View All 5 Photos in Gallery Simple but engaging combat and puzzle-solving. A light, whimsical story. Tons of Marvel characters, both popular and obscure. Incredibly fun open-world gameplay. Lack of difficulty may turn off some gamers. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes lies at the intersection of comic books, toys, and video games, and slickly combines elements of all into one of 2013's most entertaining PC games. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is a near-perfect blend of three wonderful childhood staples: comic books, video games, and, well, LEGO. Steeped in Marvel Comics goodness, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes puts players in the role of a superhero team (a wonderful mish-mash of over 100 comic book characters) tasked with recovering all-powerful Cosmic Bricks that are scattered around the globe before top-tier baddies such as Loki, Dr. Doom, and Magneto get their hands on the cubes. It's a threat level worthy enough to warrant developer TT Games plopping the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Avengers, and other favorites into one excellent, family-friendly superhero romp.
It's one of the best PC games there is, for both kids and adults. LEGO City Undercover (Nintendo Wii U) LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy Grand Theft Auto V (for PlayStation 3) Marvel BlocksThe latest LEGO title features difficulty-free button mashing combat, light puzzle-solving that requires you to deftly use the characters' unique skills and abilities, and tongue-in-cheek writing/voice acting that doesn't take itself too seriously (and in a surprising move, Gregg Clark reprises his Agent Phil Coulson movie/TV role). LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is family-friendly fare; even some of the Marvel Universe's deadliest villains (Red Skull and Thanos, for instance) have a likeable, hammy, non-violent charm. It's difficult to pull off "evil" in a world where everyone resembles cute, walking fire hydrants. You can even build custom heroes and outfit them with other heroes' parts (such as Wolverine's claws) for extra fun. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes features a story mode that's best played in short bursts—the gameplay is overly reliant on rushing a villain's lair and downing minions to thwart an evil plan.
As a result, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes' main mode has an element of sameness when played at length. That said, making your way through story mode unlocks the free play mode that drops Marvel's finest in an open-world environment not unlike the underrated LEGO City Undercover. This is where LEGO Marvel Super Heroes shines. You explore a massive New York City, tackle side missions, and unlock tons of characters, including lesser-known ones like H.E.R.B.I.E. and Howard the Duck. Unfortunately, controlling vehicles isn't nearly as tight as controlling characters. Loose car and ship handling makes steering an unnecessary challenge. Make Mine Marvel 2006's Marvel Ultimate Alliance is often cited by both critics and fans as the best Marvel Comic-based video game—and I agreed with that sentiment until LEGO Marvel Super Heroes entered my life. The game has a handful of small issues, but none egregious enough to ruin the playful comic book heroics. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is one of the most smiling-inducing games of the year, and should be on the want-list of every comic book or LEGO fan.
blog comments powered byThe countdown to 2017’s big game releases has already begun… Release dates: every game confirmed for 2017 2017 is shaping up to be a strong year for new releases, book-ended by a new Resident Evil in January and ending with a new Red Dead Redemption sometime later in the year. In between there’s the return of massive franchises such as Mass Effect, console exclusives like Detroit: Become Human, and the continued vibrancy of cool releases from the indie scene. We’ve put together this list of games for every title confirmed for PS4, Xbox One and PC over the coming 12 months, as well as the addition of some of the more interesting or high-profile releases on other platforms, including those for Nintendo’s new console, the Switch. We’ll also note all major DLC updates for the biggest games too. We’ll update this throughout the year, juggling dates as games are announced and delayed, and as others are nailed down to specific months of the year.
Now, what are you looking forward to playing? January starts strong with the return of Resident Evil, while the end of the month includes DLC for Infinite Warfare, the full release of last year’s Hitman episodes and our first look at Conan: Exiles. Ubisoft’s co-op online brawler For Honor shows promise for February, along with Xbox One exclusive Halo Wars 2 and the bombastic return of Sniper Elite. Some of us are holding out for Night in the Woods too. March is going to be the month that Nintendo launches a brand new console onto the market. There’s a lot we don’t know about the Switch, but hardware launches are always exciting times so we expect a pretty lively month as publishers confirm their games for launch day. If that’s not your bag, Ubisoft is dropping new Tom Clancy spin-off Ghost Recon: Wildlands. As the year rolls on we’ll be able to define these titles by month when publishers confirm their release dates, but in the meantime these are all pegged for the first three months or “early 2017”.
Expect some to be pushed back. We’re holding out for Mass Effect: Andromeda around this time as the big release in early 2017. The mad platform antics of Yooka-Laylee has been piquing our interest for long enough, so we’re glad to see this project from ex-Rare staffers is nailed down for April. Persona 5, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 and a remaster of Bulletstorm won’t go unnoticed, either. Namco’s Little Nightmares leads the releases during a quiet period, but we’re also intrigued by Sonic Mania, Cuphead and the release of Lego City Undercover around this time. There are a lot of releases due between summer and the end of the year, but it’s a little too early for publishers to nail down dates in most cases. So as much as we’re expecting big hitters like Red Dead Redemption 2, Dawn of War 3, Crackdown 3 and Star Wars: Battlefront 2, we’re treating them all as fluid and would expect some on this list to slip into 2018. Delayed and announced for 2018 We’ve only just started 2017 and we’re looking at games coming out 2018.