The Chronic Consumer

I recently bought my son a copy of Lego Batman DS for getting good grades on his report card. He’s in first grade now, and we had a lot of trouble at the beginning of the school year because he didn’t adjust very easily to being gone the whole day after two years of half-day kindergarten and half-day preschool. But he eventually made some friends and got used to the schedule, and did very well on his report card.

Anyway, I’d heard of the Lego series of video games before, but never quite understood what the attraction was. They seemed kinda dumb to me — which was really an unfair assessment since I’d never actually played one. But my teenage cousin recommended this title, so I decided to get it for my son.

That turned out to be a terrific choice, as Lego Batman DS quickly became one of his favorite games! Gameplay is rather simple. There are three different storylines with 5 chapters each, for a total of 15 game scenarios. But you double that because each one can be played in Story Mode or Free Play, and you double that number because you can play from either the Hero or Villain perspective. So 60 choices… quite a lot!

You just go through each level collecting Lego studs, fighting villains (or heroes, as the case may be), and building up stacks of Lego pieces to form helpful tools, such as Grapple Spots, levers, and ladders. There are a bunch of unlockable characters to choose from, and each character has different abilities that helps you move through the levels. Moreover, you have to collect certain hidden objects, such as Red Bricks, Joker Cards, Minikit Canisters, and Riddler Clues to unlock other special items, such as power-ups and MiniGames.

To be honest, I started playing the game a little bit because my son needed help with one part — and then I totally got hooked and played until I unlocked everything! This game is seriously addictive! It’s so simple, and yet amazingly fun. It actually prevented me from getting a lot of work done, including cooking dinner and cleaning the house. This prompted my husband to jokingly threaten sending me to some kind of drug rehab or intervention program! Ok, so video game addiction is not really in the same ballpark as drug addiction, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, as a parent, I was truly pleased by Lego Batman DS. It’s fun, easy enough for young kids to play unsupervised, rated E for Everyone, and is a total bargain at less than $20. I liked this game so much that I’m planning on buying other Lego series titles for my son for Christmas. That means Indiana Jones and/or Star Wars!