The Batman: Arkham series first debuted 14 years ago, and somehow it all still holds up today. Featuring some of the best portrayals of iconic DC characters, a groundbreaking Freeflow combat system, and compelling open-worlds, the Batman: Arkham series has stood the test of time for good reason. While countless fans have already played through the entire saga multiple times over the last decade, there's always room for one more playthrough, and the Batman: Arkham Trilogy on Switch is here for exactly that.
Announced during the recent Nintendo Direct, sandwiched right between all the Super Mario announcements, the Batman: Arkham Trilogy collects all three mainline Arkham games, along with all of their DLC, at least according to Nintendo. But there's one very underrated piece of Arkham DLC that the Batman: Arkham Trilogy might not include, and it if that's the case, then it's technically not entirely complete.
The Batman: Arkham Trilogy Needs The Wii U DLC to be Complete
The Batman: Arkham series has no shortage of DLC for newcomers to get lost in, with the sheer amount of content only being increased with every subsequent sequel. Batman: Arkham Asylum has a total of five DLC packs, with four of those adding new challenge missions, and one adding the ability to play as The Joker on a number of specific challenge maps. It's currently unclear whether the Batman: Arkham Trilogy will include these Joker challenge missions or not, though it seems likely, as the Return to Arkham remaster did contain the extra mode.
Batman: Arkham City is where the DLC offerings start to get much more significant, with multiple new playable characters and an entire story expansion. Catwoman, Nightwing, and Robin all get their own sets of unique challenge maps, along with a few comic book-inspired skins for each. Batman gets his own cosmetic bundle, adding eight costumes to the game. Finally, there's the Harley Quinn's Revenge story DLC, taking place just after the events of Arkham City's main story, and letting players control Robin as he attempts to save Batman.
There are almost 40 separate DLCs available for Batman: Arkham Knight, some of which are bundles, themselves containing a plethora of new content. Along with skins based on practically every iteration of Batman ever put to screen or page, Batman: Arkham Knight's DLC includes challenge maps for all of its playable characters, and story packs for Red Hood and Harley Quinn. Arkham Knight's DLC also includes the Arkham Episodes story pack, adding six new campaign missions for each playable character, and the Season of Infamy story DLC, which adds four new side campaigns surrounding Mr. Freeze, the Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, and Ra's al Ghul.
While there's more than enough content there for players to dive head-first into, the package wouldn't be complete with a trip back to the Wii U era. Released exclusively for the Wii U in 2012, Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition brought a number of console-specific changes to the beloved game, most of which revolved around the Wii U's controversial gamepad, such as using it to activate detective vision or steer a remote batarang. But the most unique element of Arkham City - Armored Edition was its inclusion of two new suits for Batman and Catwoman.
The titular armor, wearing these suits would activate a meter that when filled would give players a temporary boost in melee damage, appearing as an overcharge of electricity coming from Batman's gauntlets and Catwoman's claws. This armor isn't a strictly necessary inclusion to Batman: Arkham City, but it would still be nice to see it in the Batman: Arkham Trilogy on Switch, connecting two eras of Arkham on Nintendo consoles.
Batman: Arkham Trilogy will launch on Nintendo Switch in Fall 2023.
