In Batman: Arkham Origins you play as the Dark Knight himself during the early days of his crime fighting double-life. The game is a prequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and its highly rated sequel Batman: Arkham City. Unfortunately, mobile gamers don't get a true crack at the detective action and brawling that's central to the Arkham series. With greatly diminished audio and visuals, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita isn't as immersive as its console and PC counterparts.

The first several minutes of Arkham Origins are made up of cut scenes. Before you get to assume control of Batman, you watch as the Bat skips out on Gotham City's Christmas Eve festivities -- no offense to Santa Claus -- and jumps into action as the Dark Knight, thus kicking off the first playable portion of the game. Flying in the Batplane (which later becomes player controlled) you watch as Batman heads to Blackgate penitentiary. Once Batman gets on his feet you take over. You're then tasked with solving the game's first major conflict: rescuing Gotham City Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb from the clutches of super villain Black Mask while, at the same time, preventing as many prisoners from escaping the prison's thick walls as possible. Regardless of the fact that the commissioner is dirtier than Harry, you still need to navigate your way through the labyrinthine structure and rescue Arkham's top cop before it's too late.

Arkham Origins' developers, Warner Bros. Games Montreal, gave Batman a superb level of finesse despite his bulky WWE wrestler style frame and rigid Batsuit body armor. This is a great, great thing because the level of control you have over the caped crusader is awesome. You can chain together ten, twenty... heck, even 30 hit combinations, in ludicrous skull-crushing fashion. (Slight spolier alert here) Yet, despite your best efforts, your mission to save the commissioner is in vain. Black Mask, his gigantic sidekick Killer Croc and their various cronies succeed in gassing Loeb as you look on through bulletproof glass. This sequence of events is scripted so you cannot save the commissioner even if you have mad skills.

What the game lacks is originality. Batman: Arkham Asylum was released back in 2009 and it wowed countless videogamers with its control scheme, Hollywood-grade voice acting and meticulously crafted open-world environments. This time around you take control of a younger Batman, but largely do the same things with him. You button mash and dish-out stunning counter attacks against enemies, have numerous run-ins with the Joker and use your grappling hook to ascend to hard-to-reach places. Other similarities between the three games is that you find goodies along the way and level up.

If you're interested in learning more about Batman's backstory then you will love Arkham Origins, but don't bother purchasing it if you don't care so much about plot points. If all you love is the battles the previous two titles handle fighting just fine. And, if you don't already own them, they are available for purchase at a lesser price. That said, Arkham Origins is a rock solid game. Its storyline reaffirms Bruce Wayne's hardline stance on crime; he'll fight for what he believes is right and just -- anytime, anywhere.

Will you be joining Wayne and fight the good fight? Let us know in the comments if you liked the game.