LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes - Playstation 3

LEGO Batman 2 is without a doubt the best LEGO game to date. They've taken a well-worn formula, FINALLY shook it up a bit, and added in loads and loads of content. It's also the best Superman, and Justice League, game ever made...which is sort of sad, and sort of awesome. Now, I'm a DC Comics fan, but I'm pretty sure there's enough here to keep "normal" people incredibly entertained for some time whether or not they're a fan of the Dark Knight, Man of Steel or their pals. This is a fantastic game for any gamer, young or old, so long as you love fun games. Like all other LEGO games, the core gameplay here is a great mix of puzzle-heavy platforming and dumb brawling. The brawling combat has never been in-depth, and the platforming has never been super polished, but LEGO Batman 2 manages to make it fun regardless. Mostly because this version of Batman is very 90's. Not only is the version of Gotham City here heavily inspired by Tim Burton's and Joel Schumacher's movies (they even have Danny Elfman's Batman theme in here!), but Batman and Robin are treated as action figures, with loads and loads of impractical suits that grant them different powers. Just like how you'd see $5 action figures on store shelves with names like, "Ice Armor Batman" and "Slime Shield Batman", you'll see crazy un-comic-like variants of Batman and Robin early and often in this game. Every change of suit, from "Power Armor Batman" to "Stealth Action Batman" to "Flight Suit Batman" and more, give you more powers to play with. Power Armor Batman, for example, is obviously much stronger than normal Batman, and can crush foes and objects with one hit. He also fires rockets that destroy silver LEGO material, which is where much of the puzzle elements come from. You'll often find yourself at an impasse, and the only way to proceed is to find a suit platform, switch up your Batman or Robin, and blow away said impasse. The way they combine these are never brain-melting, but it still adds variety to levels and provides for some fun. Of course, Superman factors heavily into the story, and once you start playing as him, you'll find yourself with more powers than you know what to do with! This version of the Last Son of Krypton is easily the best, and most fun, yet in a video game. He has nearly every power you expect Superman to have (with the notable omission of being able to pick up LEGO cars and throw them) - he's invulnerable, even to Kryptonite. If you encounter the rare enemy who IS armed with the stuff, Supes just gets locked into a "backing up away from it" animation, so switch to Batman and beat those guys up and you're good. He obviously can fly, he's got heat vision, super breath which freezes people (hold the button down) or blows them away (double tap), and has Super-strength. With all that, playing as Superman is a blast. He's incredibly mobile and since he can't be destroyed, he's perfect for players tired of the bland combat or dying a lot. And flying around in the open world of LEGO Gotham is a blast, since you can use super speed in the wide-open spaces (double tap and hold it on the second tap). Speaking of LEGO Gotham City, there's the big shake up to this LEGO game, and why the game goes from "cute and fun" to "absolutely addictive". Most other LEGO games have hub worlds, but this is the first time they've implemented a proper GTA-style open world, and it's largely successful. Yes, even though you're a superhero, you can steal cars...but honestly, with both Bat-vehicles and flying Justice League members, you'll probably have little need for civilian vehicles. There are LOADS of activities in Gotham, from rescuing citizens in peril, to finding red bricks that unlock, essentially, cheats, to participating in vehicle races and mini-games. My personal favorite is opening the cages in the Gotham Zoo and racing around on the backs of LEGO Gorillas! But there are also weird RC vehicle games, like in the Power Station District, where you can drive around RC cars with hammers and smash up other cars (Protip: when you win, you unlock the Red Brick for x2 Studs). Everything rewards you with Gold Bricks, which is a form of currency needed to unlock gates around the city. These gates contain new LEGO characters, and if you have the studs to purchase them, you can unlock them. There are, like, 50 playable characters in the game! Including ALL the villains in the game, both super and thug variety. Guys like the Joker, Lex Luthor, General Zod, Hush, Bane, Poison Ivy...all here. The members of the Justice League - Batman, Superman, Robin, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Hawkgirl and Hawkman, and Martian Manhunter - are all here. And they all bring a special game mechanic to play; they are not "palette swaps" of Batman, Robin and Superman. Although they share similar abilities. Example, you could go through a level as "Electro Suit Batman" and use him to carry charges to power up machines, or just use the Joker, whose handbuzzer will shock machines into working without having to puzzle through the level. Because everything you do seems to reward you with tangible goodies - vehicles and characters - or, at least, work your way towards a reward, you'll quickly find yourself addicted to making progress. While I'm giving this a 5-star for all that, the experience is NOT perfect. Like I said, the combat is bland and messy. You just button mash and, unless you're Superman or Wonder Woman (or found the Red Brick that unlocks Invincibility), you'll probably explode constantly when swamped by enemies. Not a huge deal - these games don't really punish death - but you do lose studs, which is annoying. Why is it annoying? Mostly because they take forever to gather up at first (until you unlock the Studs x2, x4, x6, x8 and x10 cheats). You're always with a partner character - the trio of Batman, Robin and Superman are pretty tight in this game -, and you can always switch between them as well to get around glitches (I'm stuck in the wall!) and solve puzzles. The problem is that they're barely functional when you're not controlling them. They don't follow you around a level so much as warp to where you are. They are not interested in fighting, and can't take out ANY enemies (even if they DO begin to play their fight animations). Most annoyingly, they don't smash up the environments looking for studs! And they don't gather them up for you either! They're pretty much pointless, except for the puzzles in the levels. If you can, DEFINITELY play this in 2-player co-op. The streaming technology on the open world of Gotham is also quite bad. Things pop in ALL THE TIME. So when you're looking for stuff, you could be in the right area and see absolutely nothing for 15 seconds before it appears. When you're hunting for villains, it's really annoying. Finding the platforming "building routes" is less of a pain though, because the studs appear in the world all the time. You'll see a row of studs in the sky, going from one rooftop to another, so you KNOW that a zipline will appear there, loading in after about 10-15 seconds. Maybe it's because Superman flies too fast, maybe it's because this game was built for the Wii and "ported up" to the 360, PS3 and PC...I don't know who to blame, but it's less than ideal. There's also no minimap, which is a problem for some - I prefer to explore, so I'm happy with the compass in-game. None of the cons are deal-breakers though, and you learn to live with them very quickly. LEGO Batman 2 is a massive improvement over the last LEGO games, and an ambitious step forward for the franchise - a step that will be pushed forward later this year with the release of LEGO City Undercover for Wii U. It's very fun by yourself, and unbelievably fun with a partner. It's cute, and fun, which is what every gamer should be a fan of. And it's LOADED with content. Tons of characters, tons of vehicles, tons of things to do, great puzzles, fun levels....if you haven't gotten a LEGO game in awhile, this is the perfect one to jump back into the series with. And if you've never gotten one before, you definitely need to get this one. An absolute gem. Now, let's look forward to LEGO Superman or LEGO Justice League!

