Remembering Adam West's Video Game Roles
Adam West was THE Batman for a generation of fans, but he also was a talented voice actor. [...]
Adam West was THE Batman for a generation of fans, but he also was a talented voice actor. Although most of West's voiceover work was for television, he also had roles in several video games.
Some of West's video game roles played on West's fame as the original TV Batman, while others were tied to his more recent appearances on Family Guy and other cartoons. West even did work for a couple of surprising video games you might not have heard of!
As the world mourns and remembers Adam West today, let's take a look back at some of his work in the world of video games.
Lego Batman 3
We probably should get the most obvious video game out of the way first. In 2014, WB Games released Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, which featured a lengthy and touching homage to West's work on the 1966 Batman television show. Not only did the game feature an entire level based on sets from the show, West was added into the game as a playable character.
Of course, West provided the voice for his own character, as well as the narration for the entire Batman 66 level. You can check out a playthrough of the level above, complete with West delightfully dropping alliteration after alliteration, just like in the original show.
prevnextGolden Nugget
West has had a lot of strange roles in his career, but perhaps the weirdest was when he appeared in the Golden Nugget video game. Golden Nugget was a casino simulator game, in which players competed in poker, blackjack, and other virtual versions of popular casino games.
Because casino games were abundant even back in the 1990s, the makers of Golden Nugget added a storyline mode in which the player helped Adam West find a computer chip that could topple Las Vegas's entire gambling system.
West actually appeared in over 30 minutes of cut scenes that were filmed at the real Golden Nugget casino in Vegas. And while his character couldn't call himself Batman, he did have a secret crime lab. You can check out all the cut scenes in the video above.
prevnextMarc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure
Adam West appeared in Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, a 2006 video game about graffiti artists claiming turf by tagging various buildings. West played the police chief of the city of New Radius, whose one goal was to wipe out the graffiti artists once and for all. While we understand that vandalizing property is a serious crime, we're a bit surprised that a police chief would dedicate his entire career to eradicating it.
Anyways, West's character leads an ill-fated raid on a building associated with one of the graffiti gangs and dies when the building catches fire. However, he does get some measure of revenge as his death is used to frame the graffiti artists as true city menaces.
prevnextXIII
Batman isn't the only comic book character Adam West has played. West also voiced a main character in the Ubisoft game XIII, which was based on a French graphic novel of the same name.
In XIII, West played General Carrington, an ally to the player character. When the player is framed for the assassination of the president of the United States, Carrington offers to help but he is arrested and sent to a military base. The player character heads to the base to free Carrington and learn about his own past and how it relates to the mysterious conspiracy threatening the entire country.
prevnextFamily Guy
Other than Batman, West is best known for his time on Family Guy, where he played a parody version of himself. As the crazy mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island, West spends most of his time pursuing crackpot theories and making bizarre policy changes seemingly on a whim. The role helped reintroduced West to a whole new generation of fans, who loved West as someone other than the Caped Crusader they grew up with.
West appeared in several Family Guy video games including Back to the Multiverse and The Quest for Stuff. One of West's final appearances was promoting Family Guy: Another Freakin' Mobile Game during a 30 minute Facebook Live video that can be seen here.
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