Hey old news, I played another Lego game with my spouse. Even older news, it’s a remaster of games we already played before. But they’re prettier now and almost completely bug-free. I also played along with the respective handheld versions. It was all a jolly old time.
The Wii ports of Lego games were never the ideal way to play; they did have pointer support for a while which was a fun novelty and helped a “developing gamer” hone their skills. But they didn’t run super well, with frequent hardware crashes and—especially for the second game—a dark atmosphere combined with low resolution made them appear muddy and gloomy. I’m glad to say that the HD experience of these remasters was smooth as butter; Double Eleven did a great job.
Not only do they look good, but load times are short and there are quality of life improvements such as listing a character’s skills beneath their portrait in the UI. Plus the silly frippery of the Dualshock lighting up with the corresponding colour when you use a spell. This collection includes the DLC for Years 5-7 (not even available on Wii, mind you) which amounts to a handful of characters. Not too exciting, especially when the game failed to recognise Salazar Slytherin’s dark magic powers until we’d unlocked another dark magic user legitimately through progress. Bug or intentional gating? Hmm.
I could talk about what an innovation Years 1-4′s vast Hogwarts hub was at the time, expanded even more in the sequel, but the truth is I never fail to get lost in it; too much versimilitude perhaps, and it’s been superceded many times over since. The system of unlocking magical spells through the story makes for a good feeling of progress even if cycling through them is fiddly, especially in the tedious “duel” boss battles. Really the main reason to play the games is being a fan of the property and living out the adventures, or picking out beloved or obscure characters for free play mode. And I had great fun constantly asking my loremaster spouse about all the events and character motivations, which she fielded admirably.
I’ve played the handheld versions before, but only on mobile. On proper hardware they fare well. The first (on DS) is excitingly structured very differently to the console game, giving a fresh perspective on how to translate the story into Lego form. The second (on 3DS) feels much more like a “cut-down” console version, doing the same beats a bit differently but also just cutting some events (so much that year seven part 1 is half as long as the other segments). At least the duels are ever so slightly more interesting. It should be noted that the explorable hub is completely absent from both these games, and they’re solo only, but I do like the particular brand of charm that comes from TT Fusion’s handheld instalments. They’re always a bit clunkier and simpler but… warm and friendly. And of course with a unique selection of characters, so they’re good for fanservice.
The Lego games have come a long way since Harry Potter, with voice acting, more ambitious hubs, quests, and DLC level packs. Sometimes it’s nice to step back to when things were a little simpler. This remaster was a great way to re-experience these games.
