Batman: The Telltale Series hits the App Store this week, bringing a welcome sense of adventure and narrative sophistication to the Caped Crusader's typically action-heavy gaming oeuvre.
Fortunately, the new Batman game has pedigree. The name Telltale might not ring any bells with you, but the developer is responsible for some excellent story-led games that demand meaningful choices from the player that will affect future episodes. What's more, Telltale's games typically have major intellectual properties attached, making them all the more appealing.
Here are six of the most notable Telltale game series (there's no point skipping to later episodes here) on the App Store to get you in the mood for Bats.
It's easy to see why the Walking Dead games are Telltale's most popular game series to date. Not only is the zombietastic source franchise absolutely massive, it also lends itself perfectly to Telltale's blend of harsh narrative choices and environmental puzzles. Here you get an original cast of characters, plus a few familiar faces from the comics/TV show.
Game of Thrones - A Telltale Game Series
Perhaps the only fantasy TV series that's bigger than The Walking Dead is Game of Thrones, and Telltale's take is another accomplished effort. Once again, the source material's natural life-and-death twists and high body count makes for some great 'impossible choice' scenarios in the game, with an added dose of political intrigue to boot.
Great Scott! Telltale has turned everyone's favourite '80s time travelling franchise into a quirky choose-your-own adventure, as only it can. Perhaps the most exciting thing about Back to the Future: The Game (for fans at least) is that it picks up on the lives of Marty McFly and Doc Brown after the events of the third and final film, forming a sort of pseudo-sequel.
Whether you're remotely interested in Minecraft: Story Mode or not depends wholly on whether you're a Minecraft player or not. Which probably depends a lot on your age. Sure enough, Minecraft: Story Mode is a suitably gentle introduction to Telltale's blend of narrative choices and puzzles, and will be perfect for younger players. Older, non-Minecraft-obsessed players will doubtless be baffled by all the esoteric references.
The Wolf Among Us is a much less well known property than the last four entries, but its comic book world makes for a great Telltale game. In this universe, fairy tale characters struggle to get by in a gritty world that's otherwise not too dissimilar to our own. You play Bigby, a town sheriff who just happens to have been the wolf from Red Riding Hood, and who must now solve a spate of grizzly murders.
Perhaps Telltale's most low-key title is also one of its most appealing. Puzzle Agent 2 has a quirky art style, some neat maths and logic puzzles, and a surreal plot concerning a missing eraser factory foreman, small-town secrets and FBI conspiracies. We've put Puzzle Agent 2 here because the original Puzzle Agent doesn't seem to be available on the UK App Store right now.
