The newest feature in this game that is new to most LEGO games is creating a customizable character. Now, this game is for young children, so you’d think selecting a customizable character’s characteristics would be point, click, complete. It really isn’t that simple. I had a limited amount of time to play the demo at E3, and it took me a great amount of time just to see a drop of what options were available for my character. From hair to face, to body, to skin color, and other features, I could have been there for hours just going through the customization options.

Each category has sub categories, which means menus are hidden behind menus often times, and finding a simple color or theme can potentially be confusing to find certain features, as far as the game’s target audience of younger children is concerned at the very least. A LEGO DC Super-Villains demo assistant was there to help me through the game, and even she was confused on where a lot of the options were hidden. When everything was said and done, I had the hair of Wolverine (Yes, I know he’s from Marvel), butterfly wings, green skin, and an orange and blue suit on. At last I chose my power. There weren’t that many options here, but I chose speed as my power, much like the DC superhero The Flash.

As soon as the initial cutscene was over (about breaking out of some building and then having to break into somewhere else), I ended up teaming up with Solomon Grundy, Lex Luther, and also Cheetah. As you might expect, each character has a different power that allows them to complete certain obstacles that the others won’t be able to. For instance, Solomon Grundy can break heavy objects, Lex can fly and use a laser.

This is a LEGO game where there is always too much stuff going on on the screen at the same time, almost making my eyes dart around from motion to motion, trying to figure out where to go first. The LEGOs jiggle in place when they need to be interacted with, enemies are flying out of every side of the room, lights are flashing from every corner, and sparkling LEGO coins are spinning around every leftover available space. It’s insane!

Since so much was happening all at once, the demo assistant had to watch over me to make sure I was clicking the right LEGO blocks and rebuilding with the correct characters. Eventually I made my way into a big room where lasers were shooting in every direction. There were tons of enemies to shoot, a series of new LEGO creations I had to destroy then rebuild, and so many colorful fun things to be explored and sought after. Once I cleared the laser room, the demo was complete with a few big enemies at the end.

A big takeaway from DC Super-Villains is the fact that the humor is good, but definitely waning. Nothing about the story or the jokes felt fresh or interesting. But how far can you really go with LEGO in any form? There’s a limit on the distance a certain franchise can go with its humor and stories before they all feel rehashed sooner or later. And with the same look and feel as all the other games in the series, it is starting to look like that time has come. This isn’t to say the voice-over work is bad- quite the opposite. The voice actors do a great job at portraying some of these timeless villains as best as a child’s game will allow; and some of the jokes are funny from time to time.

DC Super-Villains is a good looking game, with an emphasis on color. Sure, there’s just too much activity going on all over the place all at the same time, but what I was able to see was still wonderfully and lovingly created. Besides, overactive sets that hemorrhage activities is usually what LEGO games are all about.

Overall based on the demo I played, LEGO DC Super-Villains is just a rehash of what it’s been for years- the same game with a different title. If you’re into the LEGO style games you’ll definitely want to check it out with the new hugely customizable character creator. But if you’ve been tired of LEGO games for a while and want to get back into it to see if anything is really new, or better than before, you might want to wait for another inevitable entry probably coming out in a few months’ time. Regardless, I hope I am proven wrong when the full game launches later this year, so I will keep my final judgement reserved till then.

The very first screenshots for the just announced LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the brand new LEGO game (and the third LEGO Star Wars game) that was announced yesterday, are now out, and… well, it looks like a LEGO game. Which is to say it looks pretty and charming like all LEGO games do. A lot of your favorite scenes from The Force Awakens should be immediately recognizable in these screens.

Curiously, these screenshots don’t reveal anything from the extra story material – set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens – that the game is supposed to cover, though that at least makes sense, since they probably want to keep it a surprise for those who do play the game.

You can check out the screenshots for yourself below. LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set to launch in June on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii U, and PCs running Windows.

Lego: The Hobbit, the Lego themed Middle-Earth adventures that sees fans reliving the exploits of a certain Mr. Bilbo Baggins, will be releasing in the UK on April 11, Warner Bros. confirmed today.

The game will launch on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and PC (including both Windows and OS X), so basically, if you want to play the game, you really kind of don’t have an excuse not to, considering that it’s releasing on anything capable of supporting its code, it seems like.

The game covers the first two movies of Jackson’s unfortunately structured Hobbit trilogy, and it allows for Bilbo to be controlled in addition to each individual dwarf in the Company, even allowing players to combine their attacks to devastating effect.

Considering the insane popularity of Lego games in the UK- nine Lego games made the All Formats Top 40 sales chart in the UK last week- we can probably expect to see these games released on a higher priority basis in that territory from now on.

It was the first Nintendo published Wii U game since the system’s launch back in November. But perhaps most importantly, it was a fun and charming game, the kind that would appeal to all audiences across all demographics, exactly the kind of game that Nintendo is known so well for.

