I swore I would never, ever play any of these Lego games, but here I am about to review my second one. The things we do for our children.
I have to say, the formula leads to a lot more fun than I ever thought it would. They aren't the most varied or challenging but considering the target audience that should kind of be expected. Big budget titles certainly have their downsides, but you know with something built by a huge team at a huge developer that you are going to get some level of polish on the technical side. But you can also kind of expect all of the umphteen titles that will inevitably come out in a series to sort of run together, even if they feature different IPs. A lot of different universes have received the Lego treatment over the years. Indiana Jones was the first one I played, but now it's time to leave the Temple of Doom Behind and travel to the mean streets of Gotham City. In terms of lore, I'm going in a little less blind than I was last time. I am certainly more knowledgeable on the ins and outs of Batman's world than I am on Indy's, though I wouldn't really consider myself to be a diehard fan of the caped crusader. As a kid I watched the cartoon if it was on, but it was never required viewing for me. I've played tons of Batman games, some of which I may review here in the future, but never actively sought them out. I love the Nolan movies, like the Burton ones and think the Schumacher ones are good for a laugh. I guess that makes me somewhere between "not a real fan" and "filthy casual." I don't even know how this fandom stuff works anymore.
Anyway, Lego Batman was a slight departure from the previous Lego games, as it tells a completely original story. All of Batman's enemies have broken out of Arkham, and its up to he and Robin to re-capture his adversaries as they attempt to raise hell in Gotham. All of the big names are here, The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Two Face, Catwoman, Poison Ivy and, of course, Batman's most well-known adversary, Manbat. There's also this green-haired clown in a purple suit I've never seen before, I don't know how he got in there, but whatever. You have six episodes of five levels each, with 15 for the heroes and 15 for the villains, which is pretty cool. You explore areas from a 3rd person perspective, fighting enemies, solving puzzles and interacting with objects. As with Indiana Jones, different characters have special abilities that allow them to use specific objects to advance the level. Batman and Robin can also find special suits, which allow them to temporarily gain abilities like walking on walls or dropping bombs. The controls are simple, you have jump, punch and action. Everything works as its supposed to, though some of the vehicle sections have some wonky turning, and hit detection is fair. Combat is super simple and none of the puzzles are particularly challenging, but again, remember who the game is targeting. The graphics are great, Lego Batman came out for just about every major console of the time and it looks good on all of them. The sound is awesome as well, it's perfectly fitting for the atmosphere and has all the cues you know and love from the Caped Crusader's various iterations.
The level design is fine, it's solid if unspectacular. Things feel a little bit more claustrophobic and closed off than they did in Indiana Jones, but that was to be expected considering the setting. Lego Batman tries to make the best of its urban environments, hiding objects behind clutter and attempting to include interior areas. Sometimes they were successful, other times they weren't, but I have to give them credit for trying. The camera is the same as it was in Indiana Jones, but the nature of the levels makes it much more of a problem here. I'm not going to say it was a major problem, but I found myself adjusting it quite a bit and losing my character on the screen. This was doubly a problem in the vehicle levels, which were all so zoomed out it was hard to see where you were driving. There's definitely more good than bad though, there are some really cool and unique locales, many of which capture the essence of the villains and heroes perfectly. Poison Ivy's overgrown mansion from the first episode is probably my favorite, but there are others throughout. I will say it feels like there is a lot less building here than there was in Indiana Jones, there aren't as many objects to put together from Legos and there isn't really much variety in what you can build. It kind of makes this game feel less like a Lego game, but it also makes the levels flow a little bit better.
Overall, Lego Batman just feels less polished than Lego Indiana Jones, which is weird because it actually came out after. I thought this was the first in the series (that distinction actually goes to Lego Star Wars, which I'm sure I will play at some point in my life) as there are a lot of weird quirks that its predecessor just didn't have. It seems like LIJ really did its best to make sure the camera was in the right spot when platforming. That wasn't the case in Lego Batman, where it always felt like it was out of position. Add in the fact that there were a lot more narrow catwalks and thin platforms and it leads to a lot of cheap, frustrating deaths. It's kind of like the isometric jumping I've complained about in other reviews, though its not quite that bad. A lot of the powers feel like they were just kind of made up without any thought to how they would be executed or how useful they would be.
Robin has a vacuum that can suck up Lego pieces, which sounds like a good idea in theory. But he can only suck up red, green and yellow blocks. But only certain red, green and yellow blocks, which are indistinguishable from the red, green and yellow blocks that you can't suck up. All of this just so you can gather a select number to open doors. Stuff like that is confusing and it's also kind of lazy, like, for all of the Batman gadgets that's the best you could come up with? The vehicle stages also feel very rushed and slapped together, which is unfortunate.
That being said, there is still plenty of fun to be had here. You may die a lot because of the bad camera, but these games don't really punish you all that hard for failing. There are plenty of enemies to fight and combat is simple, which is fitting for the source material. Having Batman take out hordes of enemies is a blast and it definitely fits with his character. While the overall polish might not be there as much as it was with Indiana Jones, the teamwork segments are far better. There are a lot more times the game asks you to work as a team and they are all more interesting than they were in its predecessor. It was definitely a great game to play multiplayer and I would definitely recommend doing so rather than playing alone. I still think the best part is having a campaign for both the heroes and villains, it adds a lot of variety and makes for a lot more content. The villain levels really do have a different feel to them and the fact that there are a full 15 really make this feel like two games in one. There are definitely some technical issues here, but at the end of the day Lego Batman manages to be fun, and that really is what matters. It wears a bit thin after a while, but it also has tons of replay value.
You also have to remember the target audience here. These games are easy and streamlined, but they are designed to be. The Lego games are really great entry points into the medium, both for younger gamers and adults trying to pick up the hobby. The controls are simple, the level design is interesting yet not convoluted and the games all feature recognizable characters. No one is going to confuse these for the top end titles, but they fill a very important niche in the gaming industry. If you start someone out with Battletoads as their first game, they are going to have a bad time. Back in the day, we were okay with it because we didn't know any better. If you played a difficult game, you only had what was in your collection or your friends' collections to compare it to. There was no internet to help you do research. You also have to consider that developers didn't really have games down to a science like they do now. They didn't really know what exactly made games difficult, or even good. That's a big part of why so many old games were so difficult. Just because a lot of us started out with these brutally hard games doesn't mean everyone should. Here's a list of the games that came with my NES.
-Super Mario Bros.
-Battletoads
-Predator
-Terminator 2: Judgement Day
-Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom
-Section Z
-Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers
-Top Gun
With the exception of the Disney games, all of those games are brutal. Some of them are difficult because they are generally broken (Terminator and Temple of Doom), but they are all pretty tough. I would have loved to have games like the Lego series to start with. Thinking back to being a kid and just getting crushed by Battletoads and Silver Surfer, it's a wonder I still play today.
While they do start to run together the more you play them, I can't say I don't have some fun with these Lego games. They do exactly what they set out to, provide a fun, fast paced experience for folks that aren't hardcore gamers. As someone who's less of a hardcore gamer and more just someone who plays a lot of video games, I can appreciate what's on offer here, at least a little bit. That said, there really isn't much substance to these games, and Lego Batman is no exception. I honestly think I preferred Lego Indiana Jones to this, but not by much. I've definitely played better, but I've certainly played worse, and I think Lego Batman is worth a playthrough for new gamers, Lego enthusiasts and fans of the caped crusader.
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