Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition

This is hands down the best and most complete version of the game.

Armored Edition comes with all the pre-existing DLC as part of the game, and the player can jump right into Harley Quinn's Revenge from the start screen (though it warns you that this is likely to spoil a great deal of the story). This, plus the awesome immersion of the Wii U Gamepad makes it so, I can't imagine wanting to play this incredible game on any other system.

Batman: Arkham City isn't perfect, but listing the little things I didn't like gets in the way of all the stuff I adored.

Armoured Edition is an excellent superhero's sandbox. The BatGamePad-gadgets work nicely. [Jan 2013]

If you've never had a chance to play Arkham City and are looking for a fun action/adventure game that has awesome combat, fun exploration, and an excellent presentation, you can't go wrong with Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition. The game has enough content to keep you busy for over twenty hours and is entertaining from beginning to end.

A really good game that becomes fantastic with GamePad. It almost feels like the whole game was designed only for this way of playing Batman: Arkham City.

Batman: Arkham City-Armored Edition sets a new bar, not just for comic-book adaptations, but for games in general. [Dec 2012, p.76]

Even if you don't play Batman's story again, just the extra content is enough to justify the purchase.

A very good port of an already excellent action-adventure game. If you missed the original, try out this unique Wii U edition.

Armored Edition is a great way to finally appreciate the game along with a majority of its DLC. However, the Wii U port isn't preferable to Game of the Year versions you'll find on PS3 and 360. Armored Edition utilizes the GamePad better than some other AAA games being ported to the system, but that's still not enough to make this the definitive release, or one you should go out of your way to play.

The coolest use of the GamePad, however, is in the environmental audio. When Batman receives radio transmissions from Oracle or overhears a conversation with his surveillance equipment, the audio comes in over the GamePad, simulating Batman's earpiece.

If you haven't played Batman: Arkham City yet, you should really do it now with the Armored Edition. It's a very well-done open world action adventure with an formidable atmosphere, that gets seldomly disturbed by technical deficits.

Still an outstanding game, however the new features introduced to take advantage of the GamePad are generally superficial and really add nothing to the experience.

Arkham City is one of the strongest games in the Wii U launch lineup, mainly thanks to the original content that's as fascinating as it was about a year ago. But this port also benefits from good implementation of the touch pad controls that seem tailor-made.

Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition is pretty much similar to Arkham Asylum. Less focused on the story, Rocksteady's game sticks to the usual codes linked to the famous Dark Knight, flying from crime scene to crime scene across Gotham City. A great liberty of action that offers diversified gameplay sequences. However, the Wii U version suffers from freezing problems and the new gameplay mechanics introduced by the GamePad are mostly anecdotal.

In Batman Armored Edition the GamePad is not working perfectly, banalizing the experience and forcing some features that feels unnecessary.

This games uses the GamePad options very well. It's one of the best launch titles one can get at the moment.

It looks like Nintendo have finally grown a pair and are willing to partake in an older gamer's market - delivering mature, dark, and often violent titles like Arkham City. It is also a comforting display of loyalty from a brilliant studio like Rocksteady, who haven't just ported the game, but honestly had some genuine fun with the new hardware of the Wii U.

The original Arkham City is a great game, so it would have been pretty hard for this version to ruin that. However, a frame rate all over the place and insignificant additions to the experience makes this a hard to recommend version if you have access to other machines. For Wii U only users, it is a fantastic game.

A few technical bugs aside, Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition is a great port of one of last year's great games.

The Wii U-specific additions put a few chinks in the Caped Crusader's costume, but Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition is still a great action adventure game.

A treat for the dedicated Nintendo-heads. Others should stick to 360/PS3 GOTY edition. [Feb 2013, p.74]

Probably the best superhero game ever made. If you're willing to fight innovations to see the game at its best, this is a huge slab of muscular adventuring.

If you have yet to experience Batman: Arkham City on the Xbox 360 and PS3, then Batman: Arkham City – Armored Edition is a no brainer purchase; yet, if you have already ventured a few rounds with the cape crusader through this adventure on a previous console than I have a hard time recommending the $50 plunge.

It is the best version of the game out there when it comes to content and experience, but the framerate makes it hard to enjoy sometimes. If you haven't played the game before, it's one of the best adventures you'll see in a while.

An outstanding experience that will throw the player into Arkham's sombre environments. This game is able to turn nearly everyone into a Batman follower, whether they're ready or not. An essential title which perfectly ties exquisite story-telling with near-perfect gameplay mechanics.

If you enjoyed Batman: Arkham City in 2011, there's really no great incentive to don the superhero costume again. The Wii U version is still a good way to experience and explore Arkham City if you've yet to play the game, though.

GamePad integration is not so brilliant as it could have been, graphics shows some problems and B.A.T. Mode is interesting, but oversimplifies the Free Flow Combat System. Nevertheless, Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition is a great game, with a deep gameplay and compelling narration: if you've never played a Rocksteady game before, this could be a good start.

It's difficult to call Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition the definitive version of the game, but it does well to stand on its own merits. Frame rate issues aside, the incorporation of GamePad controls makes this feel like a natural experience, almost as though the game was originally made with Wii U in mind.

Although a year later than its brethren, Batman: Arkham City - Armoured Edition manages to differentiate itself as a subtly enhanced version with all the bells and quirks of the extra content added on top. The GamePad additions will split opinion on what works and what doesn't, but for one of the better launch titles -- if maybe not the best running one -- this is a considerable option.

So, Wii U owners: In the end, you got the weakest version of a game that stays utterly remarkable in its own right. It deserves all of your attention. Everyone else, go on, there's nothing here for you that you haven't experienced in a better iteration somewhere else.

This is still the same great Arkham City we played last year, but the new gimmicks, weird visual issues and glitches make it truly an inferior version when compared to the others. I really wish they had put more thought into how to implement the touch screen into the mix, because as it stands, it is more hindrance than help.

Still a fantastically well-designed action adventure, but this is easily the worst version of the best superhero game ever made.

I won't say that the framerate issue is a deal-breaker, but it's definitely keeping me from wholeheartedly recommending Armored Edition.

Although the core of Batman: Arkham City remains intact, new glitches and tacked-on gimmicks take away from the overall experience enough to make this a clearly inferior version of one of the great games of this generation.