Video Gamers Podcast - Lego Batman - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and Ace are suiting up and heading to Gotham to break down LEGO Batman: The Legacy of the Dark Knight! Does this latest adventure capture the magic that made LEGO games a staple of gaming, or is it missing the Bat-signal? We’re diving into the gameplay, story, humor, and everything that makes this one of the most talked-about video games. If you love superheroes, LEGO, and great video games, this is one gaming-packed discussion you won’t want to miss. Join us for another awesome gaming episode of the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and NightWizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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and their paid options grow right alongside your projects. Even better, 5% of every dollar they earn goes directly to the Godot Foundation to help support the engine we all love. Give your development process a boost and try Ziva today at ziva.sh. That's ziva.sh. Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers podcast. Lego Batman is the latest entry into the Lego game franchise. It looked pretty incredible as a mix of Lego. in the Arkham games, but does it hold up to those lofty expectations?

Well, we've played it, and we're going to break it all down. But before we get to that, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he's definitely the Joker in this group, a bit psycho, but also you can't help but like him a little bit. Even if he is weird, it's Ryan. That's me. I'm Ryan. What's wrong, guys? Why are you laughing?

Oh my gosh. Okay, this is, listen, we have a lot of audio listeners out there. If you're listening on Spotify, you get video. And Ryan, you need to, right, look, we joked about this that we even went, Ryan, where's the mask? Because he had a Batman shirt on.

And then he never clued in that he. What are you talking about? Really? Caches. That is the, most Timu mask ever, Ryan. It's all crooked. And the eye holes are different shapes.

I'm not going to lie. It's pretty small in my head. It already ripped in the back. I'm definitely returning this to Amazon. This episode's off. I didn't even make it through the intro. I can kind of barely breathe. I'm not going to lie.

It's like, I'm choking. I'm choking to do. on the show. Wait, do these go here or here? That mask is squeezing parts of your face that I didn't know. Like, oh man. Okay. Robin, get the bad shoehorn.

You don't have to lie about your feelings. I'm going to need Batman to come rescue me out of this mask that I bought off a T-Mu. Oh, man. Okay. And joining us, I was going to say he's the penguin just for the laughs. But we all know he's more in line with TwoFace. Not because he left us a one star review, but because he splits the gap between Indies and AAA. It's A.

All right. I'll take that. That's fair enough. You thought I was being mean, didn't you? I thought, yeah. I thought I was going to get a little part of the face. Yeah. You're going to be two face.

You're going to be two face if you don't get that thing off your face. I was going to say, yeah, that thing. That is going to leave a permanent mark on your face, Ryan. Man, if you lose a bet, I want you to work out in the sun in that thing. I am with that. Just so you have like the... Oh, oh, the sweat would be pooling up under it. I'm just thinking of the sunburn.

In like, not an extra, extra small, Ryan? I'm not going to, I'm not going to lie. It's a little uncomfortable if I did. Oh, man. Okay, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Because we got to start this. I didn't know we were starting like this.

This was a surprise to Ace and I. We had no idea that Batman was going to be on the show. Batman, why don't you, uh, we have a review. but we're going to need you to read it in only the way that Batman can. No, of course. Oh, yeah, we do have a review. Josh, thank you for that.

This one comes from, Noah holds. It is titled, five-star review. Y'all got good recommendations! And it reads, I've been listening to this podcast for a while now, and honestly, I love it. I'm getting a lot more experience with better video games, and I love this podcast.

It's super fun, and I can't stop listening to the new and previous episodes. But you guys have to stop telling me about good games. I bought seven games yesterday, and I haven't started any of them, because you all are too good at giving games. That's all. Thank you.

I can't. Oh, man. I can't. Ace, you got to host this show, dude. I can't. I'm not going to make you much more than you. Thank you no holds for the kind of you. We're very appreciative.

We've got to talk about me. Let's go. Thank you, Batman. Hey, Batman. What tier do you support our Patreon at? All the tears. Oh, yeah. I'm a billionaire.

That's what we want to hear. Wait, you're a billionaire, Batman? Yeah. Wait, are you Bruce Wayne? I am. It's pretty crazy, right? I don't think you're supposed to get that.

You never would have thought, right? Right? It's pretty crazy. But nobody watches this show anyway, so we're good. It's pretty crazy. We're good. If you guys do not watch this, you, you were missing out. Look, I just, just trust us, man.

Ryan's face is squeezed into this thing like Catwoman into a latex outfit. And it is... Don't ruin Catwoman for me. the measurements may have been a little off originally i'll talk to lucius about that for sure alfred get the baby wheel what's going on here we've got we've got latex and baby this ain't this kind of show

that everybody's the wrong kind of podcast wait but you thought this is just a type crime party ace oh i'm sorry thought there was a gimp mask my back oh man bring out the gimp oh man oh how many movie references are we going to make just right off the beginning of this so okay all right guys we've got to this is this is going to be impossible but we are going to try to cover lego batman for you guys uh again this was sprung on us at the i listen just a peek behind the curtain i have my intros that I read and I don't see Ace and Ryan on camera when I'm reading the intro. And so when I

moved the window out of the way and then there was Timu Batman staring at me, I lost it. I had no idea this was going down. Uh, uh, I, uh, I tried to, I try to, I try to 3D print a Lego Batman helmet or a mask. My printer's not big enough. I know I need to talk to them about that. Alfred is working on it right now. Oh, man. You can't smile and look at me like that. So we had to go with this one. It's just a mouth and two eyes.

