‘LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight’ is a Light in the Gloom

From the moment I saw the trailer for the newest title from Traveler’s Tales (LEGO Star Wars, Spyro the Dragon) and Warner Bros. (Batman, Superman, Looney Tunes), I knew it was going to be huge. I also knew that this was firmly in the “not for me” category of media. I fully admit to going into this game as a fan of neither LEGO nor the LEGO video games. In a way, that was the point. I wanted to see what this game could do without standing on the bias of someone who was a fan of the series. To be clear, here – I think the games are totally fine. Good, even! Just not my cup of tea. I think that nuance is lost in a lot of gaming discourse these days and that is part of what motivated me to take on this project.

That and the inclusion of “Kiss from a Rose”, which is either about yearning or drugs. (Image via Warner Bros.)

The High and Not the Pill I am delighted to say that I could not have been more wrong when it came to LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. This game is, unequivocally, for me. To start, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a linear story that combines multiple continuities into one surprisingly effective narrative. I choose my words carefully there; I was genuinely shocked at how well the game combined elements of all of the live-action films, major stories from the comics, plot lines from Batman: The Animated Series, and even the Arkham series of games. The plot, as the name would suggest, follows a long legacy of Batman, from his origins going with h…