Lego Batman (360)

Lego Batman (360)

So I finally picked up a Xbox 360, putting me into the console fray.  One of the free games that came packaged with my shiny, black, new 360 Elite was Lego Batman.  Before I begin this review I must state that I never played a Lego Videogame before this one.  I quickly found out that they are not targeted at my demographic.  Apparently, they are targeted at a younger audience of mute children.  Not only are the characters and world made out of Lego pieces, there is no voice acting aside from grunts and a few giggles.  This was a little disconcerting to me in a strange way.  I know they are supposed to be toys, but even Gumby had a voice and he was once a little green slab of clay.

Now that I have all but revealed my age, let’s move on to the are where Lego Batman really sets itself apart, gameplay.  The control scheme is pretty standard for most platforming, side-scrollers.  There is a punch/attack button, jump button and movement with either the d-pad or the analog stick.  There are also different suits for Batman and Robin which give them some different abilities.  So, what makes this game different?  Well, the world is made out of Legos.  This means that a lot of the puzzles in the game are solved by building stuff out of Legos.  Good thing there are a lot of them around and the puzzles are easy.  There is also a mode which lets you play the story mode from the Villain’s point of view.  They also control a bit differently and add a few abilities the heroes don’t have.

Here’s the catch, once the villains and suits are unlocked, you can replay the levels you completed to collect the rest of the goodies, which I can only assume is normal for the Lego games.  One major drawback to this is that the game is pretty long and repeatative already.  I’m not really sure I would want to go back and redo most of the levels.  Younger gamers may want to, however.  There were those few levels in which you drove around the various vehicles that were really fun, though.  Overall, play-ability is pretty high if you are a trophy-whore or don’t mind the repeatition.

I loved the score to the Tim Burton incarnation of the Batman movie…when it came out.  I have since heard it so many times that it no longer is pleasurable.  That could be because my highschool’s band played it ad-nausium everday during my art classes.  The overuse of that same score killed me in this game.  Come up with something not inspired by Danny Elfman, please.

In conclusion, Lego Batman is a pretty good game and worth a play for the younger crowd, but bring your own soundtrack.