Reviewed on 3DS and Vita / The HD console version of LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes turns heads. It has an open world to explore, the platforming problems of the past are gone, and it's beautiful. The PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS versions of LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes do none of these things. While the console version has moved the series forward, the handheld version has stayed in the exact same place as older iterations. That's not a terrible thing, but it isn't terribly exciting. LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes is a by-the-numbers LEGO game. Through 14 levels you'll smash everything in sight to collect studs (the game's form of currency) that you can spend on unlocking new characters and cheats. There are hidden red bricks, minikit pieces and music tracks to sniff out. As always, this LEGO game is all about obsessively collecting. That's a good thing. There's always a carrot on the end of the stick whether it be the need to try out a new stud multiplier or to jump into a previously beaten level in Free Play mode to try and reach a previously unreachable item with a new character.
This is what every LEGO game has been doing for years, and LEGO Batman 2 accomplishes it without issue. But it does so without flair. The colors are muted, the platforming is cumbersome, and it's no fun to fight. The battles weren't really an issue as I played the story (if you die, you respawn right away), but the handheld version of the game adds Justice League missions. In five of the game's environments, you're exposed to waves of enemies. The characters you use switch off at predetermined points, but your total death count is what's deciding if you get a medal. The problem is that some enemies need to be taken out with ranged attacks -- Wonder Woman throwing her tiara or Green Arrow firing his bow -- and these moves aren't responsive. You can hold the screen or a button to target and shoot, but both processes are awkward and a bit slow. When I got killed, it was usually because I was trying to target the three airborne enemies or locked in an animation and taking a cheapshot. The console version's story of Lex Luthor running for president and using nefarious means is shoehorned in here, but the videos are poorly compressed so they look fuzzy and the in-game action doesn't always match the cutscenes.
See, putting on suits with special abilities is a big part of LEGO Batman 2. Only Explosive Suit Batman can get past certain objects and so on. However, cutscenes often feature Acrobat Suit Robin (a blue suit version of the Boy Wonder), but that suit isn't in the handheld version of the game. So, you end levels as regular Robin and suddenly he's dressed differently in the cutscene. If you're just looking for something to plow through on your ride to work, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is there for you. The setup is simple and the collecting in fun enough. It's just that the game is never anything more than that. The graphics aren't great, low quality sound effects prevail, and the Justice League missions aren't entertaining as much as they are frustrating.3DS, PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360 Mixed or average reviews Mixed or average reviews- based on 46 Ratings More Details and Credits » See all 9 Critic Reviews users found this helpful See all 13 User Reviews
LEGO Batman 2 - WiiU Launch Trailer Launch Trailer - Lego Batman 2: DC SuperheroesLEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Wiki » Specifications Features Game Editions Heroes from the DC Universe join up with the Caped Crusader to root out evil in LEGO Batman 2: Super Heroes. The Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin join other famous super heroes from the DC Universe including Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to save Gotham City from destruction at the hands of the notorious villains Lex Luthor and the Joker. Batman fans of all ages will enjoy a new and original story filled with classic LEGO videogame action and humor as players fight to put the villains back behind bars. E10+ for Everyone 10 and older: Cartoon Violence Explore all new areas of Gotham City utilizing a variety of vehicles including the Batmobile and Batwing. Fight for justice by mastering new gadgets and suits, such as Batman's Power Suit and Robins' Hazard Cannon, and using all-new abilities including flight, super-breath and heat vision.
Ys: Memories of Celceta Resident Evil Revelations 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops DeclassifiedIt’s hip to be square! Unless you’ve been living under a rock with a sheet over the top of it, eye mask applied and donning a set of ear plugs, you’ll almost certainly have played, or at least heard of he Lego series of computer games. Built on the simple principle of collecting as much as possible, smashing everything to bits and extremely light puzzle solving, Traveller’s Tales have created a series of charming games that appeal to adults as much as they do to children. In a world where most games are dark, depressing and difficult, the light hearted humour and tongue-in-cheek attitude of the Lego series, along with the extremely easy difficulty level make for a somewhat polar opposite to what the majority of games today offer. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is the five thousand, six hundredth game in the Lego series, and while little has changed from game to game, it’s safe to say that Traveller’s Tales have honed the magic formula that makes these games so enticing to a fine art.
