I am terror! I am the night! I am....made of legos? That's right kids, Lego Batman is here. At long last, after years of suffering through one terrible Batman game after another: a Batman game that is actually fun to play!
Pros: The best graphics of the Lego series, interesting twists on familiar Bat-Gadgets, Robin is actually kind of cool for a change, the music is great, the best parts of what make Lego games fun and kid friendly are back (including spawning back near where you die so you can try again).
Cons: Some of the same platforming quirks that have plagued previous Lego games are back including sliding off platforms after jumping on them, A.I. that is less than brilliant (you still need to play in Co-op mode to really get the most out of the game), the camera isn't always positioned where you can see what you are doing.
Some aspects of the game were handled very well. I was so glad they used the music from the 80's movie "Batman" instead of the music from "Batman Begins". The music in "Batman Begins" is ok but it doesn't have the memorable fan fares and the mix of excitement and fun that is needed for a Lego game. The voice "acting" and sound effects are well done. This is the first Lego game where I almost wish the characters talked as it would be cool to hear Kevin Conroy do Batman's lines with the "Batman Animated Series" music playing. Some of them make you laugh, but not for the wrong reasons. You get to drive vehicles which works really well in the Batman universe since he has all those Bat-vehicles. The Bat Cave and most of the set pieces in the story levels are well done. They look a bit familiar yet are different enough not to be total rip offs from the movies, comics and cartoons. The main suits for Batman and Robin are spot on from the comics and look cool. The villians look pretty cool too. Most of them look similar to the way they did in the Bruce Timm "Batman the Animated Series" cartoons. In the place of the light saber and force powers in Lego Star Wars, the cool game mechanic in this game is being able to hold down the X button and aim the Batarang before you release it. You can target multiple enemies and/or objects sometimes and let go of the button and watch the Batarang hit them all.
Other aspects could have been a bit better of course. Some of the special use suits for Batman and Robin look pretty goofy. I know they needed to make each one look different so you could tell what special power you had now, but they still look pretty strange. As cool as the levels look, some are so big that you almost need a mini map or some kind of arrow to show you where your objectives are. You have a limited control of the camera which helps, but not enough control to see what you want to sometimes. Since the right thumbstick doesn't do anything else, they could have made it control the camera more. It's a good thing that you still spawn back near where you die as with other Lego games, because you will find yourself falling to your death a lot. The puzzles are a bit harder than some of the previous Lego games, but at least most have a payoff that makes figuring them out worth it this time.
When/if I make it to the end of the game, I'll give a full review of Lego Batman. For now, I will say that if you haven't decided if you will buy the game yet or not, you should go ahead and get it. I have played the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PC (via free download of the demo) versions. Of the three, the Xbox 360 version is the best. In the options, they even let you enable Vsync just like in the PC version. I hadn't seen that option on an Xbox 360 game before. I can't imagine why you'd play with it turned off since it makes the game play much more smoothly.
Pros: The best graphics of the Lego series, interesting twists on familiar Bat-Gadgets, Robin is actually kind of cool for a change, the music is great, the best parts of what make Lego games fun and kid friendly are back (including spawning back near where you die so you can try again).
Cons: Some of the same platforming quirks that have plagued previous Lego games are back including sliding off platforms after jumping on them, A.I. that is less than brilliant (you still need to play in Co-op mode to really get the most out of the game), the camera isn't always positioned where you can see what you are doing.
Some aspects of the game were handled very well. I was so glad they used the music from the 80's movie "Batman" instead of the music from "Batman Begins". The music in "Batman Begins" is ok but it doesn't have the memorable fan fares and the mix of excitement and fun that is needed for a Lego game. The voice "acting" and sound effects are well done. This is the first Lego game where I almost wish the characters talked as it would be cool to hear Kevin Conroy do Batman's lines with the "Batman Animated Series" music playing. Some of them make you laugh, but not for the wrong reasons. You get to drive vehicles which works really well in the Batman universe since he has all those Bat-vehicles. The Bat Cave and most of the set pieces in the story levels are well done. They look a bit familiar yet are different enough not to be total rip offs from the movies, comics and cartoons. The main suits for Batman and Robin are spot on from the comics and look cool. The villians look pretty cool too. Most of them look similar to the way they did in the Bruce Timm "Batman the Animated Series" cartoons. In the place of the light saber and force powers in Lego Star Wars, the cool game mechanic in this game is being able to hold down the X button and aim the Batarang before you release it. You can target multiple enemies and/or objects sometimes and let go of the button and watch the Batarang hit them all.
Other aspects could have been a bit better of course. Some of the special use suits for Batman and Robin look pretty goofy. I know they needed to make each one look different so you could tell what special power you had now, but they still look pretty strange. As cool as the levels look, some are so big that you almost need a mini map or some kind of arrow to show you where your objectives are. You have a limited control of the camera which helps, but not enough control to see what you want to sometimes. Since the right thumbstick doesn't do anything else, they could have made it control the camera more. It's a good thing that you still spawn back near where you die as with other Lego games, because you will find yourself falling to your death a lot. The puzzles are a bit harder than some of the previous Lego games, but at least most have a payoff that makes figuring them out worth it this time.
When/if I make it to the end of the game, I'll give a full review of Lego Batman. For now, I will say that if you haven't decided if you will buy the game yet or not, you should go ahead and get it. I have played the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PC (via free download of the demo) versions. Of the three, the Xbox 360 version is the best. In the options, they even let you enable Vsync just like in the PC version. I hadn't seen that option on an Xbox 360 game before. I can't imagine why you'd play with it turned off since it makes the game play much more smoothly.
