The Lego games will keep coming! I got my wife a whole bunch of them for her birthday so expect more reviews, suckers! This is the newest one we’ve played so far, and compared to Marvel Super Heroes it runs better; our frame rate was noticeably better in levels even with both screens on. Its scale feels smaller though, and the character choices leave much to be desired; it feels like a lot of character were held back for DLC, which is sadly not available on Wii U.
The hub areas were nostalgically small, at least until the explorable Lantern worlds were unlocked, which was a nice surprise. These are Mario Galaxy-style planetoids with quests and things from DC characters. They added content but the planets themselves aren’t too exciting.
This is a problem I had with the game: while purporting to be “Lego Batman”, after the first three levels it is more of a Justice League-cum-Green Lantern game, and the Lantern realm is something I only have a passing familiarity with. For it to be such a significant part of the game was a little off-putting to a “cosmic DC” outsider. But that’s to be expected. The villainous characters also feel like a B-team, but there’s the inevitable team-up and plenty of disguises and magic emotional manipulation due to Lantern shenanigans to shake things up, adding interest to the main group.
My favourite parts of the game were the levels set on Earth cities that had been shrunk by Brainiac’s shrink-ray, with adorable mini Lego models of landmarks and objects; and the amusing level based on the 60’s TV series complete with visual sound effects and hammy Adam West narration.
Speaking of celebrity cameos, there are some really out-of-place appearances by Kevin Smith and Conan O’Brien that were a constant groaner. Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers as the Green Loontern was OK, but there was a bit much of him too. Stan Lee really worked in Marvel, and Adam West is good here, but they went overboard with these.
It was still great to play through this in co-op. Each new character unlock would either elicit memories and delight, or bemusement and a trip to Wikipedia. Vehicles as a concept are tacked on and unnecessary, and there’s the occasional glitch but much fewer outright crashes. The core concept is still strong and it’s not broke, so have at it.
Once again, my wife and I have played another Lego game. I’ll make this quick! I think the superhero genre is a great fit for these games; lots of brightly coloured weirdoes with different powers. Flight especially is a game-changer, breaking level design but also allowing the vast hub world first seen in Lego Batman 2. This game’s New York is much brighter than Gotham, to its benefit. The Wii U is a great platform too, allowing both players a full-width screen to play on; however, we did come to appreciate the improved frame-rate that comes with putting both players on the TV, and traded between two screens in the hub and split-screen in the levels.
The game does a reasonable job with showing a variety of locations in the Marvel universe (from what I know of it, anyway). And I do love having a cast of the Avengers, Spiderman, the X-Men, and the Fantastic 4 all together, as they should be. This also allows a good range of villains for a classic EVIL TEAM UP. I just wish, again, that they spent more time playtesting and fixing bugs. We had more softlocks and hard crashes than ever before. Apart from that though, one of the better Lego games, with lots of good ideas from the big hub to the bonus mini-levels, to good use of different character abilities. Not awkwardly splicing in dialogue from movies is good too.
I broke in my new PSP with one of the old tried and tested Lego games. The PSP is an odd beast, like a mini PS3 with a small viewing angle, strange (for a handheld) disc access noises, and, for this game at least, annoying loading times on startup. For nobody’s interest, I chose the e-1000 model, the newest “budget” model with supposedly the best screen but no Internet and mono-only speaker, and the same faster processor of the other slim models. The tradeoffs are worthwhile for the price, I feel. The shape of the thing did cause me hand cramps in extended play sessions.
I spent much of my time with this game wondering if this was an upscaled port of the DS version, or a downscaled port of the console version. Since it’s a very early instalment in the Lego series, the lines are more blurred than they are these days. I still don’t have a definitive answer (because I didn’t do any research)! But whichever, it was still a nice bit of fluff.
Despite a limited character roster, there’s a fairly robust lineup of villains, rotating for each chapter. I liked the mirrored structure, where the heroes (only Batman and Robin in their different suits in story mode) have a Batcave hub, and the villains roam Arkham Asylum; the villain levels also take place in approximately the same locations, showing their setup and mayhem previous to being taken down by the good guys. It’s a fun story conceit.
