LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight builds on the foundation of previous LEGO Batman games, but it’s also making a necessary pivot away from the franchise’s trajectory. To date, LEGO Batman has seen some of the biggest shifts in any LEGO series, and LEGO Batman 2‘s introduction of voice acting reshaped the entire landscape of LEGO games. The second and third games also expand significantly in scope, bringing in other DC superheroes and eventually moving beyond the Gotham setting.

The shift to an ensemble focus isn’t much of a surprise. By the time of LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham‘s 2014 release, the DCEU film franchise had kicked off with Man of Steel, and the MCU had landed its big team-up success with The Avengers. Bringing in the whole gang could pull in a wider audience, and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes managed to do just that the year before LEGO Batman 3. For Batman, though, it just wasn’t the right call.

The LEGO Batman Series Became A DC Hero Catch-All

Everyone Is Here

To be fair, the LEGO Batman sequels didn’t exactly pretend to keep the focus on Batman. The second game bears a DC Super Heroes subtitle, and the third goes for a Beyond Gotham tag. Like Captain America: Civil War, they’re fundamentally crossover stories that happen to be using the brand of the character at the center. LEGO DC games finally dropped the LEGO Batman title with DC Super-Villains, which still featured Joker and Harley front and center.

Switching to a team-up focus made it easier for the LEGO Batman sequels to avoid re-treading ground covered by the original game. While LEGO Indiana Jones 2 had to come up with new level concepts for many of the same scenes featured in the first game, LEGO Batman 2 and 3 didn’t have to worry about fresh riffs on the same basic material. They matched the scope of LEGO’s expanding DC line, which had branched out from the initial wave of Batman-only sets to feature other heroes.

By the time you reach LEGO Batman 3, though, you start to lose the core appeal of a Batman game. Sure, the Joker is there, but you end up bouncing around between multiple underwhelming hub worlds rather than stalking the streets of Gotham. It’s a fine DC game, but it doesn’t capture much of what’s special about Batman in particular.

Legacy Of The Dark Knight Returns To Batman Basics

The Caped Crusader’s Home Turf

On this front, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is an aggressive course correction. Although the game looks even more ambitious than LEGO Batman 2 and 3, it narrows the scope to focus on Batman once more.

Instead of spicing things up with other DC characters, Legacy of the Dark Knight pulls from a variety of iconic takes on Batman. From the training sequences in Batman Begins to The Batman‘s upside-down car crash shot, the reveal trailer was a whirlwind of recognizable moments. Batman has a ton of built-in variety, and Legacy of the Dark Knight is attempting to capitalize on that.

Focusing on Batman also allows LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight to fill a necessary void in the gaming market. A decade after Batman: Arkham Knight‘s release, fans are still clamoring for an Arkham return, while I rarely see any requests for games dealing with DC characters in a larger scope. As a potential Batman: Arkham successor, Legacy of the Dark Knight is a better fit than Gotham Knights or Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Rather than relying on the mindless nature of typical LEGO combat, Legacy of the Dark Knight boasts plenty of familiar features from Batman: Arkham. Whether crawling underneath grates or countering enemies with acrobatic movements, Arkham fans should feel right at home. The tone will be lighter, of course, but a lot of Gotham’s atmosphere should still be present.

LEGO Batman Has The Foundation For A Strong Future

A New Standard For The Series

While LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga‘s marketing focused on the game’s staggering ambition, Legacy of the Dark Knight is promising strong essentials. The game’s FAQ page mentions only “seven playable characters,” all of whom are core to Batman’s world rather than DC comics as a whole. There’s still more than enough Batman material to pull from, and the same page references the character’s “86-year history” as the primary source of inspiration.

I’d still like to see other DC characters in future LEGO games, but they all have their time and place. I’d rather see a game directly based on James Gunn’s Superman than have Superman occupy a key role in another LEGO Batman game, for example. Batman works best when he’s facing relatively small-scale threats, and bringing in god-like heroes throws everything out of proportion.

Broadened scope notwithstanding, LEGO Batman 2 might still be the best LEGO Batman game to date, and Legacy of the Dark Knight could have a tough road ahead to outdo it. If there’s any way to get an edge, though, keeping the focus on Batman might be just the ticket.