It's just, it's just, it's too crooked eyes that I'm not the same. Stop. I can't laugh. It hurts. It hurts when I smile. It's like slop from the goodies meets Batman. Here you guys. Hey, you guys, talk about me.

Let's go. I'm dying. Okay, I can't, oh, man. Did you hear they made me a Lego character? Yeah. How's that make you feel? Is that, okay, if you were in a Lego game, is that like a compliment or is that like an insult? You know, to be honest, it's, it's kind of humbling.

They gave you great abs. You know, I just, I just try to branch out to all parts of society to help save the day. save the day all right we got to talk about Lego Batman oh my gosh okay welcome in everybody we're sorry for this podcast

being derailed right off the bat but also you're welcome um Batman is here he's going to give us his own thoughts on this game apparently Batman now listen we are an honest podcast round these parts okay

Ace and I have played Lego Batman to be completely transparent we got halfway through Lego Batman before 007 First Light came out and we went, wait a minute, we've made a grave mistake. And Ace and I bounced off of

Lego Batman to go play 007 First Light. Batman here I hear you played the whole game Batman. Yeah. Yeah. It's me. Why would I not? You guys ditched me for a bond. Really? Yeah. Are you not a fan of like he's a hero? I'm a superhero.

Yeah, but he's got that English accent. Yeah, he's way more dapper than you are he's very suave have you seen this mask what do you mean how do you think you would look in a turtleneck batman oh god I don't want to like

I think probably pretty good it's not going to lie I can't wait we can do this okay okay okay hold it together guys come on Lego Batman Lego okay so here's the deal

I was not excited for Lego Batman I'm just going to come out and say it I've I've I've I've I've I've told people before I have only ever played about like maybe 40 minutes of any Lego game at all it was Lego Star Wars over to Buddy's house it's my only experience with any of the Lego games I am not a fan of Lego I don't have anything against Lego I just didn't have Legos growing up so like they don't resonate with me like they do with a lot of people um I do remember thinking that the Lego Star Wars game that I played was very very basic in its kind of kind of gameplay elements and stuff.

And so I will just be completely up front and go, I went into Lego Batman a little skeptical. And then, you know, Ace, you have played some of the Lego games before. Yeah. How did you approach Lego Batman before you started playing? Like, were you excited for this? Were you skeptical? Like, what were your thoughts on that?

I grew up with Lego games. So I was very familiar with how they worked, what kind of the mechanics are, what to kind of expect. And I was kind of interested, because I haven't picked up a Lego game in a long time. I was very interested how they'd progressed, like how they'd evolved with time. So I was very excited to see what they'd done

to change things up. And finding out that they had Arkham-like combat, that there was going to be all these references to Batman, which I love the Batman franchise. Every, like, comic, every movie, every, like, TV show. Like, I was watching one literally a week ago. I was so good. So I was pretty hype.

I was pretty excited to get to it. Yeah. I, uh, you know, oh, wait, There's something Batman's cameras messed up here. Hey guys, sorry I was late. Ryan. Oh, the flash.

You decided to show up for the podcast all of a sudden? Sorry, sorry. I was stuck working. I'm here now, though. I hear we're talking Batman, so I'm in. Let's talk about him. Wait. You're not, you're wearing the same hat that like Batman said he liked that hat earlier.

You're not Batman. Are you right? No, no, no, no. God, no. Why'd you steal the shirt? This shirt? No, I just, we're covering Batman. So I'm a fair enough.

I've seen that shirt before. Big fan of Batman. I'm ready to talk about how awesome and amazing he is. Never met the guy. We'd love to. But, but yeah. So I'm here. Sorry guys, I'm like.

Well, you missed out, right? You're going to have to watch. Yeah, you missed it. He was here. What? Are you serious? Yeah, we had a special guest on the show. Yeah, dude, it's crazy.

But it's so weird that, like, you showed up right as he left. I just missed him? Never seen. Never seen two of you in the same room Yeah. Man. Maybe next time. What are all those lines on your face, Ryan?

You almost look like you... Oh, I was working. I had goggles on, you know? Oh, is that what it is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Weird. A little out of breath.

Uh, well, why don't you? Ryan, welcome to the show. Thanks, guys. Even after being late. We were just talking about how we went into Lego Batman. Like, if you were excited about Lego Batman, if you were, like, me and a little skeptical of it, how, like, you've played the Lego games before.

And you have a son that's, like, nine that is probably all about Legos, and I'm sure you guys were pretty excited about this. Yeah, he loves himself some Legos. I actually, believe or not, have not played a ton of Lego games. I played the Lego Harry Potter, like years and years ago with my son.

But that's probably the extent of it. But I was excited for this. After watching things, it looked like they were putting the work in. It wasn't just kind of like a ho-hum type of game. like they'll just throw Lego on the title and then make some models and stuff. So my hype was actually pretty big for this. Definitely I feel higher than you guys. But having a nine-year-old son helped big time because he was excited too.

Yeah. All right. Let's talk about the game a little bit. I always like to ask this so that people kind of know like what our kind of approach to a game was. You know, if I'm super duper excited for a game, obviously I'm hoping that game is going to be good. You know, if I go into one skeptical, then it's like, you know, am I going to be skeptical about the game? So I always think it's just a good way to say how do people approach a game going into it? And I like to kind of give that context.