Being an early Lego game, it keeps things simple with menus rather than large open worlds, straightforward tasks, and grunts-and-gestures cutscenes rather than a fully voiced script. Having played so many Lego games now, this was almost a nostalgic throwback in a way. Refreshing. And I only had one crash my whole time.
It’s another Lego game. I’ll try to be quick! The handheld version of this game has some fun additions compared to the console one, most of which I’ve experienced before playing Lego The Hobbit on 3DS: level-specific tasks, more smaller levels, character-specific super moves. All these make for snappy play that doesn’t drag. I liked controlling the giant characters like Metalbeard or Emmett’s mech; compared to console, they more effectively portray a fun rampage of destruction. You also get to control the motorbike on the highway chase, and there are even a couple of vehicle-based levels set in Middle Zealand.
However, overall I think this is a weaker version of the game. The in-game graphics don’t go as far to representing the all-Lego world of the movie, and it’s missing the all-important newly recorded character dialogue that occurs during gameplay in the console version. It’s a fun game and a good instalment in the Lego series, but capturing the feel of the movie was a great strength of the console game and this doesn’t do that as effectively. But it’s not one or the other; the two complement each other. After all, everything is cool when you’re part of a team. (Sorry.)
I’ve reviewed so many Lego games now, I like to think myself something of a connoisseur of them. But it’s a type of game that my wife and I can really enjoy together. The Wii U is the best platform for playing them too, since it allows both players a full wide-screen view at once with the Gamepad.
This one is unique from other ones in a few ways. Firstly, it’s based on only one movie. Some of the superhero ones have a single story but it’s a new one for the game so they can design levels for it. What you notice about this is that they have to insert extra happenings in between scenes of the movie, to make up more of a playable experience. This is not a bad thing; one of the strengths of adaptations is fleshing out the source material in various ways. However the result is that the game is quite short compared to pretty much every other Lego game. There are several hub areas with things to do but nothing like the expanse of Middle-Earth or Gotham City. There’s a fine line between the game feeling focused or self-contained and feeling brief or lacking.
Of course, this game is also different in that its source hasn’t been Lego-ised for the game. The source is Lego in every way. This means that scenes from the movie can be played directly as cutscenes, which works very well at making you feel like you’re playing the movie, and reminded me how good the movie itself is too. Newly recorded audio material for all the characters is also used over gameplay which is cool. The movie’s Lego-only aesthetic is embraced in the game too and well delivered on. The game isn’t quite as universal an IP mash-up as the movie is but there’s a fun range of characters of different types and origins. Near the end Gandalf shows up individually, and I think you can see the hints of Lego Dimensions there.
Despite its brief length, TLMV was one of my favourites yet. Part of this I think is due to its smaller scope, letting them polish it more instead of rushing out a gigantic buggy mess, although I will also chalk that up to this being developed by TT Fusion, who predominantly helms the handheld games which I view as more stable. Partly it’s also the bright, fun aesthetic of the world, it gives a happier mood than the pervasive dim gloom of Batman’s world or the Middle-Earth games. It’s also just easier to see when it’s light and colourful and there isn’t constant rain. Another part is it being based on a comedy movie where everything in the movie and the game is geared towards fun. Its biggest weakness is some levels seeming inconsequential due to being inserted in the movie’s events, as well as being over too quickly, but if you expect a smaller game you won’t be disappointed.
EDIT: Upon spending more time in Free Play, several bugs and glitches have come to light. So never mind what I said, it’s about on par with the other Lego games.
This movie was loads of fun, really well made. My wife and I have been enjoying the inevitable game version as well, which reminds you of what a nice cast of characters it has. As you progress you add members one by one, building up your band of buds. It’s a good feeling. Oh, so these are the “good guys”, not counting Bad Cop and Lord Business who do end up becoming friendly.
Lego Star Wars kicked off the Lego games, and it’s still one of the best. It even seems to have become its own sub-franchise, with several runs of short animated movies. This is a game based on one of those movie series, or tying into it somehow, I don’t know it’s confusing what they’re doing with these cross-media initiatives.
