As everyone should know by now Batman: Arkham Asylum has entered my “Best Games Ever” like a bullet – or like a more Batarang appropriate projectile.  I love every inch of it, including the challenges and feel the game is vindication of the very idea that Writing and Voice matter so much more than Game Developers THINK it does.  Scary stuff – quality – Rated Teen. Nice! And Lately I’ve been playing LEGO Batman with my son.  Good teamwork, good fun, but I realized something – LEGO Batman is a million times more challenging that Arkham Asylum!  Isn’t that weird?  I think I’ve figured out why:

Aside from the obvious “LEGO Batman is a puzzle game and Arkham Asylum actually provides maps to help you find the Riddler’s more fiendish puzzles” there are design issues.  LEGO Batman, for example, is poorly designed.  Puzzles often don’t make sense, are arbitrary and involve voodoo-like applications of devices and costumes.  Really, the biggest hint you get for a puzzle often is: “Did I just put on a new suit?”  Otherwise the solutions are sometimes just plain irrational.  “So Robin’s torpedos, which blow up, can’t blow up the thing but Batman’s slingshot bomb thing can?”

Luckily I have a 6-year old.  I keep overthinking LEGO Batman and that is the worst thing you can do. Meanwhile his Robin is grooving all over the place and doing stuff while I do the “brooding Batman” thing and secretly consult an IGN strategy guide. I also think LEGO Batman’s “You can hit each other” is a major design flaw – but the game is one of the most fun games I’ve played with Henry.  That in itself is worth a great deal of teeth-gnashing frustration.

I’m not saying LEGO Batman is super hard – it isn’t. But I am saying in many ways it’s a lot harder than Arkham Asylum. For me anyway.  And that’s just plain interesting from a game design, and gameplay, perspective. My other problem is more obvious – the Wii controls stink for this game. Going up ladders is often the hardest part of the game.

Oh and my other problem is that LEGO Batman has given Henry a serious itch to play, y’know, LEGO Batman the LEGO set.  But instead of continuing to make it, like most kid toys that involve superheroes, this one is strictly for the collectors these days. $350 for the set?  Seriously?  I mean, SERIOUSLY?

Now that he can handle these games we’re going to have to do the Indiana Jones and Star Wars things. I’m hoping they continue the series with, I dunno, LEGO Star Trek? Or stick with the superhero theme and try out Spider-Man and Superman – for the latter we can see Superboy being the partner, for the former I could see … uh … a clone? A clone in the black suit? Yeah, Henry would dig that.

Tags: Game Reviews