The LEGO Movie Videogame looks almost as good as the LEGO Marvel Superheroes. The biggest graphical change is the fact that the environments are now all made out of LEGO, where in previous times they LEGO was limited to some of the characters and parts of the environment. I really enjoyed the change, as the game was able to separate itself from a series that has become quite stale.
The cut scenes in the game mostly consist of original sections from the movie. They look slightly more compressed and less visually impressive but that’s to be expected. The sound in the game does a perfect job of making you feel like you’re in The Lego Movie. It’s not out of this world, but it’s enough to put you in a believable environment.
The game also introduces a new play set mechanic in which Emmet must build large city items using instructions from a play set. They usually involve finding specific bricks that are missing from your collection in order to build the item required to advance. The game also features Master Builders, which can create structures using blocks without instructions, as you’d expect from previous games (and the movie). Unfortunately this gets repetitive fairly quickly and the game feels like it relegates back to the standard formula of previous LEGO games.
In fact, this is the thing that disappointed me most about the game. The game starts out as the most innovate LEGO game to date but quickly morphs into a repetitive game that screams rushed, clearly in an attempt to coincide with the release date of the movie. It’s still a ton better than the majority of movie tie-in games, but it still falls a little short.
Thankfully, The LEGO Movie Videogame introduces a stellar roster of characters. Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman and even Gandalf are all unlockable and provide an exciting burst of gameplay for a brief amount of time. As always, the game is better played with a buddy. It’s easy enough for anybody to pickup and is great in short spurts. Unfortunately, for older players there is almost no challenge in the gameplay, but this means that it’s completely achievable to beat for its target audience.