3.5/5 ★ – Hill417's review of LEGO DC Super-Villains.

After feeling burned out by Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 I was hesitant to play another Lego game, but since it was on sale for a very cheap price I figured “what the heck?” and I was shocked to see how much better Lego DC Villains was so much better by comparison. For those of you who read comics then the story might seem very familiar. The Justice League has disappeared at the hands of their evil Earth-3 counterparts the Crime Syndicate. So with the heroes gone, the Legion of Doom take it upon themselves to defeat the Syndicate, mainly for self preservation. You might have heard this story before and that is because it is based off of the “Forever Evil” story by Geoff Johns and David Finch, my favorite event to come out of the New 52, so the plot instantly won me over. What also won me over is the all star voice cast. There are several reprisals from the DCAU like Susan Esienberg as Wonder Woman, Michael Jennifer Hale as Killer Frost, Michael Rosenbaum as the Flash (albeit as Barry Allen instead of Wally West), Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor. How could I forget the definitive actors for Batman and Joker respectively: Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. It’s also cool that some of the Arkham voice cast like Grey DeLisle as Catwoman and Wally Wingert as the Riddler get to step into the shoes of their characters again in lighthearted material. Also I’ve never watched Arrow, but its cool that John Barrowman voiced Malcom Merlyn. Ok now that I’ve gushed about the voice talent how does it actually play? The hit detection was vastly improved, by that I mean I knew I was actually dealing damage. Because this is a lego game a lot of the characters play the same, but have their own powers, animations, and mannerisms to make everybody feel unique. We can see Reverse-Flash stomp on a picture of Flash, Captain Cold accidentally freezing himself with his cold gun. Little details like that can go a long way. If you want to see every character then outside of story progression you will have to find secret character tokens hidden in each level (in free roam that is) and partake in a side quest. There is also inputing cheat codes if you need to save some studs. I still find it annoying that you still have to purchase characters even after you found their tokens. Just seems like an unnecessary extra step. It’s like they’re really testing my resolve to unlock every single villain. When it comes to heroes I’ve always leaned towards Marvel, but for the villains I always preferred DC. We get an all star roster featuring Lex Luthor, Joker, Gorila Grodd, Sinestro, the Rogues, etc. Some of the minor names like Condiment King, Clock King, Elcipso, to some questionable choices like Doctor Light (IYKYK). I also found it cool that the Crime Syndicate are the main antagonist. They are a very underrated group who don’t get the spotlight nearly as much as the Legion of Doom. DC Villains scratched the nostalgia itch by including some of my favorite characters and adapting one of my favorite stories.