Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu

Gameplay

As Batman, the player has to fight groups of enemies. The story mode, which forms the bulk of the game, can be played either alone or co-operatively, and rewards players for completing levels not only by continuing the story, but also with an upgrades system. This allows players to purchase new moves for their character and other game bonuses. There is also a challenge mode in which players (either cooperatively or competitively) take on groups of thugs without a storyline.

The game is played under a time limit, and features co-operative play. It also has 4 different difficulty levels: 'Easy', 'Medium', 'Hard', and 'Dark Knight'.

Plot

Batman faces a new enemy unlike any he has faced before. This mysterious foe plunges Gotham City into chaos on the night of the anniversary of Bruce Wayne's parents' murder. Apart from Sin Tzu, other Batman villains featured in the game are the Scarecrow, Clayface, and Bane. Batman is aided in his quest to save Gotham by Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing.

Publicity

One of the main draws to the game was that it introduced a new character into the Batman universe, as Batman: The Animated Series did with Harley Quinn. This new character, Sin Tzu, was created by comic artist Jim Lee. However, Sin Tzu did not gain popularity as a character and was never to be seen again in any media, with the exception of the game's novelization. The game shipped in regular versions with just the game, and boxed special editions that came with action figures for the Xbox and PS2 versions, and a lithograph with the GameCube version.

Reception

Rise of Sin Tzu was given a score of 59.44% for the PS2 version, 61.62% for the Xbox version, 58.80% for the Game Boy Advance version, and 61.68% for the GameCube version on GameRankings. On Metacritic, it has a score of 67 out of 100 for the Xbox version, and 63 out of 100 for the other console versions.

Game Informer gave the game a score of 5 out of 10 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, while the same magazine gave the Game Boy Advance port a better score of 7 out of 10.

Other media

A novel based on the game with the same name was released around the same time of the games release date. The novel, written by Devin Grayson and Flint Dille (who wrote the game's script) was told in the first person, with Clayface, the Scarecrow, a Stonegate inmate named Freddie Galan, Bane, a Hispanic thug named Ramon Domingo, Sin Tzu, Batman, Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Alfred each providing the narrative at different points.

Batman: Shadow of Sin Tzu was a year-long webcomic released bi-weekly on the DC Comics website, serving as a sequel to events depicted in Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu.