Lego Batman

Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

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Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

Price: $49.99 (Xbox 360 version)

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Description: The same people who made the Lego versions of Star Wars and Indiana Jones have now entered the Batman universe with Lego Batman. The same sense of humor, the same cartoon violence (when defeated, bad guys just break apart into individual Lego pieces), and same types of puzzles, exist in this version as well.

The game has you playing the roles of Batman and Robin as they take on the pantheon of Batman villains – at the start of the game, there's a mass escape from Arkham Asylum, so the rest of the game involves rounding up the villains and putting them back in Arkham. Unlike the Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, there's no movie to base this on, this is an original plot (well, prisoners breaking out of Arkham has been in several comic stories). The cool part about that is that you don't really know what's going to happen – in the Star Wars and Indy games, you at least had a sense of where you were going in each level.

Another cool feature of this game is the ability to play the same levels as the villains you just defeated. After you complete a series of missions as Batman and Robin, you can then switch to the "Arkham Asylum" area, where you get to then re-play the same missions, but this time as the bad guys. You don't exactly go to the same areas as Batman and Robin, but rather you "fill in the blanks" and do some other missions, but related to the storyline. For example, in one mission as Batman and Robin, you see a cutscene where Catwoman appears holding a precious diamond that she had just stolen from a museum. As the heroes, you capture Catwoman later in the level. But then when you play that mission as Catwoman, you get to play the level where you steal the diamond from the museum – so in essence, the end of the villain level then becomes the start of the hero level. It's a genius way to allow players to play as villains, without feeling that they are replaying a level.

Puzzles are interesting yet not too difficult – for the most part I could figure out what do do in order to progress in the game. The lighting is a lot better than in the Indiana Jones game, mostly because you're playing these levels outdoors or indoors, and not in dark caves. The vehicle levels are particularly fun, where you get to zoom around in the Batmobile or Batboat and take out enemies with rocket launchers and grappling hooks.

If you're a fan of either the Lego series of video games, or of the Batman genre (most likely you're a fan of both), then this is definitely a must-have on your holiday wish list.

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