Lego Batman 3 vs. Lego Marvel: Which is Better?
Ok, so anyone that knows me knows that I am a huge fan of the lego games. I play a great deal of them and have a blast doing it. Not too long ago we saw the anticipated release of Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. Seeing as it is Christmas and the App Store was selling it for half the retail price I naturally jumped at the opportunity to buy it!
I’m almost done beating it and I wanted to give it a real fair amount of playtime before settling on my opinion. I confess, that the second I started playing the game I was comparing it like there was no tomorrow to the Lego Marvel Universe game. Sorry DC, it just had to be done.
I have a lot of love for the Marvel Universe but my heart has always belonged to DC and I feel bad to say that the winner is…. The Marvel lego game. Why? Where to begin?
1. Open World- It’s almost 2015. When it comes to games it almost feels like open world is a necessary ingredient. We see it in Assassins Creed, the Arkham games, Grand Theft Auto, and so many more. The simple fact that you could jump out of the sky and free fall with any two marvel superheroes towards New York City and navigate your way towards your next mission was just AWESOME! Lego Batman 3 gave us a bit of open world in regards to the Watch Tower and the Batcave but come on! We should be able to roam free through Metropolis, Star City, and Gotham! I think this was a piece they could have improved on.
2. So Many Character but Not Enough Story?- I still have a ton of characters to unlock in the game but I noticed very quickly that the characters you have access to for story mode is much more limited than what you had in Marvel. The Marvel game had levels that celebrated different elements of the Universe. There was an X-men dedicated level for crying out loud! I know that DC only has one real group and that’s the Justice League, but I think they could have branched out a bit more to other character’s worlds. I was hoping to see Green Arrow, Shazam, Aquaman, and Black Canary in story mode. Oh well.
3. First Place Advantage- This one is of no fault to Lego Batman 3. Really it’s just rotten luck. If you haven’t played Lego Marvel than you will probably be AMAZED with the creative and fun effects they’ve made for the characters in Lego Batman 3. If you have however, you might, like me, feel a bit unenthused. Many of the powers and mechanisms for the characters are things we have already seen in the Lego Marvel game. Wonder Woman Reflection like Captain America, Martian Manhunter big mode like Hulk, Superman gold heating like the Human Torch and so much more. It’s all super cool but coming after a game that already features all of the effects makes the DC big hero debut a 
little lackluster.
4. The Element of Familiarity- Yes we see the Hall of Justice, the Bat-Cave, and the Watch Tower. The problem is that Marvel having already solidified a strong film Universe gave Lego something strong to work with for the game. We got to see familiar locations from the film shown in Lego form (just amazing) hear familiar sound effects (Tony Starks Ironman suit) and feel apart of something seen in real time. Lego Batman 3 does awesome with the places it shows us but again, to no fault of the game, Marvel just comes out on top for having that source material.
So there you have it. Lego Batman 3 is still a blast and I’m glad there are so many characters to unlock and play with but Lego Marvel just really hit on something special.
