Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: ARTS & LIFE

Photo Courtesy of blogs.ing.com

When a mass breakout at Arkham Asylum fills the streets of Gotham with insanity, only the Dark Knight can put the city back together - one brightly-colored brick at a time.

"Lego Batman," the latest in Lego's series of puzzle adventure games based on various action movie series, continues the line's tradition of fun and exciting gameplay that offers something for everyone to enjoy.

In fact, the only people who might be disappointed by this game are those who were expecting it to resemble the current dark, gritty and realistic movie series.

Instead, "Lego Batman" is based on a more light-hearted combination of the comic book mythos and the original Emmy-winning "Batman: The Animated Series."

This choice of setting has many advantages, not the least of which is the fact that drawing on the comic book lets the game use dozens of characters who have yet to be introduced in the movies.

As an unapologetic Robin fangirl, it's no secret that my favorite of these characters is the Boy Wonder himself.

On top of that, Lego gets bonus geek points for making it clear that his true identity is Tim Drake, the third Robin, who, despite having held the title in the comics for almost 20 years, is usually overlooked in favor of the original Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson.

Batman and Robin make up the tag team that participates in the game's primary story mode, where they pursue the Arkham Asylum escapees through 15 colorful, endlessly breakable Lego landscapes.

As Batman and Robin have different skills and specialties, players must toggle between them to make it through each level.

The first time through each of the levels must be played in story mode, but afterwards, free play mode is unlocked, which allows the player to go through the level again with any of the characters that they have unlocked through points and completion.

Drawing primarily on the comics, the list of free play mode characters is enough to tickle any comic book buff's fancy.

It includes other Gotham City heroes, such as Batgirl and Nightwing (the aforementioned original Robin, now grown into a superhero identity of his own), classic Batman villains such as the Joker and Mr. Freeze, various goofy Lego henchmen and even Batman's loyal butler, Alfred.

Once five levels - lumped into one "chapter" or episode - have been completed, a second story mode opens up. In the villain story, players go through the same level as before, but instead of Batman and Robin, they take control of that level's villain.

Continued...

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