before i write this review, i would like to remind you that i am not a professional game reviewer, i'm just a regular customer and gamer, this is based on my experience! this game is simliar to the first one but waaaay, first off, the story mode is more interesting and yes! finally the characters are voiced!! the game play is easy but not too easy, it still gives you a challenge. the graphics are so amazing, and i love the Alfred hints! if you don't like getting hints and you want more of a challenge just turn the hints off. the Lego sense of humor is still there, you will love how batman is jealous of superman it's really funny. the story mode is still short but after you play you can still do other missions and replay the story modes. the free-play mode is so fun. you will most likely spend the rest of you're time unlocking characters, collection those stones, gold bricks and more on free play. you also will have to save all of the citizens for more gold bricks. and collect those batman things (sorry i don't know the name of it). unlike the first batman, you can finally travel through the city its finally has a open world setting yaaay! you can unlock almost all of the DC characters from the comics and other batman classics. you get to drive the bat-mobile and other cool vehicles you can also travel in bat boats and jets. superman in this game is awesomeeeee! he does everything! however the female characters such as poison ivy, cat woman, and wonder woman doesn't really do much :( but it's still fun to play them. i give this game 9/10 because it is was cool fun game. if you love to explore this game is it. !!! if you not satisfied with my review, just look on you-tube. do your research and see if this game is worth you're money. my four year old nephew loves it !! and i enjoyed it myself!!:)

