Combat
in LEGO Batman is good old fashioned
fun, with plenty of button mashing if you desire
The
Caped Crusader strikes a dangerous pose,
while Robin isn't quite sure what to make of it
Robin:
"Batman, can may I ask you a question?"
Batman: "Permission denied. You stink like eel!"
The
villains in LEGO Batman inject a lot
of fun and plenty of humour into the game
Mr
Freeze and Scarecrow working together
in the 2-player co-op are almost unbeatable
About a year ago, when I heard through the
Bat-vine that LEGO Batman was being developed for every video
game system imaginable, I was partly impressed and partly cynical.
Batman,
yeah cool. LEGO? Mmmmm. Maybe I'm getting a bit old - I was a
fan as a young kid - but it brings with it the connotation of a childs
game.
So is it a game for
young whipper-snappers?
No, it's a good old fashioned challenge that even
Metal Gear fans like myself will find rewarding.
Indeed, my worries were silenced after playing the game for the first
hour,
and I was like "This is actually pretty cool".
Having heard
of the other LEGO games such as Indiana Jones and Star Wars, but never
having played them, what better one to start on than Batman? I
mean, I love bats, and I love... Mainly bats.
The
latest installment in the LEGO series has a certain charm: it sets you
down into the city of Gotham as the caped crusader Batman, as you take
on an army of evil LEGO goons.
The story of LEGO Batman is an original tale,
meaning that developer Traveller's Tales (TTGames) has some leeway,
since there's no need to follow a well-known plot from a movie or a
comic book series.
What we get in the end is a basic
tale of villains escaping Arkham Asylum and Batman hunting them
down. It doesn't get any more complicated than that, but it
really doesn't
need more depth.
If you're playing LEGO Batman, it's because you
want
to smash objects and beat up some bad guys, and the story shouldn't be
of a
huge concern.
Getting back to that idea of charm, the game is
interspersed with tongue-in-cheek cut scenes that work tremendously
well in this instance.
Each cut scene has slap-stick-inspired comedy,
centered mainly on Batman's sidekick Robin, which makes him
look like a doofus and is genuinely funny stuff.
On the other side of things the villains
are all totally nuts, very cookoo, which is sure to make for some
fun while keeping the young and not-so-young entertained.
Though it will appeal to younger gamers, LEGO
Batman is an enjoyable game for seasoned players with some nice game
mechanics, involving heaps of cool vehicles, gadgets, and plenty of
different melee combos.
Most of the game play is pretty much "beat up all
the goons,
collect the LEGO bits and proceed to the next level" but TTGames has
mixed
it up a bit and every second level or so there is a vehicle level which
add variety and mayhem in equal measure.
The first of the vehicle missions
sees you driving the Batmobile, shooting other foes in cars
while you
chase the Joker's van down. And if that's not enough then there is even
the Batboat, the bat-copter and a whole mix of other vehicles to build
from LEGO pieces and take control of.
Gotham City
however is not
made from LEGO. It's more realistic and I
think this is why the game works so well.
You have this almost bleak background with
these super coloured, smoothly rendered and very vivid LEGO men
running, jumping and
fighting on screen and it looks just fantastic.
I think that it would have been
nice to see the city have more of destructible element to it, where you
could, say, smash chunks out of walls, however
this doesn't take anything away from the experience.
During your mission to clean up
the streets, you'll collect LEGO studs and special LEGO bricks
throughout each level so later on you can unlock heaps of cool 'bonus'
content including special power ups, bonus levels and heaps of extra
characters.
Sound
wise and LEGO Batman sees the rehash of past LEGO series' sound
effects, which makes sense: why make new sounds for the same thing? But
the cool bit is that the game picks up the original score from composer
Danny
Elfman, the one that was featured in the 1989 Batman movie.
LEGO Batman
has a lot to offer. It's a rich gaming experience with plenty of
longevity and a real challenge if you try to complete the game
100%.
The game's developer has pretty much bent over
backwards to enhance the
gameplay and game content, and this is easily the best LEGO videogame
yet.
There is a rich cast of characters you'll
play as throughout the six acts of the game: The first three acts put
you in
control of Batman and Robin or the Dynamic Duo as I like to call them,
so you're stuck with those two for a while until you unlock other
characters.
But don't worry, as they both have a number of
power suits that can
be worn to provide special abilities, such as Robin's technology suit
that allows him to control little gadgets, Batman's glide suit that
lets him glide over long distances that you wouldn't
normally be able to cross. These along with a handful of other
suits
keep you interested in the Dynamic Duo.
Don't worry, I haven't
forgotten about those of you how like the evil side.
The second half of
this story sees you playing out each level as the villains which is a
neat little feature of the game as you
get to see the flip side of each level and learn how each villain sets
up his or her master plan, e.g. robbing a bank or something similarly
sinister.
However, for the villainous levels, the stages end
before you meet the Dynamic Duo, maybe because the bad guy never wins,
and perhaps this was done to remove
frustrations and broken game controllers.
It comes down to a simple equation: Batman can't
be beat. Not even Superman or Iron man could trounce him.
Now I have to say it, and I'm sure some fans of
the
Batman franchise will agree, but the villains steal the show. They just
have more variety as there's way more evil characters to
choose from, each with different skills and special moves and
they are just down-right
crazy fun to play as.
For example, the Joker can give handshake buzzer
shocks
to anyone he grabs, Mr. Freeze can freeze people into an ice block and
the Riddler can take control of civilians and make them do his dirty
work. Cool huh?
On top of the characters available in the story
mode of each act, there are numerous unlockable
heroes and villains who can be used when replaying levels in Free Mode,
such as Nightwing, Batgirl, Man-Bat, just to name a few.
These characters can all be
purchased with the LEGO bits (which I mentioned earlier).
There is
also a good reason to play levels multiple times, since it's impossible
to get all
of the hidden elements with the default roster, so if you're a 100%
completion freak like myself, this game is sure to keep you playing for
days.
Okay, there were a few flaws I came
across with Batman LEGO, such as how on some levels you can misjudge a
jump because of poor camera angles.
There are also numerous puzzle elements
that require cooperation between Batman and Robin, the AI doesn't
always understand what's going on and once in just about every
level there is a moment where it's unclear what you're supposed to do
next, due to the fact that the
solutions seem almost random.
Simply put, some of the co-op puzzles are
frustrating and illogical because often there's a lever or a button
that blends into the background or some such.
Many times this happened to me and I was about to
turn the system off
and crush it under my inscrutable heel, but in the end I somehow
figured the puzzles out, but if I was a young kid with hyperactivity
disorder this may cause a
problem.
Overall, LEGO Batman is a great game. The vehicles
are a lot of fun, and the gadgets such as the bat-a-rang add an extra
element of fun to the game. Co-op mode with another play is the bees
knees, letting you team up with a friend and punch the blocks out of a
legion of foes.
Because this is the first LEGO game I've played I
was initially skeptical, thinking it was for kids. But there is a
challenge here, and if you want to attain all the extra content you'll
be playing for quite some time.
And
don't worry if you don't have an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3 because
this game is available on pretty much every gaming system known to man.
Madness!
LEGO Batman is a fun game,
effortlessly blending humour, problem solving, and button
mashing into an ultra-vibrant, super smooth gaming experience.
