix for it within a week.
  • That said, the game has several CMOAs all its own. This troper's personal favorite is in the final boss fight where Batman smears explosive gel across his knuckles to give his final punch a little extra kick. Hard. Core.
  • Damn, the most awesome line in the game came right before that:

Joker: I can take it! I can take anything you can dish out, Bats! Hee hee hee, I'm actually going to win! Ready for the next round?
Batman: Always.
Joker: What?!
Batman: I'll never let you win. Never.

• • Scarecrow has a few CMOAs at various points throughout the game for how completely and utterly he'll mess with not only Batman's, but your mind in some seriously epic Mind Screws. Let's tally them up (but seriously, do not look at these if you haven't beaten the game!):
    • The first time, he tricks Batman into thinking Commissioner Gordon is dead, and when Batman radios in to Oracle to tell her the bad news, she gives a canned "your call could not be completed as dialled!" message, cluing Batman - and you - in to the fact that something's up. Then the doors in the morgue start flying open and Batman finds his parents' corpses. Meep.
    • The second time, he forces Batman to walk through a dark alleyway and relive his parents' death. Halfway through the sequence, Batman de-ages into a young Bruce!
    • The third and final time will severely disappoint me if it doesn't end up as one of the greatest examples of Fission Mailed ever: the console "glitches up" and "reboots" (which hit me particularly hard, since I played the PC version and that used to be an actual problem with my computer), starting up the introduction sequence from the beginning of the game... except you're playing as the Joker escorting BATMAN into Arkham Asylum. And then your point of view switches back to Batman just as the Joker takes out a gun and shoots him. You then get the game over screen with the Have a Nice Death tip telling you "Use the middle stick to dodge Joker's bullet." (or on the PC, "Tilt the mouse") And then Batman rips himself out of an illusory grave. Then Scarecrow injects him with a crap-ton more toxin. Of course, the goddamn Batman isn't inconvenienced by this. He even wakes up amid the unconscious bodies of about six thugs and a Titan henchman... which, coincidentally you had just beaten up in skeleton form in the Scarecrow nightmare.

Scarecrow: How are you doing this? You've ingested enough fear toxin to drive ten men insane! WHAT ARE YOU? [runs off like a pansy]

• • • • • Ladies and gentlemen, we have finally discovered what Scarecrow fears.
  • That inspired this troper to loudly state, to the screen, "I'm Batman."
    • Anyone who DIDN'T say that had to be thinking it.
    • This Troper settled for a loud, well-placed "I AM THE NIGHT!"
    • The full quote: "I am Vengeance. I am The Night. I. Am. Batman!" also works, given it's original use on Scarecrow.
    • What, are you dense? Are you retarded or something? What the hell do you think you should tell him? "I'm the goddamn Batman."
    • "And I can breathe in space."
    • Again a Moment for the developers is in the third scene with Scarecrow. It's completely debatable exactly why Warden Scarface was added, but I'm quite sure any reactions ranged from 'oh, well that's interesting' to 'oh hell yes'.

Basically, the Scarecrow's sections of the game are like playing the most memorable parts of Eternal Darkness as Batman. And it's awesome.

• • The takedown moves, especially at the end of a match. Watching Batman RKO a Knife Nut inmate in slow-motion, to the sound of fracturing bones? Yes please.
  • The first time you do an inverted takedown (hang down from a gargoyle, wait for Mook, snatch said mook, leave mook hanging by his foot from a rope, other mooks start wetting themselves.)
    • The first time?? It becomes funny to the point of absurdity when you snatch someone up, glide to another gargoyle, use your batarang to cut the first trapped mook down, glide back over to the first gargoyle, and snatch someone up AGAIN.
  • Another moment that shines comes at the very end. Batman and the authorities have subdued all of Arkham's inmates and thus the nightmare comes to a close. Gordon tells a bloodied, surely sore Batman to go home and take a deserved rest when, moments later, a nearby radio police unit says that Two-Face has just robbed a bank. The Batwing then swoops mightily and Batman rides on, heading for what is definitely NOT Wayne Manor to take a nap. As Bruce Wayne put it so wisely, "Batman has no limits." Indeed
  • The Car Fu on Bane.

Bane: I WILL BREAK YOU BATMAN! AND THEN THE BRUJA!

Batman: No, Bane! This time I BREAK YOU!