Disclaimer: I've played Lego Batman (100%), Lego Pirates (100%) and Lego Star Wars Complete Saga (NOT 100%). I guess this would have to be my favorite Lego game thus far. I'm biased though, as I'm a Batman/JL geek. When this game was announced, I knew the reason it wasn't called "Lego Justice League" or "Lego DC Universe" was because Batman equals money. The name alone would sell the game. After playing through the story, I realized why it wasn't called LJL or LDCU. It's because next to Batman (and Robin), only Superman gets any real attention. If you choose to give this game a try because your favorite(s) is/are Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman, Black Canary then take note: They are not playable in story mode. Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg are only playable in 1-2 levels. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. Still, the game was fun to play as Batman and Robin and Superman. The flight controls in the levels (and Batcave hub) are great. Zero complaints. The flight controls, however, in the open world Gotham City are terrible. Once you get used to switching between 'level flight' and 'Gotham flight' then flying in Gotham can be enjoyable if you're just cruising around or planning to land in a general location. Aiming to land on a skyscraper's roof or in a crevice can be a pain. Collecting is fun and challenging, but tedious at times. The thing that I love most about the Lego games is that it requires different characters with 'unique' abilities to access areas or accomplish tasks. This game is thankfully no exception. The special suits that Batman & Robin acquire are an upgrade, even though half of Robin's look kind of blah to me. These special suits are no longer available while toggling through characters during free play which is great. Instead, the game gives you the option to put on a special suit close to where it's needed - both in free play and the open world Gotham City. The future: No doubt Traveller's Tales (and Lego) plan to make a Lego Marvel game (maybe individually for the Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man) and (un)fortunately they got to try out this new approach with Batman/DC. The good news could be that after doing some more Lego games and learning from the big (but few) mistakes of LB2: DCSH, we might get to see a Lego: Justice League game. Perhaps to coincide with the eventual release of the JL feature film that WB's planning. If they do, I truly hope they give a fair share of attention to the rest of the league members and not focus solely on Batman or Superman. We don't even need Robin in it for more than a cameo or just one level. Maybe give each member (or a pair of members) a level or two each until they group together for some bigger, ambitious levels. Also, they could lose at least of half of the Batman villains that have been in both these games. Bring more villains in for the other heroes to battle. Lastly, I would stress that this is a great DC game. At least for Batman, Superman, and Robin. The voice acting is almost all great. I did think The Joker was a little subpar, but it's a minor dislike and it still beats the silent miming of ALL previous Lego games. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is an ambitious (for its series) game that's good for all ages who love these characters. The game is at least worth playing through the story once. As for me, I'm close to 80% and should have it all complete within no time.

My family and I (three boys under 6, my wife, and myself) have played just about every Lego game out there on just about every platform available. Since the first Star Wars game on the PS2, we've enjoyed the series with a couple of hiccups, but Batman 2 on the PS3, PC, or 360 is now our favorite Lego game to date. The graphics in this iteration are top notch on the 360 and PS3 with the PC gaining a slight edge depending on your hardware. The textures and effects look nice and the direction this time around in terms of level design and such has been cranked up to 11. My wife commented that some levels have a very "God of War" epic-ness to them but that may fall more into the gameplay section of praise. The framerate does dip when you play 2 player splitscreen, but nothing that detracts from the enjoyment. Gameplay wise, the game differs a bit from past Lego games whereas the "hub" area is now one gigantic open city. Think Grand Theft Auto if you've even played that only instead of everything that GTA is, replace that with the world of Lego Batman. Our kids sometimes spend much of their playtime simply checking out various parts of the city and finding secrets and fun things to do. The levels themselves and missions are where the game really shines as they've taken the basic structure of "go here, solve this puzzle, do this" and blown it up, out, and all over the place at times. You'll find yourself on moving train-like vehicles battling on top, in, and around it, and way up high with the scenes of Gotham below you as you battle. Vehicle chase scenes, tons of puzzles, and many familiar faces round out the game. Playing this game coop with other friends and family is a complete blast. We also own this game on the PC and there is no discernible difference in terms of gameplay as opposed to the 3DS where the gameplay and hub structure overall is vastly different. If you're looking for the proper Batman 2 Lego game, the PC, PS3, or 360 version is the one to get for maximum value and fun. If you enjoy the world of Batman or the past games from the Lego series, you'll really enjoy this title. It's got so much variety, such a great sense of scale, and just so much to enjoy for all ages.

