Traveller's Tales know a good thing when they see it...in fact, it's a pretty safe bet that whoever came up with the idea to cross-breed LEGO's new line of Star Wars toys with a licensed game based on the films got a hearty handshake and some cake. Of course, full credit must be given to the developers for taking the money-making permit and actually producing a thoroughly enjoyable game that can appeal to both kids and adults alike. The games were so good that Lucasfilm saw fit to commission the same team to make the Indiana Jones trilogy into a LEGO series, and they all made so many truckloads of cash that they decided to rebuild the dark knight of Gotham City himself, Batman, in their blocky image.

On paper it sounds perfect, but in reality Batman is actually a bit of a risk compared to Star Wars or Indiana Jones – while there are a number of bat-films around, they lack the conceptual coherence of the two Lucasfilm series, running the gamut from the dark, twisted Tim Burton masterpieces to the technicolour crimes against humanity inflicted by Joel Schumacher. Add in the Animated Series, the original TV series and a smorgasbord of comics and what you really have is iconic heroes and villains who each have a dozen or more styles and appearances.

This is the sort of thing that should give game developers nightmares, but thankfully TT Games have the actual LEGO products to go by, whose design seems fairly close to Batman: The Animated Series. For the most part there's no alternative, unlockable costumes to replicate the various iterations of the characters, which simplifies things and it allows TT Games to focus on something they've never been able to do with their LEGO games before: present an original story!

Gone is the slavish devotion to film narratives, instead TT Games are free to create their own Batman adventure, and it's surprisingly good. The game is divided into three episodes, each featuring one arch-villain's plot and Batman's attempts to foil it. You will begin as the caped crusader as he rights wrongs and disrupts evil, and once you're done, you'll be given the opportunity to replay the whole thing from the bad-guy's perspective. It's a little unusual, and radically different from past LEGO games. Yet ultimately it works really well and is a lot of fun to play, although it would probably have felt a little more natural if you started as the villains formulating your evil plans and then swoop in afterwards as Batman to save the day.

It's worth mentioning that this campaign structure doesn't simply make you replay an identical level with a different group of characters – you will still do a lot of that in Free Play mode, but the hero and villain missions differ dramatically, often having almost no elements repeated between the two. This is great, because it keeps the game from getting stale, and also because it genuinely feels like you're getting two perspectives of events. It's actually pretty cool to play as famous felons like The Joker or The Penguin and painstakingly create the elaborate traps and doomsday weapons that you know Batman dispatched so easily under your guiding hand earlier!

It helps that TT Games really know what they're doing with their LEGO franchise games, and they ensure that there's always something to do or destroy. Batman and Robin both have a variety of special suits that you will use during their missions, such as a glider and sonar suit for Batman, and magnet boots for Robin. Using these suits, as well as the bad-guy's unique, villainous vocations is crucial to negotiating LEGO Batman's numerous puzzles. And as is traditional for the series, a good many of these puzzles will not be solvable on your first run through; you'll need to return at a later date in Free Play mode, where you can bring in any characters you want and just go nuts exploring.

As is also traditional for the series, you'll encounter a variety of pesky perspective problems, which will see you often leaping or falling to your death. The game has a fixed camera position that does have some slight leeway and allows for a modicum of user control, but it won't be enough to prevent countless unnecessary deaths. Thankfully the penalty for death is simply a loss of studs, which contrary to your imagination aren't pictures of Christian Bale in his swimsuit, but rather those little knobs on LEGO pieces that are used to hold the pieces together. In TT Games LEGO series, these serve as currency, and you'll use them to unlock new characters, vehicles, suit upgrades, fun bat-facts and more.

In addition to studs, you'll also be collecting pieces to mini-kits that assemble LEGO constructions, and coveted red bricks that unlock powerful upgrades. If you've played a LEGO Star Wars or Indiana Jones game you'll be familiar with the formula, perhaps even despairingly so. Truth is, there's nothing really new here gameplay wise...the controls are the same, the unlocks are the same, and there's bonus levels accessed exactly how you'd expect. It's incredibly predictable if you've played the series before, which isn't an entirely bad thing, but a few surprises would have been nice.

Visually, LEGO Batman looks pretty great for what it is. Obviously the LEGO characters and creations are pretty basic looking, although they have clearly been lovingly rendered and given a lot of personality by the team at TT Games. What has changed are the environments, which are much more detailed than past games in the series. They almost have to be, given they lack the familiar set-pieces and memorable moments that games based on films have, but the level of detail is great, and the LEGO men and women don't really feel out of place at all.

The game sounds good too, it's only film-based concession being the pilfering of Danny Elfman's score from the original Batman films. His legendary theme really just conjures Batman as soon as you hear it, making it an important addition to the game. There's no speech in this LEGO game either, and the series of gibberish noises, grunts and mumbles still work even with an original story that you've never experienced before. Other than that, it's mainly just the sounds of LEGO constructs being smashed to pieces or put back together, and in this department there's nothing new at all.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that LEGO Batman has dropped the Xbox Live co-operative play we saw in the Complete Saga edition of the LEGO Star Wars series. You can still play locally with a friend, but the decision to nix online play is both questionable and disappointing. Still, there's a tonne of stuff to do in LEGO Batman: the hero and villain campaigns are each about 3-4 hours long, and the Free Play mode can go on as long as you want it to. Completionists will have their work cut out for them too, and the two secret levels are set in perhaps the only two well-known locations in the Batman universe. Neither are quite as well developed as the bonus levels in other LEGO games however, and aside from achievements you'll unlock nothing from beating them.