I was eager to see if this attempt went anywhere towards capturing that addictive gameplay of the other Lego games. There was a previous Yoda Chronicles game for iOS but it got boring quickly because of its half-assed execution on simplistic strategy gameplay. Turns out this one uses no more ass but at least switches up what you’re doing between levels.
There’s very basic autorunning 3D combat levels, quite basic free-falling levels, boringly basic space combat levels… I began to get a picture of who this game is for. Small children with no standards. Of course, they also want to make it simple so it can run in web browsers. It’s just that the game is not really very fun to play and so imprecise.
Half the time you don’t know when your attacks are going to land, or if you’re going to be hurt by falling into a bridge. And if you do, then there’s very little impact communicated. The level ends when you collect enough holocrons, which in this interpretation of the universe are strewn around everywhere, the most common object in the galaxy. Handfuls just fall out of crates. But this end can come at any time, resulting in a feeling of anticlimax.
To cut a long story short, this game is nothing like Traveller’s Tales’s (now that’s a confusing possessive) Lego games. It’s a quick and dirty cash-in for a mediocre kids’ cartoon series. Happy belated Life Day!
I’ve been scanning a lot of manuals (aka instruction books/booklets) recently. I noticed that my favourite manuals site, Replacementdocs, was missing some that I could contribute. Unfortunately their approvals process is slow and anything that isn’t specifically requested could take months to be published on the site, if ever. I wanted to put the manuals I’d scanned out there because I don’t want others to have the experience of getting a second hand game without a manual and having no recourse. They’re also useful for research on a game series you like or simply digital collecting.
So I’m uploading and linking all the manuals I scanned here (some of them are published on Replacementdocs, but many aren’t yet). It’s a weird selection but this is what I have on my shelf, people. Of course, I have a lot of others but for the most part their manuals are already online. Please note that a few of these included a second language, such as French or Spanish, but I omitted them from the scan; sorry non-English speakers. Here we go then; game, platform, region:
This took ages, so somebody better download and enjoy these things!
Now, I’ll also recommend a few sites that I use whenever I’m looking for a manual. Obviously, Replacementdocs is the first place to look. Nintendo of America quite usefully hosts manuals for some Wii U/3DS/Wii/DS games, and even a few GCN/GBA ones. Freegamemanuals used to be a quite comprehensive if slightly dodgy resource, but has unfortunately shut down; maybe it’ll be back one day? The “Games Database” is, well a database of games, with some manual scans included; just do a search and see if they have it. NintendoAge is similar, and sometimes has pictures of the manual. Vimm’s Lair and the DP Library are slightly more specialised/limited, but worth a try especially for older systems. For even more specificity in systems covered, Handheld Museum is good for self-contained LCD-type games and Planet Virtual Boy is just fantastic, if only for, well, the Virtual Boy. You can also try the Video Game Museum or the Video Game Archeologist or failing all of that, just Google it. Special mention to the Ni no Kuni manual, which I started scanning until I noticed the manual itself told me that there was a high-res colour version online; cheers, Namco!
I’ve long thought that aside from the co-op gameplay, the handheld versions of the Lego games have offered a better, more polished experience. Is that still true in this game? Yes and no.
For a start, this has more bugs than I’m used to in the handheld games. Characters and scenery turning invisible, the character switcher not working properly, quest markers not being marked, and even a crash to homescreen, seldom seen on 3DS. Some of these are clearly the result of poor testing and QA on the game, which is a disappointment but not wholly unexpected from Lego games given my experience with them.
I mentioned the quest markers, but the whole system is also confusing. There’s no map as the “bit that’s not levels” is part open world hub, part Donkey Kong Country-style routed map, but you have the ability to pan around it. The system works well enough when you get used to how to control it, but the game gives you no way to keep track of quests or quest-related items. It’s a bit of a mess, and the rewards are a tad unsatisfying. (Also: the text is riddled with typos.)