Now the promised 3DS edition hits the market: Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a 3DS companion game to the Wii U title. It is not a port of that game; instead, it acts as a prequel to the story told in the Wii U game, set two years before, and showing us cheeky protagonist Chase McCain’s rise to power. However, the game is a victim of its own ambition: in trying to faithfully recreate the living, breathing sandbox of the Wii U game, it flies too close to the sun and pushes Nintendo’s much less powered 3DS to its limits.

There’s just a whole lot going on, and it’s clear the 3DS cannot handle it all: NPCs and cars disappear and reappear as you move away or towards them respectively, a fog effect reminiscent of similarly ambitious N64 games is used to cloud a horrible draw distance, pop ins and bad textures are common; adding insult to injury is the fact that the otherwise faithfully recreated Lego City is rather sparsely populated to begin with.

There is no voice acting outside of a few cutscenes, and this perhaps hurts the game the most, because the voice acting on the Wii U game is what gave it so much of its charm, personality, and humor. Here, the lack of voice acting really hurts the otherwise tight script, and the game’s humor seems juvenile without the expert delivery of the Wii U game.

In addition to all of this, The Chase Begins commits the cardinal sin of a Nintendo published game on a Nintendo system, most importantly, a Nintendo handheld: loading times. Players of the Wii U game will probably remember the well publicized long loading times that characterized the game (and pretty well summarized the system the game was on in a nutshell), and they’re back here. The loading times can often be several minutes long, and this is inexcusable.

On a system that uses cartridges (and the older players among us will remember how cartridges aren’t supposed to have loading times… right Nintendo?), this is unacceptable. On a handheld, this is unacceptable. From a player’s perspective, being forced to wait for a new area or building to load really dampens the impetus to actually explore the lovingly crafted Lego City that has been realized here.

To the game’s credit, it does do certain things really well. The 3D effect in particular, is beautiful: it acts like a window into a fully realized game world, and you peek into this diorama, a city that seems to be truly alive (or well, would be if the 3DS could actually support it);  in addition, for all the other faults of this game, the frame rate seems to hold steady.

Perhaps even more impressively, this is truly a free roaming game, not segmenting the player to specific sections for specific missions. There is no hub anymore: Lego City is your playground, and you activate missions from there.

That might actually be the reason the game has so many concessions and compromises. The 3DS is a powerful little handheld, much more powerful than many people give it credit for, especially as games like Resident Evil Revelations and Kid Icarus Uprising prove. However, there are certainly limits to what it can achieve, and those limits are apparent here.

Maybe a different approach to making the 3DS game, maybe a more segmented approach, maybe setting it in an island suburb of Lego City that wasn’t quite as big, and therefore wouldn’t have taxed the system as much, would have been preferable here.

The Chase Begins’ shortcomings aren’t just limited to the technical side of things, however. They manifest themselves im other ways too. As mentioned above, the game’s humor and writing feel a bit flat.

This is a feeling that pervades the entire story of the game, which feels a whole lot more limited in scope and ambition than the Wii U game (an understandably frustrating feeling, considering that the justification for all the compromises the game makes is its ambition to be every bit equal to its Wii U sibling); and while this is a largely unfair accusation, the fact that the game’s first couple of hours, characterized by tutorial missions that have you performing such banal tasks as getting donuts, really further the illusion.

It’s a shame, because I really wanted to like this game. It’s beautiful when it works, it’s charming when the 3DS allows it to be, and it’s fun once it gets down to the meat of the matter. However, for once, a Nintendo funded game is a complete compromise on its handheld compared to its console sibling; the 3DS’s power has so far been enough to suffice for almost every kind of game that has been on it.

However, now, for the first time, two years into the system’s lifespan, this game may be the first indication that Nintendo needs a hardware refresh if it really wants its handheld to be a companion to its console.

Get Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins for really young kids who don’t have access to the Wii U version. Otherwise there are multiple other, much better games on the 3DS for you to feasibly invest in.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo 3DS.

Lego games have a formula that works. Take on an existing popular property, give it a Lego twist, wrap it up in oodles of charm, back it up with some solid if predictable gameplay mechanics, and then bam, you’re good to go. Whereas the amount of Lego games in recent years has gone alarmingly up, the quality has by and large never faltered. Except for when it has.

Lego Batman, released a few years ago, was one of the weaker entries in the ‘Lego franchise.’ For the sequel, developers Traveller’s Tales have enlisted not just the Caped Crusader, but also all of his DC cohorts, in arguably the best Lego game outing in years, that capitalizes on its inspiration, and really makes good on its underlying gameplay foundations.

