The Dark Knight rises in Batman Arkham City Lockdown for iOS
You can't fit an Xbox in your pocket, but you can play a console-quality Batman game on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.
Why did Batman cross his legs?
Because he had to go to the bat-room.
I know, I know. But that joke kills in a room full of 7-year-olds.
Speaking of Batman (you knew I had a reason for the potty humor), there's good news for fans of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, two of the top-rated console games of 2009 and 2011, respectively: the Dark Knight just went mobile.
Warner Bros. Entertainment has unveiled Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, an official iOS spinoff of the console version. It's $5.99.
Built on the famed Unreal engine, Lockdown is sure to draw comparisons to Infinity Blade II, that other visually thrilling iOS game. But the former is darker, grittier, and much more combat-heavy--just like the Bat himself.
Combat consists of a series of one-on-one melees, culminating with a face-off against a familiar villain: Two-Face, the Joker, etc.
Warner Bros. declined to let me demo the game, but most of the user reviews in the App Store are positive-bordering-on-gushing. (For those who complained of crashes, see my post, "How to fix 95 percent of iOS app crashes.") And you can get a feel for the gameplay in the promo video below.
One especially nice perk: Arkham City Lockdown supports AirPlay, meaning you can wirelessly stream the gameplay from your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 to your HDTV (with an Apple TV, natch).
If you've had a chance to try Lockdown yourself, hit the comments and let me know how it compares with the console versions--and with other recently celebrated games like Infinity Blade.