On the other hand, the gameplay may be the best yet of these scaled-down titles. We have the “smaller levels and more of them” structure, varied between “puzzle”-solving levels and more combat-oriented ones. But the combat is more fun than the console game, with super moves, a dodge/charge, and ranged attacks on a different button that give you more options to keep it fresh. They’ve cut jumping, which sounds odd but gives them an extra button to work with and the levels are designed to require it only contextually, a smart move. Boss battles are also less QTE-heavy, which was the worst part of the main game.
Each level has a set of 10 challenges, which may be finding hidden items, completing under a certain time, not taking damage, etc. It’s a great idea to give you different objectives depending on the focus of the level, and really makes replays feel worthwhile.
I’ve heard that these design ideas that make this stand out from the previous simple scaled-down console ports were introduced in Lego Marvel Super Heroes (handheld), and further refined in The Lego Movie game (handheld). These aspects (the level structure and combat) have thus come out feeling good, but it leaves the quest system feeling half-baked as it hasn’t been used since Lego Lord of the Rings, and in fact may be worse than it was then.
Having now seen the third movie, my concerns about not including it have dissolved. There’s only a couple of new locations, which are included in the “hubs” of both versions of this game, and the only significant events are some battle scenes which I’m not too sad on missing out on. In fact, now that I’ve completed both games, I hope they don’t have any plans for DLC or another game.
Overall I’m quite happy with this one. Struggling through iOS versions has taught me to appreciate physical buttons and the second screen, not to mention the lack of in-app purchases, which made playing this on 3DS much more pleasant. The controls and interface are less clunky, and the characters and their abilities more balanced than the console version, making each one feel useful and cool at different times. Galadriel has wizard powers! No awkward item switching! Ahem.
These types of games tend to be overlooked; the big console release is accompanied by sometimes a very different game coming to less powerful systems, and sometimes that smaller version is ignored. In this case, I reckon that once again the handheld version is a better game; apart from, of course, the ability to play with a loved one co-operatively, which is such a valuable experience that it balances out the sloppiness of the console game. Maybe one day we’ll have the best of both worlds, or maybe they’ll let TT Fusion handle the main event for once. Well, I’ve been there and back again on Middle-Earth Lego games so until Lego The Silmarillion, farewell.
Since this is a Lego game, let’s again look at the ways it differs from other Lego games. It’s much like Lord of the Rings, with a large overworld hub filled with quests. It’s a less fun hub than Batman 2 because it’s harder to get around without the power of flight, and it’s a bit buggier; objects will disappear when your co-op partner moves between areas.
The game seems optimised for single-player, and I’m not just talking about the frame rate. You have issues like the one I mentioned, and a glaring fault in the very first level where the second player invariably and irreparably gets stuck behind a door.
The Gamepad features are good, with a handy map for the overworld and even the ability to shunt one player’s screen down there. This is good because it gives both players widescreen, but the Gamepad user may feel a bit bad for having a lower-res screen. It also disconnects the two players, so it’s harder for each to know what the other is doing. Implementation of the map is also horrible, as every time you go in a cave or travel somewhere or you cough lightly, the Gamepad kicks you back to the feature select screen. I hate this. Leave the map on, please.
New aspects are the building minigame, stolen from the Lego Movie Game where it made more sense conceptually; and collecting loot, which is fine in theory but a bit unbalanced. We ended up with 999 stone and hundreds of gold fairly quickly, but were always low on copper.
The game suffers from poor visibility and some hard-to-use controls and mechanics. Quicktime events and frustrating contextual demands slow down the experience, especially when one person is left out. Chase sequences are as unfun as ever but quite short in this game. Also, wizards may seem cool but this game makes you hate them because their staff attack is so achingly slow to use.
There are so many faults in the implementation and feel of this game, but that doesn’t mean that the basic concepts aren’t still competent. It also doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, and my wife and I enjoyed it enough to get to 100%, which doesn’t always happen. The game itself has a sense of fun and silliness, with one extra giving you a banging techno song with soundbites of movie lines.
