10 Welcome to the Madhouse, Batman! - Arkham Asylum

Starting Off Strong

No need for an origin story. No need for exposition. Batman: Arkham Asylum started off strong, as players get to walk Joker straight into Arkham Asylum, introducing several antagonists Batman will have to deal with as the caped crusader delves deeper into the prison with his arch-nemesis.

It’s a brilliant move on the game developers' part. We don’t need to be trained to be Batman because we know who he is, we know how powerful he is and as Batman we are ready for anything, even a trap that the Joker will clearly spring on the player. It's the first moment in the series and one of the best.

9 Batman VS Hugo’s Thugs - Arkham City

Time to Become the Bat

An underrated moment in the Arkham games is when Hugo Strange traps you with twenty guards in a room. They have all the annoying equipment the player has seen, but the sheer number of guards makes players stop button-mashing and truly learn to think like The Batman.

Who needs to be taken out first? Where should the Bats go next? Who is the best target? While protecting hostages and putting your ninja powers to full use, many players fail to beat this group on the first try, and players who can look past the difficulty and come out victorious truly feel that they are night incarnate.

8 Batsword - Arkham City

Jedi Batman

Batman can use a sword, it's just not his style. But when the game developers give him a reason to use it, oh boy, the player never wants this battle to end. So rarely do we get to see Batman wield a blade and it's too bad that future installments didn't allow us the same pleasure.

Against Clayface in Batman Arkham City, Batman gets a chance to use this sword to cut down the many foes Clayface produces, literally cutting loose and getting a chance to see what Bats can really do when a foe won’t pass away from a few cuts.

7 The Glitch - Arkham Asylum

Try Unplugging it and Plugging it Back In

While it seems more common these days, the moment in Arkham Asylum where the game appears to glitch out and restart was a huge deal back in 2009. In a moment, feeling like an ode to Metal Gear’s Psycho Mantis, the game appears to glitch out and restart, but instead of Batman arresting Joker, the roles are reversed.

The player then controls the Joker as the intro for the game plays, with Harley adding some color to the conversation. Many players turn off their system because of the confusion. This moment was just a bit of trolling from the developers, however, trying to immerse the character in the discomfort Batman experiences thanks to Scarecrow.

6 Batman Saves Alfred - Batman: Arkham Origins

Emotion Time

One of Batman’s most important relationships is his relationship with Alfred, one of Batman’s only faithful allies throughout his vigilante escapades. While Batman is normally stoic, this scene from Arkham Origins really demonstrates how important Alfred is to Bruce Wayne, creating real stakes to the player’s journey.

This scene is only under-cut by the prequel problem. Any character in a future game cannot die, so if there’s a chance they are going to die, there's actually no chance. It’s still a great scene, in a great game, and pulls at the bat-strings.

5 Bat-Diving Through the City - Arkham City

Be the Bat

The moment a player realizes that Arkham City is an open-world game with Bat being able to soar through the skies is really one of the greatest feelings in the entire franchise. The movement is fluid, feels possible and leads to amazing random encounters where players dive into crowds of criminals from the darkness at top speed.

Throughout the entire game, this system never gets old. It's fun to traverse Arkham City, and many players spend time just on this one part of the game, much like Spider-Man 2, which first made superhero travel so fun.

4 Croc’s Lair - Arkham Asylum

The OG Poppy’s Playtime

When the player first sees Killer Croc in the Arkham series, it really is a moment of “how could I possibly beat that” clarity. The player knows Croc is inevitable, and so eventually the player must traverse his lair and begin the scariest ten minutes of the entire franchise.

The player walks across a precarious dock, hoping Croc doesn't suddenly jump up and tear Bats apart, sometimes needing to quickly throw a batarang at Croc’s neck to temporarily stop his charge. For once, the player is not the invincible Batman, but the very human Batman fighting for survival.

3 Protocol 10 - Arkham City

A Haunting Moment of Chaos

How much can one man do? As Batman exits from under the steel mill in Arkham City, the horror of Protocol 10 is finally revealed, all the people of Arkham City will be wiped out, while Batman, who isn’t a huge fan of random killing, watches on. It’s beautiful, it's overwhelming and the music hits a crescendo perfectly as Batman must act quickly to save Talia and save everyone in Arkham City from a barrage of missiles.

The epic scale of the moment sells the stakes at the moment, and as the player takes off, there's a heroic feeling of one against the world as the game approaches its final act. One of the best moments in a fantastic franchise.

2 Clayface Twist - Arkham City

The Final Act

While it has been a long time since the game came out, the reveal that there are two jokers in Arkham City was an awesome one when it was lesser known. In a series of literal back stabs, Talia ‘kills Joker’, the real Joker ‘kills’ Talia and Batman wields a sword and freeze bombs to take out the two Jokers while the finale plays out.

It's a comic book story, so no deaths are ever truly final, but this was still an awesome moment to be taken surprise by, and yet the moment was bread-crumbed with little details like Joker’s skeleton being undetectable in x-ray mode and Joker taking such a beating while still being able to fight.

1 The Finale - Batman: Arkham Knight

The Truest of Batman Moments

Using the medium of video games to tell a truly original Batman story is what the Arkham series was all about. Arkham Knight brings the player a unique Batman story as his mental battle with Joker brings the player not only a fun chance to shoot up some bad guys as the villain, but to see what it's like to be approached by The Dark Knight.

Batman wrests control from Joker in his mind, and declares his mantra out loud before finally subduing him, “I am vengeance! I am the night! I am BATMAN.” Cue the beat down to Arkham Joker’s canonical final defeat in the Arkham games and the best moment in the entire series.