All right. So Lego Batman comes out. The world, honestly, is very excited for this game. There's a lot of chatter online. People are saying they think this is going to be one of the best Lego games to come about in a while. It seems like they were really trying. people get their hands on some of the preview copies. We start hearing references to Arkham games, right?

Like, oh, this is the Arkham games, guys. But it's like, it's Lego. It's the perfect mashup of like Lego and Arkham. It's going to be Arkham Light, that kind of thing. So we all dive in. We start playing, I will say right off the bat, despite my skepticism, that I think that this game is presented wonderfully. That is one of the things that caught me off guard right away.

is I, not having played an actual Lego game before, I went, guys, this game is actually like really well done. Like, the graphics look good. The audio is good. The controls are tight. Like, it's responsive. It performs well. Like, I'm kind of impressed.

So my initial impression with this was actually one of like, okay. Like, I mean, all right. I think I see why people like. these games, man. I think the game does a good job of taking you to the beginning of Batman. One of the things that people talk about, and I will say that I agree with, is that Lego Batman takes you through like the Batman timeline, so to speak, you know, where it starts off with like your tiny little Bruce Wayne with your parents and you fall in the well like we see in Batman begins, which is awesome. You know, it's so you see the origins of Batman and things

like that. How did the beginning part of the game stand out for you guys? It stood out in a kind of interesting way for me because first of all, I hated the voice acting. I will just leave that in now. Ace, okay. I do not like the voice acting in this game. Ace told Ryan and I, we don't generally chat a lot about games, but occasionally we'll comment on an aspect. And Ace just comes in with like, this acting in this story are stupid. Like, they're just stupid.

Like, these guys are annoying. And Ryan and I are kind of like, isn't that with Lego games? are supposed to be? Like, aren't they supposed to be cheeky? You gotta understand. The last Lego game I played that had actual voice acting in it, they literally just ripped the lines from the movie,

like straight up. Like, that's all they did. Okay. Or it was the old Lego games where they just went, uh, so what about this made noises? What about this did, like,

really set you off that you didn't like or put you... He just doesn't sound like Batman, man. His voice sucks. It's just not Batman at all. Oh. Bring it out the, okay. I'm sorry.

Also. Tell us why it sucks, Ace. I choose sucks. It doesn't sound like Batman. It sounds like someone who's like squeezed their head into a Batman mask. We were just giving their... Ace, we just had Batman on the show. Yeah, and he sounded more like Batman than Batman did.

All right. You know. Wait, he did? He did? Oh, Ryan, you okay? Also, you talked about how this game had really good graphics and ran well. Not in my case. Not for you.

No, this game chuged. Have you thought about not having a potato? I do not have a potato. I have a decent PC. And whenever this game opened a cutscene, this, everything just went, everything started moving like it was a stop motion Lego film. Mine wasn't that bad, but I did after you had said that ace, I kept an eye out. And there was definitely some frame drops.

Serious frame drops. All of a sudden, and like not a crazy sequence either. Well, it's not like there was a bunch of explosions or whatever. But then they would just start stuttering and you get frame drops and it looked weird. It was so confusing because like nothing was happening that should have caused frame drops. And then frame drops would happen. You know what they should have done? Released an early access.

Yeah. Then we could have been a chance to try it. And they could have vetted that obviously. This is not Ryan. This is an imposter. But I did find it interesting that we start the story with like the Batman begins. And I thought that the whole game was just going to be following that story. And then we'd jump into another Batman movie, jump into that.

and it ended up being just like taking these elements from the other Batman movies and stories and comics and sort of meshing it into its own original film or plot for the game and that was kind of interesting I thought that was an interesting way to take it instead of just playing through the games or the movies or whatever Yeah what about you Ryan how the early parts of the game start off for you? Oh, again like I talked about on her Bond episode the 007 game like I'm a sucker for origin stories. I loved it. I loved being able to fall down in the well and seeing what happened and seeing what made him who he is and then going through the training. I genuinely enjoyed it. I loved all the nods.

They did. Like Ace said, they started like just pulling from every film and you had like the Joker that was dancing and he was doing the parade and stuff. And then like all of it, I think linked up to make a good kind of introduction into like this game, like especially in the beginning. And you kind of start to get the understanding of why. is who he is and what you had to do to get there and stuff like that. So yeah, I really, like right away, I was, I was, you know, enjoying the intro in the beginning

of the game. Yeah. I went in impressed. Like, honestly, like, it was a very good initial impression for me. I didn't get what Ace got with the voice acting and the cheekiness of the game because I just assumed that that was like intentional and they were kind of doing it on purpose. I kind of get what you're saying, Ace, where it's like. Total whiplash.

All right. And that part I kind of get because if you go into the Batman Begins, right, in the Dark Night and stuff like that, they're all very serious. Very. Like, they're very serious movies. I love those movies, by the way. But they are serious. And when you're, when you're borrowing from that material and obviously that influence, but then you're making it very tongue and cheek and kind of silly, I kind of understand like the little bit of whiplash there that you would get for that. I just, I didn't get it because I think I was just expecting that this is a Lego game and they're trying to like appeal to kids with some of this humor.

So they're keeping it very kind of like easy humor. I was just very confused by what they're doing because the voicing didn't match what was happening on the screen. Like something stupid or ridiculous happening. And there was no reaction. Literally like, all right. Figurines. I understand this is a children's game and I'm being a whiny baby about it. But, uh, and it's fine.

