LEGO Batman Preview

A Preview - By Gaetano Prestia

The LEGO series of video-games is quite the simplistic yet thoroughly enjoyable puzzle-platforming franchise. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones adaptions have all provided gamers with hours upon hours of challenging gameplay that is appealing to all demographics. While each of the titles has successfully captured the tone and emotion of the movie series’ for which they are based on, they’ve also been given a twist of slapstick humour, which compliments the style of the presentation and gameplay quite well.

With the 5th addition to the critically and commercially successful series, Traveller’s Tales has ventured into the world of comic books with LEGO Batman. The gameplay maintains many of the basic elements that made the first few titles so solid and enjoyable while also adding a few extra nice features to give both the presentation and combat plenty of originality.

There are plenty of puzzles to solve and enemies to fight through, with Batman and Robin being joined by the Joker, Riddler and Mr. Freeze, just to name a few. The storyline is completely brand new and doesn’t follow the direction of any Batman film, however the musical score and feel of the environment gives the game a strong Tim Burton-esque feel about it. Each character is charming in their own unique way with their actions and walking styles perfectly representing their comic-book characteristics. The Joker, for example, walks very cunningly and with a sense of slyness, while Batman walks with confidence and charisma.

LEGO Batman offers a certain level of customisation for Batman and Robin, with special suits plastered around levels. Most of the time these suits will help solve a puzzle, while other times they can be used to simply reach some otherwise unreachable LEGO pieces. We got the opportunity to try on a gliding suit for Batman as well as a magnetic suit for Robin, both of which control very well and add a whole new level of enjoyment to the gameplay. Batman can glide over several areas and even fly down into some unsuspecting enemies. Super-Villains are all playable but their customisation doesn’t go beyond weaponry, however each do have their own unique attack. The Joker has a great hand-shocker that electrocutes any enemy nearby and like the suits for Batman and Robin, all of these villain attacks add some great new elements to the gameplay.

Like in previous LEGO games, you’ll have to build special machinery with scattered LEGO pieces to solve puzzles and progress through chapters, and this aspect of the gameplay is without doubt the most rewarding and humourous. It’s always been a favourite in previous games and its charm is still present in LEGO Batman. There’s nothing cuter than LEGO superheroes bashing up a bunch of bad guys and then leaning over to build a machine out of LEGO pieces. Great stuff.

A very encouraging element is the ability to replay each completed chapter with an unlocked duo of villains, which adds a whole new level of replayability to the game. Villans also have their own section in the game, so you'll be able to play as The Joker or Riddler during the normal single-player mode as you progress.

The graphics seem to have been given a nice upgrade with the city background taking advantage of the 360 hardware. The buildings definitely have a “Gotham City” feel to them, while the gameplay areas all have great detail that are pretty much on par with other LEGO titles. The development team seem to have focused on giving the game a dark, gothic tone while also maintaining the brighter, more colourful likeness of the characters from the original comic books. It’s a great mixture and the game looks really good.

Overall, LEGO Batman is shaping up to be one of the more challenging and enjoyable LEGO games on the market. The other titles all had a level of consistent gameplay, which seems to have taken the next step in this title. It seems to have more humour, more puzzles, better graphics and more value. We can’t wait to play the finished version.

LEGO Batman is set for release on XBOX 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2, PC and PSP in October.

By Gaetano Prestia

Tags: action alien Batman batmobile begins beyond costume figure forever game games heath ivy joker ledger LEGO Online poison returns robin superman The toys video vintage

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