11 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Batman: Arkham

Arkham Asylum is nearly ten years old! What are the best facts about Rocksteady's series?

by Ewan Paterson
Batman Arkham Asylum Titan Joker
Warner Bros.

This August, Batman: Arkham Asylum will be ten - yes, ten - years old. No, I don't like it either, but time is a cruel mistress and though it may only seem like it was yesterday we were all playing the first game's demo over and over (and over) again, Batman: Arkham is a completely different beast in 2019. Sure, we've gone just over four years without another entry - seriously, what gives? - but there's no denying what a stunning achievement Rocksteady's series is.

In many ways, Arkham Asylum was the little Batman game that could. The studio only had one title to their name before they were handed the Batman license, and that almost never happened too, with Warner Bros. still in the thrall of the movie tie-in game craze and a Dark Knight title collapsing midway through development.

Instead of continuing that trend, Rocksteady dared to do different. Taking inspiration from the comics and the beloved animated series of the nineties, the studio fashioned their own version of Batman's world and placed their own stamp on the character, with their primary objective being to empower players as the Dark Knight - to effectively let them be the Bat.

It should probably go without saying that, with two sequels, a prequel, a new console generation and tie-in material aplenty, that there are plenty of fascinating facts that fans may not know about Arkham too. Here are the most mind-blowing ones of all...

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.