Review: LEGO Batman the videogame

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 16 November 2008 11:16

Opinion and Analysis

What's better than building stuff with LEGO? Destroying the stuff you built, that's what.  And when you do it in a video game, there is nothing to clean up!  Done with Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Travellers Tales turn their digitising of little plastic blocks to the DC comic world of Batman.

I did enjoy LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures , I gave it 8.5 out of ten.  But there are elements of frustration with the game, the major one being that, due to the more realistic landscape (over that seen in the previous Star Wars titles) it was quite difficult to judge exactly where your little legoites were in 3D space.

LEGO Batman The Video Game
	Developer	Travellers Tales
	Publisher	Warner Bros
	Rating	G
Wii, PS3,PS2, PSP, PC, DS, Mobile, Reviewed on Xbox 360

Quite often this depth miscalculation resulted in the untimely dismantling of Indy and his mates.

This time around, developers Travellers Tales have returned to a more cartoony world (literally) for their inspiration.

Taking their lead from the mid-sixties television series rather than the motion pictures of recent years, this time we get DC comics Batman as the scene of some building block mayhem.

Retaining the trade-mark cut scene mechanisms of quirky unarticulated humour (some of which goes a little over the head of the audience this time around), destructible environments and puzzles of both mind and dexterity – a little easier this time than those presented in the Indy game.

For some reason the comedy in this game was not so laugh out loud as in my previous experience, much of this may be attributed to a feeling of familiarity rather than a drop off in quality.  When Batman does a look-away Baterang catch at inappropriate moments, it is hard to stifle the inevitable guffaw.

Taking place in a more comic-book style environment, gone (mostly) are the issues of depth perspective, though from time to time a level could use a little more lighting.