Review: Batman - The Brave and the Bold

Fun while it lasts (very shortly).

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8.4

The Good

Underlying sense of humor * Striking visual style * Puzzles and platforming segments in each level make use of each partner superhero's abilities in creative and interesting ways * Game deviates from typical level design once in a while to keep things fresh * Many gadgets unlock and many upgrades to buy for Batman * Can choose which mission to undertake first

The Bad

Batman is more powerful than each of his partner superheroes, making combat feel a little imbalanced * Game is very short at 2.5 hours

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You may not have seen the program but it’s really easy to appreciate the game. By fortune or otherwise, Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a product that greatly benefits from its source material. Based on the Cartoon Network series of the same name, Batman: The Brave and the Bold brings the Caped Crusader together with a unique cast of lesser known DC superheroes to save the world from an equally uncelebrated assemblage of villains. It may not sound entirely enticing but the unorthodox premise quickly becomes the promise of an underlying sense of humor and a striking visual style.

This attractive presentation carries its appeal across each of the 8 single-player levels. In each level, Batman forms a partnership with a new superhero to fight against a different villain. Unlike the Wii edition, this portable rendition of Batman: The Brave and the Bold doesn’t feature co-op so you’ll constantly need to switch between Batman and his partner to tackle the challenges unique to each level. You may recognize Green Lantern but others like Plastic Man, Aquaman and Red Tornado may have difficulties eliciting a memory. Each level plays to the distinct abilities of its specific superhero, creating puzzles and platforming segments that work around the use of the superhero’s powers in creative and interesting ways. For instance, Red Tornado is capable of turning lava into rock so he can easily harden pillars of spewing lava for Batman to wall jump onto higher grounds. These puzzles are simple but there are definitely a few tough platforming segments that would take some practice to get through.

For most parts, the limited combat maneuvers of your partner superheroes means that you won’t exactly be using them to dish out damage to the waves of minions who come your way. So it’s welcoming to see the game deviate from the typical level design once in a while to give our partner superheroes more time on the screen. Take, for example, Batman gets zapped into a gorilla in one level and his partner has to ride on him while in another mission, a mid-level boss can only be hurt using the abilities of Green Lantern. The former may be entirely motivated by humor but the later is a nice little challenge that compels you to realize the powers of Green Lantern. Outside of these fun moments, however, it would probably be safer to keep Batman on the screen.

That isn’t necessarily true at the start of the game. Batman starts with a small repertoire of moves and has only the batarang for slightly more reach in attack. As you progress through the game, however, Batman’s arsenal gradually grows to include more of those little toys like the grenade, flash grenade, smoke pipe, a sword and force field. These gadgets unlock automatically after every mission but you can use the coins you have gathered to purchase even more upgrades for your abilities. These range from the more practical ones like regenerating health and stronger armor to more combat orientated rewards like the electrified batarang, more punching power and a cape that reflects shots. Batman already starts to be more capable than his partner soon into the game and it really feels like there’s a certain imbalance to the combat. Fortunately, Batman’s a blast to control and play as.

There’s a sense of flexibility that’s very evident in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Unlike many games of its kind, there’s no particular order in which the levels proceed. In other words, the decision to undertake whichever mission first is entirely up to you. The fact that each level is a self-contained story helps in making this feature plausible. Each level has a distinctive theme so the game consistently feels fresh. Likewise, each level only takes around 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Granted, it isn’t terribly long but you can take heart in the fact that the game knows when to pull you out of a level after it has achieved all the possible tricks which a particular level allows. By the time 2.5 hours is up, you’d have already finished the game and besides unlocked no-Batman, only-your-partner challenges and a boss rush mode, there aren’t ample reasons to return to the game.

Final comments
It’s fun while it lasts. For a retail game, Batman: The Brave and the Bold is far too short but despite this shortcoming, it’s incredibly hard not to like the game. The presentation here is first-rate but what really makes this game fun is the gameplay. Missions that feature different partner superheroes and levels which are designed around a specific superhero’s abilities keep repetition from sinking in. Variety really starts to come in when you notice the nice little deviations in level design and the number of gadgets which progressively unlock. If you have money to spare, by all means, give this game a go – though it might be a tad too short to recommend to those who don’t really care about The Dark Knight.