So I’m allegedly a grown up. I buy Lego for the construction, the figures, the pieces and the play or display value. The prospect of  ‘free app for download’ is not a selling point for me. Indeed, it shouldn’t be – its free – no purchase required.

I enjoyed my Batman/Catwoman Mighty Micro set, and  I thought I’d give the game a quick run.

Is it playable?

Is it worth the download?

I downloaded the game to my iPhone.

Starting up, I was confronted with Batman, in the micro Batmobile, next to a big red lever. The lever selects your character, and in the first instance only batman is unlocked. Others are chained up. Selectable characters include Batman, Catwoman, Robin, Bane, Flash and Captain Cold.

Travelling through the tunnel to the left is where the selections occur: your opponent (same options as characters);  Track layout (City, Beachside? and Island) and Heist (Diamond, Ice-cream truck and Knocking over trees).  You can select your preferences, but there is also a random build generator: admittedly the choices really only affect the characters on the track, the environment (but not really the layout significantly) and the nature of the animation played at the start of the mission.

Each mission starts with a short Villain/Heist/ Hero interaction, and moves into the chase.

During the chase, you collect studs and weapons, avoid obstacles, and collect tiles (which allow you to unlock characters, environments and heists.).  There are choices in paths to take, mainly in the form of ramps, skyways, speedup strips and paths of studs. Studs allow you to unlock bonus material in the home base. During the chase, you cannot catch up with , or be caught by your opponent. Occasionally, when racing as a villain, a hero will overtake you and try to stop you with a street sign.  If you hit it, the game will crash…this is not a play feature.

 

At the end of the chase, there is a ‘first to 3 hits’ between your character and your chosen adversary. Here we come to understand the purpose of the character’s accessories in the mighty micros Lego sets – Catwoman throws cartons of milk…; Flash throws cans of energy drinks; Captain cold throws ice creams, and everyone else does just what you expect them to.

If you play as a hero, and win, the villain is thrown a broom to sweep up the mess they have made.  If playing as a villain, you ride off into the distance.  If you don’t win the first to 3 shootout, you continue to race until you do.

The graphics style is crisp and angular, with a cool jazz/big band vibe to the music.  It gives the feeling of occupying a 1960’s  Saturday morning cartoon.

The game is simple enough.  The first lot of upgrades (1st environment, all opponents and heists) are easy enough to obtain.  Generally there are three matching titles in each level, and they are respawned the next time you play, to allow you to accumulate your 3 tiles over several chases. The final level has been elusive for me.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have cashed in all those studs on the ball pit or the disco floor in the Bat/Cat/Robin/Bane/Flash/Cold Cave?

In the cave there is also a movie room, where you can eat popcorn and watch the trailer for Lego Batman – Beyond Gotham.

This is a great casual game, with rapid initial gratification and achievements.  Gameplay is repetitive and relatively simple.  Eventually, it becomes all about the grind… progress stalls and I don’t think it will hold my attention much longer.  On the other hand, it kept me distracted for a couple of hours for free.

Lego DC Super Heroes Mighty Micros is recommended for ages 9-11 years and is free on the iTunes and Google Play stores.  There are no In-App purchases.

I recommend it for casual distraction, but variety soon vanishes.  It gives an amusing, slightly limited set of scenarios for the DC Mighty Micro Sets, and currently has no Marvel Super Heroes equivalent game.

If you like racing games, it’s worth a look, but won’t keep you engaged for long.

I Enjoyed:

• the graphics and music
• the ease of game play
• experiencing the vehicles and characters I hadn’t bought yet.

I didn’t enjoy:

• the difficulty unlocking the final environment
• repetitive gameplay
• a little buggy in places
• the lack of variety in the cutscenes.

Arbitary rating scale of 3/5. That may or may not be 60%. But it is a safe pass!

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Play Well

 Ed: this app has been updated for 2017. My thoughts can be seen here