Playthrough was done in co-op mode at all times with my then girlfriend, so how the game accomodates to two-player gameplay is practically how I experienced it this time.
Replaying this game in recent memory has probably clarified that it simply is just not my favorite game from the classic LEGO game trilogy. Not because it's bad, far from it, but it's mostly because I feel like this game lacks the thing I enjoyed the most from LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original, that being the abundant variety in the levels, the puzzling and the different things you can do with weapons or tools you just pick off stands or the ground. LEGO Batman: The Video Game drops this in exchange of unique character abilities, sometimes so unique that only one character can do a certain thing that others can't.
This, is for the most part something good, it means that a lot of characters have a pretty good use and it warrants going for a Free Play run as there's so many things to do when you're in that mode as opposed to the normal campaign, but sadly not getting much options to do stuff, and the absolute amount of fluff there is in the character roster comprising of more henchmen and civilians more than heroes or villains, makes the task a bit repetitive. Doesn't help that while the hero levels are great as you go taking down each villain per level, the villain missions sometimes just feel... Unnecessary? It feels weird to put it like that, but really, playing the actual level versus playing what happened before the level with no real enemy force stopping you in your tracks is oftentimes just boring, and it's repeated in parallel for the same amount of levels as the hero campaign.
But, LEGO Batman does something good that Indy couldn't. And that is make a good use of the intellectual property they're taking from. There is absolutely no denial that the very first LEGO Batman game has its charm from old-school LEGO Batman sets and brand, in a world pre-Dark Knight and before the Justice League mumbo jumbo, things like this game do the job excellently as a Batman video game, centered around his partners and villains, even if cartoonish or reminiscent of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman films. LEGO Batman spawned a standalone and pretty successful Batman series out of thin air, and there's some respect that needs to be put in this game's name for that.
Something I absolutely cannot forgive is how they BUTCHERED the character creator oh my god how are you not gonna include the iconic SKELETON face. Are you crazy.
Replaying this game in recent memory has probably clarified that it simply is just not my favorite game from the classic LEGO game trilogy. Not because it's bad, far from it, but it's mostly because I feel like this game lacks the thing I enjoyed the most from LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original, that being the abundant variety in the levels, the puzzling and the different things you can do with weapons or tools you just pick off stands or the ground. LEGO Batman: The Video Game drops this in exchange of unique character abilities, sometimes so unique that only one character can do a certain thing that others can't.
This, is for the most part something good, it means that a lot of characters have a pretty good use and it warrants going for a Free Play run as there's so many things to do when you're in that mode as opposed to the normal campaign, but sadly not getting much options to do stuff, and the absolute amount of fluff there is in the character roster comprising of more henchmen and civilians more than heroes or villains, makes the task a bit repetitive. Doesn't help that while the hero levels are great as you go taking down each villain per level, the villain missions sometimes just feel... Unnecessary? It feels weird to put it like that, but really, playing the actual level versus playing what happened before the level with no real enemy force stopping you in your tracks is oftentimes just boring, and it's repeated in parallel for the same amount of levels as the hero campaign.
But, LEGO Batman does something good that Indy couldn't. And that is make a good use of the intellectual property they're taking from. There is absolutely no denial that the very first LEGO Batman game has its charm from old-school LEGO Batman sets and brand, in a world pre-Dark Knight and before the Justice League mumbo jumbo, things like this game do the job excellently as a Batman video game, centered around his partners and villains, even if cartoonish or reminiscent of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman films. LEGO Batman spawned a standalone and pretty successful Batman series out of thin air, and there's some respect that needs to be put in this game's name for that.
Something I absolutely cannot forgive is how they BUTCHERED the character creator oh my god how are you not gonna include the iconic SKELETON face. Are you crazy.