Warner Brothers hit it out of the park with last week's The Lego Movie, an incredibly beautiful and witty adventure into what made our childhoods so great with some stellar voice acting, animation, and wit.
To coincide with the films release, Traveler's Tales and WB teamed up yet again to present The Lego Movie: The Video Game; a great construction that does, however, suffer from the feeling that the pieces all fit; but from a gameplay perspective feel slightly worn.
Traveler's Tales is second to none in presenting fantastic and fun games for the whole family with their Lego series which, as of now, includes 23 titles released and in development; but despite the studio's usual formula at play here, The Lego Movie: The Video Game suffers from a small feeling of being slightly rushed to meet the fim's release date.
If you've played one LEGO game, you have essentially played them all; but with such rich properties to explore and new challenges and characters to face, going from one franchise to another has always been fun and fresh, especially with a friend to join you in the game franchises' sleek and fun drop in/drop out co-op gameplay, which is still the case with this film tie-in as it has been every game Traveler's Tales has put out.
The gameplay is exciting and even adds new features to the tired and true Lego game standard; such as Emmet, the main character, not being able to build anything until a good way through the game and need instructions to do so (just like in the film).
This gets especially hectic when your team-mate has to build things while you have to find a creative way to distract the enemies or fight them off as your friend, a "Master Builder", must construct different things to progress through the levels.
An interesting new addition is Emmet's "construction" mode which plays out like a small mini-game after you collection instructions to build a device or items in the levels, as well as a sequence where you play as the steampunk Pirate-mecha Metal Beard
The game takes a unique note from the film itself, the character animations are all accurate to how LEGO minifigures move, unlike Traveler's Tales previous games where the LEGO figures essentially moved outside their limited posability in real life, and this little change makes a huge difference in getting the feeling that your actually a LEGO figure inside a LEGO universe, as the levels are all designed made from "individual" LEGO pieces, for instance the ground are made of studs, and you can see the brick outlines on buildings and structures, which is a very cool trick and handy to the game's immersion.
The voice cast from the film all reprise their roles, which is incredibly unique and works very well, especially since we get new sound clips that are as equally charming and well done as those in the film itself, like really the interactions during the levels are genuinely hilarious to hear, it feels like you're actually "playing" the film.
The only noticable fault in the game is that the gameplay, while fun and engaging, does somewhat feel re-used; but not necessarily in a way that's groan-inducing.
The same mechanics as all other LEGO games apply here; but I get the feeling that if Traveler's Tales had just a few more months to sharpen the game, things might have been a tad different.
Traditional cutscenes are also gone, replaced by clips from the film, which while still as charming and funny to watch as ever (I've seen the movie 3 times now and it still hasn't gotten even slightly old) don't offer the same tight narrative structure, so I'd reccomend seeing the film before you play the game (also to avoid spoilers).
The Lego Movie Videogame is a tight and fun companion to the groundbreaking and spectacular film that sadly doesn't come into it's own from a gameplay perspective; which shouldn't both long-time LEGO game enthusiasts; but might prove tired for gamers looking for a truly unique LEGO experience.
For a film and a property that endorses creativity and freedom of expression, the game feels, in some aspects, like it's never really allowed to come into it's own.
It's worth a buy, and there's as always tons of extras to keep players going back through the immensely detailed and wonderful levels digging for pants, instructions, and studs to buy new characters (of which there are alot) and discover fun little easter eggs.
Sun, March 16, 2014 
