LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight took centre stage at IGN Fan Fest last night, with a new cinematic, fresh gameplay details and more revealed on the show floor.
We’re only a few months away from getting hands-on with LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, while its three tie-in Batmobiles are racing on to shelves in just a few days. TT Games’ latest brick-built title popped up at IGN Fan Fest last night, with the studio’s Head of Development Jonathan Smith on hand to offer a few more insights as we build up to the game’s release – so here are five new things we’ve learned…
The story jumps around the timeline
While LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight encompasses stories and characters from throughout the Caped Crusader’s nearly 90-year history, it’s not going to tackle them in chronological order. Instead, you can expect the narrative to hop around the Bat-timeline, and in some cases begin by going backwards in time – as will apparently be the case with Catwoman, one of seven playable characters.
“With all the characters in this game, we want to give an essential version of that story that draws upon all their different aspects over the decades,” Smith said. “We start from the modern, most relevant, most recognisable, up-to-date version of that character, so we’re quite influenced – particularly at this time early in the story with the younger Bruce Wayne – by the Zoe Kravitz version from The Batman, and there’s the iconic outfit and look that she has.
“The scene that comes shortly after that in Schrek’s department store draws very heavily on the representation of the character and the suit you’ll remember from Batman Returns, the Tim Burton film with Michelle Pfeiffer in that role. The essence of Julie Newmar from the ‘60s is always in, sort of the spirit [and] fun of Catwoman. And we’re bringing those all together into our LEGO Catwoman.”
You can play as a cat
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight features a much smaller roster of familiar faces than previous LEGO games, with only seven playable characters in total (Batman, Robin, Catwoman, Jim Gordon, Nightwing, Batgirl and Talia al Ghul). There are still more than 100 suits to unlock across the party, but the focus is on more unique skillsets – and Smith has given us an idea of what to expect from Catwoman’s gameplay.
“The abilities that we’ve given Catwoman aren’t seen in any one of those movies [that she’s based on],” he added. “She’s got more tech now, she’s got kittens that she can summon with a laser pointer and use in combat, and her whip can do things that we haven’t seen in the other media. But I think you’d always recognise that as ‘video game Catwoman’ that is just really fun to play with.
“As Catwoman, you can summon cats around with a laser pointer, you can sort of launch cats at enemies, and they’ll scratch at their heads and do damage. You can also actually become a cat, and walk around and crawl into vents as a cat, sneak up behind enemies as a cat, distract enemies as a cat by meowing, jump up and down… just being a cat is really fun.”
Prince is in the game
The Clown Prince of Crime is obviously one of the main villains in Batman’s Rogues Gallery (and more on him in a sec), but a fresh cinematic for LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight reveals that the artist formerly known as Prince will also feature – just as he did in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie. The clip recreates the moment Joker and his goons vandalise Gotham City museum, soundtracked by Prince’s Partyman in the game as it was in the film.
We’re going to see a bunch of different Jokers
While a core part of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is upgrading each of the seven playable characters throughout their journey, it sounds like the villains will be going on narrative voyages of their own. Smith highlighted the Joker’s story as one example, speaking to how he’ll ‘transform’ over the course of the game to encompass the various different Jokers we’ve seen on the silver screen over the past few decades.
“The story takes place over many years, and as Bruce grows, as you as the player explore more of Gotham City and start to build the Bat-family, everything around Bruce starts to transform as well,” Smith explained. “And as you know, that Joker character that we all know from later on in Batman’s crime-fighting career has an origin story as well. We’ll get a glimpse of that, and we’ll see a key moment as he falls into the vat of Ace Chemicals.
“Later on he will fall from another great height as Jack Nicholson in that character does at the end of Batman ’89, and we’ll see him transform as Batman progresses as well, to become a character who does some of the really striking and shocking things that we see in the Christopher Nolan trilogy.”
James Gunn has played it
DC Studios co-chairman and co-CEO James Gunn came on board midway through the development of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and as you’d expect he’s already gone hands-on with the game. Smith was positive about Gunn’s influence on the wider DC-verse, although he didn’t share many specifics on the head honcho’s reaction to the latest LEGO Batman title.
“We couldn’t have been happier when James Gunn arrived because we love his sense of fun in all the storytelling that he’s created over so many years, and we knew that he would make the character in the new movies – and the other series as well – more relevant and exciting. He’d bring new viewers in. The more people who are excited about Batman the better, and James Gunn is the perfect person to lead that.
“We’ve been so thrilled with everything he’s done. We’ve been greatly supported by the DC team on this game as we have been on previous DC games, and when James Gunn played the game he gave some fantastic feedback. I know he liked it and that was great to hear.”
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight arrives on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC on May 29, with a Switch 2 version planned for a later date (to be confirmed).
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