Choose Your Own cliché
By Michael Teitelbaum
Starscape, $5.99, 144 pages
Not all choose-your-own-adventures are the same. Batman: Super-Villains Strike has four of Batman’s Rogue Gallery escaped from Arkham and wreak havoc in Gotham. Batman has to deal with them as well as find out why they appear to still be in their cells. The normal maze of choices is punctuated by the occasional puzzle, be it a cipher, a maze, or other puzzle. For adults looking for a few hours challenge for their child, this is not a bad book. ||However, it is a different story from the perspective of the kid. The villains presented are reduced to cookie-cutter versions, with little to differentiate them from generic villains. The puzzles present no real challenge and will usually be solved quickly. The maze of choices is also slim, with an emphasis on big print and not really setting up a fun story. Even the plot twist is really cliché and the Arkham escape is obvious early on. In short, the puzzles and the video game throwaway plot should probably have been emphasized rather than what feels like a plot-by-marketing-committee. Most kids will probably be only interested in this for Batman, but that’s about it.
Reviewed By Jamais Jochim
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