With the recent Dark Knight movie coming out, my memories drifted to one of the first SNES titles I owned--Batman Returns, a Final-Fight clone featuring the Caped Crusader himself.

Apart from a few Batmobile levels, the game features an impressive MIDI rendition of Danny Elfman's dark score from the film and follows the movie's plot really closely. You get to wail on many clowns, fight the Penguin and Catwoman, and smash enemies into background objects (windows, posters, and brick walls). Some levels go into a side-scrolling mode, making gameplay a bit like Kung-Fu at times.

Bosses in the game are pretty cheap. An early fight with Catwoman gives you little room to move around and Catwoman's fast moves can slice up the slow Batman in a flash. One nice touch is that you get to see an expanded ending depending on which difficulty you beat the game at--I was able to get to the final Penguin boss on the highest difficulty mode, but couldn't defeat him.

If you like beat-em-ups, Batman Returns is worth finding--and, over 10 years later, it still remains one of the best Batman games (not saying much, considering the competition).