It's valid. And honestly, I love differences of opinions because you're not going to be the only whiny baby here, Ace. I've seen other people say they hate Bruce Wayne's voice actor, so that's fine. Or his voice acting. Did it make you, did it like for me, because you've seen Austin Powers, right, Ace? You said you saw that. I've seen Austin Powers. So like, that's what the Lego games remind me.

It's almost like kind of can't be kind of making fun of it. But also it's kind of serious. You know, it does the stuff. But like I loved, I loved the way. they portrayed these characters and the voices of them. Like, I personally enjoyed it. Yeah.

I'm also just a little butt hurt because they excluded my favorite Batman from the entire thing. So it's whatever. But, which is who? The Batman, the 2004 animated series. Oh. That's the only,

that's the only real Batman. He does love his cartoons. I do. The animated series is the best adaption of Batman. I don't care. It is the best. Well, that's the 1993 one. Yes.

The animated series is the best. Yeah. And that is in this game. What's his name again? He passed away recently. Josh. Adam West. No, no, no, no.

The voice of the animated Batman. Oh, I thought you meant the original Batman. No, no, Adam West. He was the voice of animated Batman for like, and the Arkham Batman as well. And the Arkham Batman's, yeah, he was really good. I forget his name. I can't believe I'm drawn to blank right now. But yeah, he died recently.

Well, you can look it up because we got to take a quick break, guys. And then we're going to come back. We're going to talk about the kind of gameplay and some of the aspects of this. What was the guy's name? Kevin Conroy. RIP. Oh, yeah. That's right. Oh, he just passed too.

Yeah, he passed. He passed. Yeah, he passed. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, moment of silence for Kevin Conroy and an ad break. Hey, everyone.

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Trust me, it's a game changer. All right, nothing like mixing morning and advertising, guys, to really get things going. Yeah, I don't know how I feel about that, actually. Oh man. Maybe we should mix the two together. I don't know. I don't feel good about that.

But you know what? Some things you shouldn't mix together. Like Batman and Lego games maybe. Oh, no. Okay. So now the gloves are coming off. The gloves are coming off for me. I am, listen,

I gave people 20 minutes of like positivity for Batman. I am going to preface this by saying, I think this is a really good video game. game, it's just not my kind of game. And here's why, because we're going to get into some of the gameplay stuff. I think that, like, it's, it, this is such a weird thing for me because I can look at Lego Batman and go they did everything right. You know what I mean?

Like, like, like the, the characters that they have as your, as your companions and sidekicks, the ability to swap between them, the, the fluidness of the gameplay, uh, the building the little gadgets to interact with your environment, the, the villains and how they introduce those and how you interact with those. The open world of Gotham, right? It's an open world Batman game. That was one of the big things they kept talking about. And you're driving around Gotham and you're flying around Gotham.

And I'm like, dude, this is pretty cool. Like they keep just throwing gadgets at you and throwing new characters at you. And I'm like, okay. Like this is literally is checking all these boxes. Why am I not liking this more? You know what I mean? And it's weird because it's like, from a critique standpoint, I can go, this is great. Like, they've done everything they're supposed to do.

The gameplay is there. It has variety. The characters, the I, the voice acting was fine, in my opinion. The Gotham felt huge. And again, they allow you to traverse through it. You know, you get to see the origins and the back cave and all of this stuff that goes into this game. but like every time like that's from the critique standpoint but from the gamer standpoint I'm like I'm so bored right now guys like just a little shallow thank you ace thank

I'm not afraid to say it it's shallow I'm not afraid to say it but I'm trying to preface it because I don't want to I think that we have to recognize sometimes that this is a good game it's just not a game for Josh. You know what I mean? Like this is not my style of game. And it's just, I think you're right, Ace. I found the gameplay to be very, very shallow. And that led to double varies.

Because explain the depth of the gameplay to me. If there's more than that, like explain it to me. Because it's like, I wanted to like this. Like I legitimately wanted to like it. But then at the same time, every time I was like, I'm just bored. This is the most simple gameplay. There's no challenge at all.

If I die, my guy literally just respawns right where I died. So it's like there's no risk reward, like at all. And someone like me, I thrive on that. Hold on. You're a mister, I hate boss runbacks. I hate all this wasted time. Then they give you a game where you respond right where you died in. Now you're complaining.

I need a challenge. That's the problem is that I need a challenge too. We played it on the hardest difficulty. So you could only die three times before they made you restart. And before people are like, bro, you know, there's, I played it on Dark Night. Like, from the get-go, from the very first minute, I went. No, it's not hard. It's a Lego game.

Yeah, it's not hard. I'm cranking up the difficulty. You know what the difficulty does? It just throws more guys at you. It's just more of the same one or two of the big guys. But that makes it more mundane at that point. Like, it's like the opposite, you know? So, all right.

So the world doesn't hate me specifically, Ace. Explain to me why you think this is shallow, too. I just like I've played Lego games all my life I was hoping to see more of an evolution this far in like I'm probably 16 years ahead of where I played my first Lego game now and it still feels the same the combat's changed a little bit for this because they're trying to copy what Arkham did but they didn't they didn't copy what Arkham did

they just did a light version that's very simplified very boring there to really master get good with I never felt like I was really getting getting better at the combat. I was just like, oh yeah, I just mashed this button, wait for this,

hit this. Whereas in Arkham, you could be punished for not paying attention. You could get absolutely bodied by one random thug with a pipe. And then now your whole combo

is ruined. Like everything is ruined for you. I just didn't feel like the game was trying. And I, maybe it's just me. I just don't think I enjoy these open worlds

anymore. These, whoa. I did not. Did we have a revelation? on the show? I did not enjoy driving around Gotham, getting interrupted while I'm trying to go mission to mission,

be like, I don't go check this out, go do this. You don't have to do that. You did. I'm going to say this because I don't want you to feel bad, but the open world in this game kind of sucks. It's not good. Like, it's not, you know, I get it. We have said, hey, not every game needs to be open world.

