Welcome to the tenth episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years, the show where we put old school video game endings into proper context. Today we're going back in time to talk about three different adaptations of Tim Burton's version of Batman. Which system had the better ending: Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis or PC Engine? Find out now when you watch this brand new episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years!


1989 was a big year for blockbuster movies. In the span of only a few months we went from one massive sequel to another, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, Ghostbusters II and Back to the Future Part II. But the year's highest grossing film had nothing to do with ghosts, time travel or Nazis, because 1989 was the year a certain superhero came out of the shadows and cleaned up the city. Who could this possibly be? (I'm Batman.)

When your movie makes $411 million worldwide and sells more toys, shirts and trading cards than anybody knows what to do with, then nobody should be surprised when video game developers come knocking. In the case of Batman, we saw SunSoft swoop in with surprisingly good adaptations on a number of different systems. Today we're going to focus on the three very different versions that hit the Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis and PC Engine.

Let's start with the one most people probably remember, the 8-bit NES game that launched in February of 1990. This one hopes you watched the movie and remember the setup, because it throws us right into a city controlled by the Joker. We start out to a callback to Bruce Wayne's tragic night out at the theater before sending Batman through some sort of factory littered with landmines. The level ends with a showdown in front of City Hall with a guy with a jetpack that was definitely not in the movie.

The truth is, a lot of this game feels like it's not directly taken from the movie. We eventually fight through a chemical plant and a warehouse with a serious electricity problem. That makes way for this sewer stage and fight through some sort of underground lair. Long story short, Batman runs through a bunch of stages that have absolutely nothing to do with the Tim Burton movie before eventually coming across the massive church tower that holds our final fight with the Joker. Well, first it's this guy who wasn't in the movie, but eventually it's a fight with the Joker. Here's what happens next.

It's a simple recreation of the movie's ending that looks good, but misses a few of the key elements from the movie. For one thing, the game shows us the moment when Batman punches the Joker off the cathedral, but ignores all that stuff about how he survives and pulls Vicki Vale and Batman off the building with him. In the movie, Batman ties the Joker to the building to keep him from getting away, which ultimately leads to him falling to his death. The result may be the same, but the game makes it look like Batman killed the Joker on purpose. The motive is different.

Let's move onto the Genesis version, which ended up not seeing a U.S. release until 1991 due to some licensing issues. Believe it or not, this one is a lot more accurate to the film than the NES version. Hell, it even starts with a detailed origin story that goes into detail about where Batman came from and why Jack Napier is important. We even get to reenact the classic scene where Jack gets knocked into the vat of chemicals and becomes the Joker. That already makes more sense than this fight with machines in the NES game.

From there, the game continues to follow the movie's plot, sending us to the art museum, making us fight the sword guy, and even letting us pilot the Batwing. And much like the NES game, it ends in the cathedral against the Joker and his minions. Here's how that plays out.

I hate to say it, but the NES ending was better. It had more images to help convey what happened and even had that cool moment where we see the Joker falling from afar. Here we see the Joker plummet, but blink and you'll miss it. It's also frustrating that, once again, Batman looks like a cold-blooded killer, which doesn't feel in spirit of the original movie or comic book character.

For the PC Engine version, SunSoft decided to try something a little different. Instead of making yet another side-scrolling action game, Batman fights his way through a whole bunch of overhead maze-like stages. I'm not saying that's better (it's actually a lot worse in some crucial ways), but at least it's different. We get overhead stages based on the art museum, this factory, a Bumberman stage and a city street filled with fun animal-shaped balloons filled with poison gasses. It ultimately ends at the top of the cathedral, when this happens. Try not to act surprised.

In a way, this is probably the most accurate Batman ending, but only because it forces you to fill in most of the details. Instead of showing us the struggle and eventual fall, this ending jumps right to the police unveiling their brand new bat signal. To be fair, we do eventually see an image of the Joker after the fall, but that's after an insufferably long crawl up the building and several minutes of credits. It would have been nice to see a little more of that fall and a lot less of the slow pan. I guess if I had to pick, I would say the NES version had the best ending.