LEGO® Batman: Beyond Gotham

About LEGO® Batman: Beyond Gotham

Look, I’ll be honest. I’m not much of a gamer. My son got me a Google Pixel 7 because my old flip phone finally gave up, and I mostly use it for calls and looking up the weather. But my neighbor George, who’s about my age but younger at heart, showed me this app on his phone last Tuesday afternoon while we were waiting for our wives to finish their book club. He said, “Bill, you gotta try this. It’s Batman, but made of little plastic bricks.” I thought he was pulling my leg. But here I am, three days later, and I’ve already spent a solid Saturday morning sitting in my recliner with the sound turned down low so the wife doesn’t roll her eyes. The game is called LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham, and it’s basically a big cartoon adventure where you run around smashing things and collecting shiny little studs. It’s not serious or scary at all. Everything is bright and colorful, and the characters bounce around like they’re made of rubber. Even when you “die,” you just fall apart into loose bricks and pop right back together. That’s my kind of video game — no stress, just silly fun.

Core Features

There’s a lot packed in here, maybe too much for an old guy like me. The main idea is that you control Batman and other DC heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman, and you travel to different places like the Batcave, the Hall of Justice, and even outer space. You’re trying to stop this big-headed alien called Brainiac from shrinking Earth. The story is goofy but it keeps you moving forward. What surprised me most is that you can switch between characters on the fly. Each one has a special trick — like Batman can grapple up to high ledges, and Superman can fly or melt metal stuff with his heat vision. You’ll need to use the right hero to solve little puzzles, like shooting a target or breaking a gold LEGO wall. There’s also a combat system where you just tap the screen to punch bad guys, and sometimes you do a special team-up move that looks really flashy. The game is divided into levels, and between levels you can explore a hub area and buy upgrades or new character tokens. I haven’t even tried the multiplayer mode yet — the idea of playing with strangers online makes me nervous — but George said you can play with a friend locally if they have the app too.

Real-World Use

I mostly play this in short bursts. After dinner, when my wife watches her shows, I’ll sit on the couch with my Pixel 7 propped on my knee. The touch controls are okay for someone with clumsy thumbs. There’s a little joystick on the left side of the screen and action buttons on the right. It took me about two levels to stop accidentally jumping into pits. I actually had to call my grandson on Thursday evening because I couldn’t figure out how to make Batman glide across a big gap. He laughed and said, “Grandpa, just hold down the jump button longer.” Felt silly, but it worked. The game runs smoothly on my phone — no freezing or weird glitches so far. The sound effects are cute, like little clinky plastic noises when you pick up studs. The music is heroic and bouncy, like something from an old cartoon. I will say the text is a bit small sometimes, especially the tutorial pop-ups. I had to tilt my phone closer to my reading glasses more than once. But once you get the hang of it, you can just follow the yellow arrow on the screen that tells you where to go next. That arrow is a lifesaver for someone like me who gets lost in video games.

Pricing & Value

The app itself costs $4.99 to download. That seemed fair to me — you get a full game, not a teaser. But here’s the part I don’t love: there are in-app purchases. Lots of them. You can buy extra character packs, costume bundles, and stud multipliers for real money. The game constantly shows you a little shopping cart icon with a “special offer” flashing. It feels pushy, like when the cashier at the grocery store asks if you want to donate a dollar. I’ve ignored them so far, and the game is still perfectly playable. But I can see how a kid or someone with less patience might get frustrated and cave in. The main story gives you plenty of characters for free — you unlock them just by playing — so I’d say the value is decent if you have self-control. For a retiree on a fixed income, I appreciate that the $5 purchase gets me a complete adventure. I just wish they’d tone down the ads for the paid stuff.

Updates & Support

I haven’t had to call anyone or send an email because the app has worked fine for me since I installed it on Wednesday afternoon. No crashes, no bugs. I can’t speak to the customer service team, but I did glance at some of the recent reviews in the Google Play Store before I bought it. A few people complained that an update last year messed up their saved game progress. That would really upset me — I’d hate to lose my unlocks. I’m just hoping that doesn’t happen. The app did update once automatically the day after I installed it, and it seemed to go smoothly. I wish the developer would put a little notice inside the app saying, “Hey, here’s what we fixed this week.” But they don’t. So I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m also backing up my phone data just in case. George told me he’s been playing for six months without trouble, so that’s reassuring.

Data & Privacy

This is where I get a little uneasy. I’m no expert on privacy, but the app asked for permission to access my phone’s storage and internet right when I installed it. That’s so it can save your game and download the levels, I guess. I also noticed it wants to know your location for “personalized content.” That felt like overreach to me. I denied that permission and the game still works fine. The privacy policy is a long wall of text I didn’t read fully — honestly, who has the time? But I did check the app’s rating on a site my daughter recommended, and it got a medium score for data collection. It shares some info with third parties for advertising. That’s pretty standard for free or cheap games these days, but I wish it didn’t. I turn my phone’s Wi-Fi off sometimes when I play just to feel safer. Maybe that’s paranoid, but I’m old enough to be careful.