Not, you know, and thankfully, games have kind of pulled back from every, being open world now. Gotham, this ain't GTA 5 people. You know what I mean? Like you're not coming across like really awesome random events. Like, you know, I stopped a couple people from getting mugged and I think I stopped a car from getting robbed or stolen or something like that. And then it's like, but what did I get for it?

I got nothing. It meant nothing in the end. It was like a diversion maybe. You know what I mean? But like, Ryan, Ryan's making all kinds of funny faces. It meant nothing. Hold on. What do you mean?

It meant nothing. You stopped in justice. How many puzzles? How many puzzles did you find your way to in the open world? Only to find out you can't do it yet because you don't even have the character. Yeah, that's fair too. That's fair too. In the starting area.

In the starting area, I'd be like, oh, here's a riddler puzzle. I can go solve that because I'm right next to it. It was like, oh, you don't have the item. I was like, why is it on my map? Or the character or the skill or something like that. Why is it on my map then? Go back when you have the item, dude. What are you talking about?

Ryan, tell us why we're. wrong because you are going to be like we're crazy like it's I found it to be shallow I found it to be too easy and there was no challenge for me which for Josh and I'm not saying this is the fault of the game I'm saying this is my fault but for me a game without any kind of challenge isn't fun for me at all because it's like why am I playing this if I'm not overcoming something or I'm not accomplishing something or or I'm not progressing like my character's strength and abilities and gear and all this stuff. And it's like, I need that carrot to chase.

And with Lego Batman, the only carrot that I felt like there was to chase at all was just hoping to make it to the end of the game so that maybe I could know like what the characters were. And it's like, I'm, you know, yeah, you know, you get Catwoman. You have Commissioner Gordon. And I know you get other sidekicks. And it's like, but they didn't change the base gameplay for me at all, you know? And it's like, I don't know, man.

It's, again, it's not a bad game at all. It's just not meant for me But Ryan, why is it meant for you? Exactly. So that's what I was going to say. Like, would you have played this if it wasn't for the podcast? No, no.

No, exactly. So this is a game that's made for people like me with kids or people that love Legos and Lego games. And they want to have that kind of those two worlds meet up. And I understand that. But yeah, it's, I thought, I'm not a huge Lego guy. I think they're overpriced. and overrated, honestly, for for Legos, uh, hot take.

We're starting all sorts of fights. Yeah, we're starting all signs of stuff. I don't think there's a Lego fan out there that wouldn't agree that they're overpriced. Yeah, that's definitely overpriced. But anyways, like, disagree with the overrated. Well, I didn't, I, uh, let me be clear. That was Ryan that said that. Not me. Not me. If it's overpriced, it's overrated. Duh. But anyways, um, so I just, I just, it was me.

It was Batman. What? What? No. It's a world that it's, you know, like you said, Josh, it just wasn't for you. I think there was there. You said earlier, Arkham Light, and it was my issue with it, it was, it was light, like there wasn't that big, big draw to explore.

I think they did do a lot to put, there is a good bit of details throughout the world. You just don't have a, you don't have a desire to go see them. That's the thing. You don't want to explore. You don't want to look around. You're just like, oh, I'm going to go here. I'm going to go there. Oh, there's somebody.

And like you said, every time, oh, there's this is happening. Oh, I'm mugging. And you go, you beat six guys up and then you just go away to somewhere else. And that's all it is. There's nothing really different or unique about it. Every interaction, you don't come on across a lot of really cool world events. Yeah, I do. I wouldn't say I'm as down as it on you guys are.

but it's definitely was lacking in what it could have been. I feel like it's another one of those things where they just like, hey, it's Batman and it's Lego and we'll just, here you go, you know, and people are going to love it and eat it up. I will say objectively, I think they did a very good job on this game. You know what I mean? It didn't feel lazy to me, again, not having any experience with Legos, but from people that like the Lego games, I have heard that, you know, hey, they didn't really put a whole lot of effort into this one, whatever, the, Lego game was or they didn't really introduce anything new. This is just a re-skin of a prior Lego game, but with like a Star Wars skin, right, or a Harry Potter skin where it's like, it's literally the same game. It's just with different graphics so that it fits whatever pop culture thing people like, right?

Like, you know, a Lord of the Rings Lego game, but it's still going to be exactly Lego in its gameplay and how it's presented and stuff like that. And I think that there was some, some hype around they really put a lot of effort into Lego Batman to be true to the Arkham games, to be true to the story of Batman and stuff like that. And I know that it resonated with a lot of people in that specific area, because we had people in our community that were playing it. And they were gushing over it. Yeah. They were like, guys, I'm playing Lego Batman. I'm having so much fun. And like, we love to see that. Like, anytime we talk critically of a game, it's not to say that other people shouldn't enjoy that game. And we saw a lot of people really enjoying Lego Batman.

You know, and saying like, oh, this is so fun. It feels so true to these things. I love the nods that they did. It feels like they cared. This is the first Lego game in a while that, you know, it felt like was made with passion and stuff like that. And it's like, I mean, that makes me happy. But at the same time, I wish I had that feeling because I absolutely did not. And again, I don't think it's the game's fault.

