It might be obvious from the title but Lego Batman 2 stars Batman... in Lego form. The Vita version is a port of the 3DS version and it shows here. When the opening cutscenes plays you will not believe your eyes at how indistinct and blurry everything looks. It feels as if it is a hazy flashback and that following cutscenes will surely be better. Nope. This is extremely disappointing especially when the console versions have such crisp and clear animations. The content of these cutscenes isn't bad as they tell an original story, complete with voice acting but the horrendous quality throws any sort of immersion out the window. The least the developers could do was boost the resolution of these cutscenes to make it port better...
Thankfully, when playing the game, the graphics is nowhere as bad a quality. It becomes much more distinct and easier to make out details. Granted, it's not the best and it will look fuzzy in places but it is passable. Gameplay-wise, there isn't really anything here that will turn heads. If you've played a Lego game before, then you will be right at home and be able to easily pick it up. There are a few unique features. Batman gets the ability to throw batarangs but it's not as simple as tapping a button. You have to hold the Circle button and a reticle appears allowing you to aim. It makes it unwieldy to use in combat.
One of the cool things, at least at first, about the combat is that Batman has finishing moves in which the camera zooms in and Batman performs the move in slow motion. Of course, you don't have to play as Batman, there are a variety of characters to unlock from the world of DC. Even so, each character has various suits which changes their abilities a bit such as allowing Batman to throw bombs or Robin to walk up metal surfaces. The suit changes are a huge focus in the game, with levels frequently requiring you to build the signal and switch suits many many times. Sometimes it will be to the point of redundancy where you will change back to a suit you had to discard a few minutes ago.
Combat, as you would expect, it simple since it's not the focus of Lego games. You basically just mash one button to punch and kick your opponents to oblivion. Yet the designers keeps throwing you thugs to bash up and it gets repetitive and boring in this aspect. It's not fun and can be awkward aiming your punches (you will occasionally hit thin air). Whenever thugs materialize (very predictably I must say), you will roll your eyes in disgust. The key game play element is smashing everything you see and collecting the studs, which acts as currency for you to buy new abilities, characters etc. Occasionally, stuff you break will leave behind pieces for you to build new (predetermined) objects.
Lego Batman 2 isn't a free roam adventure; you go from stage to stage chained together. Each area is fairly small, especially when you consider how big its console brethren's are. Still, it allows a degree of exploration and has replayability since there are many sections where you cannot go the first time around as your prescribed character doesn't have the specific ability to do so. There is a hub, which is the Batcave but it's nothing special. You go there to purchase stuff, change characters and the like. It's nowhere near the awesomeness of the free roam hubworlds you are used to in the console Lego games. The game is also predictably easy.
There is no penalty for death (apart from losing some studs but you get a brief window of time to get it back), you will respawn right away and this gives you free rein for experimenting and exploring. It's also surprisingly short, only fourteen chapters and some of those chapters you can finish in ten minutes. The game overall takes around five to six hours depending if you like to smash everything as you go along. Your AI companions is not too good though, they will tag along but doesn't make much effort to help you fight or solve puzzles. The game adds a challenge mode of sort called Justice League Missions. There are five in total and in each one, you fight between seven to eight waves of enemies with predetermined characters in each wave.
Sure, these missions might sound good but it gets frustrating at the cheap deaths. For example, you're expected to throw projectiles at enemies but they fire guns at you in quick succession. The clunky aiming system does not lend itself well to speed and you up losing a life before you know it. You'll also get handicapped and it can feel unfair and stupid. The combat system is dull so forcing you to play these arenas for Trophies isn't exactly the best idea of fun. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the game is how good the story is. It starts off simple enough and like a typical Lego story, not boring but not really that great either.
The voice acting goes a long way in making the characters stand out and adding a huge amount of humour. There are some very funny dialogue and it makes you want to keep progressing to keep watching these cutscenes. The voice actions did a good job at making each character's voice sound the way that you would expect. You also get to see where the inspiration for Batman's personality in The Lego Movie comes from. After a good build up the final boss battle and subsequent events just does not satisfy. It feels anti-climatic and bland, lacking the epic feel of such a superhero team up. Overall, Lego Batman 2 on the Vita is great for some portable Lego fun but it is a poor substitution for the console versions. Only pick up if it is dirt cheap.
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