• • Prior to the final battle with the Joker, the guards will remark that you're the "party's guest of honour". The mooks lined up on both sides of the room will applaud and cheer as you walk through (looking like a badass, naturally) to confront the Joker.
    • And then you can get an achievement for beating them up.
    • Called "Party Pooper" naturally. And I counted, it's a 25 on one fight.
  • The entire goddamn game for Batman. Beating the crap out of countless thugs, Bane, Harley, Poison Ivy, blowing Killer Croc up and actually resisting being transformed by Titan. Plus he can uncover Arkham's darkest secret and solve all of the Riddler's challenges to send him into a rage which allows him to send the police his location. All in a single night. How? Because HE IS THE goddamn BATMAN!
  • Though certainly not a scripted event, This Troper once popped up behind three unsuspecting inmates. After triple bataranging all three to the ground, Batman pounces on one guy and knocks him out and proceeds to pounce the next guy to knock him out too. By this point, the third had gotten to his feet and had his bat raised over his head ready to smack Batman in the back of the head... when the counter signal appeared and Batman proceed to give the guy a Backhand to knock him out too in mid-swing.
  • Heck, the WHOLE GAME counts as a crowning moment of awesome for Batman, licensed games, and the DC universe in general.
    • And for the dev team - prior to this game, they were an independent developer that had only made one unremarkable game. This game resulted in them getting brought up by Time Warner.
      • And it's getting a sequel!
• One more for the developers, who made the first really spectacular superhero video game in recorded history, using a superhero with no superpowers.
  • Even more awesome when one considers that this was only Rocksteady Studios' SECOND GAME. Crowning Moment of Awesome, indeed.
• There is a fully equipped second Batcave on Arkham island. When asked how he managed to hide it, he says, "It's me, remember?"
  • The real Crowner is walking into it for the first time, Batman saying "On," the cave powering up, and then gliding down as the music swells slightly in the background. Gave me goosebumps.
• Causing Riddler to go from a Smug Snake to falling into a Villainous Breakdown.
• Any time you clear out a room full of mooks armed to the teeth with just your fists, feet, wits, and gadgets - and three of them you don't even need. Particularly when you do so without them ever once noticing where you are and the Joker repeatedly has to point out that there are fewer men on the job than punched in on the time sheet.
• Scarecrow's fifth and final interview tape. It starts with Scarecrow bragging about his ultimate fear gas, and you hear some of the victims, but then Batman bursts in. Scarecrow asks how Batman is affected by the gas; however, he replies by saying he is affected but it ain't stopping him and that he and another doctor already made an antidote to the fear gas, then Batman delivers this awesome line:

Batman: How that does make you feel? Threatened, humiliated? Scared?

• In one of the early stealth missions, you can begin by adding gel the wall behind a mook, gel the ceiling above another mook, then perch yourself on a gargoyle above a third. Then you can blow up the gel and do an inverted takedown within less than a second of each other, taking out three mooks at once before they even know you're there!
  • Alternatively, spray the gel on the back of the wall, then land on and knock out the guy in front. When the others go to investigate him, then detonate the gel, knocking them all out and, if someone wasn't quite in range, scaring the everloving daylights out of him.
• In one of Croc's interviews, he tries to Hannibal Lecture Aaron Cash to intimidate him. Croc isn't even finished before Cash just tasers his ass. It's a shock Cash doesn't say "Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?" afterwards. Awesome.
  • Aaron Cash just in general. Guy survives the entire night, and manages to keep the people who stay around him alive as well. Plus, Batman may catch 'em, but he's the guy who has to live with 'em. Not to mention that he got his hand bitten off by Croc and didn't quit.
    • Also, when playing as the Joker presumably 'escaping' from Arkham, the only person he threatens and views as the only real threat to his fun? Not Sharpe, but Cash.
• Whenever a player completes all 240 of Riddler's challenges without resorting to the internet or the strategy guide, or any other kind of outside help.
• I think for this troper, THE awesome moment is just playing as Batman. You are him, using his gadgets, wits, and interrogation scare tactics, talking with famous allies, and beating up the famous rogues gallery all the while saving people. What more could you ask for?
• Killer Croc's introduction while you're still escorting Joker into Arkham. You see the elevator coming up, and you notice that there seems to be something in it. Wait a minute...that's...HOLY CROCODILIANS, BATMAN, HE'S FREAKIN' HUGE!!!
• Freakshow Rodeo. That is all.
• There's nothing quite like the feeling of pulling off the Freeflow Perfection achievement, where you're able to pull off all of Batman's combat moves in one uninterrupted combo. Strikes, criticals, counters, takedowns, throws, ground and pounds, batarang, batclaw, cape stun, dodging over a mook, all at once. Makes you feel like an absolute badass.