I think it's like just this isn't my kind of gameplay. You know, we talked about some of the games. Gameplay elements, you know, there's, it's like there's combat, there's exploration. There are some upgrades, which I did like to see in the combat system. But the combat is so simple that like, did the upgrades matter? You know what I mean? Like, I got upgrades and I got like, you know, my batarangs could do, you know, they could stun people and it took, you know, fewer of them.

And it's like I got one where I could grab a guy with the grapple gun. And then if I flipped over him and pushed right trigger, it would sling. the guy. And it's like, well, that's a really cool thing. But I'm beating that guy up in like five seconds anyway. And so this makes it four seconds that he dies. Like that's not really like none of the guys drop loot. There's no like progression outside of just the the vehicles and the suits. And I don't care about cosmetics. And I don't know, man. I was saying, this is one of those games that just had nothing for you. Because the only rewards were for in the levels, you could find the things that unlocked the collectible.

You could put up in the back cave. Which I'm not a collectible. Or you could find the red brick that changes the cosmetic color of your suit. And that was kind of all the incentive was to explore the level, solve the puzzles, get out and all that. Right. And I already knew when I saw that. I was like, you know what's funny? You mentioned that.

But like my favorite part of the game was when you get the Wayne Tech chips and going around the city and getting the Wayne Tech so that I could actually upgrade my skills. Those are skill points. Those are skill points. Exactly. Yeah. And that's, I was like, oh, I want these Wayne Tech chips. because now I get to upgrade my skills, but then that didn't matter. It's not like I needed the better skills to progress in the game.

You know what I mean? Like this isn't, and that's the difference, Ryan. Like I am a person that needs that carrot to chase to where it's like, I can't beat this boss if I don't have these skills because I'm not strong enough. So I need to get these skills and acquire these

so that I can beat this boss so that I can progress in the game. And that loop feeds me. The here's just a different animation in combat, even though combat still still stay. as simple as it is just doesn't do it for me at all. That's fair. No, that's totally fair. So, you know, is there, I mean, at this point, we've been talking for a while, but we did

have the special visit from Batman earlier. So I heard. Is there, what is, let's do this. What is your favorite part about this game and what is your least favorite part about this game? Because I think that's really telling to a lot of people that might be on the fence for it. Ace is making a funny face. Ace, you have to pick out something you liked about it.

I liked that it is a love letter to Batman in general. There is a reference to almost any kind of Batman. Any Batman fans are going to love this. You've got references to the different kind of Joker's. You've got references to different kind of Batman's. You could see references to Arkham, the Arkham games, even, which is incredible to see in a Lego game, which, you know, Lego is supposed to be family-friendly, and the Arkham games are not.

Family-friendly, yep. So that was great to see. And, you know, my gripes are still, I just hate the open world. Like, I didn't grow up with Lego games that had open worlds. They had hubs. So they had, like, hubs you would explore and you unlock the secrets, unlock the characters, and you have mission selects from there. That's what you did.

That's how you played the Lego Games. And you would unlock a massive roster of characters up to like 80 to 100 characters that you could pick from and play. And they all had similar abilities or they had different abilities. And you would go back into the level and play it on the mode called FreePlay, which let you play as any character you want outside the story. And that's how you got all the ability. the collectibles and 100% the game.

This game doesn't do that. This game is, you can 100% the level from the get-go and you're just stuck with whatever characters you have at the moment. You have Robin, you have Batman. They give you at that point in the story. Yeah. That doesn't have that replayability that the elder games had.

Do you think with, I mean, with it trying to emulate like Arkham and stuff, do you think it would have worked if they didn't make it open? Like, it's kind of got to be open for that style. I don't know. Asylum wasn't open. Yeah, that's true. It wasn't an open, Arkham was an open world series until Arkham City.

Yeah. Which is why it got so good. I prefer. I prefer asylum over city. What? Really? Yeah, I like Arkham Asylum Over City. That's crazy.

I actually really liked Asylum. So did I. I liked it a lot, but City was. I don't, I don't remember. I don't know, dude. It's been so long they kind of blend together for me. You know, for me, again, I'm with you, Ace. I think you hit the nail in the head.

I think anybody that's a fan of Batman and Legger's, really gets a lot out of this. You know, it is an homage to all of the highlights of the Batman movies, the series, the villains, the heroes, the characters. Like, you know, if you're a fan, this is giving you fan service, like 100%. And I get that people would just geek out over that and be like, this is freaking cool, man. The fact that they have all these Easter eggs and these characters and these abilities and you get to have them as companions and they do different things and all that, like,

I can get behind that 100%. And I think that's probably where this game shines for me. You know, and I think that that is something that would resonate with a lot of people. For me, the game, and I'll just go back to what you said, it felt as shallow as could possibly be. The gameplay just didn't do it for me. I'd like Batman. I'm more of a Marvel guy than a DC guy, you know, so it's like some of this stuff was cool. Some of it was like, okay, whatever.

Like, I feel like you're trying a little bit too hard. but ultimately this just felt to me like a game that was made for kids and that presents to me as an older gamer and somebody that especially loves difficulty and progression it just whiffed on those two aspects for me and again that's not the fault of the game i think it's just me as a gamer this isn't my kind of game but at the same time i can't help but go like this really didn't do it for me either so what about you ryan um so i'm definitely higher on it than you guys i I think that, again, just like you guys said, I think hitting all those spots, I think anyone who has watched a lot of the Batman movies and played a lot of the games, they're going to see all these different things that they threw in there, even like real subtle stuff.