I am admittedly a huge batman fan and ever since finishing up Batman Arkham City I've been wanting to find something to scratch the itch to play through as the dark knight. Lego Batman 2 definitely fits the bill. It's got actual voice-over work with its own fun story that is enjoyable for adults and kids alike. I was pleasantly surprised by just how big Gotham City is and how much there is to explore. The hours will fly by just driving/flying/running around just messing around with side activities or hunting for collectibles before even touching on the main storyline. The bonus is you get access to a huge roster of other characters other than Batman that each have their own unique powers true to their characters. For example Flash has super-speed and Superman is of course invulnerable and can fly, has heat vision, use x-ray vision, has superstrength and has ice breath. The icing on the cake for the fans is the old-school Superman theme music that plays whenever you take flight. There's a lot of fan service to DC Comics fans both old and young that really adds that extra layer of charm that you don't always see. There are some things that are a bit annoying like camera angles that aren't always the most convenient etc., but they are by no means going to ruin your experience of the game. Point is, if you too are a Batman and/or DC Comics fan looking for a fun game to play regardless of how old you are then Lego Batman 2 is a great purchase that I strongly recommend you pick up.

Batman 2 is leaps and bounds better and funner than the first Lego Batman. This sequel is fantastic. The kids loved it and it was pretty hard game to beat in a good way. It challenged my kids and I did have to help them solve some puzzles but I believe if they were a bit more patient (I blame the Ipad and simple pick up and play type games in making the younger generation so impatient with videogame puzzles and story. Sad.) they would have figured it out and had an even more rewarding experience. The game is quite long for being a lego game and even has a ton content and hidden vehicles to unlock which adds great replay value. It took a long time for my kids to finally ask for a new game (about 2 months) and that is awesome for my wallet. Only Little Big Planet 2 (and rightfully so) provided a more fun and engaging experience than this game.

They made a game with lots of space I like it already

this game was fairly good for the most part, but there are some serious issues/bugs/design that hamper the enjoyment. *i understand they are trying to branch out to test different styles to keep people interested, but i enjoy going to one centralized place to unlock characters with coins, instead of having to find gold bricks to unlock at doors which i just dont care for. *some of the levels are a bit long, but that wouldnt be a bad thing if the games natural progression wasnt to keep you continuing the story. i enjoy a common places a bit more. seems that they have bene taken out a lot in the past few lego games which is a shame. *i wish they used the store purchases more for morecontent if there isnt a lot of unlockable characters. i mean the amount of unlockable characters in this isnt what i thought, i thought there would be tons more then in the first, but it seemed like there were less. we finished the game and did enjoy it but i would love to either buy a import cert to import other characters from the first batman, or buy the missing ones in groups. and maybe even others outside of the specific game. wonder if luke skywalker could take on the joker..this one was a little thin for amounts of unlockable characters. *the biggest issue is frezes, had about four. games should never freeze lockup your ps3. *also there were about 5 occurances where you have to stop a level and restart because something didnt happen to let you progress, such as missing items to build.. always annoying because your there forever trying to figure out why you cant progress, and utlimately end game, restart and get mad thinking why was that missing last time.. *the camera control in this lego game is the worst of all they've done. seems like they did very fast paced control testing when it came to double players. the camera angle is often at the worst possible position for you to miss things because you cant see them. they could easily run through senerious while in testing and have test cases to resolve this. i hope they Patch the shoddy camera control. well thats about it. after all that i can say that it was a fun game, but the last three issues are the ones that keep this from being a game me or the family will often want to revisit. i know we still will play it especially right now cause its still new, but once other lego titles come out, this will be one that comes out of the folder, only when we need of short break from the better titles. now having said all that. i really like the voice acting. yea the joker got a little annoying, but thats kinda what the jokers about, noone complained when heath overacted when he did his portrayal. so i guess its just a preference. but i enjoed the voice acting. looking forward to the lord of the rings in oct. just hope its less buggy and they revisit the common place to get characters for coins.