I broke in my new PSP with one of the old tried and tested Lego games. The PSP is an odd beast, like a mini PS3 with a small viewing angle, strange (for a handheld) disc access noises, and, for this game at least, annoying loading times on startup. For nobody’s interest, I chose the e-1000 model, the newest “budget” model with supposedly the best screen but no Internet and mono-only speaker, and the same faster processor of the other slim models. The tradeoffs are worthwhile for the price, I feel. The shape of the thing did cause me hand cramps in extended play sessions.

I spent much of my time with this game wondering if this was an upscaled port of the DS version, or a downscaled port of the console version. Since it’s a very early instalment in the Lego series, the lines are more blurred than they are these days. I still don’t have a definitive answer (because I didn’t do any research)! But whichever, it was still a nice bit of fluff.

Despite a limited character roster, there’s a fairly robust lineup of villains, rotating for each chapter. I liked the mirrored structure, where the heroes (only Batman and Robin in their different suits in story mode) have a Batcave hub, and the villains roam Arkham Asylum; the villain levels also take place in approximately the same locations, showing their setup and mayhem previous to being taken down by the good guys. It’s a fun story conceit.

Being an early Lego game, it keeps things simple with menus rather than large open worlds, straightforward tasks, and grunts-and-gestures cutscenes rather than a fully voiced script. Having played so many Lego games now, this was almost a nostalgic throwback in a way. Refreshing. And I only had one crash my whole time.