Finally, I remain baffled at the timing of its release. I would much rather they had waited until the release of the third film, and included that in the game. As it is, we’re left here with a game now completed but only telling two thirds of a story, and wondering whether they’ll release the rest as DLC or not bother, and if so whether it will even come to Wii U (apparently there’s character DLC, but we didn’t get that). This was a source of concern for me before we got it, and if and when the BOFA DLC issue comes up, I can see it causing me angst again. Just plain odd.
You probably don’t want to read yet another Lego review. I don’t particularly want to write another one either. I’ll just say that it was a novelty to go back in time as it were, to a more basic Lego game.
What the heck, I just played this to chill out anyway. It was fun. There you go, there’s your review.
As part of Batman’s recent anniversary, all of the Batman games had a massive sale. What a great idea, except the only ones I can be bothered with are the Lego ones. Don’t tell me again how good Arkham is supposed to be, ain’t nobody got time for that. My wife and I once again teamed up for the co-op Lego experience, and meanwhile I played the handheld iteration on my iPhone.
First of all, the platforms. The Wii U seems like the best fit for Batman 2, because the Gamepad gives you the neato second screen. In this version, you can’t put the second player on the second screen, but you can have a character switcher in levels, a godsend in free play levels. In the hub meanwhile you have the most powerful tool, a map with location pinpointing.
I think this was the first Lego game to do the “massive hub” thing, and it’s really great! The amount of stuff to do makes up for the levels, which are generally short and few in number. You also get to traverse it really quickly if you want, with vehicles and flying heroes (mostly the latter), to then drop down anywhere and collect some stuff. The map really helps this process, just roaming around and finding things.
On the other hand, iOS once again seems the worst (but cheapest, hence me choosing it) platform for the game. You have the dodgy touchscreen controls, the massive file size on your device, and worst of all the microtransaction garbage. From what I’ve read, the iOS port has less stud multiplier bonuses, which I suspect is a cheap way to inflate the value of studs, and hence to encourage you outright buying things with real money rather than playing the game. It also throws up ads for its own DLC between levels. Blegh.
As for comparing the two platforms, well as expected the handheld version has much simpler models and graphics, which is not always bad. In this case, all the lighting effects and rain and stuff on the console gives a final product which is overly dark and laggy. The smaller one avoids this problem with level elements that stand out more against the backgrounds, and a constant perspective rather than a dodgy player-controlled camera. Sure there’s less detail but I preferred the more basic look.
Of course, the camera is only in effect in the hub. An annoyance is the shift in controls and how the game plays between hub and levels, it makes it less seamless. More seamly, you could say. On the other hand, the handheld one has no hub at all, apart from the Batcave! Just levels, which as I said are short and few. There’s an arena mode to pad it out a bit but I feel the hub really is the whole of the game and without it, the small version really suffers in terms of content. It does make in-level collectibles more worthwhile as you get characters that way, but then you don’t get to play around with those characters as much, especially as everything is so expensive.
So I’d say the console version wins out, due to the fun we had dicking around Gotham City. The character choice is also worse in the console one (without DLC anyway, which is not actually present in the Wii U version), but I still enjoyed what was available. Hawk Girl, Martian Manhunter, and so on. Although it has the usual bugs and crashes, it’s still in that “old-style” Lego type thing where it’s not as integrated in the license’s world, so it feels more Lego-y, and it’s more wacky… I can’t really explain it but it made me feel nostalgic for Lego Star Wars in a way the LOTR and Harry Potter ones didn’t. So that’s Lego Batman 2, and we already have the Hobbit to go on with, so on to more Lego! Oh, also this is the first one we’ve bothered to get 100% for a while so that should tell you something.
Once again, we have a handheld Lego game. I was on the hook with these recently on my iPhone as you might notice. This one’s brand new, so hey a thin veneer of relevancy! This one will be really short because come on.
My first impressions were that compared with Lego Harry 2, this was a lot more polished and clean. I certainly found it more fun. It is still a lite version of the console one, but in this case the implication is that load times and scale are much smaller than its big brother, which is a good thing for the bloated console version with its interminable load screens. It’s also a good example of TT Fusion’s handheld ones being more streamlined than the main events.
