'Batman: Arkham' Series' Secrets Uncovered By Dark Easter Eggs
For over 80 years, Batman has evolved and changed while still being one of the biggest forces in pop culture. This week, Cracked is doing a deep dive into the Dark Knight.
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The new Batman film is nearly upon us, and it seems to be teasing fans with the darkest tale of the caped crusader ever told – in PG format, at least. But is it really? Hackers have peered deep into the very core of the highly acclaimed and very messed-up Arkham series of Batman games and can boldly claim that's not the truth.
In Batman: Arkham City, players might casually come across a severed head inside a jar.
Warner Bros.
That's the head of the straight jacket Henchman, a peculiar henchman who'd follow Batman around while trying to stab him in a world where even completely unrestrained goons stand no chance. The developers ended up not having the guts to implement this enemy in the game, so they decided to literally cut him, and just leave his remains for players to see.
The head in the jar itself could also be either a tonally odd nod to Futurama or an apt one to Diogo Alves, a Portuguese serial killer whose severed head has been safely preserved in formaldehyde for hundreds of years.
Yet another idea that ended up being too dark to be in the game is how the devs of Arkham Origins originally wanted you to play as the villain in many segments of the game, as well as the deceased members of the Wayne family. Don't like that narrative choice? No problem, as you'd get to beat the hell out of the game's devs in the credits.
And if there's one thing the devs really didn't want in the game, that's cheaters, and they made damn sure of it by implementing a bunch of anti-piracy measures that would cause Batman's gadgets to act up in usually Game Over-inducing ways.
It's not always a gory demise, sometimes Batman will just get stuck on a phone call forever with no chance to proceed in his quest.
But sometimes Bats will just use his grapple hook to travel to a room whose floor's been replaced by a bottomless pit.
The best thing that Arkham Asylum's inevitable film adaptation can do is include this right at the beginning so that we won't have to suffer through yet another awful video game adaptation.
Top Image: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
