This review contains spoilers
Since I just beat LEGO Star Wars (The Complete Saga), I figured I would start playing through some more LEGO games. What better than to go for another LEGO game I'm nostalgic for, right? As of typing this review, I've just beat both the hero and villain story missions for LEGO Batman. Ultimately, this game took me just a few hours less to complete than LEGO Star Wars TCS, and I ended with 71.2% completion. Unlocked all characters and vehicles except for Hush and Ra's Al Ghul, since the requirements for these two characters are to find all the civilians hidden in most levels and complete the game 100%, respectively.
Gameplay wise, yea this is absolutely the standard LEGO game, but I don't mind at all since I go to these games for the comfortable familiarity (sort of like my relationship with Musou games). Solve rudimentary puzzles, beat up any enemy in your way, destroy any object you can for Studs, use those Studs to buy more characters and/or fun little Extras, occasionally play a vehicle level that's always worse than the regular ones...the whole shebang. However, LEGO Batman did have some things unique to it for a LEGO game released in 2008. For one, it tries to spice up combat just a little bit by including a score multiplier to any Studs you grab within a very short period of time for keeping a combo going. Its a small thing and unfortunately I found that some characters just can't really make much use of it, but it compliments the other new combat feature: grabs. You can grab with B and then press A or X (I'm on an Xbox controller) to toss them, which grants you some studs. Also, in my opinion, characters generally feel a lot more unique in this game, aside from all the random filler characters which are way too plentiful. Many characters have unique grabs and throws, which were fun to look at but can be quite lengthy. The kinds of character-specific hazards feel pretty different from LEGO Star Wars and it just feels like there's more of them this time around. Toxic gas that only characters like The Joker or Poison Ivy can pass through, pink slushy goop and water that you need Mr. Freeze to freeze, electric terminals that only The Joker can activate, question mark doors that Scarecrow and Riddler can interact with, hot LEGO pieces that can only be built by Batman in his heat suit...there's a lot of this kind of thing and its pretty cool. I get the feeling part of it was probably inspired by how Batman seemingly has a suit for every occasion in this game, which eventually got expanded into things like unique villain powers.
There isn't much of a story here, but there does seem to be more emphasis on cutscenes in this game than in LEGO Star Wars, so I will be talking about that. They're more of a vessel for dispersing the lighthearted comedy LEGO games are iconic for rather than telling much of a story, though. The game's split up into Episodes, just like LEGO Star Wars, with about 5 or 6 levels each. 3 Episodes for the heroes, 3 Episodes for the villains, a different story for each. For the heroes, each Episode revolves around chasing a different main bad guy, who has a few other members of Batman's rogue gallery working with them to achieve some sort of villainous goal. For both heroes and villains, Episode 1 focuses on Riddler, Episode 2 is about The Penguin, and Episode 3 stars The Joker. I've never been much of a Batman fan aside from enjoying a movie or video game here and there, so I can't comment on what this game is using as inspiration for the story or these versions of the characters. Overall I found this pretty enjoyable, its rather amusing how Cat Woman and Killer Moth sometimes act like the animals they're based on and Robin is an absolute cornball here.
I don't know if I'd say LEGO Batman is better or worse than LEGO Star Wars. They feel about the same in quality and LEGO Batman's differences are more so just something nice to see that helps give the game its own identity rather than something that's directly better. I will say that I think campy superheroes fit the LEGO brand better than Star Wars and, considering just how many superhero LEGO games we've gotten over the years, I think most people agree with that. This game gets a solid 4 stars from me. I'll get to LEGO Batman 2 eventually, which might be more fun to play since I have much fonder clearer memories of that one for things like wandering the big hub world.
Gameplay wise, yea this is absolutely the standard LEGO game, but I don't mind at all since I go to these games for the comfortable familiarity (sort of like my relationship with Musou games). Solve rudimentary puzzles, beat up any enemy in your way, destroy any object you can for Studs, use those Studs to buy more characters and/or fun little Extras, occasionally play a vehicle level that's always worse than the regular ones...the whole shebang. However, LEGO Batman did have some things unique to it for a LEGO game released in 2008. For one, it tries to spice up combat just a little bit by including a score multiplier to any Studs you grab within a very short period of time for keeping a combo going. Its a small thing and unfortunately I found that some characters just can't really make much use of it, but it compliments the other new combat feature: grabs. You can grab with B and then press A or X (I'm on an Xbox controller) to toss them, which grants you some studs. Also, in my opinion, characters generally feel a lot more unique in this game, aside from all the random filler characters which are way too plentiful. Many characters have unique grabs and throws, which were fun to look at but can be quite lengthy. The kinds of character-specific hazards feel pretty different from LEGO Star Wars and it just feels like there's more of them this time around. Toxic gas that only characters like The Joker or Poison Ivy can pass through, pink slushy goop and water that you need Mr. Freeze to freeze, electric terminals that only The Joker can activate, question mark doors that Scarecrow and Riddler can interact with, hot LEGO pieces that can only be built by Batman in his heat suit...there's a lot of this kind of thing and its pretty cool. I get the feeling part of it was probably inspired by how Batman seemingly has a suit for every occasion in this game, which eventually got expanded into things like unique villain powers.
There isn't much of a story here, but there does seem to be more emphasis on cutscenes in this game than in LEGO Star Wars, so I will be talking about that. They're more of a vessel for dispersing the lighthearted comedy LEGO games are iconic for rather than telling much of a story, though. The game's split up into Episodes, just like LEGO Star Wars, with about 5 or 6 levels each. 3 Episodes for the heroes, 3 Episodes for the villains, a different story for each. For the heroes, each Episode revolves around chasing a different main bad guy, who has a few other members of Batman's rogue gallery working with them to achieve some sort of villainous goal. For both heroes and villains, Episode 1 focuses on Riddler, Episode 2 is about The Penguin, and Episode 3 stars The Joker. I've never been much of a Batman fan aside from enjoying a movie or video game here and there, so I can't comment on what this game is using as inspiration for the story or these versions of the characters. Overall I found this pretty enjoyable, its rather amusing how Cat Woman and Killer Moth sometimes act like the animals they're based on and Robin is an absolute cornball here.
I don't know if I'd say LEGO Batman is better or worse than LEGO Star Wars. They feel about the same in quality and LEGO Batman's differences are more so just something nice to see that helps give the game its own identity rather than something that's directly better. I will say that I think campy superheroes fit the LEGO brand better than Star Wars and, considering just how many superhero LEGO games we've gotten over the years, I think most people agree with that. This game gets a solid 4 stars from me. I'll get to LEGO Batman 2 eventually, which might be more fun to play since I have much fonder clearer memories of that one for things like wandering the big hub world.