The premise of the games is suitably silly and over the top. Based on multiple comic book men wearing spandex tights, and wrapped in a Lego exterior, the game, marketed as it is to children, was never going to be another Arkham Asylum or Arkham City anyway. However, DC Super Heroes is extravagantly, gleefully, ridiculously exaggerated, with little to no exposition provided to justify the team up of Lex Luthor and the Joker, as well as multiple DC super heroes teaming up with Batman and Robin. This decision to provide any sort of context to the story or events happening in the game is in spite of a clear spike in the game’s production values. The entire game is now voiced, for instance, and it puts you in an open world that is a joy as a Lego themed playground to mess around in. Simultaneously, the graphics have an all new sheen to them, looking rounder, smoother, sharper, more defined, and just shinier.

Lego Batman 2 shows some clear reverence for its source material. Perhaps as much as the Batman Arkham games, developers Traveler Tales have packed this game with multiple easter eggs and infinite nudges and mentions of the expansive DC universe, going above and beyond the call and including multiple characters in prominent roles when perhaps most of the target audience doesn’t even know of their existence. It is a game that prides itself on its comic book heritage, and it is a game that tries to capitalize on it by trying to familiarize the newcomer to said heritage, and providing plenty of material for the veteran.

Take, for instance, the music. Utilizing both the classic John Williams Superman track that blends in seamlessly with the iconic Danny Elfman scored original Batman theme as you take control of the titular DC heroes and scale the rooftops of Lego Gotham, the music is sure to stir some nostalgia within any comic book enthusiast, especially a DC enthusiast.

Lego Batman 2 is reverent about is source material, and it revels in that. However, contrary to the recent trend of moving towards the grittier, darker, edgier side of comic books, fueled in fact by none other than Batman himself, Lego Batman 2 is childish, cartooney, naive, with all the oodles of charm and the innocence of a Nintendo game. And unlike most games, that manage to nail down charm similar to Nintendo games, but can never quite master the game design (an important part of what makes Nintendo games so appealing to everyone- including kids- in the first place), Lego Batman 2 has it all nailed.

I’ve spoken already about the open world city. I have spoken about the twist to traditional open world mechanics that the infusion of Lego conventions adds to the game. I have spoken about the developers going unexpectedly above and beyond what was necessary or required of them, including in this regard- the fully featured day/night cycle, the random weather, and the AI behavior are all testament to that. It is a compliment rarely given, but Lego Batman 2 is a gem of a game, expertly designed, such that it’s hard to really fault it for anything. And if the really discerning eye does catch anything perceptibly out of place, the game’s heart and its charm are sure to smooth out that frown on your face.

Returning to the open world- it’s the meat of the game. The story is, as remarked previously, unabashedly silly, but the game almost makes a conscious attempt to sideline it and quickly brush it off, racing to its conclusion (which can take a hefty dozen hours, by the way), before presenting you with the true Lego Gotham city, with hidden nooks and crannies, which can only be explored and unlocked by using the appropriate characters’ abilities, sometimes in conjunction. There are additional villains to be hunted, there are free play missions that involve you saving the adorably trouble prone Gotham citizens, there are old story missions to be replayed with new characters. And if you’re just bored, and just want to muck around, you have a seriously enormous city to just wander about in. This game is massive, and by the end, you’ll probably have justified its value to yourself several times over.

Oh, and as for the other characters: there’s Batman, of course, as there is Robin. And then there is Superman, in what is perhaps his best video game incarnation to date. There are also other Justice League members: Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, all the usual suspects. By the end, you’ll have a veritable army of superheroes marching around at your command, in all their Justice League glory.

When you buy this game, you know what you’re getting: you’re getting all the varied and yet familiar gameplay concepts the Lego games have cultivated over the years repackaged in a new setting, a new scenario, with familiar properties, bundled in with lots and lots of charm. In that respect also, the Lego series resembles Nintendo’s brand of video game making a lot.

That is not praise to be lightly bandied about, and yet here I am, consciously having made that comparison twice in the course of this one review. But that is just how good Lego Batman 2 is. Charming and inventive, ridiculous and over the top, exaggerated and reverent, familiar and unexpected, Lego Batman 2 is that rare game that comes every once in a while that actually manages to transcend all demographics and appeal to everyone all at once. This is a game that will obviously cater to kids, given they are whom it’s targeted to. This is a game that will appeal to lifelong DC comic book fans. This is a game that will appeal to us adults, given the sheer expanse and its cheeky boldness in incorporating gameplay mechanics hitherto only reserved for Rockstar’s ‘mature’ open world games. It’s a game that will appeal to everyone, all at once, without really compromising on what it wants to be at all.

This is a game that represents what is undoubtedly an incredibly talented powerhouse at its very finest. Traveller’s Tales, take a bow. You’ve earned it.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

The sad thing is, this was one of the highlights of Nintendo’s E3 press conference. How they managed to botch up a showing for a new console this bad is beyond me, but this was as bad as Sony E3 2006.

In any case, that’s me ranting. Check out the Lego City Undercover trailer below yourself and tell us what you think. No 3DS version confirmed yet, even though Nintendo did announce it last year for the 3DS as well.