Loading ...Gamertell Review: Lego Batman for DS
Section: Reviews, Originals, Features, Opinions, Handhelds, DS, Gear, Comics-and-Graphic-Novels, Figures & Toys, Genres, 3D, Action, Adventure
Title: Lego Batman: The Videogame
Price: $29.99
System(s): DS (PSP, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)
Release Date: September 23, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Warner Home Video Games
ESRB Rating: “Everyone 10+” for mild cartoon violence.
Pros: More fun the longer you play, plenty of collectibles, multiplayer mode, well-executed 3D environments and cute story.
Cons: Does not follow the plot of any Batman movie, a bit slow in the beginning, repetitive puzzles and a fatal revival glitch in Free Play Mode.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb sideways; 81/100; B-; * * * out of five.
Taking a huge hint from the success of the Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones games, Warner Bros. has converted yet another an iconic character book hero into colored pegs to star in a video game.
Like its predecessors, Lego Batman has plenty of puzzles and pegs to collect but it takes a while before the action kicks in. Otherwise, it’s the familiar peg-collecting, object destroying extravaganza we’ve come to enjoy from a Lego action game.
Piece by Piece
Unlike the Lego-based predecessors, this doesn’t have any relation to a film. Instead, it’s a new story with cut scenes that play out as comic book panels drawn in the Lego art style.
The game is a mix of 3D platforming, puzzle solving and action where you break various objects into their core pegs to then re-construct to move all of your characters through the level. Although the story mode of the game focuses on Batman and Robin, you also get to play the entire game as a pair of nefarious characters.
Each character has unique attributes, primary and secondary weapons and boost including: grappling hooks, double jump, shaft shimmying, single- and double-barreled guns, freeze ray (guess who has that), bombs, super strength, Batrangs, headbutting attack and more. Some characters can swap outfits to perform different actions. In the Story Mode, you’ll need to frequently trade between characters to solve puzzles to progress through levels.
After being completed in Story Mode, each level is then playable as a Free Play mode with a group of characters – including a custom built character from unlocked characters’ parts – so you’ll be able to use a wider array of skills to find more items hidden throughout each level.
In each game you collect individual Lego pegs which can then be cashed in for game hints, playable characters and minigames. You also collect special red pegs, cards, coins and canisters that unlock addition items.
Click! Bam! Clack!
Lego Batman starts out a little slower than the other Lego action games and doesn’t have the extra layer of humor that being based on a known story can offer.
Whereas the Lego Star Wars games were filled with action, Lego Batman contains more puzzles, most of which follow the same basic pattern: You get to a point where only one character can progress and then you must a) break or move something that spills pegs that you b) reconstruct to create either a lever or a switch that you c) activate to spill more pegs and repeat previous steps until all characters are able to move on. Breaking objects and performing the same puzzles is fun for only so long (although there is a certain clever irony in smashing plants wile playing as Poison Ivy).
The main story mode is the game’s weakest feature and does grow in tedium until you about half way through the story. Then a driving level and few extra platformer tasks (eg. avoiding deadly lasers) are tossed in to break things up (pun partially intended). Granted, the Batmobile levels are too dark and narrow on the DS, making them more about repetition than skill although they are still a welcome change of pace.
The game’s real fun is in the Free Play levels where you flip between a group of eight multi-talented heroes and villains (yes, together) and can better enjoy the wide array of abilities and unlock all the weird areas in each level.
Although it doesn’t have a movie behind it, Lego Batman does have the advantage of having the custom character option from the start (playable in Free Roam mode), more extras, more villains and more character diversity than those other Lego games. I would like to have seen more variation in the levels but, for a small-screen handhold system the 3D environments are impressive.
The one glitch I did find in the Free Play mode was that if you you switch to a character that cannot walk on a toxic area while on a toxic area, they will eternally regenerate and re-die on the toxic area, forcing a system reset. On the other hand, the AI will sometimes swap to the best character to progress, so you skip some of the annoying puzzle and will often have twin characters on screen.
Holy Colored BatBlocks!
Aside from the few claustrophobic driving levels, the Story Mode is the weakest part of the game not because of the actual story – which is kinda cute – but due to the repetitive puzzles and relative lack of action as compared to the other Lego-themed games. Thankfully, Lego Batman gets better the longer you play and, the more you unlock, the more there is to enjoy. Keep that in mind if you do give this a try since it can take a while to get into the game’s Lego-shaped groove.
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