Another solid outing for the LEGO Series.
The missions involving Batman and Robin are entertaining enough, but there’s far more carnage to cause and unrivaled brick-smashing to be had once you gain access the Arkham Asylum, where you can carry out missions in the guise of your favourite villains, all of whom boast a range of unique and entertaining powers. Clayface, for example, has superhuman strength and can pick up cars or other heavy objects, whereas Riddler’s mind control ability can be used to jump into the body of an enemy and then use them to solve a puzzle. Of course, like the other LEGO games, you're encouraged to go back to levels once you've unllocked villains in order to use their powers to access secret areas to obtain collectibles.Despite a few illogical puzzles, where I admittedly had to search Google for a walkthrough, it’s good fun switching between the characters and using their range of abilities and the clever level design means that there’s plenty of opportunity to test out the full array of powers.
Where LEGO Batman falls short on entertainment though is with the heavy bouts of melee combat, which require little more than the willingness to potentially cause yourself repetitive strain injury by pressing the ‘X’ button furiously when being attacked from all angles. The fact that your AI team-mate does little to help you is frustrating. Still, combat is made more interesting through the use of multipliers, which allows you to raise your stud count significantly, whilst the fact that you can throw the batarang to know down enemies does provide some added entertainment value.
Despite the series showing no real innovation, LEGO Batman still manages to be entertaining from the outset and whilst the subject matter undoubtedly plays a part in that, it’s still a game that will appeal to young and old kids alike, as well as fans of the caped crusader.
Click for larger imagePros
You get to play as Batman and some mentally unstable villains
Tons to do, kids will be playing this well into the new year
You get to ride in loads of cool vehicles
Addictive, brick bashing fun!
Cons
Melee Combat is uninspiring
AI issues with your team-mate. He's lazy
Holy cash cow! LEGO Batman is another solid outing for the LEGO Series.
HEXUS Awards
LEGO Batman(8/10)
