The Caped Crusader and his loyal sidekick, The Boy Wonder are back and in cute buildable brick form to take on Gotham City's collection of colorful criminals in Warner Bros. Interactive's LEGO Batman: The Videogame for multiple platforms.
The Pros
- Wonderful sense of humor
- Loveable LEGO gameplay
- Fun Gadgets
- Great suit-centric puzzles
- Lots of amusing characters
The Cons
- Some dull environments
- Music can be repetitive
Unless you've been on a self-imposed exile from fun for the last few years, chances are you've played a LEGO game from Traveller's Tales. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones universes lent themselves nicely to the LEGO formula and the world of The World's Greatest Detective is no exception. LEGO Batman is just as accessible and enjoyable as its Lucasverse brethren and a nice balance has been struck between the fun-loving LEGO attitude and darkness of Bruce Wayne's nocturnal alter ego. Who says you need a hot Princess in a slave outfit or a whip to have a good time?
This ain't Grant Morrison's Batman
Unlike Star Wars and Indiana Jones, LEGO Batman is a completely original story not based on any movie or comic book arc. The premise is straight out of Detective Comics 101: Villains escape Arkham Asylum and it's up to the Caped Crusader to hunt them down and send 'em back. One would assume that not pulling from the almost 70 years of source material would be a bad thing, but in this case keeping it simple frees Traveller's Tales up to do what they do best by capturing the essence and soul of the Batman universe through spot-on pantomimed storytelling. Batman is unflappable, the Joker manic, Robin is childlike in his goofiness, and Catwoman is, well, as sexy as the LEGO version of a woman dressed in an all-black leather cat suit can be. The cut scenes are incredibly entertaining and if you don't laugh while watching the Joker/Harley Quinn/Commisioner Gordon sequence then you may be working with a heart that's a few sizes too small.
However, the same thing can't be said for the personality of Gotham City. While it could be argued that Gotham City isn't the most vibrant and alive place to begin with, the backgrounds in LEGO Batman could be replaced with any dark alley or streetscape from Anylargecity, U.S.A. and no one would be the wiser. While the aesthetics of Batman's home turf fall a little short the mood is brought up to gritty speed—well, as gritty as a LEGO game can be--by the inclusion of Danny Elfman's score from the 1989 film. The music does get repetitive at times, but the familiar chords from the Tim Burton classic should put a smile on any Bat-fan’s face.
Where does he get those wonderful toys?
Most of the gameplay and design isn't terribly far removed from Traveller's Tales' successful formula. You're still tasked with breaking and rebuilding bricks, solving simple puzzles, and collecting LEGO pieces to advance your war on plastic-y crime. This time around, though, some key additions to the Dynamic Duo's crime fighting arsenal help the title recapture some of the fun that many feel was lost during the Jedi to Indy translation. Like everyone's favorite globe-trotting wise-cracking archeologist, Batman is primarily a melee fighter, which means that--HOLY MIDICHLORIANS BATMAN!--no force powers or lightsabers here. Traveller's Tales seem to have recognized the hole that the omission of those tools left in Indy and tasked Lucious Fox with working overtime in between games to fix the problem. Time and a half well spent, as Batman and the Boy Wonder have been outfitted with a variety of skill-altering suits that bring The Force back to the series. Batman, for example, can don a glide suit to access places his normal cape and cowl can't, and Robin can squeeze into a pair of tights that have magnets as feet to clank up and across walls that normally couldn't be traversed. There are also outfits that protect from environmental hazards, emit glass-shattering sonic waves, and blow things up…because everyone knows that Batman really LOVES to blow things up. Repressed much Brucie? The addition of suits really adds to the overall playability of the game and tightens up the gameplay by eliminating the need to use multiple characters to accomplish a specific goal. It also makes for some entertaining suit-centric puzzle solving and, again, gives Batman the opportunity to blow things up. The Batmobile, Batplane, and Batboat sequences are great fun to play and are sprinkled throughout the game with just the right amount of frequency.
Pick up the Batphone!
Online multiplayer has once again been omitted but playing through the game with local co-op adds another level of fun to an already enjoyable game. While the Story Mode isn't particularly long, the ability in Free Play Mode to quick change through all unlocked characters and costumes is more than enough incentive to play through a second time. It also has the double reward of allowing you to experience the story from the villains' side of things. While Batman and Robin are great characters, sometimes you'll just want to crush heads as Bane, float on the delightfully evil diabolical schemes of the Penguin, or stare down those rotten do-gooders of Gotham as Two Face. Each villain comes with their own special ability that will help them stymie the Dark Knight at every turn... at least for a while. Batman has perhaps the richest rogue's gallery in comics, and using them all as playable characters is a welcome gameplay mechanic.LEGO Batman is an exemplary fine-tuning of the series and deserves your attention. The night is deep, and there is crime afoot. The Bat-signal is in the sky. To the Batmobile!
Review by: Blair Herter
Comments
Jcortez12
I like this game alot. I have it for the PS2 and the graphics arent that bad. It is very fun to be able to play from both sides of the action.
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