Lego City Undercover Truly Has A Chance To Shine Thanks To The Port

The Wii U was home to numerous games that will easily be remembered for their incredible quality. Sure the fact that quality games were few and far between may not help this, but looking at the positives, Lego City Undercover was an incredible addition to the systems library. On a system starved of open world games, TT Fusion worked with Nintendo to bring an incredibly fun Lego experience to the system that was the best of its kind. Quirky, destructive, silly, Lego City Undercover was something special.

This is what makes this porting business so appealing, the Wii U barely had the numbers to offer this game the attention it deserved and they purposefully chose the right time to port the game when the Wii U was no longer relevant. So now the game is available on three new platforms, the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo’s newest system the Nintendo Switch, and surely we can agree it is great to see this game finally able to see the mass appeal it does honestly deserve.

When put into context of games that are already available on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, Lego City Undercover does not seem all that special. The systems are full of open world games with wacky stories, and games where you get to steal cars and be destructive. Grand Theft Auto has been out for years on these systems, but when compared to Lego City there is a clear gap that can be noticed.

Grand Theft Auto among other open world games of a similar nature are built for the adult gamer to indulge their criminal fantasies. Lego City Undercover on the other hand is built as an opposite force, sure you can be destructive, and I personally would have loved to have seen some form of punishment system for my reckless endangerment of Lego City civilian’s lives, but it is built in the framework that you are the good guy.

Lego City Undercover remaster screenshot 1

Lego City Undercover is essentially Grand Theft Auto but more entailed towards a more child centric audience with the end result of your own illegal activities being towards capturing a master criminal. This means that parents are able to give their child that copy of Grand Theft Auto that they have been nagging for but in a much safer way that they don’t have to be concerned about what their children are seeing or doing. The fact that more kids have access to a Playstation 4 or Xbox One makes Lego City Undercover more likely to be enjoyed by these younger audiences, or at least that is the hope.

From my experience, nothing about the game has been extended and there are no new side activities to do, there is no new world sections and there is definitely no real improvement in load times. Essentially if you happened to play the Wii U version what you see is what you get, except for one element that does make this definitive, multiplayer.

The multiplayer feature is a much loved staple of Lego games, at least in the modern era, as such it was baffling to many that a game in the brand would not include multiplayer. Sure it seemed silly at first but it was handled well in terms of how the game relied on a more personal story through Chase McCain. If an attempt was made to include multiplayer in the Wii U version, it would have felt forced and would have been lacking considering the careful focus the game had with the gamepad being used in tangent with the television.

Lego City Undercover remaster screenshot 2

Fast forward to now and this seems mixed, playing Lego City Undercover as a single player game was part of the charm and the experience. This was a personal story and only really had one character at its core playing the role of protagonist, this is shown further when you enter multiplayer and the second player is a carbon copy just with different coloured clothes. Yet, for all the things that can be said that argue against multiplayers inclusion, it really was a great addition that adds a lot to the game.

Lego City’s huge world can now be explored as a team, whether you are playing to find all hidden items or having fun with rampant destruction. Everything about Lego City Undercover just feels better when you have someone at your side in missions or just messing around in the overworld. It is that ingredient which was easy to understand not having but ultimately creates a better game especially for those who want to play a game together that is fun, charming, and a bit silly.

The Playstation 4 and Xbox One are a new great home for Lego City but for obvious reasons these platforms are not ideal. Lego City Undercover can be looked over for the more mature offerings found on the consoles, Grand Theft Auto, The Witcher and more will overshadow the game despite its obvious fun qualities. This is where the Nintendo Switch acts as a great home console offering two wonderful benefits.

On the Nintendo Switch there is not currently a huge game market full of big open world adventures that will overshadow Lego City Undercover. But more important is the simple nature of the systems design, the fact that you can take the Switch on the go means that Lego City Undercover can be enjoyed at a much greater capacity then on other platforms. There is more fun to be had in playing Lego City Undercover here where you can enjoy another experience out and about. Even still there is value no matter where you play, and it is great to know that more people can now enjoy another game that deserves the attention.

I stand by what I said in my original review, Lego City Undercover is one of the best Lego games in years, and through the Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch it truly shows it. If you are looking for something that is fun and cheesy I implore you give Lego City Undercover a chance! You surely will not regret it.

If you want more from Lego City Undercover you can read my original review here, although some of the information is no longer relevant to the current iteration of the game.

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