The animated world of Batman The Brave and the Bold is brought out of the television show and into the players hands in this new Wii title. The transition from tongue in cheek cartoon to playable game is a match, but is that a good thing?
Released: September 7, 2010 (US)
Publisher: Warner Bros., Interactive Entertainment
Developer: WayForward
Genre: Action Side-scroller
Verdict: A perfect fit for the target audience, children, and will not annoy those around the room, their caregivers.
Pros: Perfectly captures the the sights, sounds, and humor of the television show.
Cons: Will leave more mature gamers bored with repetitive game play.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold (BATB for short) has the players taking on the role of the well known figure of Batman. This version of Batman may not be familiar to a whole generation of fans that grew up on episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and any of the movies. The Caped Crusader is the more jovial and brightly colored protagonist of the 1950’s-1960’s and the current BATB cartoon series. Fans of that series will not be in for any shock for the tone and humor of this title. BATB also allows players to select an alternate character for each of the four worlds to portray, so if Batman is not your thing you can always try the game as Robin, Green Lantern, Guy Gardener, Blue Beetle, and Hawkman. Now don’t let me lead you astray, you cannot play through every level with these alternates, only the levels where they are the teammate of Batman. From a historical (and comic geek) perspective, BATB being a team up game makes perfect sense as that is what the show and the original comic series were all about.
Hawkman Smash!
The gameplay is a standard side-scrolling format. Players can button mash their way across each play area in the four episodes to not only beat on the bad guys, but to collect coins that can be used to upgrade Batman and his friends’ gadgets and powers. The combat does not change much from the beginning episode in Gotham to the end of the game in the far reaches of space. There are some moves and combos that can executed, but most break down to hitting the A button 3 times. To most gamers this type of combat will get old quick. Button mashing seems to work as well as trying to execute a jumping combo or grabbing an opponent for multiple hits. Since you are playing as Batman, there are the devices as I mentioned. The standard Batarang is there, along with some explosives, flash bangs, Nth Metal knuckles and more. These are eventually unlocked or purchased with coins collected throughout the game. Once you have acquired the devices, they can be upgraded up to two times using the coins that you collect. The coin collection became more of a concern to me than the actual episodes I was playing. The reason for this is because your character cannot die in BATB. If your character should run out of health, you lose 100 coins. If you don’t have enough coins, you come back anyway and just stay at zero. This lead to less concern for my dynamic duos, and more concern for my change purse. After all, the completionist in me did want to open up all of the gadgets and upgrade them. I found the devices to be more of an after thought in the play than organically blended in (see Arkham Asylum). Most of the time I would not use my gadgets, unless I was prompted to by the game. This happens to open up certain areas, or hit hard to reach switches.
Yes, that is Gentleman Ghost.
In addition to your hand to hand (or superpowered) fighting skills and devices, Batman is assisted by drop-in heroes. These heroes pop in (when charged up) with the push of the 1 button and a shake of the Wiimote to charge them up. The animation is slick and stylized. As you progress through the game more heroes become available for the drop-in role. I was both shocked and pleased by the characters WayForward chose to include in the game. From the classic Green Lantern to the much made-fun-of Aquaman. A classically garbed Green Arrow and his lady love Black Canary make appearances as well. The one that shocked me the most was one of my favorite characters that seems to get no love, Captain Marvel. There were other classic DC heroes in the game as well. There is a two fold problem with the drop-in heroes: The first is that it makes no difference in your choice of helping hand, all of them do different attacks, but I could not see these different attacks having any practical meaning in terms of the game. The second problem is that to power up the attack, the player must shake the Wiimote. Every command in the game where the player is forced to shake the Wiimote, serves as a remind that this game should use a controller configuration and not the Wiimote and nunchuck combination. The actions feel like WayForward realized they were making a Wii game, so they had better find a few ways to make you shake the controller.
Sadly there is no John Stewart.
BATB should be praised for creating a game that really speaks to the fans of the show and Batman in general with gameplay suited for the target audience of the show, children. Since the characters cannot die, kids will not become overly frustrated. They may take a bit longer to complete something, but they will be able to get through the whole game. The voice acting is fantastic. Let me put it this way, if the player elects to go into training mode, these duties are handled by Wildcat. R Lee Ermy handles the vocals for Wildcat so that training was a highlight for me. BTAB actually features all the the vocal talent from the tv series and this quality comes through in the game. The story lines, while simplified, are great within the context of the BATB universe and there are enough little touches thrown in to please the DC fans playing because it is a Batman game. Look out for Ted Kord, Darkside, Entrigan and more. In the end Batman Brave and The Bold will please the children but leave your average adult gamer bored with the gameplay, but entertained by the story.
GrE Grade: C
Popularity: unranked [?]
