LEGO Marvel's Avengers features characters and storylines from the blockbuster film Marvel’s The Avengers, the sequel Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and more. Play as the most powerful Super Heroes in their quest to save humanity. E10+ for Everyone 10 and older: Cartoon Violence, Comic Mischief LEGO Marvel's Avengers Wiki » The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Pokemon Alpha Sapphire Version Pokemon Omega Ruby VersionEarth's Not-So-Mighty HeroesAs a huge fan of almost everything related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I was really excited to hear that an open-world LEGO game based on that particular version of Marvel’s franchises was being developed. Having played several prior LEGO games, as well as having viewed each movie in the MCU multiple times, I figured that the cute, slapstick style of humor brought on by the former would mix well with the dramatically playful banter of the latter. After all, it worked once before in 2013’s LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, which might be my favorite Marvel-related video game of all time.
So how does the 3DS version of TT Games’ latest LEGO offering hold up? Unfortunately, like Loki’s scepter failing to turn the “heart” of Tony Stark, the handheld version of the game has performance issues that hold it back from being an enjoyable experience. If you’ve played any other LEGO game in the last decade, you’re not going to be surprised by the gameplay you’ll find here. The one-button combat, the plethora of unlockable characters, and breakable environments are all back. And while the different heroes may play slightly differently, there is little unique to them in terms of gameplay outside of animations and attack range. You’ll still mostly just be pressing Y to attack and A to jump, whether you’re playing as Iron Man or Black Widow. Certain characters can fly, which makes them feel more unique in the more open areas, but in the self-contained levels, it doesn’t necessarily come in handy all that often. The formula has worked over the years due to its simplicity, and remains fun overall.
Basically, if you’re familiar with the LEGO format from other games, you’ll be comfortable here, too. But if you were hoping for something fresh to be added to the formula, this isn’t where you’ll find it. Whether you’re breaking the environment or crushing the skulls of HYDRA lackeys, one of the biggest issues you’ll run into is the inconsistent framerate. Depending on the level, the amount of things on screen, and other factors, the game often fails to run at the ideal speed. The most egregious offenders are the “chase” levels. Whether you’re either flying around as a character, shooting bad guys in an on-rails setting, or in a vehicle chasing after a foe, it can be difficult to tell what’s going on at times because the game simply can’t keep up with everything that’s happening. I wasn’t always sure whether it was due to the framerate or not, but there were times when the controls felt unresponsive as well, especially when the overall performance was dipping.
Two of the biggest appeals to LEGO Marvel’s Avengers before release were its tie-ins to the MCU, and the promise of an open world to roam around in. On both accounts the game falls flat. While the cut scenes look great, and mimic their big screen counterparts faithfully with plenty of trademark LEGO humor mixed in, the story is a jumbled mess that makes the X-Men movie series timeline look sane in comparison. Instead of rolling through the established movie canon chronologically, the game would rather jump in and out of each film at random. So unless you’re familiar with how all the MCU events shake down, it’s unlikely you’ll have the slightest clue as to what’s going on here. The most exciting element of the game, the open world area, is unfortunately where I was most disappointed with LEGO Marvel’s Avengers. While I have yet to play this game on a home console, the 3DS version shows the age of the hardware. Flying around Manhattan as Iron Man could be fun, if the environments weren’t hidden behind fog that brought back memories of early Nintendo 64 games, and an embarrassingly poor draw distance.
It makes what should be a beautiful environment a muddied, ugly mess that I had no intention of exploring beyond what the game required. If you’re looking for an exciting, LEGO superhero game, you won’t find it in the 3DS version of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers. The simple and intuitive gameplay and charming humor can’t save this game from its performance issues. Inconsistent framerate, a muddled story and a poorly rendered open world keep LEGO Marvel’s Avengers from being mighty. Lego Marvel's Avengers is a Lego-themed action-adventure video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. It is the spiritual successor to Lego Marvel Super Heroes and the second installment of the Lego Marvel franchise.[1] It follows the plots of both The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron as well as Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The game features characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as characters from comic books. Characters include Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Thor, Ultron, Loki, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Vision and War Machine and some lesser known characters such as Devil Dinosaur and Fin Fang Foom.[2] It includes the characters of the Avengers team along with many others.[3] The game was released on 26 January 2016. Gameplay is similar to LEGO's long running series of franchise video games, with a focus on puzzle solving interspersed with action. Players often have to solve puzzles spread across the game environment, such as figuring out how to move a particular truck that is blocking their progression. As always, the game has its own unique quirks, for instance taking advantage of its large character library in areas that require two specific characters to team up in order to proceed. Boss battles also take the form of puzzles, often requiring careful timing.
While action and fighting are spread liberally throughout the game, it is kept very child-friendly as per LEGO custom. The game features New York City as the main large open world hub, but also, for the first time, includes a dozen other movie significant areas players can travel to, including Asgard, Malibu, South Africa, The Helicarrier, the Bartons' farm, Washington DC and Sokovia.[5] These hubs also feature heavy playability, with hundreds of side quests and bonus levels such as rescuing citizens in trouble, races, and more. The main story actually takes up a fairly small fraction of the game's total "completion". Whilst the game's story is predominantly focused on the two Avengers films there are single levels based on Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The game features over two hundred playable characters, including some characters (but not all) returning from the previous game. The heroes are drawn not just from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the comics as well.
Director Arthur Parsons stated "It's a celebration of everything Avengers. Comic books, movies, cartoons. It's everything you love about the Avengers in video games."[6] Confirmed additional characters include Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Sam Wilson's Captain America appearance, America Chavez, Jane Foster's Thor form, Wiccan and Speed.[7] Every two characters have their own unique team-up abilities. There are even separate ones for what character is triggering the attack, meaning nearly 800 team-up moves. Unlike Lego Marvel Super Heroes, which used original voice acting, Lego Marvel's Avengers utilizes audio from the six films being adapted for the game, including voice and music, similar to Lego The Lord of the Rings, The Lego Movie Videogame, Lego The Hobbit, and Lego Jurassic World. The game has utilized the archive audios from the actors in the films.[8] However, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Ashley Johnson, Hayley Atwell, Michael Peña and Ming-Na Wen reprised their respective roles from the films and TV shows,[9][10] and Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee returned to voice himself.
[11] Robbie Daymond voices A-Bomb.[12] Lou Ferrigno voices himself and Greg Miller voiced Aldrich Killian. Free PlayStation timed exclusive downloadable content was announced. This included a character pack and a level based on Ant-Man, which was released on April 6, 2016, and a Captain America: Civil War character pack that was released at launch. A season pass was also available during launch, which gave players exclusive access to the "Explorers Pack", story levels and over 40 additional playable characters. These story levels were based on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television series as well as levels focused on the comic versions of Black Panther, the Masters of Evil, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange. A Spider-Man character pack was also released on May 24, 2016, which saw the Civil War version of the character as a playable character. Upon its release, Lego Marvel's Avengers received mixed to positive reviews. It has a score of 71% on Metacritic.[15] Game Informer's Andrew Reiner gave the game 7.75 out of 10.
[18] IGN awarded it a score of 6.7 out of 10, saying "LEGO Marvel's Avengers is great fun, but unfortunately restricted by sticking to the Marvel Cinematic Universe."[20] Destructoid awarded it a score of 6 out of 10, saying "It's a fun mindless romp through a couple of interesting setpieces, but not a whole lot more than that when it comes down to it."[17] PlayStation Lifestyle awarded it 7.5 out of 10, saying "Some technical hiccups and the occasional unclear objective can hamper your progress, but these can all be overcome in a game that exudes a fun-loving attitude throughout."[22] GameSpot awarded it a score of 7.0 out of 10, saying "If you've played a Lego game in recent years then you'll know what to expect: another familiar and fun adventure that you can enjoy with your kids."[19] Hardcore Gamer awarded it a score of 3 out of 5, saying "While a decent action-adventure title, Avengers does little to innovate or set itself apart from a vast library of superior Lego games."[23] PC Gamer awarded it a score of 52%, calling it "A half-hearted recreation of some fun movies, with almost nothing to offer over its predecessor."