As if all this story mode content wasn't enough to keep you wrapped up in your Robin PJs, Arkham Asylum also tosses in 16 challenge rooms for you to go nuts in. Again, these are broken up between 360-degree fighting and the Invisible Predator challenges, but there's more pressure thanks to the three medals for every event and the online leaderboards. For the straight fighting ones, you'll need to pull off certain scores to come away with one, two, or three medals. Getting the highest honor of three awards means that you're chaining together insane combos and decimating anyone who gets in your way. Eventually, you'll only have a certain amount of time to finish these fights. Meanwhile, in the Invisible Predator rounds, you'll get medals for pulling off certain feats such as zip-lining into an enemy and knocking him over a railing as well as blowing up three different walls while taking out three different enemies at the same time.

Personally, I wasn't sold when I first heard about these challenges -- I mean, they're in the same environments as the fights in the story, so it's kind of like you're just replaying certain levels again. However, once I started chasing scores on the leaderboards (which are displayed when you're browsing through the different challenges) and hunting the Trophy/Achievement for the 40-hit combo, I could see how great these sections were to just drop in and fight. Again, it's a blast to be Batman and take out crooks with flipping punches and well-timed Batarangs, so it's only more fun to do it as fast as possible and beat your buddy's score.

I've touched on how well-done and important characterization is in this game, but I do need to take a second and tell you how good the voice acting and sound is as well. There were plenty of times I'd find myself just sitting in an air duct listening to the Joker yammer over the loudspeaker. Mark Hamill is excellent in this game -- his inflection, his timing, and everything else is just spot-on. Thing is, he's not the exception to the rule -- Batman, Poison Ivy, the Riddler all sound excellent. Sure, some of the guards are hit or miss, but the characters you care about nail it. Add in the fact that you have an orchestral score that fits the dark, brooding mood of the game, and you have a title that is everything a Batman game's supposed to be in terms of mood.