by Kuriakose Saju
July 18, 2008, was a landmark day for me. After close to seven months of keeping a close watch on YouTube for new trailers and reading up on message boards on the most obscure fan sites for any information on the latest cinematic outing of Gotham’s caped crusader, The Dark Knight finally hit theatres.
Honestly, mate, seven months of waiting and you’d think, “This is never going to be as good as you would want it to be.” Boy, was I wrong? The Dark Knight blew my mind! You watch Heath Ledger as the Joker in this three hour long adventure and you would totally understand why he decided to go the way he did.So, after this ultra-dark Batman installment, I was totally shocked by the irony of a new videogame on the masked marauder that would come out in September. Why is it ironic, you ask? Isn’t it normal for Hollywood franchises to follow up their movies with video game adaptations. Yeah, it is. But not when the fabled Batman, who strikes terror into the heart of all criminals in Gotham, is constructed in Lego bricks!!!
After the recent release of Lego Indiana Jones in July which has become a hit with gamers worldwide, now it’s the turn of The Bat to don a toy-brick avatar. Scheduled to hit the market in September courtesy Traveller’s Tales (who gave us the earlier Lego-meets-Hollywood titles such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones), available for the PC, Nintendo DS, PS 2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 and the Wii, the game features the dynamic duo trying to put a bunch of criminals who have broken out of Arkham Asylum, including the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman and the Riddler.
With over 30 playable levels with additional secret levels, the game looks like it’s going to offer a brick-smashing time.The game is based more on the comics and Batman: The Animated Series rather than the movies though and Batman and Robin appear in their animated television avatars with Batman in his trademark look. The trailer promises amazing graphics, albeit an androgynous-looking Catwoman, with the overall plotline dealing with this massive breakout from Arkham. After the breakout of pretty much almost everyone inside, the villains sort themselves into three groups, each headed by a bigwig. One group is the Joker’s clan with Harley Quinn while another is headed by the Penguin and Catwoman and the third under the Riddler who works with the likes of Two-face and Mr. Freeze.The beauty of the game lies in the fact that it’s not only the heroes that you are playing as. Let’s face it, Batman kicks ass alright but the entire charisma of Gotham City lies not just in The Bat but the various villains he has to face off. Just as in Lego Star Wars where you could play as the evil Jedis, here also you can don the costume of your favourite supervillain. There’s a level where you play as the Riddler trying to locate a giant bus and another where you have to face off Commissioner Gordon as the Joker, part of an elaborate plan to trap the heroes.Other villains set to appear apart from the ones already mentioned include the Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Clayface and Killer Croc. Co-op gameplay is an option, so if a friend wants to help you as Robin, he’s more than welcome to do so.All in all, after The Dark Knight, this seems to be my next date with the big, black Bat. It looks like the game developers took the Joker’s recurring query in the movie to heart and came up with the idea in the first place – “Why so serious?”For the trailer, go here.
Sources say a game based on The Dark Knight is also near release. Key details, like publisher, developer, and release date, were not disclosed.
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