Arkham Asylum JokerxHarley Snippets!
An enthusiastic fan has sent this in that may of interest for anyone who hasn't played/finished playing the new game!
I recently finished playing Batman: AA for the XBox 360, and I have to say... it was one of the coolest games I've ever played. I'm not normally a gamer (that's my brother's job), so the fact that it was so compelling it kept me playing through all the frustrating moments when I had no clue what to do or where to go is really saying something. Paul Dini's dialogue is amazing, as usual. Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin are absolutely phenomenal. I laughed, I swooned, I threw the controller at the screen... it was great.
There were some interesting points on the JokerxHarley front; for instance, in one interview tape the Joker refers to her as his girlfriend. Another funny moment was when Harley is fawning over a dirty cop, saying, "You're a real piece of work, Fred... a girl could fall for a guy like you!"
And the Joker, of course, get's his knickers in a twist, yelling, "STOP flirting with the hired help, Harley!"
Then, of course, at the very end of the game the Joker says something along the lines of, "You slapped around Harley a bit... MY Harley, by the way!" Or when he tells her, "You little minx... I could never stay mad at you!"
It was awesome.
SQUEEEE! <3
Edit: A couple of people have asked me now for my thoughts on the JxH session tapes that are the goodies to be found on the game...
I hadn't posted anything because, well, call me biased but I hate to post any negativity or criticism where Dini & Hamill and especially Sorkin are concerned. I love all their work SOOOOO much.
But, well, here is what I emailed to a friend earlier:
I've kinda been... angsting over my reaction. I was so excited about those tapes. I've only listened to Harley's so far and... yeah. The voicework was flat, Hamill especially. What's he doing?
It's also like they were all kinda, I dunno, uncomfortable. It starts off with this fantastic innuendo and then that just evaporates. I wanted something sleazier, more perverse, more aggressive. I wanted more evolution. I wanted him to say something that gets her hooked to him.
Dini just didn't push it as far as he could've, and given what else that's being sent to me about the game I'm just like... why not? It could've been so beautiful. There are beautiful moments. I love it when he's ranting to her. He goes from being manipulative to genuinely pouring out his heart and it's wonderful. But he should've been less manic during the manipulation. Less ridiculous and more menacing on the seductive lines (how beautiful she is...)
I loved how menacing he sounded when he said he'd make it memorable but the leadup to that was too rushed and over the top.
'I don't want to know' - come ON this is the Joker! He'd not only not be reluctant, he'd be perversely gleeful about it. And the delivery of that line is just... not quite on.
But... I still like it. It's good. I like how he calls her to come with him at the end, how unified they seem.
I just wish there had been more. :/
And yeah, less lines repeated from Mad Love. New material please! :P These sessions, if you really went into them... gawd, they'd be amazing and Dini is more than capable of it. One of the whole reasons I wrote Tainted Love (read it?) was because the whole seduction would've been just out of this world and I wanted to try and capture it.
I get Dini wants to keep the emphasis on the humour-parody of these two, but... a little drama now and then can be a wonderful thing.
Regardless of this, I still very much enjoyed the tapes. I love that this game seems to have them SO unified and together. I would love to see this happen once more in the comics.
In other news, the Haven is now on Twitter!
Come on and follow me! Since I can update from my mobile phone, I'll be able to share snippets very easily as they come in.
I recently finished playing Batman: AA for the XBox 360, and I have to say... it was one of the coolest games I've ever played. I'm not normally a gamer (that's my brother's job), so the fact that it was so compelling it kept me playing through all the frustrating moments when I had no clue what to do or where to go is really saying something. Paul Dini's dialogue is amazing, as usual. Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin are absolutely phenomenal. I laughed, I swooned, I threw the controller at the screen... it was great.
There were some interesting points on the JokerxHarley front; for instance, in one interview tape the Joker refers to her as his girlfriend. Another funny moment was when Harley is fawning over a dirty cop, saying, "You're a real piece of work, Fred... a girl could fall for a guy like you!"
And the Joker, of course, get's his knickers in a twist, yelling, "STOP flirting with the hired help, Harley!"
Then, of course, at the very end of the game the Joker says something along the lines of, "You slapped around Harley a bit... MY Harley, by the way!" Or when he tells her, "You little minx... I could never stay mad at you!"
It was awesome.
SQUEEEE! <3
Edit: A couple of people have asked me now for my thoughts on the JxH session tapes that are the goodies to be found on the game...
I hadn't posted anything because, well, call me biased but I hate to post any negativity or criticism where Dini & Hamill and especially Sorkin are concerned. I love all their work SOOOOO much.
But, well, here is what I emailed to a friend earlier:
I've kinda been... angsting over my reaction. I was so excited about those tapes. I've only listened to Harley's so far and... yeah. The voicework was flat, Hamill especially. What's he doing?
It's also like they were all kinda, I dunno, uncomfortable. It starts off with this fantastic innuendo and then that just evaporates. I wanted something sleazier, more perverse, more aggressive. I wanted more evolution. I wanted him to say something that gets her hooked to him.
Dini just didn't push it as far as he could've, and given what else that's being sent to me about the game I'm just like... why not? It could've been so beautiful. There are beautiful moments. I love it when he's ranting to her. He goes from being manipulative to genuinely pouring out his heart and it's wonderful. But he should've been less manic during the manipulation. Less ridiculous and more menacing on the seductive lines (how beautiful she is...)
I loved how menacing he sounded when he said he'd make it memorable but the leadup to that was too rushed and over the top.
'I don't want to know' - come ON this is the Joker! He'd not only not be reluctant, he'd be perversely gleeful about it. And the delivery of that line is just... not quite on.
But... I still like it. It's good. I like how he calls her to come with him at the end, how unified they seem.
I just wish there had been more. :/
And yeah, less lines repeated from Mad Love. New material please! :P These sessions, if you really went into them... gawd, they'd be amazing and Dini is more than capable of it. One of the whole reasons I wrote Tainted Love (read it?) was because the whole seduction would've been just out of this world and I wanted to try and capture it.
I get Dini wants to keep the emphasis on the humour-parody of these two, but... a little drama now and then can be a wonderful thing.
Regardless of this, I still very much enjoyed the tapes. I love that this game seems to have them SO unified and together. I would love to see this happen once more in the comics.
In other news, the Haven is now on Twitter!
Come on and follow me! Since I can update from my mobile phone, I'll be able to share snippets very easily as they come in.