Summary
- LEGO Batman games explore wider DC universe but struggle with balancing content and entertainment value.
- LEGO Batman 3 improves on predecessor with varied character missions and expanded hero roster.
- LEGO DC Super-Villains focuses on villains, improves open-world development, and offers diverse missions.
The Lego Batman series is a fascinating outlier in terms of games regarding the LEGO property. It is far less film driven than the majority of Traveller's Tales-developed LEGO games, such as the contemporaneous LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Indiana Jones, and LEGO Harry Potter.
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Even with The Dark Knight releasing the same year as LEGO Batman: The Videogame, the game instead was more focused on the greater Batman franchise. While this "franchise" effect allowed the character's setting to be explored more in depth, it also expanded the focus to the greater DC world, with mixed results. Here, each LEGO Batman game will be ranked by how enjoyable the overall experience is.
4 LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes (2012)
Growing Pains
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
- Released
- June 19, 2012
- Developer(s)
- Traveller's Tales, TT Fusion
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS3, PS Vita, Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox 360, Android, iOS
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
The world of LEGO Batman 2 is more expansive than its predecessor, but in some ways that can hurt it more than it helps. The open-world aspect largely revolves around fighting characters, often in a rather repetitive way, to unlock them. Villains typically get hit thrice, and then become unlockable for a sum of studs. Later LEGO Batman games would get a bit more creative with the unlockables, and the earlier game made unlocking the villains a more fun experience, with most of them being gained through villain-oriented levels.
This game signals a clear desire to phase in more of the DC Universe, in terms of its title and scope, but actually playing the game proper showcases that it had some trouble balancing this along with both the elements from the previous game, and allocating everything in an entertaining way. That said, this game does do a fun job of showing Batman and Superman as rivals and friends. In addition to introducing an open world, this game also debuted proper voice acting in LEGO games, setting the stage for future installments in the greater LEGO series.
3 LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (2014)
More Refined Than Its Predecessor
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Released
- November 11, 2014
- Developer(s)
- Traveller's Tales
- Platform(s)
- 3DS, Android, iOS, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
LEGO Batman 3 manages to moderate the open-world elements of LEGO Batman 2, by mostly relegating them into the Lantern Worlds. Other areas are a bit more compact. What makes this game a definitive improvement over the previous entry is that the missions to unlock characters are a bit more varied. Even with the expanded roster that is far less Batman-focused than either of its predecessors, the overall experience of collecting everything feels like a bit less of a slog than it did before.
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The game also manages to do a decent mixing and matching of the playable heroes, allowing for more variety than the previous game, which near-exclusively focused on Batman and Superman. Many Justice League members have more prominence in this game. While not every character gets equally-allocated screen time, it feels like this game approaches the whole "DC Superheroes" concept a bit better than the game that actually has that in the title.
2 LEGO Batman: The Videogame (2008)
A Classic
Lego Batman: The Videogame
- Released
- September 23, 2008
- Developer(s)
- Traveller's Tales
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
For what this game lacks in an expansive roster and more modern specs, it makes up for with how succinct and enjoyable it is overall. It's mainly just Batman and Robin fighting against 15 of Batman's enemies, each of whom are operating in teams of five towards a certain nefarious end. Certain levels, namely those of Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and The Joker feel tailor-made for the foes faced within. It is the most Batman-focused LEGO Batman game to date.
What puts this game over-the-top, however, is the villain mode. Many Batman villains have powers that are less available to the heroes, even with their various costumes. These are displayed in an entertaining manner with a variety of levels taking place in between the various encounters our rogues have with the heroes. They even have their own hub, with Arkham Asylum acting analogously to the Batcave. While later Batman games by no means skimped on the villains, this game has an interesting side to it that the majority of LEGO Batman games that came after did not explore. With one exception, of course.
1 LEGO DC Super-Villains (2018)
A Fun New Twist
LEGO DC Super-Villains
It's good to be bad… Embark on an all-new DC/LEGO® adventure by becoming the best villain the universe has seen. Players will create and play as an all-new super-villain throughout the game, unleashing mischievous antics and wreaking havoc in an action-packed story.
Set in an open-world experience within the DC universe, the Justice League has disappeared, leaving Earth's protection to their counterparts, who have proclaimed themselves as the "Justice Syndicate". It's up to you and a crazy group of misfits to uncover the intentions of Earth's new, strange, wannabe superheroes. Joined by renowned DC Super-Villains: The Joker, Harley Quinn, and countless others from the Injustice League, players will set out on an epic adventure.
- Released
- October 16, 2018
- Developer(s)
- Traveller's Tales
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- 3D Platformer, Action
The aforementioned villain levels were described by game director Arthur Parsons, as inspiring this LEGO Batman spin-off. Major heroes in the Justice League are largely absent for most of the game, instead being replaced by Earth 3's Crime Syndicate, who take advantage of the reputation Earth's heroes have in order to accomplish covert acts of evil.
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In the Justice League's absence, the Legion of Doom takes on the Crime Syndicate, recruiting many powerful members along the way. Overall, it's clear Traveller's Tales have vastly improved their open-world development chops. The locations they focused on are all very visually defined, and the missions conducted in them have enough variety so as not to become monotonous. There are also "boss" characters, which, while somewhat similar to the repetitive fights in LEGO Batman 2, are both varied and used sparingly enough to not feel as repetitive.
Despite its overt focus on the villains, this game does at least give the heroes a bit of time to breathe, with the Justice League and Legion of Doom temporarily allying to face a greater threat. While not every game needs to focus solely on the villains, hopefully future LEGO Batman installments will make those characters a focal point in the vein of the first game, because it worked really well in LEGO DC Super-Villains.
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