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Continuing in their critical and commercially successful LEGO video game franchise, Traveller’s Tales will be releasing the third entry in the LEGO Batman series, dubbed LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, sometime in the third trimester of this year. After a wonderful display at Comic-Con last month, the end of Gamescom trade show in Europe last week has prompted the release of a new cinematic trailer highlighting the game’s antagonist, Brainiac.

Brainiac’s presence shouldn’t come as a surprise to players who completed the prequel, LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes, as the organic android appeared in a post-credits scene, gleefully gloating about how he had finally discovered Earth. Continuing from there, the storyline will follow his attempts to conquer the planet and add it to his vast collection of other space rarities. From the trailer, we can see the many different tricks Brainiac will be pulling to achieve this sinister goal, such as brainwashing different heroes and villains and kidnapping members of the Green Lantern Corps in order to use their rings as a power source.

Of course, this darker story has no bearing on the game’s writing, which will follow the traditional LEGO formula of old-fashioned comic relief cheesiness. This made evident by the Joker singing a parody of traditional American song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” at the end, called “I’ve Got the Whole World In My Pants!”

The trailer also provides a look at some of the fresh aesthetics in the game. For starters, most of the characters have been updated to match their New 52 costumes from DC Comics. Beyond Gotham also follows through on its title by expanding the plot’s setting to a myriad of other locations including (as far as we saw): the Batcave, an exotic forest, vegetation-infested mountains, an underground tomb, lava-oozing kingdom, and the Justice League Watchtower, which may serve as this LEGO game’s hub though nothing has been confirmed yet.

Many of the old voice actors from DC Superheroes will be reprising their roles, like Troy Baker as Batman, Christopher Corey Smith as Joker, and Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor. Other popular VAs, including Steven Blum, Nolan North, Adam West, and Crispin Freeman will be responsible for bringing to life fan favourites from Superman to Kilowag to Cheetah.

While LEGO Batman 3 won’t be pushing the franchise past its comfortable boundaries or revolutionize the gameplay, you can expect the story to be a lot more passionate and filled with trademark building block puzzles.

An official release date has not been given yet, but it will be coming to Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, 3DS, PC and the Wii U sometime this fall.