Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Holy Repetitive Punching, Batman!
Posted September 8, 2010
Likely timed with the release of Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Season One last month, the video game version of Batman’s cartoonish world hit the Nintendo Wii this week from developer WideLoad Games (A Boy and His Blob) and publisher Warner Brothers. Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Videogame takes the episodic format of the cartoon and applies it to the game. The game is broken into four episodes that are started with the intro similar to the cartoon. Also identical to the show, Batman gets teamed up with another superhero sidekick to play though that episode. The presentation is extremely faithful to the cartoon and definitely feels clever as well as highly polished.
The superheroes that Batman gets to team up with include good guys like Aquaman, Green Lantern, Blue Beetle, Plastic Man and Robin. These heroes are either controlled by the friendly A.I. or you can include a co-op partner to help you through the missions. Beyond sidekicks, many of those heroes can be called in for super powerful attacks. Batman also has the ability to use those nifty gadgets in his utility belt to blow up objects or reach out of the way places.
Unfortunately, the main problem with co-op or the game in general is that it’s incredibly simple, clearly absent of difficulty. Playing with a co-op partner makes the game ridiculously easy and should only be used if very young players are having a tough time getting through a level. Another issue with the gameplay is that it’s extremely repetitive. All you really need to do is press A to win, hence Batman’s punching button. Batman also has a variety of other attacks like kicks and throws, but it’s not really necessary. There’s certainly other types of enemies in the game that require jumping or ducking, but they are far and few in-between the mindless enemies.
Bats does have access to some fun toys later in the game like jetpacks, batarangs, etc… You can also upgrade these gadgets in between the levels to get a bit more power out of them. It’s just difficult to justify using them or ever calling in the special attacks from the superhero friends because the lack of difficulty. There isn’t a real penalty for dying either. It only happened a couple times for me, but the game basically respawns you with a slight penalty to the ending stats of the episode.
The main problems with this Batman title are a lack of depth, difficulty and replay value. Each episode roughly takes about 60 to 75 minutes to complete and the difficulty is laughable. At most, you’ve got a maximum of five hours of game time for a $40 MSRP. While it’s certainly an entertaining four to five hours in regards to the different storylines, the actual gameplay is definitely repetitive and there’s little to do after it’s all over. The game doesn’t even scale up the difficulty of the co-op multiplayer, hence you could race through the game with a partner in no time. This is definitely a rental for the younger kids, not a purchase. They could play an episode a night and be done with the game in less than a standard rental period.
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The superheroes that Batman gets to team up with include good guys like Aquaman, Green Lantern, Blue Beetle, Plastic Man and Robin. These heroes are either controlled by the friendly A.I. or you can include a co-op partner to help you through the missions. Beyond sidekicks, many of those heroes can be called in for super powerful attacks. Batman also has the ability to use those nifty gadgets in his utility belt to blow up objects or reach out of the way places.
Unfortunately, the main problem with co-op or the game in general is that it’s incredibly simple, clearly absent of difficulty. Playing with a co-op partner makes the game ridiculously easy and should only be used if very young players are having a tough time getting through a level. Another issue with the gameplay is that it’s extremely repetitive. All you really need to do is press A to win, hence Batman’s punching button. Batman also has a variety of other attacks like kicks and throws, but it’s not really necessary. There’s certainly other types of enemies in the game that require jumping or ducking, but they are far and few in-between the mindless enemies.
Bats does have access to some fun toys later in the game like jetpacks, batarangs, etc… You can also upgrade these gadgets in between the levels to get a bit more power out of them. It’s just difficult to justify using them or ever calling in the special attacks from the superhero friends because the lack of difficulty. There isn’t a real penalty for dying either. It only happened a couple times for me, but the game basically respawns you with a slight penalty to the ending stats of the episode.
Graphics
- I really appreciated the cel-shaded character detail of the superheroes. Their animated movements weren’t half bad either. The entire level backdrops bring a bit of depth to the screen and Gotham City looks as good as the cartoon. The developer did a great job of bringing The Brave and the Bold art design into the video game realm.
- Unfortunately, one problem that kept popping up was framerate issues. When the Bats calls in special attacks from his super-friends or bosses execute big attacks, the game slows down considerably and it noticeably effects the gameplay. It’s surprising to see this amount of slowdown in what seems like a fairly simple visual design.
Audio
- The voice acting is fantastic, specifically because the entire voice cast of the show is narrating their characters within the game. This allows the humor and one-liners to simply work. You will recognize some of the music from the cartoon as well. The sound effects are creative and match the motions / effects going on during the gameplay.
Conclusion
The main problems with this Batman title are a lack of depth, difficulty and replay value. Each episode roughly takes about 60 to 75 minutes to complete and the difficulty is laughable. At most, you’ve got a maximum of five hours of game time for a $40 MSRP. While it’s certainly an entertaining four to five hours in regards to the different storylines, the actual gameplay is definitely repetitive and there’s little to do after it’s all over. The game doesn’t even scale up the difficulty of the co-op multiplayer, hence you could race through the game with a partner in no time. This is definitely a rental for the younger kids, not a purchase. They could play an episode a night and be done with the game in less than a standard rental period.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum