Check out that game box up above. Looks pretty cool huh. You probably take it for granted that it's clear and focused. I bet if the box was in Best Buy or Frys and the box art was blurry, you wouldn't buy the game would you? No, you wouldn't, because you would think it was of shoddy quality or a bootleg from China or something. It would not look like a legitimate product. You might even ask someone at the store "Hey, what's up with this Lego Batman 2? Is this a bootleg?". And no matter what they might tell you, you wouldn't buy it.
Well, I'm here to tell you, Lego Batman 2 for the Playstation Vita IS of shoddy quality and features blurry cutscenes. Shame on you Sony, Warner Bros, and Traveller's Tales! Shame on you.
I first played this game as a demo on the Nintendo 3DS the week before the game came out and it looked pretty good. The cutscenes were nice and the gameplay was pretty much what you would expect from a Lego game. I didn't think it was worth playing full price for, but I would definitely get it when it got marked down to $20. Plus, I was still finishing the FIRST Lego Batman on my Xbox 360.
That next weekend, me and my dad were at the Sony store and he said I could get something for my Vita. I guess he had a gift card and wasn't going to use it. So Lego Batman 2 stuck out because it was brand new and I just figured the Vita version would be even better than the 3DS one. I also figured it would be a port of the PS3 version, after hearing all the noise and hype from Sony that the Vita was "probably" as powerful as a PS3. Boy, was I in for a shock when I got it home and started playing it.
The menu screen looked fine, but when you actually start the game is where the trouble started. As soon as the introductory cutscenes that precede every level started, I knew there was something wrong. They were blurry, out of focus. I wondered if I had gotten a defective game. Then I looked on Amazon and read out about all the complaints about the game. It currently has a 2.5 out of 5 customer rating with five insane 5-star reviews, which consequently mention nothing about the blurry graphics, so I wonder if they even played it. I've found that no matter how bad the product, there are always people dense enough to say it's great. I then contacted Traveller's Tales and Warner Bros. via Twitter and Facebook (After accidentally contacting Tell Tale Games lol). I have yet to get any response from them on how they ripped me off.
After finding an interview with Traveller's Tales by Jeff Rubenstein of Sony about the Vita version I felt compelled to tweet him as well. Jeff seemed excited about the Vita release, especially the Gotham City hub. Turns out later in the interview that there is no Gotham City hub in the Vita version. Ironically, TT talks about how they've learned so much from Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 on the Vita, and how its development had helped with making higher quality handheld versions. Lego Harry Potter 5-7 on Vita has been universally panned because it was simply a PSP port. So, I'm wondering, where are the improvements on Lego Batman 2? Jeff said nothing about the blurry cutscenes, or the sound FX that sounds like a Farmer Says toy. You know, where you pull the string and that robotic rasp says "The duck says...quack quack". Jeff didn't ask anything about it being a 3DS port or whether the graphics were better or anything.
I actually tweeted Jeff complaining about these things. He tweeted back:
" the cutscenes *are* blurry, but I only had access to gameplay before the interview."
That's all. Nothing about "Yeah, that is crap. Sorry you wasted your money" or anything. What should I have expected I guess? Maybe these people shouldn't rave about a game unless they play the version that people actually pay their hard-earned money for. Don't comment on a game unless you've really played it. Because you mislead consumers.
Other reviews around the web really didn't make a big deal about the blurry scenes. They mentioned it, but that was about it. No alarm or disgust. Just stated the fact. Why do you think this is? Because they got a free copy from the pub or Sony and could care less. They didn't have to pay for it. That's a problem that leaks a lot into these corrupt game reviewers work. They don't factor into the equation that people have to actually pay for these games.
I have played games on a lot of systems in my life, from Pong to Atari to Genesis to PS2 to the current crop of consoles and handhelds, but NEVER, NEVER in my life, have I had to deal with blurriness. Crappy graphics, yes. Blurriness, never.
I have supported the Lego videogame franchise in the past. I bought the first Lego Star Wars on PS2. I own Lego Star Wars 2&3, Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones, and Lego Harry Potter 1-4, all on the Xbox 360. I was planning on getting Lego Lord of the Rings when it comes out. But no more. I refuse to ever buy another Lego videogame until I get some response from either Traveller's Tales or Warner Bros. This game is a straight up abomination. Sony is also to blame for allowing this crap on their system as well.
Stay away from this game. Stay very far away.
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