LEGO Batman is a comic-powered refinement of the formula that made LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones so appealing – a blend of action/brawling and platforming gameplay; a fun, cinematic franchise with iconic characters, with a completely awesome (and frequently very cute) LEGO look to the whole affair. Batman offers improved combat, expanded gameplay options – including separate quests for heroes and villains; and a fun, zany world that translates perfectly to the LEGO universe.

If you’ve never played a LEGO game, I’ll break it down for you. You control a couple of characters (in this case, you start with Batman and his boyish sidekick, Robin), and run around in linear 3D levels, kicking everyone’s butt, doing some light platforming, and solving the occasional simple puzzle. Vehicle stages are thrown in to the mix, and each character has special abilities, requiring quick switching among your mini-figures. You also collect a metric ton of LEGO pieces, good for new abilities, characters, and other goodies that are purchased in the overworld.

In Batman, you’re also collecting suits that give you special abilities (like gliding or setting up bombs), and fighting bosses in nearly every stage. Slapstick heavy (and dialogue-free) cut scenes punctuate the gameplay and tell the story in a simple, comedic fashion.

While LEGO Star Wars introduced the world to this new phenomenon of family friendly fun, and LEGO Indiana Jones experimented on the formula a bit with its more cinematic presentation, Batman’s game really brings it home. The set pieces are there right from the beginning, with stages like Mr. Freeze’s lab and the Riddler’s hideout. The combat is immediately more spot-on than it was in Indy, as Batman hits hard – like the total badass that he is - knocking cronies halfway across the screen with one punch. Even Robin hits harder than Indy did in the last game. Another major improvement is the speed and accuracy with which your little mini-figure puts together the various “LEGO sets” that litter the stages, making them less an exercise in frustration than they were in the last game.

By far the coolest part of the game is the heroes vs. villains feature that makes perfect use of all the iconic characters in the Batman universe. Once you complete the first chapter of the game, you can choose to travel to the Arkham Asylum (sort of the bad guy’s overworld equivalent to the Batcave) and play through the missions from the villain’s perspective – which is tons of fun. It’s also very cool to play with different characters’ abilities – while Batman and Robin each have plenty of suits that power them up appropriately, playing with the villains’ respective quirks makes for excellent replay value.