The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame Review

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame

Release: January 1, 1970
Publisher: WBGames
Developer: Travellers Tales
Genre: Switch Reviews, XBox One Reviews
PEGI: E
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Comment

The LEGO Movie 2 was a fantastic experience when I went and saw it in theatres, and whenever there is a great cinema experience, there are high hopes for the LEGO game that spins off from that. LEGO titles over the last number of years have really been hit-and-miss, so jumping into any LEGO experience always has the potential for disappointment. The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame takes a much different route than other LEGO games based on movies, and while this isn’t all bad, we felt the game ultimately shipped a few weeks – potentially months? – too early. Let’s dive in!

The LEGO Movie 2 Worlds Videogame

If you’ve had the opportunity to play LEGO Worlds, the LEGO Movie 2 Videogame should feel somewhat familiar to you. While there is some element of story telling, and the ability to engage in combat, collect bricks, etc. like in other LEGO titles, you’ll also have the equipment to scan objects in the world and add them to your collection of goodies to build later on. It’s like LEGO Worlds lite, and for younger players (such as my 9 year old son), this was a very good thing.

The LEGO Movie 2 game does fall in line with the movie, and not having seen the film before jumping into the video game experience can actually be a bit difficult, as numerous characters, ideas, and jokes don’t land unless there is some prior knowledge of the movie itself.

But lets talk about what will be familiar. It’s a LEGO game, so the shallow combat and brick busting fun should be familiar to almost every gamer. Is there anyone out there who hasn’t tried a LEGO video game at least once? As you play, their will be characters to unlock, and special moves to utilize – different for each character – so in terms of what it offers…well, it’s a LEGO experience, with a good amount of puzzles to keep you going.

It’s a LEGO game from top to bottom, and that already puts it in good territory, even before you pick up the controller and launch the game.

The Hook and the Problem 

Of course every LEGO game has some kind of hook to keep you going, and that is the case with this experience as well. Whether trying to collect all the Master Pieces on each world, or hunting down elusive relics that can be turned in for building parts and characters, there is always something to keep you going in the LEGO Movie 2 Videogame. Unfortunately, the process of moving from world to world, and exploring said worlds, is hampered by incredibly long load times – both on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One versions of the game we reviewed – and frequent frame rate drops and glitches.

We also experienced the game crashing on both the Switch and Xbox versions of the game, which made us lose a bit of progress. For myself, this was more of a “oh shoot!” moment, but for my son it was quite devastating.

Ultimately, the hook for me didn’t last long enough, but it was exactly what the doctor ordered for my son. He’s been playing all week long hunting down treasure chests and relics, and working to obtain all those Master Pieces. For whatever reason, the lengthy load times don’t seem to bother him, and he is the intended audience for this experience, so perhaps the concerns over this issue are a bit overblown.

Bosses “Are Awesome”

The bosses in The LEGO Movie 2 Videogames are both outstanding and underwhelming at the same time. The bosses you do get to encounter are wonderfully detailed, and require a bit of skill to defeat as players first try to figure out the ‘trick’ to deal damage, and then are required to execute it. These boss fights are easily the best part of the game, but there is one problem: there are not enough of them.

With so many worlds to explore, I would have expected at least one boss fight per world, even if it didn’t align itself with the movie itself. Yet, we are granted only 3 boss fights across the entire game, and one of them isn’t even a fight with the main ‘villain’ of the game. It’s underwhelming to be sure, and makes me wonder whether or not Travellers Tales was pressured to get this game to market as soon as possible, and left a bit of game play off the table.

Another awesome feature in this title is the colour blind mode, which one of our writers was able to utilize and indicated it worked very well. For those who suffer from being colour blind, playing a LEGO game can be incredibly difficult, especially when the game requires you to collect specific colour bricks! It’s nice to see this feature implemented here, and hope to see it brought to many other games and franchises in the near future!

Conclusion

Kids are going to love this experience, and I would highly recommend it for the young boy or girl in your life. Playing with my son was also enjoyable, as it allowed me to look past the many issues and focus on what was important at the time: bonding with my boy over a LEGO video game.

But ultimately the game has many, many issues, ranging from lackluster storytelling that requires knowledge of the movie, to long load times and frame rate issues, to just being a bit underwhelming and seemingly rushed to market. This isn’t the worst LEGO game ever released, but it’s far from the best either. It just exists, and sometimes that isn’t a problem. It’s probably a 7.5 for kids, and a 6.5 for adults, so we are settling on a 7.0!

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