Batman Forever opened 30 years ago this week. To be more specific, its actual anniversary is tomorrow, so I’m cheating a bit by already doing a header for it tonight. Opening to $52 million, Batman Forever secured itself the biggest premiere for any movie ever at the time, taking the record from Jurassic Park two years prior. This happened in spite–or perhaps because of–a drastic shift in tone from the highly successful Burton bat flicks, and if there’s one thing you can say without causing controversy, it’s that Forever is easily the most “90s” superhero outing of the decade. Heck, I can’t even think of a better way to describe 1995 on a pop culture level than to simply say “Batman Forever, man. Batman Forever.”

Naturally, the marketing campaign was massive. This, of course, included video games. But not just any video games. No, I’m talking about the most REVOLUTIONARY VIDEO GAMES EVER MADE! HOLY FUCK! THIS WASN’T GOING TO BE YOUR TYPICAL LICENSED TITLE! THIS WAS GONNA BLOW YOUR MIND OUT OF YOUR FUCKING HEAD! HOLY FUCK! THE GRAPHICS WOULD BE 100% REALISTIC! YOU WOULD FEEL LIKE YOU WERE REALLY BATMAN! 125 FIGHT MOVES THAT WOULD NOT BE A PAIN TO ACTUALLY PERFORM! HOLY FUCK! IT WOULD BE LIKE STEPPING INTO NEON VOMIT GOTHAM CITY FOR REAL LIFE! SO MANY ENEMIES! SO MANY PUNCHES! HOLY FUCKING FUCKITY FUCK!

Okay, you all know where this is going. Batman Forever: The Video Game was ambitious. But in the end, it was too ambitious. And it seems no one involved in making the game actually gave it a full test. Yes, this is the stuff that AVGN and Console Wars rants are made of. Batman Forever is considered one of the absolute worst video games of the 16-bit era, especially on the SNES. Not that you would ever guess that from this commercial, which sells it as the coolest thing evah. Also, I have any idea who that weird convict guy who Batman pounces (and presumably kills, since he’s jumping at the dude from the top of a skyscraper) is supposed to be. Is he in the game? I’ve never played this game.

That wasn’t the only way gamers could live out their fantasies of being able to beat up Jim Carrey for shits and giggles. There was also, of course, a Tiger Electronics Game, and unlike the console version, I have never heard anyone really talk about this one. All I know is this ad feels like a fucking trip (consider this your potential seizure warning, and I’m not joking). Also, is that Mark Hamill voicing Riddler? I think it is. Huh.

Have a bat night, y’all!