Lego Brick Tales Review (Switch)

It seems strange that over the years very few Lego games have been focused on the core building aspect of the little plastic blocks. Lego Brick Tales is looking to change that without relinquishing the story aspect completely.

Here, we effectively have an original, non-licensed based, Lego adventure which is more heavily based around puzzle solving than any of the game in the franchise previously. You play a Lego Minifigure who is tasked with helping his grandfather rebuild a run-down amusement park. In order to do this, you have to go into different themed biomes and find magic crystals.

The biomes are themed around locations such as desserts, jungles and Medieval castles and you make your way through them by talking to other minifigures and solving their problems through building things. The first jungle biome isn’t the best, but things do pick up considerably once you move on from there with the game mostly staying on the right side of being fun. Just expect to be building a lot of bridges.

The building aspect can best be described as working functionally. When you must build something, you are moved to a self-contained space with all the shapes available to you set out on the floor and an allotted space set up for you to build within. Along with this you’ll get key instructions such as ‘place pot on top’ or ‘use three elements’, but for the most part you are free to use the pieces how you see fit. There are a couple of occasions where the instructions aren’t particularly clear but on the whole, nothing is too obscure and while bridges do pop up a little too often, you’ll also be building working machinery and other things to keep it interesting.

The biggest barrier to your building is the control scheme. No matter how many hours we put in, it never became anything other than a bit awkward. Though the team are continuing to look at this and further patches are incoming. A Switch control scheme is never going to match that of a human hand but again, we did get used to it and after getting through the first biome it rarely caused enough of an irritation to stop us completing the builds.

Like a lot of the Lego games there is also this relentless sense of fun and creativity that runs through it. It’s just wonderfully charming to the point that when you hit one of the bits that doesn’t quite work it’s easily overlooked because two seconds later, you’ll be talking to a Lego ghost or collecting Lego hermit crabs and it’s impossible to stay frustrated.

Overall, this is a good attempt at trying to merge the idea of free brick building with something story based that isn’t attached to a major license. It is a bit rough around the edges but the key elements such as the charm and feel of a Lego world are present and once you have got used to its quirks there is a lot of enjoyment to be had.

 

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Review (Xbox 360)

The last few years have shown that the combination of Lego with the Star Wars license can be both enjoyable and highly lucrative. With the first title containing episode I through to III not coming out on the Xbox 360 this package gives anyone late to the party the complete experience.

The first impressions of the title are not the best. To start with players are placed into the Mos Eisley Cantina which acts as the main hub. From here you can choose doors which lead to Episodes I-VI, Two player arcade mode and various other extra content. Unfortunately there is very little to play around with here. Both previous titles have had fun hub worlds to explore but this one feels uninspired, empty and flat.

Luckily the same cannot be said for the rest of the game. All of the levels have been given a graphical face lift which makes them look a lot slicker and smooth. Furthermore the vehicle sections in Episodes I-III have been changed and improved so that they are not so frustrating and clunky. It means all six episodes now work to the same rules and have the same look which adds coherency.

Lego Star Wars games have always been fun, but the characters have been somewhat clunky and slow to control. The Complete Saga deals with this problem admirably. It is very noticeable how fluid the game now is, especially in Episodes I-III (which were the worst offenders). Character movement is much more dynamic and smooth and they now respond instantly to commands. This makes a huge difference and everything is now much more enjoyable.

Another of the irritations that persisted through the series to this point was that though the titles are aimed at younger gamers there are sections which can be stupidly frustrating. This was always most evident when trying to collect enough Lego studs to fill the Jedi bar at the top of the screen. This has partly been solved through the more responsive controls but also by putting more studs on each level.

Players may argue that these changes have reduced the challenge of the title and though this is true it is not a bad thing. The franchise has always been about having fun and collecting things. Though the game is easier it is also undoubtedly more fun than before as much of the difficulty came from frustrating issues. We even played through some sections of the title with the ‘invincibility’ power up on and the game still stood up as satisfying and fun.

The perceived lack of difficulty may put a few people off because they do not think the game will last long enough. This is also not an issue. Believe us when we tell you that there is always something left to do. We played through all the levels at least three times collecting various things and we could still go back to do the new challenges that have been added. As well as the main levels there are also twenty bounty hunter missions to try. Then you can go into the extras room and try out the new and old levels placed there such as Episodes I-III vehicle sections as they used to be, the hidden episode IV level, new Anakin level and two Lego cities. Even that is not everything, to finish this game one hundred percent will take a very long time.

The simple an easy to use drop in co-op play only adds to the enjoyment and longevity as well. Players can join at any point, play as long as they wish then disappear. It is uncomplicated and well executed and it is hard to see how it could have been improved upon.

Even the achievements keep the good fun tone of the title going. For example being rewarded for smashing Jar Jar Binx twenty times can only raise a smile. While the ‘Did I break your concentration’ achievement for breaking the Emperor with Mace Windu (played by Samuel L Jackson) shows the development team have a sense of humour. A sense of humour that also comes to the fore in many of the excellent cut scenes.

Overall, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga achieves everything it sets out to do. Here we have a fun well constructed title that gamers of all ages will enjoy. If you already have both instalments separately you may want to hold off unless you can find it cheaply. Though the improvements are good this is still basically the same two games with shiny bits added. For anyone else looking for something that takes video games back to being fun rather than acting as a second job this should be top of your list.

Overall 8/10