Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is a landmark title in Traveller’s Tales line of Lego games. Moving from a stage format into an open world atmosphere much like Batman: Arkham City as well as including full voice acting for the characters, it does much to propel the series forward. Unfortunately, that isn’t what I played.
Lego Batman 2 on handheld is a game that is very much like a classic Lego game. You move across multiple stages solving light puzzles, finding secrets, and battle other lego characters. Although the game performs adequately for a portable title, the constricted feel of the game leaves nothing but a bitter taste when compared to the bigger budget console variants. Especially for a PlayStation Vita title, it’s sad to see that they resorted to just porting over the Nintendo DS game for the handheld. Even the Nintendo 3DS version is nothing but a port of the DS game.
Visually, the game’s environments are vibrant and detailed when viewed on the Vita. However, the inconsistency with the cutscenes are a bit devious. With the cutscene videos downscaled from the console version, it’s obvious to see that the effort put for in these portables were nowhere near the quality of the consoles versions. It’s especially noticeable during a cutscene in which Robin appears in a blue costume called “The Acrobatic Suit” which doesn’t even make an appearance in the portable game.
Lego Batman 2 is still enjoyable however. If you liked Lego Batman, then it isn’t hard to get into the sequel. It offers far more characters than its predecessor, though a few felt like wasted slots. With a roster of 50+ heroes and villains, I guess you are bound to have some just for completion sake. Honestly, the only useful character outside the DC heroes just seems to be Lex Luthor with his deconstructor ray.
Lego Batman 2 also offers a new mode of play in the portable version to the Vita version which may be accessible for the other portable versions. These are called Justice League missions which pretty much equals 4 bonus challenges. You switch characters between each round and they usually last for 8 rounds each. It doesn’t really add anything to the endgame though. Kind of typical really.
Even for a handheld though, it still offers multiplayer via Ad-hoc. I didn’t get a chance to really mess around with the multiplayer but it is mainly just the campaign with two players. You aren’t offered much of anything else besides probably being able to take your own set of lego characters into the game with you. Near functionality is also lackluster but it is a way to gain unlockables if you manage to find someone nearby who owns this game near you or on your friends list. I was only able to find one person.
The Final Verdict:
Overall, the game isn’t bad but it’s nothing special and could have easily been pushed as a $20 product. For $40, it wasn’t worth the money and I don’t know what they were thinking when for an extra $10 you can get the full experience of the console versions. If you’re going to buy Lego Batman 2, do yourself a favor and just get the PC/PS3/360 game.
Associate Editor. Player of games, winner of some. Enjoys long walks on the beach, strawberry daiquiris, and running for his life when a horse approaches with a lance.