Unlike it’s bigger console brethren, DC Super Heroes is not an open world game, nor is it built on the same engine. What we have here is a direct port of the 3DS version, which features 14 levels that tie in with the same story, but are much more sparse and scaled down in comparison. Being a game that was aimed at the 3DS, it’s also very noticeable that considerable cut backs have been made, which is a massive shame as I’m sure with a little effort the PS3 version of the game would run on our beefy Playstation Vita’s. If Bend Studio can fit Uncharted into one tiny cart, I have to wonder why Traveller’s Tales couldn’t be bothered to achieve similar with the Lego series. What we have here is the second of three decidedly lazy ports, and although it’s still a fair bit of fun, Vita owners are yet again missing out on a fully fledged console experience, the likes of which we know the Vita is more than capable of. But let’s ignore the fact that this is a lazy port and delve into the experience that we have on offer here.
Is it worth your money? Well that really depends on how much of a Lego fan you are. The plot for DC Super Heroes is quite simple . At the “Man of the Year” awards, Bruce Wayne is awarded the title with Lex Luthor coming in as runner up. Joker and several other villains then proceed to gatecrash the party, and Batman defeats and captures them all. Lex Luthor, feeling sour from only receiving runner up in the awards, uses his “deconstructor”, a cryptonite powered invention capable of (yep, you guessed it) deconstructing black blocks to break Joker free. Joker then uses the Deconstructor to free all of the prisoners in Arkham Asylum, and it’s up to Batman and the other DC Super Heroes to round up and defeat them. For the first time in a Lego game the cut scenes are fully voiced acted (which has since been echoed in Lego: Lord of the Rings) and it is handled very well. The voice over performances are brilliant, though I have to admit I didn’t discover as many laugh out loud moments like I have done with previous Lego games.
Unfortunately, as this is a port of the 3DS title, the animated cut scenes are extremely blurry and as a result I found it really difficult to engage in or care about the story, instead finding myself battling to focus on what was happening rather than focusing on the terrible compression that is displayed here. You have to wonder why Traveller’s Tales let this abysmal state of affairs happen, because the cut scenes are from the console versions and the Vita memory card is more than big enough to have bigger and clearer videos. Elsewhere the graphics are functional, but lacking. The framerate is smooth enough, but the environments lack detail and are sparse. Lego games thrive on bringing their subject matter to life in a quirky way, but I found the game quite boring to look at. I actually searched youtube for a video of the PS2 Lego games to remind me what they look like, and the standard here is even below that of the initial entries in the series. It’s a shame that it all looks so bland and there isn’t more to destroy, as breaking and collecting is still fun, even after so many entries in the Lego franchise.
The platforming is a little floaty, but generally the game controls fairly well and touch screen controls are purely optional (I didn’t bother) only being used for aiming. Each level basically involves going from A to B, destroying C, fighting a few baddies, putting key D into door E and moving to the next area. There are several bosses which I actually quite enjoyed defeating (often you switch between characters so you can use special abilities, for example, Superman melts away armor, revealing handles that Robin uses his grappling hook to destroy) to mix things up a little, and an absolutely atrocious level that you are in vehicle in a chase, which didn’t work at all for me due to bad handling and rubbish objectives, which basically involved killing wave after wave of baddies. There are heaps, and heaps of characters in the game (more than you could realistically remember), and each has their own set of abilities which puts them in a specific class. For example, some characters can fly, others can use grappling hooks and so on.
Your initial playthrough of the game is with a strict set of characters in Story mode, and so the majority of special bricks and collectables cannot be obtained on your first run. The game doesn’t take long to complete, probably around five to seven hours for most people, but the option of freeplay where you can repeat levels and switch to any character you wish on the fly makes a second complete playthrough compulsory if you want to see and unlock everything. Nothing is really hidden in-game, so it’s more a case or switching to a character to activate something you couldn’t first time through as you lacked the ability in order to access the secret, which range from stud multipliers, to sound bites (Character voices) and new costumes. If you’re a big fan of DC characters you’ll have lots of fun collecting everything, though not everything needs to be collected to platinum the game, which is good as there’s so much here the game would have gotten old for me long before I reached platinum status.
Outside of the story and freeplay modes are the Justice League missions, which are basically a set of waves where you have to defeat enemies, and these don’t really add a lot to the game but can be fun initially. The problem is the combat lacks any real depth so in order to destroy almost all of the enemies it’s simply a case of grabbing and throwing them into one another. The Justice League mode does throw in a few of the main game’s bosses, and makes you play as one character at a time rather than switching between two like you do in the Story mode (here you can character between waves) but by the time I had finished it I was bored. Musically the game holds up very well indeed, with a fantastic score of orchestrated pieces, which really help add a cinematic feel to things. Luckily, the music is all of high quality too, it seems the blurry compression of the cut scenes didn’t extend to the music. There really isn’t a great deal more I can say. If you don’t like Lego games you won’t find anything different here, but if you do like them, be cautious.