The quest and treasure system is similar to the console, but easier to work with. Sometimes I couldn’t tell whether I was in a level or a hub, which is a good thing: it’s immersive and seamless, more like exploring a world. You don’t have to change equipped items (or spells) all the time, but you get duplicate characters with different equipment which, coupled with the awkwardly implemented character switching system, makes it frustrating to get access to the abilities you need. I like the menu system generally though, as it keeps a lot of functions together and easy to access. Unfortunately it pushes its in-app purchases on you annoyingly.
They seem more needed in this game, too, as the studs you get don’t seem enough to unlock an appropriate amount of stuff even after you beat the game. It’s a frustrating dynamic, you feel like they’re gouging you as there’s so much stuff but you can’t afford it.
But, it’s a cool game in general, they’ve adapted all those great LOTR scenarios and setpieces in interesting ways, but quite differently to the console version, so it’s very much its own experience. All the areas are much smaller, but this is both good and bad as they seem cramped but you don’t have to endlessly traverse huge empty areas as on console. It’s part of the streamlining again. It’s also been ported to iOS very well. Probably the best handheld Lego game I’ve played so far. But now, they’ve ported the console version of Lego Star Wars Saga to iOS, which just throws everything off! Wacky! It’s also too expensive, and I’ve played it before with a co-op mode, so I won’t be getting that.
AKA Lego Harry 2 Handheld. As before, there were two variations, and now I’ve played both. This one, as a more modern game for more modern systems, is closer to the console one albeit scaled back. By that I mean it’s more 3D than isometric, and although a bit more fluid structurally is less out there than Lego Harry 1 Handheld compared to the console version.
In the process, you lose a lot of things that made the first handheld one unique. Gone are the touch screen gimmicks and the fixed perspective, the slightly RPG-ish elements and the more rigid platforming. Now more than before it’s kind of a lite version of the big screen one, rather than having more distinguishing characteristics. Having said that, it still differs enough to be its own game and worth playing apart from the big version, especially for fans.
You also find that the controls are less suited for the touch screen the more it tries to mimic its console cousin. Another annoying factor is the duelling. It seems to tack on duels all the time, and I’d sigh whenever one came up. I was happy to skip the extra in-app purchase for more duelling.
What else can I say? It’s a Lego game like other Lego games. Handheld versions miss the point of accessible co-op play as usual, being strictly solo. Lots of unlockables and junk. Swapping between spells is always annoying. Also the loading times were super long and it seemed a little less stable and more clunky than other Lego iOS ports. And the game is in landscape but the prerendered cutscenes play in portrait, so that they’re at 90˚ to your view and tiny. It’s a stupid bug that is amazingly in the game still. Overall though not bad, I mean I finished it so it was ok. Yeah, ok, alright?
Ok, this is just a pie-in-the-sky wishlist for great franchises that I personally, as a fan, would love to see made into a TT game. They should have a varied cast, plenty of action (although this is not strictly necessary), and a lot of narrative content. Some of these may have to have narrative improvised for the game, also, so I guess the main criterion is a large cast of interesting characters with different abilities.
Doctor Who!
Donkey Kong Country!
Lost!
Mega Man!
Studio Ghibli films!
The HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!
Firefly!
The Zelda series!
The Mother/Earthbound series!
The Slender Man Mythos!
The Matrix series!
Heehee, ok some of these are a bit silly. Reply or reblog or whatever with your own top wishes, or if you want to challenge me to outline what a game in one of these themes would be like. Yes, I’m talking to YOU! Do it, now! It’s fun!
Since this is a Lego game, let’s again look at the ways it differs from other Lego games. It’s much like Lord of the Rings, with a large overworld hub filled with quests. It’s a less fun hub than Batman 2 because it’s harder to get around without the power of flight, and it’s a bit buggier; objects will disappear when your co-op partner moves between areas.
As part of Batman’s recent anniversary, all of the Batman games had a massive sale. What a great idea, except the only ones I can be bothered with are the Lego ones. Don’t tell me again how good Arkham is supposed to be, ain’t nobody got time for that. My wife and I once again teamed up for the co-op Lego experience, and meanwhile I played the handheld iteration on my iPhone.
