In Batman: Arkham City, Riddler is done messing around. While his presence was felt in 2009's Arkham Asylum -- he left hidden clues all over the massive institution -- he's finally ready to come out of hiding.
During a demo of Arkham City at GDC a few weeks back, Rocksteady's Dax Ginn showed us the same demo our own Hamza Aziz had seen a few weeks back. It was, to put it mildly, a mind-blowing step above what we saw in Arkham Asylum. But the big news was something Hamza hadn't seen: the announcement that the brilliant Edward Nygma wouldn't just be taunting Batman this time around, but would have a physical presence in the world of Arkham City.
Our demo ended with Batman descending upon a rooftop as his Cyptogram device was picking up a strange signal. He stops in front of a large billboard, the words "Turn on and Tune in Before Someone Checks out - 275.00 325.00" crudely scrawled on its face. The Dark Knight jacks into that particular frequency and we're given our first glimpse at Arkham City's darker, twisted vision of Riddler.
While we didn't see any gameplay in action, the vignette we were shown was meant to give us "insight into The Riddler's state of mind." It's a super grimy minute worth of footage, with dark scenes of horror-like imagery, including a female struggling as she held down by a contraption that looks like something out of a SAW film. The Riddler's voice is the clip's soundtrack, taunting Batman the whole time.
How Riddler encounters and missions will play out is still very much an enigma itself; Ginn would only confirm that he'll be both physically threatening Batman and "the lives of innocent people." From the sounds of things, the critical narrative path will have you dealing with the likes of Two-Face and Joker. But Ginn was hesitant to call Riddler encounters "side missions."
"The Riddler experience is not part of the main story," he confirmed, "but you can see how much work we put into it. It seems to do them a disservice to call them 'side missions,' because we take them really, really seriously."
We hope to learn more about The Riddler's involvement in Arkham City soon. But in the meantime, glean what you will from these first images of the
Contest:
9:00 AM on 03.16.2011 | 
1) Riddler, Joker, Two-Face, Hugo Strange... How are all these antagonist going to be woven into the story without it suffering from Spiderman 3 syndrome?
2) I wonder if this will deter/inspire Nolan to stick Riddler in The Dark Knight Rises. I doubt Nolan would cast him as a SAW-knock off.
+1 Concur.
Well, AA didn't suffer with Joker, Bane, Scarecrow, Killer Croc and Poison Ivy. And other random characters from the Batman series.
1. Spider-Man 3 had two hours to tell a whole story with 3 badguys, Batman AC has a WHOLE GAME!
2. Doubt it considering Nolan already seems to have a cast for the next Batman movie and Riddler didn't seem to make the villain cut (but never say never)
Anyway...
Riddler: "I wanna play a game..." = AWESOME
Many heads will literally explode on October 18!
That was a dream. You were dreaming.
it's got the comic geek's seal of approval for sure. and we're not easy to please.
MR. Freeze, thank you very much.
although his real name IS Dr. Victor Fries, to be fair.
Grant Morrison has done more to damage Batman than Joel Schumacher. Rocksteady actually seems to respect the character, which is much more than can be said for Mr. Morrison.
That being said, this game looks aces and, as someone who was disappointed that the Riddler remained off-screen the entirety of Arkham Asylum, I am incredibly excited. Now to reread Hush in anticipation.
If you really, really need to make The Riddler "dark and gritty", there are ways to do it other than making him a cliched serial killer...and a scuzzy, unshaved, disheveled looking one at that.
WELL ACTUALLY!! Itsh Mr fweeze..
Why do you care? Lol
Yeah, I went there. Arkham City = FFX-2. Such that Riddler : AA :: Crimson Squad : X-2.
Riddler was really the one thing I kind of missed in Arkham Asylum, so this is good news
It is good to see him more involved in this game. Please be awesome.
I wanted to say "inb4 fellow Riddler fans cry about this", but we've already got one up there.