LEGO Batman: The Videogame

While Lego Batman is loaded with goofy charm and humor, its original storyline is paper-thin.

Completionists will love the amount of things to find and collect, and with the unlockable Free Play mode and extra characters, the game has a fairly decent replay value. This game is a lot of fun, especially if you have someone nearby to play with.

Stylish, competent, but a bit too familiar.

LEGO Batman The Videogame is the best LEGO till now. The thirty levels are, thanks to the custom made story, more than varied and offer you enough secrets to keep you busy for days. The buildings and surroundings that you see resemble the stuff that you probably built when you were just a little kid. Too bad that Traveller Tales keep making the same mistakes in their LEGO franchise.

The previous games were marred by simplistic, repetitive gameplay. Lego Batman isn’t entirely free from these flaws, but puzzles are more numerous, complicated and diverse. [Nov 2008, p.115]

It's the same Traveller's Tales Lego experience once again. Apart from the fact that Batman is now the subject matter, very little is new here and the gameplay is far from fresh.

If you're in for an easygoing pick up and play type of game you can't go wrong with Lego Batman. Like the other games in the Lego franchise this is pure fun entertainment perfectly suited for game time for parents and their children. On the downside there are few news to be found here when compared to previous titles and some puzzles are illogical and flat out poorly designed which dampens the overall experience.

If Traveller’s Tales can figure out how to put a little more production into the graphical presentation and include an online cooperative mode, you might just see the next LEGO title as a potential GOTY candidate if they keep up their stellar success of churning out real winners.

Whilst Batman’s conversion to LEGO video-gaming was successful, it doesn’t live up to the standards of LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. The poor storyline and lack of online co-op play make the game the weakest of the series. Let’s just hope 2009 brings us a more solid LEGO title.

Even though LEGO Batman does a few new things to set it apart from past entries in the LEGO series, it feels like Traveller's Tales is giving us more of the same.

Perhaps it is time that Traveler’s Tales mellows down a bit and tries to make the next Lego game a bit more polished then this travesty.

Obtuse puzzles may hinder your enjoyment, but Lego Batman is still fun with a friend.

It’s diminishing returns for the Lego series anyway, now amplified by an uninspiring Batman get-up. After this we can’t really get excited about any future Lego games short of one called Lego: Your Childhood.

Half Val Kilmer, Half Christian Bale, the formula is looking a tad trite and jaded. Too apathetic for many but fans and kids alike will still find its cute and simplistic ways endearing enough.

In the end, Lego Batman is just a crappier version of Lego Star Wars or Lego Indiana Jones but with a guy in a cape.

Lego Batman represents the first real misstep from developer Traveller's Tales in their moderately popular Lego franchise.

Though Batman's got a well-developed mythos, he lacks enough specific, widely remembered scenes ripe for parody.