When it was announced that there was a video game coming out based on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold TV series, I was not very excited. I thought that this was just another way to cash in on the Batman franchise. Warner Bros. was kind enough to send a review copy of the Wii version of the game to try and help us spread the word about the game. So what did I think?
Before I get to my overall thought, I want to cover the general information about the game. The game is modeled off of the series very closely. The levels are broken down into "episodes." There were even teasers. The levels are broken into small parts that seemed to end with a cliffhanger right before a commercial. The game is a side-scroller that has you defeating a number of villain and henchmen. It wouldn't be a Batman: The Brave and the Bold game without a team-up. You team up with one of four heroes depending on which episode you are playing. The team-up hero can also be played by a second player. Throughout the game you and your partner can call on a number of other heroes to come in and perform a power mover that takes out a large number of villains.
Alright, on to what I liked about the game. I thought the setup of the game was really good. To model off of the setup of an episode on TV was genius. It worked very well for this kind of game. I thought the use of the same voice over cast was great too. Not every game manages to do this, but I am glad that they did even for the villains that haven't been featured a lot on the show. The use of power-ups and coins throughout the game worked well to. Batman has a ton of gadgets and why not find a way to purchase or upgrade them. The controls were made to work well with the motion controller on the Wii, by including some actual movements for some moves, but also not going overboard and having too many.
As for the things I didn't like, there are not very many. I first thought that being a side-scroller, it wouldn't be very good, but I was proved wrong. The game flowed perfectly and made sense as a side-scroller. The downfall of this was that the details of the backgrounds were not always very good since it was a side-scroller. I would have preferred if there was just a slight bit more detail. The only other thing I wish was different was the inclusion of Bat-Mite. Bat-Mite was included in the game, but only if you had the Nintendo DS version. Now I understand that this was a benefit to those people who have both systems, but how many of those people have both and don't have kids. I would have liked to see Bat-Mite in a larger role within the game besides in the DS version. I don't have a DS and even if I did, I don't think I would go spend $50 for the Wii version and then $30 for the DS version.
With all of that being said, I actually really enjoyed the game. I thought it was a lot of fun and would be a ton of fun for families with little ones. It could be yet another way to get kids involved in Batman.
You can buy the DS version here or the Wii version here.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold The Videogame!:
Posted by Dustin
