LEGO Games

So, I've gone ahead and purchased (and am playing) LEGO Batman on the Wii, and it's pretty much like the other two LEGO games for the Wii (LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones): freaking awesome, man. It's got that nifty combo of being fun but not too brain-breaking, and, hey, who doesn't want to be The Batman, right?

There's a peculiarity to the game, however, that tickles me when I think too hard about it (and, let's face it, if you're thinking too hard about a LEGO game, you're probably not drinking enough, but anyway), and that's this: in order to "buy" upgrades and hidden characters in the game, you have to collect "studs," which is LEGO-speak for "coins," and the way you get coins is by breaking things. Now, in LEGO Indiana Jones, that sort of made sense. I mean, Jones is an academic pillaging tombs for artifacts, so it makes sense that he'd have no money and would pretty much have to finance his work through petty larceny, breaking & entering, burglary, mugging, vandalism, and, of course, selling priceless artifacts. Don't get me wrong, he's still a helluva guy, but he's also a tomb-robber, and the fact that he sells what he finds to museums instead of, say, Dr. Frankenstein doesn't change the fact that he's got a pretty questionable work ethic. So, yeah, you want Indy collecting silver, gold, blue, and purple studs? No worries, Jock, just keep the engine running.

In LEGO Star Wars, however, this overemphasis on material wealth becomes a little more... problematic. I mean, except for a few missions, you're not playing Bounty Hunters (and even when you are, the coins, er, studs don't really matter), you're playing Jedi, and Jedi are supposed to be above all of this attachment baloney. You don't see Yoda telling Luke, "There is no try, only do. Now, the money hand over you must." Yet these upgrades and secret characters don't pay for themselves, so don't forget to have Obi Wan Kenobi slink around Kamino like a bloody beachcomber.

Which brings us to Batman. The joy of LEGO Batman is watching him go up against his lifelong foes: the Riddler, the Penguin, Catwoman, the Joker, trash cans, telephone booths, cars, windows.... Wait, why is The Batman flinging his batarangs around at everyday items on the street? For the coins? Wait, isn't Bruce Wayne richer than Lex Luthor? And doesn't The Batman usually put vandals and thugs in body-casts? Hmmmmm.

But just when you think the folks at Travelers Tales (the company that makes these games) have lost their damned minds, you also get to play as the villains, and this is where the coin-collecting starts making sense again. After all, Batman's villains are like magpies: dark, sinister, a bit cuckoo, and inevitably distracted by bright shiny things. OF COURSE Killer Croc wants to break Gotham down to its constituents studs and, well, collect them. These are shiny studs. Precious studs. And they're all mine, my precious! Mine! MINE!

Ahem. So, LEGO Batman: it doesn't always make sense, but it's fun, it's easy, and you'll have fun beating it.