I was not especially excited going into Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. The Lego games are fun but I’ve gotten a little burned out on them. Plus, part of the charm of the Lego games is that the stories are simple to follow because no one talks the entire game. Since Lego Batman 2 was the first Lego game to add voice acting I was concerned that it would take away from that charm. I found as I was playing though that I enjoyed the voice acting, and that it did in fact make the game better. Partially, that was because I played the game co-op with my son so having the voices made it easier for him to follow along with the story.
The main game mechanics are pretty much the same as past Lego games with 2 characters working through the world breaking everything in site and completing simple puzzles to move forward. However, since Lego Batman 2 adds Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and more there are a lot of new abilities to use to solve the puzzles. Plus, Batman and Robin have some new suits to try out as well. I enjoyed the additional variety all these extra characters added. It was also nice to just let my son play as Superman and then not have to worry about him dying. Although, if he freezes me one more time I may take away his controller.
While most of the levels of the game are standard linear progressions through the game world there are a few flying/driving levels that are on rails. In these you just control the targeting reticle for your vehicle. It seems like these levels would be easier but the movement of the cursor was very difficult. Even the slightest movement sent your aim flying off to the side. This made hitting the small moving targets somewhat frustrating. I could keep myself on target by moving very carefully, but my son never was able to get on target very well. This led to quite long levels as I was having to complete them solo. Also, in the free play portion while you are in Gotham City the controls for playing are different than when playing the missions. This was a tad confusing but once we figured it out it was not to hard to deal with.
One of my favorite parts of the game is the Batman vs Superman dynamic. Batman is consonantly telling Robin not to reply on anyone else while Robin is raving about how great Superman is. At different times in the story both of them are saved by the other, but just the way the writers worked the quips and comments Batman makes into the game are great.
If you enjoyed any of the past Lego games or are looking for a game to play local co-op I’d recommend checking out Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. It is not a perfect game, but even for someone feeling some fatigue for the series like I was should have a good time with it. There is a ton of replay value as there are 50 characters to unlock and tons of hidden items to find. Many missions you will want to replay with other characters to try and find all of the goodies.
A copy of LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes for Xbox 360 was provided to us for this review.
