Lego Batman 3

David and I have been playing Lego Batman 3 or more accurately it should be called Lego Justice League. I mean all of the Lego games just keep getting better and better and this is no exception. The other thing that they keep doing is getting bigger and bigger in terms of location. This game brings us Brainiac and all of the Lantern Corps, which means that part of the game takes place in outer space and makes for some interesting places that you get to go.

In the game Brainiac is using the power of all the Lanterns to try and shrink the Earth to add it to his collection. At the same time all the various super villains have decided to take over the Watch Tower to try and ransom the earth to make Lex Luthor ruler. They happen to be on the Watch Tower when Brainiac shows up and the villains and heroes have to reluctantly work together or else there will be no Earth to fight over. It makes for a very fun story and you get to go to some new and interesting locations. They also added a few new features to the game, some good and some bad. Overall this is a great addition to the Lego Video Games and continues the DC universe nicely.

Larger Scale

Even with the last Lego Batman game it still made sense to be focused on Batman because it was kind of a Batman and Superman adventure. With this game there is no reason to call it a Batman game except that you want to continue the series. This game is truly about the Justice League and the whole gang is there; Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Flash, and so much more. Not only that, but by including the Lantern Corps it is not just about Earth, but about the universe. Then add on top of that they added most of the super villains as playable characters and it is just all kinds of more. With the larger scale means that we need larger locations. This means that not only do we explore Earth we get to explore the various planets of the different Lanterns. It creates a lot of different places and some unique situations that you have to deal with.

Similar Game Mechanics

Some of the game mechanics have stayed the same between the Batman games. One of the more interesting mechanics is the various outfits that characters get access to in order to complete tasks. In the first two games it is just Batman and Robin that have the suits. In the third installment of the Lego Batman games they have expanded the characters and thus have expanded the characters who have access to the various suits. This means that instead of just Batman and Robin you have Cyborg, Joker, and Lex Luthor all having access to a different selection of a limited number of suits. Some of them were specific to the characters, but a lot of them overlapped between at least a few of the characters.

One of the interesting things was seeing how each of the characters suits look and the power it gave them. Joker had some of the more interesting in my opinion and my favorite is his explosive suit where basically he runs around wearing a Joker-in-a-Box costume that shoots explosives. The additional characters and suit options creates a variety of options of how to actually handle the various situations.

New Game Mechanics

Now the new game mechanics they have added to this version definitely are things that we have been wanting for a while. I think the biggest thing is saving your selections of which extras are turned off or on. This means that instead of having to look at your extras every time you play you can just get started without having to go through and turn everything on. The other thing, that I may have just noticed with this game, is the ability to turn on and off the split screen mode from dynamic to fixed. Now personally I like the dynamic for the most part, but it is nice to have the option to change it if that is a feature that you do not like.

Now the new game mechanic that annoys me to no end is they added help tips as you play through the various levels. They are these physical blocks that you hit and have the hint about what to do pop-up. Now this was only slightly annoying during the story mode, but it became almost unbearable during free play because we had done it already and knew what we were supposed to do. We would be in the middle of a fight or try and destroy things and constantly be hitting the help block by accident. This stops the whole game and just became more frustrating than helpful. So again, some good and some bad with the new features.

Conclusion

Lego Batman 3 is another great Lego game and I recommend it to anyone. I have to say it does help to have at least a small knowledge of the DC universe, but still what is great about the Lego games is the worlds that they build and the ability to destroy almost anything. It keep the same great co-op mode that all of the Lego games have and is just a fun game to play for anyone really.