Batman: Arkham Asylum is a third-person action game casting you as -- you guessed it, chum -- the Dark Knight himself. The title opens with Batman racing back to Arkham, Gotham's home for the criminally insane, with the Joker in tow. Seems the Clown Prince of Crime broke out a few weeks ago, but Batman was able to track him down and re-apprehend the baddie. However, things are never what they seem with the Joker, so after getting the wiry maniac back into the building -- a building stocked with hundreds of the Joker's goons after a "mysterious" fire at their prison -- Mr. J breaks free with the help of Harley Quinn, takes control of the penitentiary, and releases all the inmates.

Holy plot twist, Batman!

From there, you're off on an adventure that ranks right below The Dark Knight movie in terms of awesome Batman experiences. The actual Arkham campus is a loony bin spread across multiple buildings on one massive rock. With the Joker in charge you're going to have to swing over rooms filled with gas, save doctors, rip vent covers off the walls so you can make a path around locked doors, and move as fast as Batman can to stop the Joker from releasing an army of monsters on the people of Gotham City.

Now, that might sound like your typical Batman story -- and it kind of is -- but it's important to point out that this is a fairly adult title. Yeah, some of the folks from Batman: The Animated Series are back to reprise their roles (Mark Hamill is the Joker, Kevin Conroy is Batman, and Arleen Sorkin is Harley Quinn), but this isn't the cartoon. Harley's wearing a fairly skimpy outfit that shows off her lady parts, Poison Ivy's in some painted-on panties, colorful language like "ass" and "bitch" is peppered in, and there are people getting murdered left and right. Arkham itself is a dark and dingy place that just had every psychopath housed there run through the halls tearing the building apart. Dead guards are laid out on the floor, papers are strewn about, and the facilities have seen better days.