In theory Lego Batman plays identically with its two other predecessors, Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones.

Controlling your character can be accomplished by either using the D-pad or the analogue stick. Personally I prefer the analogue stick, but at the same time I’ve had experience with the series before so moving around was like second nature to me.

The rest of the controls are for the most part just as easy. The circle button activates switches, specials, your climbing rope and just about any other thing that needs activation or building. The square button is your attack; tap the button for quick punching and kicking or in some character’s case, holding down the square button causes the character to activate a long range attack. In Batman’s case, the long range attack is the Batman-boomerang.

Once again our main hero has a playable sidekick. In Batman’s case, his trusted sidekick happens to be Robin. We all know that Batman is the cool superhero and that Robin is pretty much just slowing Batman down, but in this game’s case, Robin is actually useful (sometimes). The beauty in the Lego games including Lego Batman is that the game forces you to switch between characters in order to complete your tasks. In some parts Robin and his special superhero suits are required. Other times Batman alone can complete the task. So once again, whether you’re playing as a superhero or as a villain your companions are mandatory for getting the job done.

Once you complete an episode as the Superheroes the Villains mode is unlocked. It is actually nice that for a chance now you can finally play as the villains in a Lego game in the actual storyline mode and not just freeplay. Talking about unlocking things, once again, in this Lego title there are dozens upon dozens of items that can be unlocked and purchased. I’ve always liked Batman as a solo superhero, but since in this game he has to have a sidekick I unlocked Batgirl (I’m really tired of Robin). Unlocking your path is also one of the key factors to completing missions in Lego Batman. Different suits give different abilities to our heroes, so keep an eye open for the jumpy Lego pieces indicating that there is something there that needs assembly. A good chunk of the time you activate a costume change, but sometimes you do build some nifty machinery. Once again, even the puzzles in Lego Batman compare with the other Lego games. Sometimes solving the puzzle is really obvious and simple, and other times you can run around your objective for half an hour before realizing that there is a switch there. Patience is definitely the key when playing Lego Batman (not that patience is not the key in most situations).