The Lego Movie The Videogame, no Lego The Movie The Game, no, The Lego Movie Game, no The Lego Movie Videogame there we go!
Despite having a confusing title that no one seems to remember correctly The Lego Movie Videogame is a joyful experience in a rich world full of diverse and interesting characters.
The plot of the game essentially follows the plot of the movie itself and does well to do so as the movie is fantastic, so both with the game and the movie if you are familiar with Lego (or were in your younger years) then you will love them both.
As with all Lego games The Lego Movie Videogame is a mix of platforming and puzzling with a bit of enemy bashing thrown in for good measure. The last few iterations have really managed to get this mix almost perfect although last years Lego Marvel while it was great fun to play through the main campaign, the myriad of glitches and the sheer boredom that set in post game endlessly helping the citizens really left the game on a downer for me (especially as 2 glitches for me left the game impossible to achieve 100% without restarting the entire game). Anyway The Lego Movie Videogame manages to be diverse and interesting enough to keep the players attention throughout with the diversity of characters in there, having some of the DC roster in there is especially nice to see, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see a Lego DC Superheroes game in 2016 around the time when the Superman/Batman movie releases. The various other popular characters like the Lord Of The Rings characters sit well alongside historical figures like William Shakespeare and Michaelangelo (he of David fame rather than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, who despite being in the movie does not feature in the game)
I personally played a fair bit of the game with my daughter and she absolutely had a blast the split screen screen tear has been replaced with traditional static split screen (the way the screen split in some previous iterations seemed to spin around which was quite jarring and distracted from what's happening on screen)
There's plenty of content in here for just shy of 30 hours for me to collect everything and achieve all the trophies. The main story itself is approx 7 hours long and is a blast to play through with it's cast of characters voiced perfectly with clips from the movie, Batman in particular is portrayed extremely well by Will Arnet
(G.O.B from Arrested Development). The soundtrack is well realised especially the movies theme song "Everything is Awesome". The new instruction building mechanic is the only real disappointment as it is very over simplified however it has massive potential for building and I for one would like to see this expanded on in further iterations.
There's honestly not a lot to say that is bad about this game, graphics, gameplay, sound everything is very well executed and fits together perfectly, yes there are still one or 2 glitches but nothing so drastic that it would stop you progressing. If you could level any kind of criticisim at the game it would be that with so many Lego games being released every year (3 last year including Lego Marvel at the very tail end of the year, and at least 1 more due later this year in Lego The Hobbit) some people may be burned out on this type of game. However this game stands apart from the other franchise games as this being Lego’s own franchise they have somewhat more freedom than with Marvel, Star Wars or Lord Of The Rings, and as such don't need to stick to well established characters and this leads to a more creative fun environment in particular in the five smaller open world hubs of the game than some of the previous entries (especially New York City in Lego Marvel). Personally I can’t get enough of the Lego games so hopefully Travellers Tales keeps them coming at a steady rate!
Overall The Lego Movie Videogame is a fun romp through a diverse and interesting world with plenty for both adults and kids to explore and do for hour upon hour, everything is indeed awesome!
By Andy Urquhart