This isn't just an excuse to post the amazing trailer for The LEGO Movie again, I promise. That's not saying I'm not going to post it again — of course I am. I'm just posting it within the context of the oddly wonderful occasion of TT Games, the developer responsible for making LEGO video games based on popular movie franchises, making a LEGO game based off of a movie based off of the toys. It's like LEGO-ception up in here. Anyway, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games will be releasing The LEGO Movie Video Game for the Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC, 3DS and Vita to coincide with the release of the movie in 2014. That is a lot of platforms to mention in one sentence. Players will traverse 15 levels as one of more than 90 playable characters inspired by the film. The game also features something called the digital Master Building ability. Players will be able to collect LEGO instruction pages to build sets, or "harness the awesome power of the Master Builders to virtually build extraordinary LEGO creations along the way."
Not sure exactly what that means, but it sounds lovely. I was going to link the trailer five more times, but decided to go with screenshots instead.Is the Lego Movie Video game for you? It probably is if you can bring yourself to enjoy the following politically controversial, looping video: Really, what else needs to be said when assessing a video game other than the line: "You can play as Shakespeare and Batman."? That says it all. Or at least says most of it. The Lego Movie Video game is the 15th or so major game in a Lego franchise that has gradually improved over the years to become one of the most entertaining and graphically-appealing low-stress action-adventure series going. Most of the franchise's standards are back in this one. You can play co-op or solo across a bunch of levels (15) that tell a story based on a movie (The Lego Movie), all of it connected by a hub (well, this time by several hubs). Each level is designed to be replayed with an expanding cast of unlockable characters.
There are Lego studs to collect, gold bricks to find (75) and red bricks, too (20). The source material is wonderful: The Lego Movie is visually spectacular, as you'll see in many of the movie clips threaded throughout the game. That source material and this gaming series do meet at an odd intersection of subversion and paradox. This might throw you. The movie and the game feature a band of heroes (blind wizard, construction worker, rebel fighter, unicorn-cat hybrid, pirate and Batman) who go up against a guy named Lord/President Business. The villain, Mr. Business, doesn't want Lego sets to intermingle, hates imagination and creativity and is, more or less, a pro-capitalist villain... which makes it a tad weird that this game's new gameplay wrinkles involve construction worker Emmett needing to follow pages of Lego directions to build special things. It's just as weird that the Lego games have never given the players the creative freedom of, say, Minecraft. I can't say I minded that much.
The game is delightful. Players may not be able to build creatively, but the movie and game's creators sure did. The game worlds are impressive, every bit of them seemingly made up of Lego bricks with little or no backgrounds made of anything that looks non-Lego. Players get to go from modern city to wild west to some crazy cloud-and-rainbows place that is a mix between Lego heaven and a Lego rave. A long underwater level in a sinking submarine is a standout. The one thing players can create in the series, as the guy (me) who wrote about this series in The New York Times recently pointed out, is chaos. This is an essential part of having fun with Lego bricks and it's what the Lego games showcase best: smashing Lego sets apart, punching your fellow Lego characters so they separate into their component legs, torsos and heads. Note: in this game, you can play as Gandalf and Superman. You can also play as this guy. For context, your reviewer liked Lego Star Wars, Lego Star Wars II, Lego Batman and the first Lego Harry Potter, didn't like Lego Indiana Jones or Lego Batman 2, loved Lego Star Wars III and Lego City Undercover, feels guilty about barely playing the promising Lego Lord of the Rings, doesn't understand why Lego Rock Band exists, and is still in the early stages of the impressive Lego Marvel Superheroes.
Thus: The Lego Movie Video game is my second favourite Lego game ever behind Star Wars III, with Marvel a contender to shake up these rankings.Continuing to pile on the properties into 2017, Lego Dimensions gets a massive story pack based on the upcoming The Lego Batman Movie and ‘80s David Hasselhoff on February 10. The good news is not only are we getting a chance to play as iconic ‘80s hero Michael Knight, driving about saving people from whatever it was he was saving them from in his cool talking car, K.I.T.T., we’re also getting a physical David Hasselhoff Lego minifigure. The even more good news is that we’ll be able to play through the entire Lego Batman Movie in the story pack, which comes with the new Robin, a Bat Computer base build and . . . Batgirl, which is a little awkward considering recent animation releases, but we’ll make it work. The only bad news, really, is that the Knight Rider fun pack will be a timed GameStop exclusive, and the Excalibur Batman fun pack from The Lego Batman Movie will be a timed Target exclusive.
Timed exclusives be damned, I need Will Arnett Batman and ‘80s Hasselhoff. Homer sums up my feelings exactly. On February 10 2017, audiences around the world will be sitting down in cinemas to watch the much anticipated LEGO: Batman movie. 48 days later, Australians can do the same. Village Roadshow is repeating history, making the same mistake it made with The LEGO Movie. A five million dollar mistake. A mistake co-CEO Graham Burke said the distributor would not be making again. Everything is not awesome. @BrickingAround LEGO Batman will be released in Australia on 30th March, 2017. — Roadshow Films (@RoadshowFilms) December 5, 2016 Piracy of The LEGO Movie cost Village Roadshow "somewhere between $3.5 and $5 million in sales" Burke revealed at a government-led Copyright Forum back in September 2014. "We made one hell of a mistake with LEGO," Burke said of the decision to delay The LEGO Movie's release in Australia by 54 days. "We'll now make all our movies day in date with the US.