Forgot to log this for a while. While I didn’t 100% complete it, I got about 90% there and I don’t think I really need to at this point

The game was really solid. I never played the console version as a kid, just that crummy Nintendo DS port, so it was a pretty neat experience playing something I was already familiar with but in a completely new way. Coming off the releases of LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones where both adapted each of their respective films into playable levels, you would expect this game to follow suit by adapting the Burton/Schumacher films into levels, but this isn't the case. This is the first modern licensed LEGO game not to directly adapt any previous material, but what makes this stand out compared to later LEGO games like this is that there's hardly any story with it. It boils down to "Batman's rogues gallery escape from Arkham Asylum and Dynamic Duo have to stop them". It's extremely light when it comes to its narrative and it's without a doubt the least narrative-driven modern licensed LEGO game. I originally thought after playing through the Riddler portion that the overall experience would be a good, but ultimately unambiguous LEGO game, since I'd just figured that we'd just be playing the same 2 characters for the whole game. But I was surprised to see that after I completed the main story with Batman and Robin, it was revealed that was only the first half of a game, with the second half being the main story from the perspective of the villains. I really liked how the game took advantage of how simplistic its story is to make a game with two distinct halves that wouldn't have been appropriate if this were like other LEGO games at the time. It helps the game not feel too repetitive with the same 2 characters for the first half, but I'd have to say it did get a little tedious during later stretches of the first half. They do try to compensate for this fact by giving Batman and Robin different suits that all have various abilities depending on the situation, but still, I couldn't shake the feeling of tedium after a while in sharp contrast to LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga which had so many characters varying on skillset that got swapped out almost every part of the game. That's why I'm hyping up the second half of the game so much where we get to play as the villains with all their cool and unique abilities and how you get a new character to play as in every new level during this villain portion of the game. Not only is this a cool utilization of these iconic characters, but it also stops the whole game from getting too repetitive with Batman and Robin. And I just like the fact that we basically help the villains get to where they are when we play as Batman. Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I didn’t like one half of the game significantly more than the other, even if the villain levels are slightly shorter. Some issues I have with the game besides some tediousness is that a lot of boss fights felt really underwhelming and anti-climatic, especially Joker's. I know this is a game geared toward children, but I think it's a problem when a final boss is easier than a majority of previous boss fights. The game at times can also be very unfriendly to single players, specifically The Penguin and Scarecrow boss fights where it's flat-out impossible to defeat them without a second controller which was beyond annoying. I know this is designed as a co-op game, but don't make that a requirement. And finally, with a roster of only 50 characters to choose from (the smallest out of any LEGO game), it's pretty disappointing that a lot of the available characters have the same henchman move set copypasted and that's especially disappointing coming off the heels of LEGO Star Wars and how creative the Batman universe can be. But that's really it as far as major complaints go because overall it was just a really fun game. The cutscenes were all just really charming, Robin is basically a copy of Obi-Won from The Phantom Menace portion of LEGO Star Wars, but hey if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I like that the game puts info reels on the loading screen for each villain to make sure everyone can be caught up with their backstories and how they change during the villain portion of the game, and I liked how Catwoman's description at one point says she's worth it.

That's really about it. It's a really fun game and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, especially the villain portion. But it does start to feel a little repetitive during the hero portion, a good chunk of the boss fights are underwhelming, the roster doesn't feel quite as impactful with only 50 characters, and The Penguin and Scarecrow boss fights requiring a second player are what ultimately bumped the score down from an 8/10 to a 7/10. I'm still glad I took the time to play through it, but I have a feeling that LEGO Batman 2 has me covered for the foreseeable future...

WHY CAN'T YOU PLAY AS MAN-BAT IN THE STORY MODE?!?!

I'm honestly surprised how well this game as held up over the years. It's such an improvement over Breaking the Bank in every sense. It went from 5 fails in the last game to 18 fails in this one and there's and all the fails are really entertaining and charming and I think the overall short nature of this game really helps the comedy because nothing ever feels overly drawn out. I appreciate the deviations in the gameplay style lot whether it be the subtle like the you choosing the direction you go in the air duct or the obvious like the quick time events and the big Phoenix Wright homage portion. And speaking of that, I really appreciate the game going out of it's way for the Phoenix Wright portion feel distinct from the rest of the game and feels like PuffballsUnlimited really was a fan of that series (also it kinda helps that I just started playing through the second game currently). And in general the game made it's pop culture references feel very natural and never did it feel in your face. It does have it's shortcomings, though. Like, for starters, the voice acting. It's all done by Puffballs himself and while I do respect how he this all on his own, the majority of the character voices sound very similar to each other and does get a bit distracting and repetitive. But I will give this game the benefit of the doubt that this is the first game in the franchise to rely on dialogue more heavily and it would only make sense that the voice acting would sound samey and amateurish because this is pretty much PuffballUnited's first real venture into voice roll. And one more nitpick is that there's no chart or anything to back to certain points in the game without going back right to the start and watching the same cutscenes over and over again. So yeah, it's a fun and charming little game that expands the original game, but it does suffer a little from lack of experience in certain portions of the experience, but in the end it's pretty easy to understand why it was like this in the first place. But I can't wait to play the next few games to see how far this dude has come over the years.

Note: I played the original Newgrounds release and yes, I did get all the achievements

Thought I'd give this a little go on NewGrounds to finally try out this iconic web game franchise for myself after all these years of waiting and watching the Markiplier playthroughs. And my goodness is there barely anything to really say about the original. It's not a bad or a broken game by any means, it has butt-loads of charm with pretty cute animations, but there's just so little to it. All it is is just 6 options to break a bank with 7 animations in total playing afterwards and that's all it is. It's extremely basic and doesn't fully live up to it's extreme potential by having such little options. it literally only took me about 3 minutes to really "beat it" in the first place. The best I can give this game is that it's a very cool beta version for future installments later down the line. But with all that said, I still have a ton of respect for this game for laying down the ground work of this iconic web series that would only get better and better as time went on.