Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame - TV Tropes (2025)

Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame is a 2010 Beat 'em Up Platform Game released for the Nintendo DS and the Wii, based on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold TV series. It was developed by WayForward Technologies and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for release in North America, Europe and Oceania.

The game lets players (one or two players) play as Batman and another DC character to fight various familiar DC villains, each in different storylines befitting them.

The Wii version contains examples of:

• Action Bomb: Cat-bombs being thrown by Cat Man's goons.
• An Aesop: Each of the stories harbors their own in some fashion.
  • "The Case of the Siamese Diamond" has the theme of not jumping straight to conclusions without knowledge of what's coming. Not only does Robin immediately assume that Catwoman's the main ringleader of the titular diamond's theft, but Batman is equally sure that it's Catman behind it, citing his recent breakout from Arkham as a good coincidence. Ultimately, they're both proven right; Catwoman is indeed the one leading the action, even when Catman did steal the diamond for the purposes of combined control over Gotham City.
  • "Monkey Think, Robot Do!"'s theme is about how bragging can bite you hard in the ass if you're not careful about what you say. The whole plot is kicked off when Blue Beetle brags a bit too much about Science Island, giving Grodd and his army of gorillas the incentive to go check it out and hijack its technology and prompting Batman and Jaime to go and clean up the mess.
  • "Over the Underworld!" has a couple of these, focal around both Batman and Gentleman Ghost.
    • For Gentleman Ghost, the motivational point for terrorising Batman and Hawkman is him blaming the Dark Knight for his death over 100 years back (via Time Travel), despite him being the cause of it if a comment from Batman is anything to go by. It's increasingly shown that holding onto this grudge for so long and trying to make a Deal with the Devil derails Ghost's plans further, and by the end, he finally just says that he wanted another chance.
    • For Batman himself, there's the issue that he gets increasingly irritated with Gentleman Ghost's refusal to accept blame for his crimes and wasting his precious time. However, as Hawkman points out in the story's climax, acting heroic is never a waste of time, and being a hero also embodies strength of character. The second point is what gives Batman the incentive to take Gentleman Ghost back to Blackgate without any restraint.
  • "Green with Anger!" demonstrates pretty much right from the get-go that a Hair-Trigger Temper benefits nobody, not even the one holding it. This plot starts after Guy takes Mongul's insults personally and inadvertedly buys him and Starro escape and free reign to terrorise the galaxy. The consequences of this are shown more and more as fellow Green Lanterns have their lives endangered, to the point that Mongul is actively targeting Mogo in the story's climax. At the same time, whilst controlling your anger is key to keeping a rational head, refusing to fight entirely won't make things any better, either, as shown when Guy is genuinely afraid of getting Mogo killed in the crossfire if his temper takes hold again.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • In a boss battle, should enough time go by without any meaningful damage going to the crook in question, Boss Banter between Batman and his companion for that story will provide a tip of some kind to facilitate in succeeding.

    Hawkman: Our attacks are going right through him! We need to be dead to have an effect on Gentleman Ghost.
    Batman: That gives me an idea. Try grabbing one of these zombies and throwing them up in the air at Gentleman Ghost. With any luck, we'll be able to knock him out of the sky.

  • If a player isn't using Batman at an area where Explosives are needed to clear a mandatory way forward, the CPU will automatically navigate Batman to do the action for you (albeit getting caught in the explosion themselves).
• Arc Villain: Discounting the villains fought in the intro battles of each story, the four main stories each have a central villain leading the way.
  • "The Case of the Siamese Diamond", the story in Gotham City, has Catman as the villain behind the diamond's theft, but Catwoman as the lady behind the man and the true Big Bad of the story.
  • "Monkey Think, Robot Do!" brings Gorilla Grodd in as the antagonist aiming to take over Science Island.
  • "Over the Underworld!" has Gentleman Ghost as the Big Bad trying to lure Batman and Hawkman to their demise collectively.
  • "Green with Anger!" has the Big Bad Duumvirate of Mongul and Starro, both terrorising the galaxy in their own ways.
• Ascended Extra: Two in-game examples come in at later points in the game.
  • For most of the game, Bat-Mite is a video-game helper that points out tips for using Batman's gadgets, and can even be tagged in with a DS copy of the game to help the heroes out. Come the end of the game, however, he becomes the ringmaster of his Brutal Bonus Level.
  • This also applies to Gorilla Grodd between the first two main stories. When he first shows up, he's a Zero-Effort Boss that barely does much to hinder Batman and Robin. Come the second story, and in his first fight alone, he's The Juggernaut and is barely held down by Batman and Blue Beetle's attacks. This is helped by him being the Big Bad of that story.
• Assist Character: During main gameplay levels, one of several DC super heroes (discounting a lot of the big ones) can be summoned in to quickly take down all on-screen enemies in one go, charged up by shaking the Wii Remote to fill their power gauge. The available characters to summon are Black Canary, Booster Gold, Aquaman, Black Lightning, Red Tornado, The Flash, Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Captain Marvel, Hal Jordan and Proto-Bot.
• Brick Joke: A couple crop up in the Science Island story.
  • Early on in Batman and Blue Beetle's raid of Science Island's facility, Jaime thinks about using his pistons to cause tremors, though Batman holds him from doing so, meaning it would cause them unwanted attention. Later on, before they reach the Science Island central core, Batman gives the trainee hero full reign to use his pistons how he pleases.
  • After meeting Proto-Bot for the first time, Blue Beetle thinks about how the robot could just sit on Grodd to make the situation end quicker. "Splat! No more monkey troubles." After Grodd is overpowered by Batman, Jaime and Proto-Bot, the fight ends with the giant robot falling on top of Grodd from above and flattening him.
• Brutal Bonus Level: After overcoming all four storylines and viewing the end credits, Bat-Mite pulls a Hijacked by Ganon and dares Batman to take on his Bat-Mite Challenge, which involves him defeating waves upon waves of enemies he's fought in all four stories, with a two-minute time limit for each one. And just to kick it in, he can only take the foes on alone; no two-player co-op for this challenge OR the Bat-Mite Helper.
• Character Development: Guy Gardner undergoes this throughout "Green with Anger!". He starts out with a Hair-Trigger Temper and rarely takes responsibility for what kickstarted the plot. However, as the story goes on and extra Green Lanterns are put in danger, Guy loses that attitude, eventually accepting every bit of the blame and losing his motivation to keep going. And by the time Mongul is trying to destroy Mogo, the living planet, following Starro's defeat and capture, there's barely any willpower left in Guy, which necessitates Batman giving him a much-needed pep talk to snap him out of his funk. And by the end of the story, he's a lot more cool-headed and flips Mongul's insults on his head.
• Crazy-Prepared: The launch trailer has Batman reveal that he keeps himself prepared for all sorts of contingencies, including being warped into Bat-Mite's place in the middle of foiling a villain's plans to play video games.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Should the HP of Batman or a story's guest star run out, they will fall, but after their death animation, they'll respawn back where they were (or at the beginning of a hazardous sequence if this isn't feasible). The only downside is that this will cost you 100 of your collected coins (all of them if you have less than 100).
• Easter Egg: In the Gotham story, using the Stun Gun (Batman) or Electric Shocker (Robin) on huge feline enemies will not kill them after their HP is expired, but instead revert them back down into more harmless cats if they're the mutated kind.
• Everyone Can See It: Throughout the Gotham story, Robin isn't afraid to prod at Batman constantly defending Catwoman or having feelings for her, despite his claims that his only interest in her is getting her rehabilitated.

  Robin: Look, it's no secret you have a thing for her.
  Batman: Don't be ridiculous. Catwoman is an escaped convict. My only interest is in returning her to Blackgate.
  Robin: Hey, love takes all forms. Just because someone's a violent criminal...
  Batman: She's not violent.
  Robin: Ha! See? You're defending her.

