Didn’t get to playing anything until late tonight, and the games weren’t able to hold my interest for long, so let’s jump in it.
I played LEGO: Batman, one of my current GameFly rentals, for a little bit. I’ve played almost all the LEGO games for some reason, partly because it’s a completionist’s dream, with its easily found objects but so many to collect, and partly because it’s a bit of stupid fun, with wanton destruction throughout and a lot of cute schticks. I rented this one because it wasn’t a LucasArts affair, and also, because it’s Batman. Tiny Lego Batman fighting tiny Lego Joker. Adorable.I had made it through the Batman-centric chapters over the past few days, fighting all the villains and gaining new abilities through the use of changing suits...a bit silly, but it works, ultimately. Each round has a boss fight, which is nice, fighting one of the Rogues Gallery. It still has the same problem as other with puzzles that are nonsensical at best, asking you to do things without any indication of what it is or any precedent to think that’s how it works, but once you realize the rules is basically destroy everything and look for sparkling stuff, it’s easy to pick up.
Tonight I got through about three levels of the Riddler’s chapter, and got to play with the supervillains, which are a lot better than previous installments. Because they have superpowers, they get neat abilities, like the ability to freeze people (Mr. Freeze, of course), superstrength (the decidedly thuggish Clayface, who get’s a poor treatment here by being the comic relief villain), and mind control (the Riddler...apparently). Ok, so some powers don’t quite match up, but having such a variety of options really ups the variety of the puzzles.
The villain chapters showcase what the villains were up to before the Dark Knight wrecked their plans, a bit of the behind the scenes treatment. Watching the set pieces get in the condition they’re in when Batman arrives is kinda nice, although the details are so small that it’s tough to catch the similarities. I stopped playing after a nastily stupid puzzle that required me to jump on a switch three times, something I’ve never had to do before in any LEGO game, without being hit...in a room with constantly respawning enemies. Frustrating enough for me to call it.
I also played a flash game on Kongregate, my preferred flash gaming site. Record Tripping, a Bell Brothers game (whoever they are), which is either trying too hard to be artsy or just hard enough, I can’t tell. It’s a stunning little production, which involves five minigames centered around spinning your scroll button. One involves a barrel maze and trying to get a ball out of it, one planting some seeds, one involves a conveyor belt, but all rendered well, with some artistic quality. Throughout a woman reads from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with some back-up beats. When you spin the scroll button, the reading skips appropriately, backwards or forwards, which can be disconcerting if you’re actually paying attention to the lady.In all, it takes no more than 10 minutes to play, and qualifies as an experience. What it’s trying to say besides, “Please give us an award,” I can’t tell you, but the Bell Brothers sure put together a pretty project.
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