One of the best movies from 2014 was easily The Lego Movie, it was masterfully created, featured a story that appealed to both children and adults and just overall was a really good movie. But what about as a game? We all know the history of movie tie-in games, many of them struggle to truly find footing as story limitations, and repetitive gameplay hinder the games. We try to like them, but sadly we struggle with many of them, though there is a shining light as some of these movie tie-in games prove to be some of the best games many of us have ever played. The question now is everything awesome with the Lego Movie Videogame, or is this just another dull movie cash in?
The Lego Movie Videogame follows the basic story of the movie with very little changes made to make something original. The story follows Emmet, a nobody construction worker who is an plain as can be, however before long he discovers he is more than the world believes and sets out with a group of master builders to take down the evil Lord Business.
The plot sticks in the game sticks close to the plot of the movie as each of the games sequences simply expands upon major moments from the movie which works really well. The bad part is the game never does the story of the movie justice and basically it vanishes.
It is rare Lego games derive from a set formula, they are growing more and more overdone with only the odd entry managing to find some form of difference. While The Lego Movie Videogame is not one of the Lego Games that derives from the formula it is not actually a bad thing, the overdone nature of The Lego Movie Videogame actually works in this instance.
Rather than taking many risks and trying to do much that’s new the developers at TT Games have stuck with a formula that works, and has worked for many years. Ordinarily I would complain about this, but the classic formula of the Lego games at their core to my surprise works in the Lego Movie Videogame. The game honestly provides some surprises built from Traveller’s Tales old formula and honestly becomes reasonably exciting and entertaining.
Across the games 15 levels the game rarely steps out of line, the levels each provide very little repetition and really well paced as well as greatly designed. Some derivations have been made from the classic formula in a couple of instances, these include some really well done freefall sections, Even the chance to play as Metalbeard from the movie proved to be quite enjoyable even if playing as the character didn’t happen very often.
The Lego Movie Videogame matches the movie in its visual aesthetic, almost everything in the world of the Lego Movie Videogame is made of Lego. This makes a change from many other Lego games which featured only selected objects were made of Lego bricks, meanwhile much of the rest of the world were built realistic to distinguish between the interactive and non-interactive pieces.
While the game is enjoyable and like other Lego games are built to be played with a friend I was not satisfied with how the multiplayer was shoehorned into the game. Right from the start you are given a secondary character for the other player and on many occasions these characters have no connection to the point in the game that it references from the movie. As an example during the first level you are working on a construction site as Emmet, however to add a second character they have given us another construction worker mentioned in the movie who does not even know who Emmet is in the movie but still works with him in the game. While I like the multiplayer being in the game, I don’t feel it works to be there all the time particularly when it moves away from the movie too far.
I would easily recommend watching the movie before entering into the game, as previously mentioned the story gets lost and the levels expand upon select segments of the movie. To fully keep things in context and understand the segments the movie should be watched as much of the games levels do tend to feel like a reel of the best moments from the movie but don’t always work within the bounds of the story meaning the game tends to take on its own narrative identity.
The Lego Movie Videogame is honestly not a bad tie in, it is actually one of the better games made from a movie. What does the game the biggest favour is that it doesn’t try to break away from the Lego formula and this makes the game enjoyable and works with the type of game this is. The Lego Movie Videogame is fun but even with watching the movie for source material it is better to play this game as its own.
