Before we begin the review, I promise I won’t make even a single Batman meme joke in an effort to seem cool or funny. At any rate, the ongoing success of the LEGO gaming franchise and the Dark Knight’s own revival in quality films and games has met its obvious conclusion, with the release of LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. In some ways, it is more of the same from the LEGO series; much of your time is spent marching through 3D areas full of generic enemies, followed by basic puzzles, leading up to a boss fight. There are even the usual loads of secret items and characters to find, though they have tried to add some new things to do. The result is a decent family-oriented game, though ’decent’ is about the limit of my enthusiasm for it.

The premise is standard whimsical LEGO fare, featuring several DC Comics villains such as the Joker and Lex Luthor teaming up to dispose of their respective superhero rivals. Said heroes do trickle in gradually (and once they’re assembled, it’s an impressive roster indeed), but most of the game is understandably Batman & Robin’s show. While most stages follow the ’fight, puzzle, boss fight’ routine mentioned earlier, there is a gimmick to it this time in the form of special suits for the duo to use. These suits grant new abilities, such as super strength, the ability to magnetize to metal walls and walk along them, and more. These abilities join their usual array of skills such as basic punches and kicks, plus tools like grappling hooks and Batarangs. You’ll be using pretty much all of these and more in order to solve puzzles, many of which rely on finding hidden or hard to reach switches with the suits you just came across.

Granted, ’hard’ is a very relative word here. LEGO Batman 2 certainly wants players to succeed, and while it’s willing to punish incorrect choices by deducting some points from your score it rarely gets more severe than that. The developers clearly knew their audience would include children and inexperienced adults, and they have made sure those players won’t be overwhelmed. Failure is usually just a momentary setback, and the only real problem is that some puzzles take advantage of that as an excuse to be lazy or confusing. While most make sense, a few leave their solution very close to hazards that instantly ’kill’ Batman (well, break him down into component LEGO blocks, then he reassembles himself) and take other strange liberties with the player’s expectations. Most boss fights and regular battles are pretty straightforward and enjoyable, though.

Most of what I’ve just described sounds like any other LEGO game, so it’s fair to wonder what makes this one different. The most notable of these is an attempt to expand the game world. The idea of a small ’hub world’ to explore and go to other stages is pretty typical for the series, but LEGO Batman 2 significantly expands on it. In addition to the Batcave, you now have a pretty large representation of Gotham City. It’s not just a hub; there are actually several secret items, hidden bosses, and vehicles to acquire. This isn’t Grand Theft Auto in terms of scale and depth, but the city is reasonably large and fun to drive or run through. Some of your hidden characters offer other options for getting around too, and this can be enjoyable for a little while.