Good and bad supers alike (ranging from the rage-fueled Red Lantern known as Atrocitus, to the love-focused Violet Lantern called Star Sapphire) are somehow mesmerized by the craft’s owner, the malevolent mastermind Brainiac. It all starts when a strange alien spacecraft, hovering outside Earth’s atmosphere, somehow summons various power-ring packing Lanterns from around the universe. But LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham takes its own name quite seriously, pushing the Dark Knight out of his comfort zone. Yet another trek where our bat-cowled superhero swings off to solve colorful and crooked conundrums, besting blocky baddies as he goes.
Lego batman 3 beyond gotham 3ds review series#
We've had enough Lego Batman & Robin it's time to see Lego Batman Begins.Upon hearing of yet another LEGO Batman game it would be quite understandable for fans of the series to be expecting yet another gray-clad romp through the shadows of a dark, plastic brick city. What Lego Batman needs - other than a personality adjustment - is a good old-fashioned reboot. It really isn't a terrible game, all things considered, but it's not a good Lego game either.
Problematic characterisation, strange, unengaging storylines and a glut of superheroes/villains vastly more interesting than Batman come together in a finished product that never quite does the series justice. Lego Batman seems to be going the same way as regular, fleshy Batman was a few years ago, pre-Dark Knight trilogy. In fact, the roster - standing at over 150 characters - ticks even the most obscure boxes (ketchup-wielding villain Condiment King, anyone?).
Lego batman 3 beyond gotham 3ds review tv#
Tucked away in the Batcave is a set from Adam West's Batman, which plays the original theme Wonder Woman's flight is accompanied by the '70s TV theme unlockable characters include Ace the Bat-Hound and Bat-Cow. The game is at its best when it's being self-referential and giving a sly nudge-nudge-wink-wink to DC's fans. His constant, irritating and unfunny jokes will tempt you into throwing him off the Batwaterfall, and it comes across as a strange and unnecessary attempt at pop culture appeal. The gags are slightly let down by the insistence of the writers to point out how dumb they are all the time, with Wonder Woman constantly rolling her eyes at bad puns, and a badly misjudged inclusion of Conan O'Brien as the Batcave's tour guide.
Glimpses of humour stand out brilliantly, from the bizarre (an enemy's tentacles being cut up into sushi) to the silly (the superheroes becoming possessed by the emotions of the Lantern Corps, leading The Joker to become all soppy and Flash incredibly possessive). Many of the powers are repeated from Lego Batmans of the past, as well as Lego Marvel Superheroes, though the constant costume changes may leave you longing for a return to Marvel Superheroes' relative simplicity. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, and it’s usually a great opportunity to use a variety of powers, but when every boss battle is the same rinse-and-repeat waiting game, it starts to get a bit grating.Ĭolour-matching mini-games and surprising levels - like a romp through a miniaturised Paris - mix things up between regular, linear stages, but these are quite few and far between, and the mini-games do get tedious after a while.
Boss battles are treated more like puzzles, with quite a few requiring you to wait for the enemy to throw a vital object at you before you can continue. Though the game's target audience may be too young to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of DC's history, they don't necessarily need every character to be reduced to a clownish caricature, either.Ĭombat is a big part of superhero games, but the Lego series has never quite managed to get it right - punching, shooting and smashing up the scenery is infinitely more enjoyable than having to deal with waves of weak henchmen that too often feel like filler.
Meanwhile, The Joker has a voice like the Mad Hatter, with all the sinister villainy of a slightly perturbed bunny, and Solomon Grundy - the swamp-zombie with a penchant for crime and murdering - is recast as a big, stupid, lumbering Hulk-like figure.