After finding tremendous success adapting the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises into Lego video games, Traveller’s Tales turned its sights on another beloved media franchise with its own Lego line: Batman. Despite following the aesthetic of the movies pretty closely, Lego Batman: The Videogame was notable for being Traveller’s Tales’ first Lego game with an original story.
The game was a big success, both critically and commercially, so it was followed by two sequels, DC Super Heroes and Beyond Gotham, which expanded the universe to include fellow members of the Justice League. These games got a lot right but also a lot wrong.
10 Right: Danny Elfman’s Score
No composer has ever been able to come up with a theme tune that captures the essence of the Caped Crusader as well as Danny Elfman’s score from Tim Burton’s Batman movies. This theme was revived for Batman: The Animated Series and later featured in the Lego Batman games.
As the Lego Batman sequels introduced other DC heroes, the games incorporated other iconic themes like John Williams’ Superman theme and the theme song from the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman TV series.
9 Not Great: Convoluted Gaps Between Levels
Like a lot of modern Lego games, getting between the levels of the Lego Batman games becomes an arduous chore. The game’s open-world hub is beautifully designed, but it’s difficult to navigate without the advanced map of Lego Marvel Super Heroes.
Following endless trails to translucent Lego studs and figuring out how to get into each level is a pain, and the developers used a lot of the same tricks to introduce levels.
8 Right: Burtonesque Gotham
One of the most crucial elements of any depiction of Batman is his hometown, Gotham City. The makers of the Lego Batman games could’ve followed in Christopher Nolan’s footsteps with a gritty, realistic Gotham akin to the Manhattan found in Lego Marvel Super Heroes.
But instead, Traveller's Tales went for a Burtonesque portrayal of Gotham with gloomy, German expressionist visuals, and it looks gorgeous.
7 Not Great: Repetitive Gameplay
Once Robin’s hazard suit has been used to suck up toxic waste a couple of times, it feels like a chore. There’s a lot of gameplay like this in the Lego Batman games – something will be fun and novel the first few times, but quickly run out of steam as it’s repeated over and over again. While the Batman movies are not all great, their action set pieces tend to be quite diverse and memorable.
It makes sense for superheroes to have to use the same powers more than once, but there are times when it feels like playing the same level over and over again.
6 Right: A-List, B-List, & C-List Villains
Batman has one of the most iconic rogues galleries in comic book history. He’s contended with A-listers like the Joker and the Riddler, but also B-tier characters like Clayface and Man-Bat and C-listers like Hugo Strange and Killer Moth. The Lego Batman games feature A-list, B-list, and C-list villains from the Bat’s entire history and also the whole DC Comics universe.
In fact, the franchise has so many villains – and portrayed them so well – that it spawned a villains-only spin-off entitled Lego DC Super-Villains.
5 Not Great: Conan O’Brien’s Inexplicable Cameos
Every level of Lego Batman 3 has an “Adam West in Peril,” similar to Lego Marvel Super Heroes’ “Stan Lee in Peril.” West's inclusion makes sense because he played one of the most memorable on-screen incarnations of Bruce Wayne.
However, there’s another celebrity cameo in the game that makes less sense. Conan O’Brien inexplicably appears as himself a bunch of times throughout the game and it’s just weird.
4 Right: Exploring The Wider DC Universe
While Christopher Nolan kept his Batman isolated from the wider DC universe, Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the character in the DCEU went to Metropolis, fought Superman, and assembled the Justice League. Although he’s a lone wolf, it’s always fun to contrast the Bat with other superheroes.
The second and third Lego Batman games expanded the universe, bringing Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and more into the mix.
3 Not Great: Lazy Plotting
The Lego Batman games allowed the writing team the flexibility to come up with original stories involving Batman, his supporting characters, and eventually all the iconic heroes and villains in the DC Comics universe. Unfortunately, the games mostly only feature functional, meandering plots.
These games squandered the endless possibilities of a game exploring the DC-verse with plodding, episodic execution. Compared to Lego games that take their stories from existing source materials, like Lego Star Wars, the Lego Batman games’ writing is lazy.
2 Right: Giving A Spotlight To Robin
Robin is sort of a laughing stock among the Batman fan base, which is a real shame because he’s a great character who shares a unique dynamic with the Bat. While the movies have shied away from Robin since Chris O’Donnell’s disastrous turn in Batman & Robin, the Lego Batman games put him in the spotlight.
The Boy Wonder isn’t just there to facilitate multiplayer mode; his abilities are as integral to the gameplay as Batman’s. The cutscenes also bring out the best in the character as a bubbly, optimistic counterpoint to the grizzled Dark Knight.
1 Not Great: Constant Suit Changes
Whenever Batman or Robin need to use a special suit, the player hops onto a suit-changing device and changes into the right suit for the job. At first, this is a fun feature that opens up the characters to a bunch of new abilities.
However, this mechanic gets old pretty quickly. Some levels have a suit change every couple of minutes and it doesn’t take long to become tedious.