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With the release of both LEGO The Incredibles and LEGO DC Super Villains within the same year, it’s clear that TT Games obviously put way more effort into the latter. Everything in LEGO The Incredibles is subpar; whether it’s the levels, the humor, the open world, the visuals, or the noticeably weird lack of charm that used to be the main selling point of this franchise, and ultimately—why people would play them in the first place. Charm is a hard thing to dissect. I don’t exactly know what makes a game… charming. Is it nostalgia? Simplicity? Or is it when you can visibly see the amount of love and care developers put into their game? Probably all three—but this isn’t nostalgic to me, and it pains me to say that it completely fails at the other two. I remember when these games had a formula, but weren’t so obsessed with repeating it every chance they got without adding much of anything new or original. It’s reached a point where it feels like TT Games are emulating their own fucking formula—putting no effort at all into expanding it and making it feel fresh.
The best example of this is the open world. It sucks. It’s a shit attempt at bloating out the game with mindless collectibles that take no effort whatsoever to… you know, collect. I remember the good ol' days of LEGO Marvel Superheroes when each puzzle was engaging and actually stumped you at times—it’s not like they were the hardest thing ever, but the point is… they made you think, even if it was only for 20 seconds. Here, you don’t think. You select a flying character and fly around the world collecting bricks on rooftops and in “hidden” places for four hours, even though you can literally see them on the map. You can get a district done in about 10 minutes just by aimlessly flying around, it’s so dumb. They didn’t even try, there are close to zero actual puzzles in the world; I can only remember one, which was when you had to figure out how to open a locked container in the sea. Apart from that though, there’s nothing, and I honestly had to put on a YouTube video in the background so I wouldn’t be so bored. And when I say that it was mindless, I mean that very literally; this is what my face looked like when I was playing through the open world, it was that bad. Now keep in mind, it wouldn’t be so frustrating if it was only tedious collectibles, but they also implement these activities called crime waves; not only do these become repetitive after the third one… but there’s also 10 of them. And they each contain 2-3 missions within them, so essentially—you’re doing the same shit on repeat. But I think another big reason the open world is so disappointing is that… it just doesn’t look good. It’s small, empty, stretched thin, and has no detail at all. Look at LEGO DC Super Villains for example. The lighting, the reflections, the effects, the small details; it’s all so beautiful to look at and absorb—it's one of the main reasons I love that game so much (and it’s arguably close to the visuals of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga). And I think a huge reason for that is just straightforward… art direction. I don’t see any discernible visual traits that are only in this LEGO game—I mean if anything, it’s direction-less. I honestly prefer the visuals of much older LEGO games like LEGO Batman, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, and plenty of others. I do like the numerous references to other Pixar properties though, building iconic landmarks from those films was really fun and helped solidify my need for a Skywalker Saga-sized Pixar game that selects 10 of their best movies and does a bunch of crazy cool shit with them.
The story levels are a mixed bag. You’re immediately thrown into the story of the second movie first, as opposed to starting with the original; and this was a horrible choice. The second movie came out around the same time and I know they were obligated to start with it—so I get why, but I can guarantee that some fans quit the game because they couldn’t be bothered to sit through an adaptation of a much weaker movie. I wasn’t one of them of course, but I will say that the second movie is much, much, much weaker than the first. I don’t like it… almost at all, it’s nowhere near as complex or thought-provoking as the original, not to mention its utterly forgettable villain that can’t hold a candle to Syndrome. My thoughts on the movie inevitably link in with my thoughts on that part of the story mode, so I didn’t really enjoy it. Thankfully, the first movie kind of saves this game (not really though, because it still sucks). It’s a lot funnier (mainly due to Bomb Voyage, he’s hilarious), and the level design is more in tune with older LEGO games, even if it’s still lacking that charming simplicity. But I hate how many scenarios they’ve changed. So in the movie—a lot of the time, characters are alone and hardly ever in pairs. Now, I understand why this doesn’t work for the game, but they change crucial story elements that made the movie… so incredible and unique in the first place (excuse the pun). One of these happens late in the game when a character that was originally killed in the movie isn’t killed in the game—forcing them to join you as a partner for the level, and it rubbed me the wrong way. They could’ve just spawned in another character for co-op, or had—I don’t know, another way of making it a two player level that doesn’t very largely change a huge part of the story. Another change I don’t like is the absence of the guy that attempts to do that thing—okay I really do understand why this wasn’t included—but fuck, it’s such a huge part of the movie’s story that acts as the catalyst for everything that happens to superheroes and their eventual downfall, so I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. They could’ve tackled it like they’ve tackled many other dark aspects of the movies they’ve adapted, but it’s honestly not that big of a deal so I'm giving the game a pass for that. The free play in this one was surprisingly good. It’s fast, and doesn’t aim to waste your time. There aren’t that many invisible walls meaning you can fly straight past huge moments to collect what you need to collect, and it works. This is also complimented by the fact that the pacing is a lot quicker; the animations don’t have long wind-ups, and this makes going through the levels much more enjoyable because it’s not tedious. That’s actually a huge reason why my score isn’t lower; the game isn’t too long and doesn't try to waste your time—and it gets a few bonus points for that.