And they had all these villains. You had Penguin and Mr. Freeze and, you know, different versions of the Joker. Even you have Jack Nickerson's Joker. And then you had Heath Ledger's Joker. and even did like the clap, you know. And so there's so much there that is like a kind of a fan service to everybody, which is cool.

So I'm assuming it's, you know, to hit up the dads that are playing it with their son or their moms that are playing it with their kid, you know, and in that sense. But yeah, I like that part of it a lot. What I, what's a negative for me is just I wouldn't say that it's shallow. But I, all this really made me. want to do is just go play Arkham City. Right. Exactly. Like I'm like, there's better games. I'm like,

this is cool and I got it so excited. I got the grappling hook and I'm like, all right, I can't wait till I can glide. And then boom, I unlocked the gliding and I can glide now. And so then I'm gliding around the city and I'm like, this is sick. But all it made me want to do, everything I did, just made me want to go play like, quote unquote, like the real

Batman game. Like that's what it made me want to do. My son loved it. He had a good time and I had fun playing it with him. But, I mean, for 70 bucks, It's, I don't know, it's a lot to ask, you know, for $70, like, what you're going to get out of this. And I don't, I don't know if they delivered on that part of it. Yeah, so I was going to ask, was the $70 worth this experience? Like, would you have spent the $70 if it wasn't for this podcast?

40. I think 40 would have been good. I can say, unequivocably, I felt like I wasted 70 bucks. I absolutely felt like we wasted 70 bucks. And again, I need to be clear, this is, this is an issue with. this isn't a bad game. This is just the wrong audience, right? Like, I am the wrong audience for a Lego game.

I don't think a Lego game is $60. And there are people that are the right audience for that. You know what I mean? But for me, I was just like, bro, I wish I hadn't paid $70 for this game. And there's a reason that when 007 came out that we bounced because I was not having a good time at all. I had played enough. Like I said, it made it halfway through, you know, at that point. And it's like, I know what this game is at this point.

Yeah. you know, it's not, it's not going to change drastically because of one character. Because I know there's always going to be people like, bro, you didn't get to this companion. And that totally is cool. And it's like, that doesn't change the base gameplay for me. It doesn't change the issues that I have with this. So, um, all right, well, let's rate it. But, you know, since you ask the question ace, I don't feel like this game is worse, $70.

Um, even if you're a huge fan of Lego and Batman, I still think the $70 price tag for this is overblown. This to me, even for a fan, like a massive fan, it feels like this game should have been 40 or 50 bucks to me. I paid $20 for the original Lego Batman on the Wii when it came out. I don't think this was worth $70. I would rather pay $70 for that game. As the highest one of all of us, do you feel like it's worth $70? No, no. 40 was the number in my head.

I think that it's, I mean, think about like, if you went to the McDonald's and the, like, McDonald's, Happy Meal was 1350, like a Big Mac meal or something. Whatever the prices are, I don't know what the prices are there, but like if it's the same price, it's like this is not, this is, this is smaller because it's meant for kids and it's, and it's, it's, uh, there's less time put into it. It's less product. And so that's why it's cheaper. That's why this game should have been cheaper. I think, I think that it is not bad. Like a Happy Meal's good for a kid. They love it. And the kids will love this game, but it shouldn't be the same price as, you know, super mega, really good, like, pristine games that are, that are meant for adults

and meant for the adults that have the $70. Like, I think 40, 450, you know, at the most would have been a really good sweet spot where people felt happy that they paid that and not kind of a little jipped out. Yeah. All right. Let's rate it. This one's hard, dude. This is hard for me because I want to, this is the, do I rate it based on the game itself

and what the people, what they created? and the aspects of the game, which I can appreciate, or do I rate it on the Josh scale where it's like, well, this is my opinion of the game. You know what I mean? And it's like, that one's really tough for me. Josh scale. I am going to, you want the Josh scale?

Don't ask for that. Be real. No, you got to be real, man. I mean, legitimately, if it's on the Josh scale, I'd give this like a 6.4. Like, I just didn't have fun. Like, I had fun for probably five hours. Like honestly, like, if this, like, legitimately five hours in, I was like, okay, cool, but then it all started to just feel routine.

Like, everything felt routine to me at that point. Nothing felt new and exciting. And it all started to feel very, very mundane at that point. And I just kind of went, I don't, I'm not having fun anymore, man. And I play video games to have a good time. And so in that case, I'll say 6.4. I know that's going to sound crazy low to a lot of people, but Ryan told me to rate it on the Josh scale. and this is just not my kind of game.

It's not the game's fault. Again, I'm going to say that one more time. This is just, it's not for me. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that's completely fair. If we're rating it on an actual scale, like what we... No, I want you rating it on the game scale,

is I don't want your personal rating. Okay, fair enough. No, I'm just kidding. It's like, wait, why do you get to give the Josh score? No, no, no, no. You're the boss. You want to get crucified the internet. You go for it.

I legitimately want the ACE score on this one. one too. I had a good time for this in the beginning, kind of like you. Like four or five hours in, I was enjoying myself when I unlocked Catwoman. I was having fun playing his Catwoman because it was a new, you know, character with a different playstyle than a gun or a batarang. You just liked you could be a cat.

I liked that I was able to whip everyone and put them into like a stun and spin around a top spin. Yeah. That reminded me of the old like, oh yeah, this was always fun then. And then when I maxed out Catwoman, there was nothing new for me to do with her. It was over.

