Game: Batman: Brave and the Bold

Platform: DS

Publisher: Warner

Developer: WayForward

ESRB: E

Genre: Sidescrolling superhero brawler

Players: 1

What's Hot: Seamless switching of characters, side characters never feel underpowered, Bat-Mite boost can help younger players

What's Not: You don't want to play as Batman, main game is short, Bat-Mite boost may be too helpful

---

Review by: Brandon "Fists of Justice" Cackowski-Schnell

Despite the modern portrayal of Batman as a barely contained psychopath, there was a time in DC canon when Batman was just as goofy as the rest of the heroes in the DC pantheon. The Batman: Brave and the Bold tv series, and the accompanying games, are a call back to those times, when a dude with a clock on his head was considered a major threat and only the combined forces of Batman and Plastic Man were capable of dealing with the menace. The DS game bearing the show's name goes a long way towards capturing the silly feel of the tv show however it's short length and lack of challenge, even for younger players, detracts somewhat from the experience.

The hook of the tv show is that every episode Batman must team up with some DC hero or another and take on a similarly paired up group of villains. The show mixes past Batman camp with modern characters, leading to a situation where Batman may team up with the latest, cybernetic version of Blue Beetle yet tackle the 40's vamp version of Catwoman. It's an odd mix yet the show's silly sense of humor allow it to work. That sense of humor is well portrayed in the game, even if the fantastic voice acting of the game's Wii sibling is sadly missing.

While playing the game you'll have access to both Batman and your compatriot at any time, switching between the two by tapping the character on the touchscreen. Deciding which character to use is essential for navigating through the environment with some characters having abilities such as Plastic Man's super jumps or Green Arrow's ability to use suction cup arrows as makeshift ledges. The game always tells you exactly the move you'll need to use to make it through the level however any additional exploring you want to do will require you to put a little thought into things.

Combat is a simple affair with each character having a heavy attack, a light attack and their own super move. While Batman has a full compliment of gadgets to purchase and unlock with funds collected during the levels, the side character do not, ending up in a curious situation where until you're able to amass enough money to make Batman competitive, the best hero in the game isn't the one the game is named after. As wondeful as Batman's toys are, they usually pale in comparison to the move sets of the side characters. Half of the fun is seeing what the new powers are available every time a side character is introduced. As you fight your way across the stages you'll eventually power up a super powerful combo move that allows the two heroes to do a huge amount of damage to all of the baddies on screen in an incredible super team up. Whether it's picking up Plastic Man and swinging him around as a giant, spiked wrecking ball, or, in what is my favorite video game animation of all time, riding the back of a bubble spewing sperm whale with Aquaman, the combo moves are great fun and help players get out of a jam when they're spammed by bad guys.

The game is never terribly difficult, which is understandable given that it's aimed at a young audience. Checkpoints are frequent and there's no penalty for dying. Still, if younger players are finding the combat and platforming too hard, the Bat Mite Boost can be enabled allowing for unlimited health and giant Bat-Mite heads floating around the level to keep your hero from plunging to his death the majority of the time. As a parent of a younger gamer, I appreciate the ability to make the game more accessible however at the same time, thinking of my son, I think he'd probably keep the feature turned on which would let him burn through the game in about three hours.

Even with Bat-Mite's helping hand disabled the game is on the short side, however completing a level unlocks various challenges for every level such as back to back battles against a level's two bosses with only one health bar to use for the fights, and a smaller subset of the level that you traverse with the side character for that level. The Bat-Mite Boost doesn't apply to the bonus challenges, which extends the life of the game, but even with the challenges, it's pretty short.

Completing the challenges gives additional currency to upgrade Batman's gadgets however you'll probably get enough money over the course of the main game to fully upgrade everything leaving you with nothing to spend your Bat-coins on. There are character portraits of various Brave and the Bold heroes and villains sprinkled throughout the levels so completionists can always replay levels to try and find them however as they're static images, younger kids probably won't find them worth their time.

Even with these limitations, Batman: Brave and the Bold does an excellent job of recreating the tv show as well as teaching kids about past DC heroes and villains from a time when not everything had to be grim and gritty. Platforming veterans will find the game entirely too easy but as an entry point for younger gamers looking to start playing platformers, or learning about Batman, it's a good, if entirely too brief start.

Brandon Cackowski-Schnell is a regular contributor to GameShark and is the cohost of Jumping the Shark , GameShark.com's official podcast. He also writes for the blog The Nut and the Feisty Weasel .

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .