I have always had a soft spot for Lego, I played Lego when I was growing up and some of the sets of real Lego available today I would love to collect. So it’s not surprising that I was excited when it was announced that I would be able to mix my love of Real Lego building with Gaming.

Before I played this game, I didn’t read up about anything for it, I wanted the whole experience to be a surprise, and I’m really glad I did as the hours I have played of it have been very enjoyable and really fun!

The only way I can describe the game is a weird all round mash up of everything and anything that goes, and that’s the beauty of the game, it’s your rules play as who you want and deal with things in your own way.

For example, I had Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle from the Lego Movie. 3 characters you wouldn’t normally associate with each other… Well… Maybe not the last 2…. But you get dragged through portals looking for friends and allies that have been taken.

You start in the Land of Oz fighting the Wicked Witch before being sent out to Springfield and trying to help Homer Simpson and gain more of the missing pieces of the Portal, which at the beginning blew up and you now have to rebuild, which you do, and the game instructs you how to do it, which is cool. However, there are missing pieces which you have to find, hence the reason you’re going to all these worlds.

The beauty of this game is, each of the worlds that you enter and play in, you can buy the real Lego Packs for, which also makes this a very expensive game. You don’t have to buy the expansion characters and levels, but it just enhances your experience playing as you have more characters to choose from and more ways to complete the different levels. Just to give you an idea of the franchises involved in this, here is a little list of what is already available to buy as new characters, levels and team packs.

  • Ghostbusters
  • The Simpsons
  • Back to the Future
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Wizard of Oz
  • Portal
  • Lego Movie
  • Doctor Who
  • Ninjago
  • Scooby Doo
  • DC Comics
  • Jurassic World

There are many many more, but that gives you an idea of what has been released in Wave 1 and some in Wave 2, and there are many more that will no doubt come along in further releases.

This is going to be one of those games that is so expandable with the new Level Packs that they can release, I can see this going for a few years and maybe longer depending on demand and the franchises available to TT Games and Warner Bros.

The extra level packs that you can buy are accessable from the main hub when you go back through the portal. Speaking of going through the portal, I love the animation for this as it always reminds me of the opening credits for Doctor Who, with the TARDIS going through the vortex.

This is your standard Lego game, gameplay wise there isn’t much difference from the other Lego games available, but it’s how the portal has been used within the game that impresses me. Using it to help with puzzles and challenges by needing to have characters in the correct spaces, and using it as well for Wyldstyles Master Build Ability.

It can be a pain, especially if you have a full board, as I tried out as I loved having loads of characters available to me, and I struggled to do some of the quests so ended up having to take some off. I would recommend 3 to 4 characters at a time on the portal, this is just so you have a good mix of abilities.

One thing I do love about this and all Lego games is that it doesn’t take itself seriously, it adds that humorous element to the game within cut scenes and that makes it more enjoyable.

There is another element to the game which I find brilliant, and that’s the use of the physical Lego that you have. Take the Batmobile for example, there are upgrades for the Batmobile which means taking it apart and following the instructions to rebuild it and upgrade it in a different design.

I found the portal quite tricky and fiddly to build, so I could see some younger people who were playing this struggling or it taking them a long time to build it, which could put them off the game a little bit.

I hope it wouldn’t as I had a sense of accomplishment when it was finished the portal, and it really is nice to look at, and when its hooked to your Xbox One it can make a nice little night light!