There was nothing cool I could do with her anymore. It was the end of the character I was enjoying playing. So I just kind of lost interest. And when you mentioned that we could get an early copy of 007, I was like, Yeah. I'm in. I'm bouncing off as hard. I think it's, I mean, I hated the voice action too.

So I got to give it even lower score than you. I'm saying 6-2. I did not enjoy. Do not enjoy a lot of what this game does. I enjoy it. It's a fair criticism. It's a certain kind of game meant for a certain kind of person. And if you're not that kind of person, then I don't think these games are going to be able to be able to love Legos. You love Batman and you're a kid. You'll enjoy this game. But otherwise, like, if you want a more sophisticated combat system, a more intricate, like, skill tree, like, you're just not going to get it here. And you're not going to get a really, like, in-depth open world. You're not going to get something to strive for in your levels with progression. You're just, it's a Lego game. I also would never pay $70 for it.

Yeah, it was pricey. All right, Ryan, what about you? That's the big thing, too, is the $70 price tag, which in my book kind of knocks it down, because that's a lot of money to pay for a game. That's, you know, that's a lot of money. And this does have a lot of content. There's a lot of characters. There's a lot of unlockables and stuff like that.

But it's, are you going to have the drive to do that? Are you going to want to keep playing to unlock that stuff? Like, with Arkham, I had, and I know I keep referencing it because that was like the bar. Like, that's why they made the game the way they made it. They keep comparing this game to. They continually compared this game to Arkham, and they do it to themselves. Excuse me. And then all it made me do is want to play Arkham.

Like, I'm just like, why am I doing this when I can just play the real thing and, like, have more fun? So, no, I'm definitely higher than you guys on it. I'm going to try to balance out my personal feelings with the joy of being a father and, like, playing with my son. Because that was the experience I had. So, um, I'm going to give this, like, a 7-5. I think that it's a fair. I think it's a fair game. I think it was,

it was well crafted, uh, minus like the crazy issues with like cut scenes and, and stuff like that. But I think, I think all the nods to, uh, like what Batman is and all the old throwbacks and,

and the different, you could tell they took their time putting that stuff in to really kind of make people happy and like a fan service. But it just wasn't, I mean, it's just not deep. It's not that. It's not,

there's not a lot there. and so play with a kid. If you got a kid, play with it, and also wait for it to go on sale. 7.5 would have been my game journalist score. I was just about to say legitimately, dude. Like, you jumped in, but I was going to say, if you asked for my game rating,

like, how does this rate is again? I was going to say 7.5. That's hilarious to me. And again, I just want to clarify, if you're enjoying this game and you're not a kid and you're not like... Have fun, dude. Have fun.

Keep enjoying it. We're not telling you not to enjoy it. No, that's true. you want to enjoy, but we do have to be honest. Here's the difference, guys. The internet world that we live in tells you that if somebody hates a game, that they need you to hate that game too. You know what I mean?

That's what the internet would have you believe. How dare us? How dare we enjoy mixtape? You know what I mean? How dare we not like this game that other people liked, you know? And that's the thing is like, games are different for different people. And like I said, we have a large Discord server. It's very active.

and there were many people playing Lego Batman that were absolutely loving it. And that, like, our opinion is not a slander to the people that were having a blast. Like, we're glad. Like, we want nothing more than for people to enjoy their video games. You know what I mean?

Just because we didn't enjoy it is not a slander to somebody that did enjoy it. We're actually glad that you enjoyed it, especially for the price that you had to pay for it. This is just our personal opinions for people that might be on the fence for it. This is why we always try to give people different aspects of a game so that they can form their own opinion.

We are not saying that you need to replicate our opinion on something. You know what I mean? And this is one of the reasons that we have three hosts on this show is so that people can go, you know what, I really tend to side with Ace with the type of games that he likes. Or I'm like Ryan. I like these kind of games. Or I'm like Josh. And that way people can make the decision for themselves on what they like and what they

don't like. But we're always going to be honest with people. and if that means that sometimes we have to say something negative about a game, you know, then it's just our opinion. It's not a slander to somebody else. It's not saying that you should think like we do. Let's be honest, half the time you should think not like we do. Thank you yourself and have fun.

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, but there you go, people. That's Lego Batman from us and for our opinions on it. I will say, I don't think it's worth 70 bucks, unless you were just the biggest fan of Batman and Lerner, Legos then maybe, but I, this is one where it's like, even if you sound interested, it's probably going to go on sale pretty soon. Um, and then maybe just wait. Um, so, all right. Well, there you go, everybody. That is, hey,

and we had a special guest appearance at the beginning of the episode. You missed it, dude. You missed it. dude. I guess that's a bummer. I guess that man's, dude, maybe I'll start being on time now. I don't know. It's weird because he's kind of chunkier than I were thought Batman would be. Really? You know? Well, you know, like he was really. kind of pop like just bulging out of that the Lego effects. The Lego effects. The Lego effects for sure.

All right, everybody, listen. That's going to do it for this episode. Come join our Discord server. Follow the podcast. Hit that plus button. And hey, head on over to Patreon.

Support the show so we can keep being stupid like we are. And maybe we'll get another superhero on the show with your hard-earned money. You know, we try to improve the podcast with what the supporters give us to do that. So thank you to everybody out there. Hope you enjoyed this episode.

Until next time, happy gaming. See ya. See ya. Peace out.