One of the most anticipated games this summer was Batman Arkham Asylum, and for good  reason, it’s Batman!

So I like Batman, he’s cool and all, and I played the Demo on Xbox so I figured I’d grab the game as well, so I decided instead to grab the Collector’s Edition because it looked rather interesting and I thought it might be worth it. It cost me $107 with tax, normally an Xbox360 game new costs $60, I paid about $40 extra for the special stuff… was it worth it? Nope… Avoid it at all costs please, the game is kind of worth the regular cost, but I wouldn’t advise getting the Collector’s Edition.

Continue on for several pictures of all that’s included:

It comes in a big plastic box, inside that box is another Bat shaped box as well, it’s nice, I’ll give it that:

 

One of the things that makes this special is that it includes a Batarang! I mean that just sounds awesome right? Opening up the case you’re greeted with the Batarang on top:

Before I get into the Batarang, included also is a double disc game case, not only do you get the game but a bonus ‘making of’ DVD as well. You’ll also get a leather bound journal, standard user manual and I also got two of the exact same stickers with two different codes on the back for special maps. Fine they give you two codes for maps, but why the same exact sticker? Why not give you two different ones? What am I going to do with two of the same stickers? Couldn’t they be a little bit more creative? a little variety perhaps?

 

The leather bound book is supposed to be the doctors journal and it includes notes about the patients or characters in the game/Arkham. It’s not bad, but it’s rather cheap, they went though the whole leather binding and just basically used the same paper stock as the user manual, I might have been a bit more creative and maybe used some type of parchment, or made it really look like a notebook or something… I’ve never seen a journal done on glossy paper before, they could have at least tried to be a bit more realistic and creative with it don’t ya think?

 

Onto this abomination they call a Batarang… it’s a piece of flexible plastic stuck on a plastic stand. Worth the additional cost? Hell No!

Here’s some close up pictures of it, now I’m not sure if it’s supposed to look all scratched up like it does, or that is just a screw up in the manufacturing and handling process, but it looks nasty, it looks used and abused like a (fill in the blank)…. I’m not going to go there..…

 

The best part, or actually the worst part about it is that it’s freaking STUCK to the stand, it’s glued to the stand, so you can’t even take it off to ‘play’ with it. Now you know you’re going to want to give it a toss a few times, it’s the Batarang !!!

 

The most surprising thing about the Batarang is that it’s NOT METAL! I expected a replica as IT SAYS ON THE BOX! BATMAN DOES NOT THROW PLASTIC BATARANGS!!!!!

The sad thing is of course that I opened it and I can’t get a refund, this sucks…. this thing is junk through and through…

Shame on you Eidos and Warner Brothers… and I can’t believe DC Comics let them put something like this out to Batman fans….. I personally will never buy another Collector’s Edition if one of these companies is involved in creating it…

Do yourself a favor and just get the standard copy of the game, the Collector’s Edition is certainly not worth the extra cost.

You might think I’m being a bit picky here, but for the extra money I really expected a bit more than this, at least the Batarang could have been better quality. I’m totally let down by this whole experience, and I think a lot of fans are going to be as well.

Eidos, WB and DC need to do something to make this up to the gamers who threw over $100 away on this thing…

It looks like they just tossed this thing together without much actual thought involved in the design process, I am truly disappointed with this supposed Collector’s Edition… There’s not a damn thing ‘Collectible’ about it honestly…..

 

Have at it in the comments…