Two-Face Joins Lego Batman's Rogues Gallery5/06/08 8:00pm Yet another classic Batman villain joins the cast of Lego Batman as Two-Face makes his tiny, blocky debut. Sporting dual pistols to go with his dual personality, he joins the Riddler in the prestigious ranks of Batman enemies who more often than not let their own psychoses get them caught. I have to say, this is my second favorite version of Two-Face, behind only (movie spoiler) this one. I think most of us who loved the Lego Star Wars games and Lego Indiana Jones had the same fears about this one: could Traveller's Tales keep its Lego series feeling fresh and stop it getting formulaic, and could the series survive without a big movie trilogy to work with. After all, we've had so many Batmans, from the sixties series to the Tim Burton movies to the animated sagas and the more hard-edged hero of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. And that's not counting the original comics, the Frank Miller classics or the more recent Jeph Loeb version.
Whose Batman were we going to get, and how could Traveller's Tales make the gameplay and humour work without a familiar story and iconic scenes to build on?It turns out that we needn't have worried on either count. While Lego Batman still shares its look, its feel and its core game mechanics with the existing TT Lego games, it still managed to bring enough cool new stuff to the party to make hours melt away without you really noticing. And in a way, adapting a toy based on Batman has given TT license to create its own Batman universe and its own story and make it recognisably Batman, but fun. You can see elements of Batman and Batman Returns, of the sixties TV series and the cheesier cartoons, of the great animated series and the classic comic strips - even some echoes of the rotten Joel Shumacher 'nipples on the Batsuit' films. This isn't Christopher Nolan or Frank Miller's Batman, but it's one that fits the affectionate, high-camp tone of the Lego games. The premise revolves around that classic Batman chestnut: order has broken down at the notorious Arkham Asylum and all the legendary Batman villains have escaped.
The Riddler has teamed up with Two Face, Poison Ivy, Mr Freeze and Clayface. The Penguin with Catwoman, Killer Croc, Bane and Man-Bat, while the Joker has hooked together with The Scarecrow, The Mad Hatter and, erm, Killer Moth. Three groups of villains, three sets of missions to go through. It looks like Batman has his work cut out.Luckily, he's not unarmed and alone. A second player or the CPU controls Robin, with control switching between the two heroes in a single player game as it did in previous TT Lego efforts. The dynamic duo explore level after level of the same sort of platform/puzzle mayhem we saw in Lego Indiana Jones, duking it out hand to hand with hordes of lackeys, smashing up the scenery into collectible Lego pieces, turning little piles of Lego into machines, vehicles, ladders and stairways, and using grapple guns and rope lines to get around. It's fast, it's frantic and there's rarely a dull moment to be had.As with Lego Indiana Jones, the gameplay is more puzzle-focused than it was in the original Lego Star Wars games, but here the crux of the conundrums lies in a system of swappable suits.
By discovering or rebuilding suit-swapping pads Batman or Robin can change their normal duds for special purpose costumes with specific capabilities. For instance, in one suit Batman can dispense and detonate explosives, while in others he can glide or withstand high temperatures. Robin gets to choose between magnetic boots, a robot control costume and a little vacuum cleaner that collects certain Lego pieces then dispenses them into a machine where they become something useful. Most of the puzzles are a case of using one hero in one suit to reach a tricky area so that they can activate something to give the other hero access to another area, so that they can then drive a vehicle or press a button to get to the next section. NEW - LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - PlayStation 3 LEGO Dimensions The LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack 156 Pieces Ages 7-14 Brand New! NEW XBox 360 LEGO Batman the videogame (Microsoft Xbox 360, 2008) Brand NEW Sealed Lego Dimensions The LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack 71264
LEGO Batman 2 DC Super Heroes Nintendo DS BRAND NEW,SEALED (FREE SHIPPING) October 14, 2008, 1:43 pm I'm keen to get this game but I have an odd question.I can't play most 3D games such as Halo, the old 'Doom' and many modern FPS games as they give me a headache/nausea. I've never played a Lego game before and although this looks like it's 3D, can anybody comment on the way its 3D graphics are used? October 14, 2008, 2:45 pm It is 3D but with side-on view. I've got the same problem as you do and I've found the Lego games to be fine for me. Have been playing this co-op with my son for the last week, it has been great fun. October 14, 2008, 3:05 pm Its third person - more like a 3-D platform game (but much more freedom and sophisticated than that sounds :)). Also, the `camera` does pan about and zoom in and out depending on the scene/relative positions of the characters etc. (which may give you a problem see below).I don`t think you would get the same headache/nausea which (I wildly guess) is down to some sort of motion sickness - i.e. in FPS your brain is tricked into thinking you're moving, but you're not really (opposite of reading on the bus/travelling on a Ferry :)) - but then I could be totally off the mark here.
I would recommend getting hold of a 2nd hand copy of Lego Star Wars so that (if you do have problems) you can minimise your cash layout. October 14, 2008, 5:50 pm Thanks guys, that's really useful. I believe it may be some sort of motion sickness but it's worse with some games than others.I bought Ratchet & Clank with my PS3 and couldn't play it for more than 5 minutes so sent it back. An hour of Burnout Paradise (demo) also caused the same affect and even the 'Pain' game that was recommended by TR causes discomfort after a while.If this game is more of a side-on view with 3D graphics I might be ok. I guess I'll see if I can borrow it or one of the previous games to be sure. October 15, 2008, 12:38 am Wouldn't Lego Harry Potter, or Lego Lord Of The Rings be good? Theres some nice potential for amusing scenes and puzzles in there. Using the Wii remote for the wand or sword? October 15, 2008, 1:20 am I downloaded this from Steam over the weekend but I just can't get into it.