Let’s be honest.
The Wii U needed this.
As great as games like Mario, Batman, Mass Effect and Call Of Duty are, it needed a release
that wasn’t just an old port or another Mario.
It needed something fresh, something new, something exclusive...
And something good.
Rejoice, Wii U owners.
LEGO City is all of those things.
Finally released this week to the Wii U, LEGO City: Undercover represents a major turning
point for the LEGO games.
It breaks from the LEGO standard, it doesn’t have a huge mega-franchise attached to it...and
it was published by Nintendo.
In fact, it’s also a turning point for Nintendo.
Or at least...so they hope.
Because as great as some of the Wii U’s games have been, it could really use more
of this.
You play as Chase McCain.
He plays the all-star cop.
You know the type—great hair, dreamy smile, played by some rugged actor.
Kind of a familiar character, but that’s one of the best things about LEGO City.
It takes inspiration—uh, and at times, even actual lines—from all kinds of movies and
television shows.
In fact, it may not be about Star Wars or Batman per the LEGO usual, but that’s exactly
what makes it so good.
Not only is it refreshing to have that characteristic LEGO humor and charm in an original story
with original characters, but it’s also a fun story with fun characters.
It’s a world that’s just really easy to get lost in.
I mean, metaphorically.
You actually have a map.
What’s fitting about LEGO City is that...much like LEGO, it’s just this bucket of ideas
poured onto the floor.
And that also applies to the gameplay.
This is all the things you love about LEGO games snapped onto a huge green baseplate
of Grand Theft Auto.
LEGO City isn’t as massive, but its open world is still packed with people to meet,
secrets to find and those shiny LEGO studs to collect.
I mean, you can’t not go after those things.
They freaking glisten!
Now, the missions and story are good fun...but really, just wandering around the city is
fun on its own.
And part of that is because so much of it is destructible.
You can smash anything made from LEGO and collect the pieces...which you can use to
create more useful things.
Pads that magically spawn cars, reliable sea vessels...hey, fortunately, you know a captain!
A trustworthy ol’ sea dog!
Of course, the game isn’t without its issues.
And chief among them, LEGO City is constantly interrupting your fun with really annoying
loading times.
The progress bars come one after another, each one more annoying than the one before.
It’s not enough to ruin things, but it does break up the experience...and not in a good
way.
Of course, there’s also an inherent degree of repetition...but there’s so much to do
in LEGO City that, even when it gets a little repetitive, it never stops being fun.
I think it’s fair to say that...recent LEGO games were getting stale.
Predictability was setting in, and as it often does, tedium seemed to follow.
But simply placing the LEGO concepts—the crushing, creating and compulsively collecting—into
a new framework, that of open-world action game...it’s just brilliant.
It’s fun, it’s charming...
And it’s just what the Wii U needed.
It’s LEGO City for the Nintendo Wii U.