Beta/Unused Content

Sometimes, when a game is being made, the developers might come up with a new idea, possibly implement it, but have to remove it from the final version for various reasons. This is also the case with the Batman: Arkham Series. This page tries to list some content found by different individuals either from the game files, early previews or mentioned by the developers themselves.

Batman: Arkham Asylum[]

Mad Hatter was planned to appear as a villain in a children's hedge maze. He and the maze were scrapped early in production as there was no place for either of them in the game's plot.
The very first iteration of the game was "a full rhythm action game". The second version was 2D; only the combat was rhythm-based and "involved coloured circles bashing into each other". This eventually evolved into the current Freeflow system.^[1]
During the game's development, another insane enemy was about to appear in the game, the Straight Jacket Henchman. He was going to move in a similar pattern like the other crazed inmates, but would wield some sort of a blunt weapon in his free hand. However, he was scrapped during the early stages of the game, but still made an appearance in the game as the severed head in the jar in one of the offices in the Sanatorium of the Medical Facility.
Early in development, only Arkham Lunatics were injected with Titan to create the insane Titan Henchmen rather than Blackgate Prisoners and Arkham guards. This also suggests that Titan didn't originally affect a person's mentality.
Titan Joker's design was originally going to look very different. According to Carlos D'anda: "I had initially envisioned him as a 'spiderlike' creature more than anything... some disjointed, messed up looking monster straight out of an Aphex Twin video or something...." However, he was eventually forced to make Titan Joker look more like the other, more muscular, Titans.^[2]
Joker's early design featured him wearing a "mad scientist" outfit to coincide with Harley Quinn's "nurse" outfit. But this was changed in favor of a more traditional look.
- The sides of Joker's mouth were originally torn and scarred as well, but this was scrapped so it wouldn't coincide with Joker's appearance in the live-action Batman film The Dark Knight.
The Riddler's Cell originally had red question marks painted on its walls. In addition, there was some French writing on the wall, which translates into "I loved, I suffered, now I hate."
A trailer of the game shows a High Security Henchman emerging from a large container, but in the actual game a TITAN henchman appears in its place. Either the enemy was changed during production, or the HS henchman was used in the trailer to prevent any pre-release spoilers.
Several design choices point towards the game originally taking place in rainy weather. It's raining in the opening cutscene, whenever Batman is inside the Medical Facility lightning strikes can be seen, and several guards and inmates are wearing raincoats. It's possible that the game was planned to have rainfall, before it was removed, possibly due to performance issues. In Batman: Return To Arkham, there is now rainfall in free roam, either to address the opening and Medical Facility rain or due to the improved hardware allowing previously unavailable, yet desired, effects.
Aaron Cash was originally supposed to alert the guards during the Joker's predator challenge maps much like how the Joker alerts the henchmen during Batman's predator challenge maps but this was never included.

Batman: Arkham City[]

Some game files indicate that Clayface was supposed to impersonate Talia at some point.
According to the credits, Nightwing is voiced by Quinton Flynn. However, he has no lines in the game and his grunts were provided by Troy Baker, hinting that Nightwing was supposed to have a larger role.
Hacking the game reveals unused Trophy data for the characters Sickle, Mad Hatter Henchman, Reporter, Armored TYGER Guard, Unmasked Batman, Arkham Outcast, and Two-Face Outcasts, along with leftover Trophy data from Batman: Arkham Asylum.^[3]^[4]
Apparently, there was a humorous scene in the Penguin's museum that was scrapped from the game. At the part when Tiny bites into Batman's raft, Batman reaches for a compartment on his Utility Belt labeled "shark repellent". Opening the compartment, Batman pulls out brass knuckles which he then uses to beat Tiny with. A remnant of this idea is still mentioned on one of the game over screens.
Joker's design in the trailers differs greatly from his in-game design, looking much sicker than in the finalized game.

Batman: Arkham Origins[]

The Worst Nightmare suit seen on several cutscenes was originally a playable skin. It was removed due to apparently causing a glitch that interfered with saved game data.
Batman was originally planned to randomly trip while running and sometimes miss his targets when throwing Batarangs. This was scrapped because it was deemed too irritating for players. Also cut from the game were weather effects, one of which was to be a white out, which would lower visibility to near zero and make movement only possible with Detective Vision. This was also cut because of performance issues.
Hacking the game reveals unused data for a Tiffany Ambrose Trophy and leftover Trophy data from Batman: Arkham City.
Two more Martial Artist variants were designed; Anarky's gang and GCPD. The GCPD variant only appeared in concept art, and the Anarky variant appeared on the E3 demo, but never appeared in the finalized game.
A train appeared in a trailer. However, there are no trains in the final version. Why they were cut is unknown, although it could also be related to performance.
In Multiplayer, Dick Grayson's Robin was originally planned to use Escrima Sticks as shown in some artwork. However, due to time constraints, the developers had to reuse Robin's moveset instead.
The developers wanted Air Drones to patrol the skies, but didn't know how to implement them. Batman: Arkham Knight does feature air drones, possibly due to the better hardware.
There was a scene that was cut involving the Joker (disguised as Black Mask) torturing Alberto Falcone.
According to Benoit Richer, big parts of the game were going to be playable as some villains.

Batman: Arkham Knight[]

Some of the game files indicate that several more skins were to appear as DLC, but weren't made.
Files also mention Black Mask and Prometheus. While Black Mask appears in the Red Hood DLC, Prometheus was cut entirely from the game.
A special challenge called "Million Dollar Mayhem" was planned. This mode let players control Joker, and cause as much destruction and mayhem as they could in 5 minutes, before "sending the bill to Wayne Enterprises".
Originally, Explosive Gel was only going to be used in context sensitive areas and not chosen by the player on a gadget selection display according to a pre-release interview with Sefton Hill.
Many speculate that The Botanical Gardens on Miagani Island might have been designed with a predator challenge in mind, as the area has several Vantage Points and Floor Grates for seemingly no reason.
It appears that Victor Zsasz was originally going to have a bigger role in the game, as a written bio about Zsasz can be found in the game's data. In his cameo appearance on Clock Tower surveillance feed, he reuses his Asylum/City character model, implying that if he was cut, it happened early on in development.
Red Hood and Harley Quinn's gadget selection wheels differ greatly in design when compared to the other characters, being positioned slightly to the right with a transparent background. It could be a remnant of an earlier design which was replaced by the current one.
According to Sefton Hill, the game's credits were planned to include an interactive combat sequence against Rocksteady employees, and each knockdown caused their name and role in development to appear during slow motion.
The Bat Family were originally supposed to be playable in free roam, but was cut (like certain villain focused content) due to time restraints.
Texture files point to Jean Paul Valley (the first Azrael) originally having a display in the evidence room.

Gallery[]

References[]

[1] ttp://www.destructoid.com/batman-arkham-asylum-could-ve-been-a-rhythm-game-151088.phtml

[2] ttp://www.deviantart.com/art/Roid-Joker-prelims-163991352

[3] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=Qoh0v7le5mA

[4] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=xor0M6s69Vg

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]