The cape comes off Lego Batman

A few details have emerged about Lego Batman from GDC. Admittedly only the Xbox 360 version was shown, but that at least gives us an idea of what to expect from the PSP and DS games when released in summer/autumn this year.

The game's plot is entirely new, so not based on any of the films as the Lego Star Wars games were. There are 36 levels in total – 18 Hero levels alternated with 18 Villain ones so that you get the story from both sides. The Bat Cave is the central hub for the hero levels while Arkham Asylum serves the same purpose for the villainous batch.

Superhero duo Batman and Robin each have four different suits that give them special abilities, such as wings for Batman to glide and magnetic shoes for Robin to walk up walls. Collecting studs enables you to upgrade these suits, so that later on, for example, you get to do a spot of multitasking by dropping smoke bombs while wearing the glide suit.

There's a while to go before release but handheld-specific details should soon emerge. Lego Indiana Jones is reportedly going to use the DS microphone for blowing out torches and the stylus for a monkey brain cooking mini-game so we're very much hoping developer Traveller's Tales will come up with similarly inspired offerings for its Batman-flavoured effort. Perhaps a bit of Phoenix Wright-style crime scene investigation by the caped crusader? We'll keep you updated.