• Evolving Title Screen: As the game progresses, the title screen goes from just showing Batman on a rooftop to including his four companions found in each of the storylines. After watching the end credits, Bat-Mite takes over the title screen, putting himself in place of Batman and making the game be called "The Awesomest, Way Cool, Kickbutt Adventures of Bat-Mite!" until you've beaten his challenge.
• Fairy Companion: Unlockable via a cheat code, four different drones can be used to accompany the player characters in their adventures (outside of boss battles) and help to fend off or stun enemies in their path.
• Forced Transformation: The Siamese Diamond is able to turn humans into cats, and Catman and Catwoman both utilise it to bring Gotham City to its knees (or paws). After a chase across rooftops, a cat helicopter turns Robin into a cat, forcing them to retreat temporarily while Batman develops a cure for the Diamond's effects. During Catman's Boss Battle, he'll turn Batman and/or Robin into cats to try and hinder their progress, and they'll turn back to normal after they attack him in those states.

  Robin: "Was I cute?"

• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • In Catman's boss fight, he transforms Batman and Robin into cats in hopes that they'll be useless. However, he didn't account for the fact that they can now climb up ledges to reach him and show him just how ferocious a cat can be if provoked.
  • The Final Boss against Gorilla Grodd and a Brainwashed and Crazy Proto-Bot ends out like this, with Grodd's attempts to make the robot kill his master and friend backfiring after he and Jaime short-circuit the robot and get it to attack the big ape.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Though Grodd needs to be attacked enough to open the ways forward to escape, it's impossible to actually defeat him in the first fight against him, necessitating Batman and Blue Beetle a motive to get out of there and try to hang low on their way to the Central Core.

  Blue Beetle: He keeps getting back up!
  Batman: He's too powerful to defeat now. Just keep running, and hopefully we can find a way out of here.

• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Partway through the trip in Science Island, Blue Beetle begins lampshading about how the complex is structured like a video game for some reason, despite Batman refusing to see a serious situation as some video game.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: During the second half of the Gotham story, Catwoman blows up a building to dispose of the Dynamic Duo in one fell swoop, and thanks to them staying low after that, she was led to believe Batman actually perished in the destruction. Whilst Catman is very chuffed about it, Catwoman is much less enthused, feeling upset that Batman was seemingly a goner. Fortunately for her, Batman and Robin busting into Wayne Manor to fight the two villains washed her doubts away, making her overjoyed she could still fight him.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Aside from half of Batman's extra gadget inventory, three of his gadgets are locked behind accessing later stories in the game, each tying into how they connect to the respective story.
  • The Stun Gun is unlocked after beating the Gotham story, and is important to the Science Island story to allow Batman to fry enemies like Science Island's rogue robots and open tightly-locked doors, alongside powering up some machines.
  • Explosives are unlocked after beating the Science Island story, allowing Batman to break through rubble he can't destroy otherwise, of which there's a lot of in his trip through London.
  • Finally, the Jet Boosters are unlocked after beating the London story, finally allowing Batman to double-jump like almost every other character in the game (save for Robin, who still needs his grapple hook to clear higher points). And considering grapple points are non-existent in the planets Batman and Guy Gardner explore together, this is necessary for traversing the alien landscapes.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The launch trailer made for the game doesn't fall too afoul of this, except for making a direct point of Gorilla Grodd being the Science Island Final Boss, complete with Batman dealing the finishing blow. In-game, the shown encounter is actually the mid-boss of that story, and though he still is the Final Boss, he makes the Brainwashed and Crazy Proto-Bot do all the fighting for him.
• Not So Above It All: Whilst Batman is pretty much The Comically Serious throughout the story, he can't help but make his own pun at Mongul's expense after his defeat, calling the villain a "bumblebee". Even Guy can't believe that the World's Greatest Detective is cracking a joke.

  Guy Gardner: A joke? From the World's Greatest Detective?? Oh man, the boys back on Oa are never gonna believe this one!

