Reviews

LEGO and Batman are two of my childhood favourites. When the two are brought together in the form of another favourite of mine, video games, then surely a hit is on the cards. The mighty Star Wars has already had the LEGO treatment and delivered a fun platform adventure, so when the Dynamic Duo are transformed into bricks you can expect plenty of Whack, Boom and Kapow!

The story avoids imitating the movies directly and opts for a grand showdown of all the Caped Crusaders infamous villains. The most villainous of all villains have escaped Arkham Asylum and are running amok in Gotham City, with appearances from The Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow and Catwoman to name just some of the criminals in dire need of a beating. The chapter based game comes together in comic book style, with still artwork. Unfortunately it seems the budget didn't stretch far enough for a dialogue writer and the story telling is left to the images alone, an acceptable approach none-the-less, but it's all too tempting to hit the fast forward button.

You'd think they could have had POW or SPLAT appear on the touch screen after punches!

Who needs a ground-breaking original synopsis, this is Batman after all. The plot is obvious - beat the bad guy. What we need is plenty of crime fighting action and top notch gadgets. A handful of gizmos are available, but the game concentrates more on puzzles than it does fighting. Unfortunately, bringing the action to the small screen of the DS loses some of the unique LEGO character detail and makes the fighting a slight chore. When Batman and Robin face off against a group of foes, the action can become confusing and before you know it you're teaching your partner a thing or two about fighting by whacking him in the face. You'll do your best to avoid this friendly fire by spacing out the battles, but this is something that the gun-wielding enemies won't always allow.

As platform adventures go, LEGO Batman is fairly enjoyable. To weave your way through the dark Gotham streets the duo need to work together as they both have different capabilities. You can switch between Batman and Robin with the touch of a button and it's an action you'll do frequently to progress. For instance they both pick up different suit upgrades, Batman can glide across gaps and grapple onto ledges and Robin can travel through chutes and walk across poisonous liquid. A level usually revolves around holding the A button to LEGO build a grapple platform, grappling up a wall, holding A again to build a ladder, and then regrouping. This style of platforming enables Robin to become useful and working your way through the level is fun, but due to the lack of variety and limited upgrades, it quickly becomes repetitive.