Following the rather short and slightly disappointing Lego Indiana Jones game, Lego Batman is here, firing on all cylinders with plenty of fighting, platforming, puzzles, flying, driving and of course Lego building, yes you’ve guessed it Travellers Tales are back on top form, perhaps even more so than ever.
The prisoners of Arkham Asylum have managed to escape and are running riot around Gotham, they have teamed up into three gangs, led by The Riddler, Penguin and The Joker. It’s up to Batman and Robin to get to the bottom of each diabolical plan and defeat their greatest foes.
The controls are very easy to get the hang of, A to jump, B to grapple, X to punch or shoot and Y to swap character. There are loads of hazards along the way, requiring you to swap between characters at regular intervals, both Batman and Robin start each level armed only with their fists and their trusty Batarang, however as you progress they can equip themselves with upgrades, Batman can don a sonic ray that can smash glass, a bomber suit, fire suit and the cool bat glider, Robin will use a scuba suit, magnetic shoes, remote control suit and a weird sucking gun that sucks up stray Lego bricks to be converted into vehicles. Each suit plays a vital part in the puzzles and in the boss battles requiring you to give more thought, rather than just pummelling away at the baddies such as in the previous games.
There are 30 levels in total, not including a few hidden extras, 15 for batman and Robin and cleverly, 15 for the villains. Whilst Batman and Robin are out to defeat the foes, the villains are out to wreak havoc, building giant robots to smash bank vaults and unleashing hundreds of gun toting penguins amongst the general public.
Making a welcome return is the full vehicle levels, the Batmobile, Batboat and Batwing each make an appearance and they make a welcome break from the puzzle and fist fighting. Each vehicle used comes equipt with different items such as a grapple to swing mines or a homing missile to take out gun emplacements and bosses. You also have the usual selection of in game kit builds including dinosaurs, crocodiles, trucks and cranes, which makes for plenty of entertainment.
Rather than go for the more recent batman films, the game seems more focused on the Tim Burton films in the looks department and has also pinched a few characters from the classic batman cartoon series. The music has been ripped straight from the Danny Elfman score and it suits the game perfectly.
The collectable side has always been a mainstay in Lego games and this one has been increased by quite a bit, you have the usual mini-kits, red blocks and characters to find, plus there are also civilians to save in each level and data on the Batman legend to purchase in the store.
Graphically the game looks as cute as ever, perhaps even more so given that this is Batman and Robin we are dealing with here. The levels are all lovingly recreated to bring a brick made Gotham City to life and the Batcave looks fantastic, allowing you to wander around Batman’s famous layer. The cutscenes offer the usual comic class that you would expect from the Lego series of games, just try not to laugh when watching them, it’s impossible.
After the very short Lego Indiana Jones game this is a return to form for Travellers Tales, Lego Batman is great title which has enough packed in to keep you entertained for quite a long time, and with a few tough puzzles thrown in for the older players this is certainly a game for everyone.
