In the seminal 1989 Batman film directed by Tim Burton, the Joker, played to smarmy perfection by Jack Nicholson, grouses about the well-equipped Caped Crusader, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” Ol’ Joker was talking about the batarang or something, but in this game, the answer is clear: The toys are LEGO. The vehicles are LEGO. The environments are LEGO. Even the characters are LEGO.
In the grand tradition of LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones, LEGO Batman re-creates Gotham City in colorful, 3D environments built out of LEGO bricks. You play as Batman and Robin, switching on the fly. Or a second person can join the game anytime, and you work together. Anything made from LEGOs is destructible, and puzzles are often solved by breaking the scenery and reassembling the pieces into a tool, a vehicle, or a passageway needed to get farther into the game.
The all-new story line is split into three episodes, with our heroes chasing down escaped villains and herding them back to Arkham Asylum. But since the Batman universe features such larger-than-life criminals, the game includes another three episodes in which you play as the bad guys, each of whom have special powers.
No time for penguin rides, Batman! We've got to find the Penguin!
In each episode, your characters fight enemies hand-to-hand, explore the gorgeous 3D environments, solve puzzles to lead them to the end of the level, and then battle a boss character. Along the way you also pick up coins to buy upgrades, find hidden treasure, and collect the pieces to construct trophies, but all those are really bonus diversions from the main game, included to boost replay value. You can’t find all of a level’s 10 hidden “LEGO canisters,” for example, when playing through it in Story mode. You have to beat the level in Story mode to unlock Free Play mode, where you play it again with any character--including the specialized characters needed to access all the LEGO canisters.
Players can whiz through the Story mode in about 10 hours unless they get stumped by some of the trickier puzzles. But going back to find all the hidden bonus material and achieve 100 percent completion could take days, if you’re into that kind of thing. The game doesn’t really explain why you want or need to collect so many baubles, and other than “pure, nerdy satisfaction,” we can’t think of a good reason.
But whether you’re playing a level for the first or the tenth time, LEGO Batman’s polished graphics, atmospheric music and sound, and tongue-in-cheek cutscenes keep things entertaining. The game requires an Intel Mac, and it played without stuttering on our nearly 2-year-old 2.4GHz MacBook Pro. You can play with a mouse and keyboard, but the controls are a lot easier to master if you use a USB gamepad instead.
Single-player or two-player co-op. Great graphics and music. New storyline with lots of humor. Play as the heroes or the villians. ESRB rating E10+
Intel Macs only. Lots and lots of collecting without much payoff.
