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LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
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Graphics & Sound:
Over the past few years, the LEGO games coming out of Traveller's Tales have been progressively bigger and more detailed, and there have only been a few games where they have penned their own story (as opposed to adapting an existing book or film series). LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is one of these games, and the experience is not only a plot that involves pretty much every major Marvel character, but also provides a massive open-world experience similar to that found in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, with just a few more of the rough edges found in that earlier game smoothed out.
Marvel Super Heroes continues the studio's tradition of conveying the licenses they are working with accurately. Of course it always helps that Tt Games is basing their models after the real-world toys, but then again, this game also depicts many minor characters that haven't been featured in a LEGO playset. So, while characters like Captain America, Wolverine, Loki, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor and Iron Man look like their toys, Tt Games had to extrapolate those styles for everything else, not to mention all of New York City.
While LEGO Marvel Super Heroes doesn't feature the big names found in the Marvel Film Universe, it does have a lot of known voice actors, and it does have its gems. For instance, Adrian Pasdar (known from the Heroes TV Series as well as many versions of Iron Man in animated series) reprises his role as Tony Stark while a fan favorite character, Agent Coulson is actually voiced by Clark Gregg who plays the role in both the Marvel films and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV series. FIlling out the rest of the voice actor cast are industry names like Dee Bradley Baker (American Dad!, Phineas and Ferb), John DiMaggio (Futurama), Kari Wahlgren (Kaijudo, Tangled, Bolt), Danielle Nicolet (3rd Rock from the Sun and more recently NFL Rush Zone) and Fred Tatasciore (whose most relevant role is Hulk in many animated shows) who all play many roles. |
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Gameplay:
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes features an original story that does a great job of pulling from pretty much every facet of the Marvel Universe. Not only does it bring together many of the major heroes that even casual fans know and love, but it is also chock full of minor names that some of the more hardcore followers of the comics will get a kick out of.
When the Silver Surfer is knocked out of orbit and his board is destroyed, the pieces fall to Earth as silver Cosmic Bricks. True to form, Dr. Doom takes the opportunity to start collecting pieces of the Cosmic Power-infused bricks in the hopes of controlling everything. This time though, he isn't going to do it alone. Doom quickly assembles every villain out there, from the Brotherhood of Mutants to the Sinister Six, in order to go around the New York City area and collect these pieces. Of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers can't let that happen so Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor and Black Widow all come together to stop the new threat. Like Dr. Doom though, they will have a lot of help. Heroes like Spider-Man and Wolverine make early and frequent appearances to help the other heroes out in their levels, while other characters like Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, and various X-Men have their moments to shine as well.
Like all Tt LEGO games, each level has various objectives. Not only do you want to get to the end, but you will need to collect studs to become a True Believer, find hidden minikits and even rescue various Stan Lees all in the pursuit of Gold Bricks that not only mark your overall progress in the game, but also open up some extra levels in the open world. Of course, once each level is beaten in Story Mode, the Free Play version becomes available and you will be able to use a wider variety of characters in order to get all of the collectibles that you couldn't quite get with the Story-based characters you had the first time around.
The open world itself has a lot for you to do as well. Not only is all of NYC there for you to explore, but it is filled with races and side quests that will either earn you more Golden Bricks or new characters to play with. I found the side quests to be a nice addition. While these weren't seen in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, there was something similar in LEGO The Lord of the Rings. In that game, you would come across people who wanted some item that you could find in the levels. If you brought it back to them, you would get a Golden Brick. While Marvel Super Heroes has citizens looking for a wide variety of items, you don't have to go into the game's levels to find them - instead they are just laying around somewhere in the city. I found this to be a bit easier to handle and I didn't quite get tired of the side quests as quickly this time around.
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Difficulty:
Like most games of this series, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes never feels too hard to get by, but always possesses a fun challenge, which is great for these kid-friendly games. The only place where the game ever gets difficult has to be in an attempt to 100% it and get every Gold Brick, Red Brick and character. Of course, a lot of the reason for that is making sure you have the right characters for the job. After all, you can't expect to get to the parts of a level that require you have someone who can control magnetism without Magneto himself.
What this typically means for the LEGO games is that you shouldn't really try to get everything in Free Play mode until you've actually completed the entire story - there will always be one or two pieces that you can't get without the characters you unlock by the end of the Story. Thankfully, getting through the game's Story doesn't take all that long if you stay focused on getting from level to level. For good or ill, the gameplay really stretches when you get distracted while running around in the open world between levels. Quite frankly, the only bad aspect of that I can think of is for a particular gamer who happens to be trying to review this game under a deadline... |
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Game Mechanics:
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes has the same basic mechanics of the past LEGO titles. You will make your way through the game's story with a variety of characters that each have a specific set of abilities. These range from Wolverine's ability to dig, Mr. Fantastic's ability to get into tight spaces, Iron Man's flight, Spider Man's web slinging, Jean Grey's telekinesis, Magento's control over metal and Hulk's massive strength. Of course, different characters end up with different combinations of these abilities and there are areas throughout New York City and the levels that only certain characters can access. So while Captain America doesn't have one of those powers, there are certain switches that only he can activate with his shield. While Black Widow might be a wiz with guns, her real talent is a cloaking device that gets her past security cameras. It's this variety of abilities that really helps to not only make the game feel extensive, but also really drive you to unlocking everyone that you possibly can.
While the Tt Games LEGO titles have held my attention since the first LEGO Star Wars, I feel like Marvel Super Heroes does a great job of not only building on the existing games, but also making a story and world that feels natural to have all of the Marvel Universe characters existing side-by-side, something few games have done in the past.
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-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer |
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