Xbox 360
Tricky one this. How do you rate a game which has fundamentally been the same for the past three installments? Sure, each new version has brought new elements to the table but, while they were fun games with undeniable charm, they offered nothing that we hadn't seen before.
Lego Batman is not the revolution of the Lego format some gamers were hoping for, but it does offer enough depth to make it stand out from the pack. Part of this success is down to the fact that the missions do not follow the storyline of any of the Batman movies. This means developer TRAVELLERS TALES were free to run amok and create their own little game world and make it playable from the ground up.
And what a world it is. You control Batman and Robin as they run around the streets of Gotham City beating up goons and defeating the villains who have escaped from Arkham Asylum. The tone is spot on and more in line with the ace Batman cartoon than the brooding movies. As you battle your way through the dark and corrupt city, you will come across freaky abandoned ice cream factories, botanical gardens swimming with toxic waste and of course a robot disco (hey it's a Lego game, there has to be at least one disco in here somewhere!).
You can really see the developer's minds running amok on this one, but how does it play? Well, there are still millions of Lego coins to collect and cash-in for new characters, vehicles and special abilities, but there are more character-specific ways to tackle levels. For example, Batman's demolition suit allows him to blow up obstructions to gain access to secret levels, while his thermal suit allows him to cross red hot steam pipes and so on.
You wont be scratching your head over any of the puzzles however, but they do mix things up a tad. The bonus is that there are 15 levels for the good guys and another 15 for the villains. These aren't rehashed stages however, each of the villain levels are unique and tell the story from their perspective. Call us predictable, but playing as the bad guys is always much more fun and the same rings true here. You can flirt with unsuspecting guards as the femme fatale Poison Ivy, brainwash cops as the Riddler or fry people with the Joker's electric hand buzzer, mmm crispy!
Overall, this is the same old lego game we've played before, but the developer has really nailed the feel of the source material and provided players with a much longer and playable experience. The platforming sections really need tidying up at points though so expect some accidental deaths at the hands of some unpleasant toxic goo. That aside, this is a fun game and fans of the Dark Knight will love it; the next Lego game will have to be entirely different though.
