WARNING: If you have been a good little human and have not been tempted to illegally download The LEGO Movie, you may want to watch it before playing this game, or even before you read this review. If that is the case, then first be proud of yourself for being an upstanding citizen; second, enjoy the movie! We’ll see you when you get back. For those a tad more impatient, I’ll endeavour not to disclose too much storyline if you still want to read on. Ready? Let’s get to it!
When it comes to video games, the words ‘movie tie-in’ are usually treated with such disdain that it would be safe to say that about half of us don’t even bother reading the reviews, let alone actually go out and buy it. Throw in the fact that most of our friends across the water have had both the movie and the game for some time; I am truly amazed that you’ve taken the time to read this. I thank you… but will The LEGO Movie Videogame be enough thanks in return?
It would be hard to nominate a LEGO game that wasn’t enjoyable, with their tongue in cheek view of our favourite movies and comics; LEGO City Undercover being the exception, being (partially) based on actual LEGO building sets. So what happens when the subject is already taking a poke at itself, just like The LEGO Movie does? Not much really. Veteran LEGO gamers will settle into this game easily, but newcomers could possibly be overwhelmed by the number of characters that are required to pass levels. As The LEGO Movie Videogame follows the movie storyline so very closely, the creators have attempted to use almost every character in most levels. This is overwhelming. An ongoing concept with LEGO games is that the characters have different abilities and can be selected from a ‘wheel’ when required to perform a task. This becomes tedious when four or five different characters are needed to progress through various scenarios, making the constant hot-swapping an issue. You would also think that everyone could build things, as per other games, but there is a need for Master Builders, a select few of the cast who can build certain objects to allow you to progress. Once again to save constantly swapping characters back and forth, this makes The LEGO Movie Videogame a multiplayer co-op must.
There are some inventive mini-games to take part in during the course of the game, alongside some stock standard ones like timed button pressing to music. I did note that the building by instruction mini-game, performed by the movie lead, Emmett, is quite difficult and that some controller sensitivity calibration wouldn’t go astray. Hitting a target on a ‘wheel’, while a countdown timer reduces the amount of ‘dots’ (standard LEGO game currency) that can be won, is terribly frustrating when the controller won’t go exactly where you want it to.
As with other LEGO games, there are an abundance of collectibles to gather to achieve yourself a one hundred percent completion. This time there are LEGO instruction cards and LEGO mini-figure Legs, or Pants as they are here which are representative of the in game/movie television “Where’s My Pants”. There is also the standard award for one hundred percent ‘dot’ collection during a level.
The soundtrack is quite fitting for the movie and game and WILL get stuck in your head; there’s no two ways about it. The movie is quite star-studded and transitions across to the game very well. Will Arnett’s Batman is a gruff as he should sound, but the grunts and groans emitted when breaking up surrounding LEGO bricks almost have him sounding like an old age pensioner trying to lift a box. Throw in Charlie Day from the movie Horrible Bosses, Alison Brie from Community, funny-man Will Ferrell and the unmistakable Morgan Freeman and your ears will be well served.
Unlike other LEGO games, The LEGO Movie has ninety-nine percent of the environments made from LEGO, just as the movie appears to do. The lands are quite entertaining as they could quite easily come from the mind of an avid young LEGO builder, who only has access to a select number of bricks. This will surely be a joy to see in the movie. Cuckoo Cloud Land, in habited by UniKitty (voiced by Brie), a LEGO cat with a Unicorn horn, is a sickly sweet place of clouds, rainbows and balloons. Be sure to keep an ear out for the way Batman feels about the place.
I was expecting a little more from The Lego Movie Videogame, seeing it supports a long awaited and much anticipated movie release. It’s hard to pin point why the game comes across as a little flat. There seemed to be a limited amount of thought put into the game, but not enough to make it stand out from the rest of the LEGO library. Both movie and game were a long time coming, but it just feels a little rushed (totally trying to avoid the use of the phrase ‘It feels a little plastic’). It’s certainly playable, but nowhere near the level of LEGO City Undercover.