• Self-Destruct Mechanism: In the Science Island story, any robots that are overpowered do not immediately disappear like most enemies, but instead lay down for a moment before short-circuiting, flashing red and then exploding, taking whoever and whatever is in proximity with them. Unfortunately, this can affect the player characters if they're in the explosion's proximity, but fortunately, fellow enemies aren't immune to it. Defeating a robot enemy with the Stun Gun, however, will ensure they can't do this and simply vanish after playing their defeat animation.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: During the Outer Space story and its Warm-Up Boss, compared to his other three allies in the game, Batman isn't really excited about working alongside Guy Gardner and his Hair-Trigger Temper attitude, and is irritated by him charging into a battle against a trio of villains he didn't bother researching before. He does gradually warm to Guy as the Green Lantern begins slowly seeing the consequences of his hot-headed attitude and what it's doing to his allies.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Grodd hijacks different robots to his advantage during the Science Island story.
  • When he gets to the main computer before Batman and Blue Beetle, he assumes control of every robot in the complex, meaning that the normally helpful Blue Beetle robots become entirely hostile towards the heroes. Jaime is very upset when Bruce breaks this news to him. Thankfully for the duo, two of these robots have no qualms about giving the two a lift to pursue Grodd back to the edges of the island.
  • The final battle of the story has Grodd take control of Proto-Bot to attack Batman and Blue Beetle with, and thanks to the malicious programming, Proto-Bot is not capable of holding back. Fortunately, wearing him down and reprogramming him with the Stun Gun will allow him to get good hits on Grodd where the other two heroes can't.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • In the climax of the Science Island story, Batman and Blue Beetle ride a pair of robots to pursue Grodd with, whilst fighting off enemies in the process. Downplayed, however, in that the controls are still the same despite the sky chase sequence at hand.
  • The big fight against Starro in the Outer Space story is this as well, turning the game into a Shoot 'em Up where Batman and Guy throw any projectiles they can at the giant starfish to wear him down.
• Warm-Up Boss: Every story has one as the equivalent to the series' cold opens.
  • The Gotham City story has Batman and Robin rescuing Gotham's mayor from Two-Face.
  • The Science Island story focuses on Batman and Blue Beetle working together to apprehend Copperhead while the prison's new escape-proof upgrades are in the works.
  • The London story deals with Batman and Hawkman escaping Clock King's death trap, before disarming his bombs and knocking him out with one of them. The main story is an Immediate Sequel to this, when Gentleman Ghost shows up at London Tower, too.
  • The Outer Space story has Batman and Guy Gardner both fighting off the Rogues (Captain Cold, Heatwave and the Weather Wizard) in a backwards order, then taking them all on at once.
• You Are Better than You Think You Are: Batman, right before the Final Boss of the Outer Space story (and by extension, the game's final boss as a whole), encourages Guy to get his willpower back, reminding him that Mogo had faith in him to be a Green Lantern, and be ready to show Mongul that if he messes with one Green Lantern...

  Guy Gardner: ...he messes with all of us! Thanks, Bats.

• Zero-Effort Boss: Gorilla Grodd's first encounter in Gotham City. After knocking over Batman and Robin once, he does nothing to hinder them further and can be easily taken out with just a couple of punches. Same can't be said for his Science Island encounters, however.

The DS version contains examples of:

• Disney Villain Death: The battle against Babyface ends with the gangster plummeting to his apparent death.
• Lighter and Softer: There's a scene in which Bane picks up Batman, as if to break his back... when suddenly, Green Arrow shows up and defeats Bane with a single arrow, then proceeds to comically tease Batman about always having to save him.
• Serial Escalation: Gorilla Grodd turning Batman into an ape. After which AQUAMAN rides on Bat-Ape's back. And Bat-Ape swings AQUAMAN around as a weapon. Their special attack consists of AQUAMAN, riding Bat-Ape, riding a whale... Fighting armored sharks.
• Zero-Effort Boss: The final boss is the Brain. He does not attack and is defeated in just one hit.