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He's big. He's had. And he wears a black, plastic batsuit. By day he's millionaire Bruce Wayne, but by night he becomes the villain's worst nightmare: Batman.

Batman, the game, is loosely based upon the smash hit movie which is current doing the roungs on video. You control Batman through five areas of Gotham City, in the search for his arch-enemy, The Joker. Each area is made up of a number of eight-way scrolling stages, in which Batman can run, leap from platform to platform and, of course, hurl weapons at The Joker's cronies. Three types of weaponry are available as well as good old fist power; the Batarang, mini-rockets and three-way shurikens all of which can be topped up along the way by collecting the power-pods which some baddies drop when killed. When all of the areas are completed, you come face to face with the grinning Jack Napier himself and he's got a little surprise up his sleeve!

As movie conversions go, Batman is a bit of a let-down, as it doesn't adhere to the plot of the film in many ways. As scrolling and beat-'em-up games go however, what we have here is one of the best, most playable and addictive games of the genre to hit the Nintendo for quite some time.

On-screen presentation is generally very atmospheric, using dark, forbidding backdrops to portray the depressing city of Gotham, and just wait until you see the main sprite himself - he's a walking, jumping, pistol-packing masterpiece of graphic design, I kid you not!

Other notable aesthetic additions include the very attractive intro sequence which sets the scene with a background storyline backed by a scrolling view of Gotham, and the cut-scenes of the Batmobile zooming to the next stage of the game.

The sound effects and various ditties are also worthy of praise, as they add heaps of atmosphere to the game. But what really makes Batman the great piece of software it is must be the fast- action-packed blast-the-baddies gameplay, which never lets up and always keeps you enthralled.