No one could’ve predicted the Death Star-sized success enjoyed by the LEGO Star Wars series; with the support of the Lucas and LEGO licenses, it was no surprise the tykes would be on board, but who knew every gamer and their grandma would be hopping into the brick-breaking fun.
March 18, 2008 No one could’ve predicted the Death Star-sized success enjoyed by the LEGO Star Wars series; with the support of the Lucas and LEGO licenses, it was no surprise the tykes would be on board, but who knew every gamer and their grandma would be hopping into the brick-breaking fun.
Despite the runaway success of its Jedi predecessor, LEGO Batman is actually changing things up a bit; unlike LEGO Star Wars and its sequel, the Dark Knight’s plastic path will be paved by a totally original storyline, not directly based on the film franchise.
… just because we didn’t get our greedy gamer paws on it, or even see everything the game promises, we did discover plenty of other goodies about the dynamic duo’s LEGO debut.
Lego Batman will follow the style of Traveller’s Tales Lego Star Wars games, but in the comic-book universe of Batman.
For example, we watched Robin scale walls and girders after acquiring a magnetic outfit and then control some tiny drone-like gadgets while wearing a tech suit.
So, it’s no wonder that developer Traveler’s Tales is looking to duplicate the block-busting hit by applying other popular licenses to the LEGO formula.
The combination of accessible, addictive play and our favorite sci-fi stars shrunk down to adorable plastic playable characters proved irresistible to gamers of all ages and skill levels.
We also know that, unlike LEGO Star Wars, players will be able to switch characters on the fly, undoubtedly allowing for some cool puzzle-solving scenarios.
Players can explore a richly interactive LEGO Gotham City as Batman and Robin, capturing infamous villains and even take control of the villains themselves.
Catwoman, for example, can execute a sexy slink to distract enemies, while The Joker can light them up, literally, with a skeleton-revealing joy buzzer handshake.
Other graphical upgrades, like reflective rain puddles on Gotham’s city streets or Harley Quinn’s goofy get-up, also stuck out like a bat signal against the night.
What struck us about these different abilities, aside from their effectiveness on foes, were their spiffy animations; TT Games has definitely pulled some new goodies out of their bag of development tricks since working on LEGO Star Wars.
In fact, we haven’t even gotten over the exciting prospect of collecting priceless plastic relics in LEGO Indiana Jones this summer, and already buzz is building over this year’s later LEGO-themed release based on DC Comic’s Caped Crusader.