Trivia / Batman: Arkham Origins

• Approval of God:
  • Mark Hamill approves of Troy Baker’s performance as the Joker.
  • While expressing reservations over the modern street protester aesthetic of the character, Alan Grant gave his blessing to the game’s version of Anarky.
• Author's Saving Throw: Bane's appearance in ''Arkham Asylum" was poorly received, as he was an idiot Bull Fight Boss rather than the brilliant badass from the comics. This game changed so that the brilliant Bane was in the past and he destroyed his mind with TN-1 trying to take down Batman, resulting in the less than brilliant incarnation from the Asylum and City.
• Blooper: When seen in Detective Mode, Mad Hatter has no bones. Given the theme of his mission, it could technically be intentional, but it's generally assumed to be a developer oversight as it never leads to anything and is only briefly seen.
• B-Team Sequel: Created by Warner Bros. Games Montreal, not Rocksteady.
• The Cast Showoff: Origins' Joker is voiced by Troy Baker, who's also known for his skills as a singer. Thus, Joker suddenly sings a lot more.
• Christmas Rushed: The game had a very tight schedule, and it was released only eight months after its announcement. Even though it re-used the engine, gameplay, props and even a portion of the map from Arkham City, it was very glitchy when it was released. Although it did receive multiple patches, and is generally considered to be a bit better now, it didn't help that the developers outright stated that they would stop patching minor bugs in favor of developing the "Cold, Cold Heart" DLC.
• Fake Russian: American Steve Blum as Russian criminal Lester Buchinsky.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: While the game itself is still available in various digital stores, the Knightfall DLC^note which contains two suits and five challenge maps (3 combat, 2 predator) remains a Playstation exclusive; this means that you can either have all DLC or improved performance, but not both. Even worse, Sony's legacy game service on PS Plus Premium offers no DLC support for any game (unless there's a version of the game with all DLC included), so that's not a good option either.
• Lying Creator: Before the game's release, the "Worst Nightmare" skin (the way Joker sees Batman in these early years) was stated to be available in the main game and vaguely implied to be unlocked with 100% completion. However, those who managed to achieve that feat never unlocked it for use, causing much speculation on how it was to be obtained. Complicating the problem, the developers kept quiet for some time, before eventually admitting that it had been "removed" in testing, and was never in the commercially released version.
• No Port For You: Unlike Asylum, City, and Knight, Origins hasn't been ported to the PS4, Xbox One, or Nintendo Switch, and being a B-Team Sequel, was not included in "Return to Arkham", which included Asylum and City. However, the PS3 version is playable on the PS4 via PS Plus Premium, while the Xbox 360 version can be played on the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X|S through Backwards Compatibility. In each of these examples, due to a lack of a digital port, it is necessary to have a physical copy of the game to play.
• The Other Darrin: Most of these fall under Time-Shifted Actor.
  • Batman is voiced by Roger Craig Smith instead of Kevin Conroy because they wanted a new voice actor to portray a younger, less experienced Batman.
  • Likewise, Troy Baker also replaces Mark Hamill as the Joker.
  • JB Blanc replaces Fred Tatasciore as Bane, which is surprising considering Tatasciore returns to provide voices in the game.
  • Brian Bloom replaces Nolan North as Black Mask. This one, like David Kaye taking over as Commissioner Gordon and Grey DeLisle as Martha Wayne in Arkham City, is puzzling, considering North is returning to reprise the role of Penguin, just as Tom Kane and Tasia Valenza (Gordon and Martha's respective voice actors in Arkham Asylum) reprised the respective roles of Quincy Sharp and Poison Ivy in City.
  • Michael J. Gough replaces Tom Kane and David Kaye as Jim Gordon; ironically, despite voicing a younger Gordon, Gough is older than both Kane and Kaye.
  • Khary Payton replaces Steve Blum as Killer Croc, despite Blum returning to voice Loose Lips and the Electrocutioner.
  • Kelsey Lansdowne replaces Kimberly Brooks as Barbara Gordon.
  • In the French dub, Alfred, the Joker, Bane, James Gordon, his daughter Barbara, and Jack Ryder are the only characters to have different voice actors from the previous games.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Troy Baker as the Joker.
  • Khary Payton as Killer Croc.
• Prop Recycling:
  • A particularly strange instance, as Mark Hamill's loudspeaker cackles from City are recycled for some of the multiplayer maps.
  • Likewise, gun racks in the GCPD still bear the familiar Arkham logo, despite the facility being closed at the time of the game.
  • A photo of Arkham guard Aaron Cash's family can be found in a locker at the police precinct — the same one from City, meaning that it includes not only two young children who were likely not born yet at this point in the series' continuity, but an infant who was only born after the events of Asylum.
  • One of the freeze gadgets from City appears in Cold, Cold, Heart as an item on Victor's desk in Gothcorp.
  • In Deathstroke's introductory cinematic, the location he's fighting in is a hallway from Penguin's museum from City. Look closely and you can even see the portrait of young Oswald Cobblepot and his family.
  • A lot of the Predator maps are reskins from Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Particularly obvious and blatant is Gotham National Bank, the location for the first meeting with Joker and the Deadshot Optional Boss battle which is visibly the Museum from City complete with elevated platform bridge symmetrically dividing the room in two sections and large staircases and vents located in identical positions.
• Role Reprise:
  • C.C.H. Pounder as Amanda Waller, returning from Justice League Unlimited.
  • Robert Costanzo is back as Harvey Bullock after voicing him in Batman: The Animated Series.
  • In the French dub, in addition to having the same role reprises the previous games had when it comes to Batman, Killer Croc, the Penguin, and Vicki Vale, this game has a few more voice actors reprising their roles from previous adaptations:
    • From Batman: The Animated Series: In addition to the Penguin and Killer Croc, Renaux Marx as Ferris Boyle.
    • From The Dark Knight Trilogy: Stéphane Ronchewski as the Joker and Jérémie Covillault as Bane.
    • From Injustice: Gods Among Us: In addition to Batman, the Joker, and Harley Quinn, Bernard Bollet as Deathstroke.
  • It was the first game of the series to be dubbed in Brazil, and brought in the Batman, Alfred, Gordon, Bane and Joker from The Dark Knight Trilogy, the animated Harley Quinn, the Riddler from Batman Forever and Young Justice, and Batgirl from The Batman.
  • In the German dub, Tobias Kluckert reprises his role as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. He even uses similar vocals and speech patterns.
• What Could Have Been: Batman was originally going to occasionally trip and miss targets with his Batarangs to showcase his inexperience, but the developers decided it would have been too much of a Scrappy Mechanic.

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