Yes, we all remember the tiny coloured Lego bricks from our childhood, a joy to play with and painful as nails to step on. Founded in 1932, these tiny bricks have come a long way, making the jump from the physical world to the virtual world with a number of different games spanning most platforms of the last and current generations. They even made their debut to the big screen in 2014!
The Lego games have not only been set in their own Lego universe but have also spanned a number of movie, comic, and TV settings, including but not limited to: Batman, Marvel, Harry Potter, Ghostbusters, The Simpsons, and Pirates of the Caribbean. The Lego games have become one of the biggest grossing franchises of all time selling over 100 million copies, and I have to admit its easy to see why.
“…everytime you start a new game you have the same feelings of excitement and anticipation…”
I have played a number of the Lego games over the years starting with Lego Batman and more recently, The Hobbit and Marvel’s Avengers. When you step into a new game you know what to expect, greeted by the familiarity of the Lego logo being built by the tiny Lego workers. You know that you will be trying to collect as many studs and gold bricks as possible to unlock all the secrets the game has, and yet, every time you start a new game you have the same feeling of excitement and anticipation as playing any other game because you know it’ll be a great story (one that you may or may not already know) told in a fun and different way and enjoyable regardless of age.
Those of you like me will know that the Lego Franchise is no stranger to joining forces with Star Wars to make a great game. The Force Awakens will soon be the newest addition to the Lego clan when it releases on the 28th June 2016. The game is set to not only be an adaptation of the recent film of the same name but also to bridge the gap between said film and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, which will allow the creative directors to explore the different characters’ representative backstories, which should excite many of you Star Wars fans out there. The developers promise to add a number of new mechanics to the game including new sections of the game which are being dubbed as “blaster battles”. These levels/ sub-levels will include a cover and shoot mechanic; how character/ weapon restrictive this will be remains to be seen. The other big feature that is being added is what’s known as “multi-builds”. These are sections of the map that will allow you to select what you build from a host of different options. Each option will allow you to tackle a puzzle differently and potentially access different areas of the map. Don’t like what you made? You can destroy it and get all your pieces back to make one of the other options allowing for much more freedom and creativity than previously seen from Lego video game titles. I suspect that this may be used in unison with the minikits i.e., the more variety of the minikits you have collected then the more options you have for your multi-builds.
I think it’s clear that the Lego steam train won’t be pulling into station for its last stop anytime soon. What does the future hold? It’s anyone’s guess really. Personally I’d like to see a Lego Game of Thrones or perhaps a Lego Marvel: Daredevil based on the Netflix series. So tell me, what Lego titles would you like to see in the future?