PixlBit

I love the Lego games. They're silly, fun, and reward you for breaking things and poking around in each and every possible nook and cranny. They're also full of bugs, the controls for driving and flying suck majorly (at least on the 360 and PS3), and sometimes what you're supposed to do next to advance in the level isn't very obvious. But I still love them. I bought Lego Batman 3 last year sometime (or was it the year before? I forget), and it sat languishing on Mt Backlog for a long time. Around Christmas, when my back went out on me and I had read seven books and overdosed on Netflix, I needed something that wasn't overly complicated to keep me occupied and that could be played in small chunks. Lego games are good for that sort of thing, so I dusted off Lego Batman 3 and started playing again from the beginning. It kept me amused for quite awhile, and now I'm done with it. I liked it, but not as much as the previous two Lego Batman titles.

While I enjoyed the game, I did notice a few things that caused me to stop and compare the newer Lego Batman game to the older ones. While I like the idea of the wider, more open world in theory, I do miss the simplicity of the older games. A lot of the quests (especially the hub planets) seemed tacked on and, in my opinion, don't really add anything to the game other than to collect more stuff that you don't really have any use for by that point in the game. All the hub planets had terrible camera issues and made me feel motion sick. Some of the things you needed to do to earn gold bricks became very difficult due to camera issues. I liked collecting character tokens, but the sheer number of them was a bit overwhelming, and I ended up just using the same few over and over again.

I also caved and bought the street pass DLC. It was OK, but I'm not sure it was really worth the $15 I paid.

I did like a lot of stuff in the game, too. I loved the 1966 hidden level, I think that might have been the best part of the game right there. I also liked unlocking Kevin Smith and Adam West as playable characters. I just wish Conan O'Brien had been unlockable, too. There also seemed to be fewer annoying major bugs that caused me to have to manually shut down my 360 and restart (looking at you, Lego Marvel Avengers!) or broke the game so you couldn't finish or find everything (Lego Pirates of the Carribbean and Lego Lord of the Rings).

All in all, I enjoyed Lego Batman 3, but sometimes less is more. Lego Indy is still my favorite Lego game.