Gotham Knights’ Robin is a teleporting Bart Simpson

Developer WB Games Montréal has released a fresh trailer for Gotham Knights that focuses on the abilities of Batman’s protégé, Robin.

One of four of Gotham Knights’ playable characters, Robin looks to have a whole bunch of gadgets and tricks at his disposal. The trailer shows the masked hero using his quarterstaff to deflect bullets, placing down exploding decoys mid-fight to distract enemies, and accelerating towards thugs using a grappling hook.

More surprisingly, it also shows Robin wielding the deadliest of all weapons; that tool feared by criminal masterminds everywhere: the slingshot. In the true spirit of an edgier Bart Simpson, it looks like Robin can sling flashbangs into the air and launch unidentified projectiles at enemies’ foreheads. It’s very dangerous.

Check out the trailer below.

Superhero squad

Most surprisingly, Robin can also teleport using the “teleportation tech from the Justice League satellite”. While not a wholly convincing explanation of the sci-fi kit, it does make for some interesting combat routines. Robin can jump around short distances while fighting, zapping between opponents instantly.

But the mention of the Justice League at all is rather odd. Up to this point, Gotham Knights' relationship to the wider DC universe hasn’t been clear, with trailers and gameplay focusing solely on Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood. If the Justice League is an established organization in the game's world, we might expect other DC characters to appear as cameos, or even in future DLC depending on the game’s success.

Elsewhere in the trailer, we get a good look at the different threads Robin will be sporting. There’s a fair amount of variety, ranging from the bright and garish to a level of dark and brooding that would make Batman proud.

• Robin is cool, but he's got nothing on Nightwing's haircuts