Oh and the music? I mean shit, it’s Michael Giacchino—can’t get any better than that… bangers after bangers. And playing this after LEGO Jurassic World was a blessing in disguise because this one actually has voice acting! Which was very surprising. The voices aren’t perfect replications, but they don’t have to be… and it’s a lot better than ripping audio straight from the movies, which I think they still do? But I honestly can’t tell, and I keep finding conflicting results online. I haven’t said anything about the character roster yet, and that’s because it’s not very good. This links back to my general point of TT Games picking franchises that don’t translate all that well to their formula, which is the case here too; with the whole—changing scenarios during levels, the open world, and the character roster that has a lot of characters that we’ve never seen in the movies apart from slight mentions. This was clearly not a good pick for a LEGO game… Oh and bugs! Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! FUCKING OPTIMIZE YOUR GAMES PLEASE.
Playtime: 14.5 hours
Every Game I’ve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Superhero Games - Ranked
LEGO - Ranked
2018 - Ranked
With the release of both LEGO The Incredibles and LEGO DC Super Villains within the same year, it’s clear that TT Games obviously put way more effort into the latter. Everything in LEGO The Incredibles is subpar; whether it’s the levels, the humor, the open world, the visuals, or the noticeably weird lack of charm that used to be the main selling point of this franchise, and ultimately—why people would play them in the first place. Charm is a hard thing to dissect. I don’t exactly know what makes a game… charming. Is it nostalgia? Simplicity? Or is it when you can visibly see the amount of love and care developers put into their game? Probably all three—but this isn’t nostalgic to me, and it pains me to say that it completely fails at the other two. I remember when these games had a formula, but weren’t so obsessed with repeating it every chance they got without adding much of anything new or original. It’s reached a point where it feels like TT Games are emulating their own fucking formula—putting no effort at all into expanding it and making it feel fresh.
The best example of this is the open world. It sucks. It’s a shit attempt at bloating out the game with mindless collectibles that take no effort whatsoever to… you know, collect. I remember the good ol' days of LEGO Marvel Superheroes when each puzzle was engaging and actually stumped you at times—it’s not like they were the hardest thing ever, but the point is… they made you think, even if it was only for 20 seconds. Here, you don’t think. You select a flying character and fly around the world collecting bricks on rooftops and in “hidden” places for four hours, even though you can literally see them on the map. You can get a district done in about 10 minutes just by aimlessly flying around, it’s so dumb. They didn’t even try, there are close to zero actual puzzles in the world; I can only remember one, which was when you had to figure out how to open a locked container in the sea. Apart from that though, there’s nothing, and I honestly had to put on a YouTube video in the background so I wouldn’t be so bored. And when I say that it was mindless, I mean that very literally; this is what my face looked like when I was playing through the open world, it was that bad. Now keep in mind, it wouldn’t be so frustrating if it was only tedious collectibles, but they also implement these activities called crime waves; not only do these become repetitive after the third one… but there’s also 10 of them. And they each contain 2-3 missions within them, so essentially—you’re doing the same shit on repeat. But I think another big reason the open world is so disappointing is that… it just doesn’t look good. It’s small, empty, stretched thin, and has no detail at all. Look at LEGO DC Super Villains for example. The lighting, the reflections, the effects, the small details; it’s all so beautiful to look at and absorb—it's one of the main reasons I love that game so much (and it’s arguably close to the visuals of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga). And I think a huge reason for that is just straightforward… art direction. I don’t see any discernible visual traits that are only in this LEGO game—I mean if anything, it’s direction-less. I honestly prefer the visuals of much older LEGO games like LEGO Batman, LEGO Marvel Superheroes, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, and plenty of others. I do like the numerous references to other Pixar properties though, building iconic landmarks from those films was really fun and helped solidify my need for a Skywalker Saga-sized Pixar game that selects 10 of their best movies and does a bunch of crazy cool shit with them.
The story levels are a mixed bag. You’re immediately thrown into the story of the second movie first, as opposed to starting with the original; and this was a horrible choice. The second movie came out around the same time and I know they were obligated to start with it—so I get why, but I can guarantee that some fans quit the game because they couldn’t be bothered to sit through an adaptation of a much weaker movie. I wasn’t one of them of course, but I will say that the second movie is much, much, much weaker than the first. I don’t like it… almost at all, it’s nowhere near as complex or thought-provoking as the original, not to mention its utterly forgettable villain that can’t hold a candle to Syndrome. My thoughts on the movie inevitably link in with my thoughts on that part of the story mode, so I didn’t really enjoy it. Thankfully, the first movie kind of saves this game (not really though, because it still sucks). It’s a lot funnier (mainly due to Bomb Voyage, he’s hilarious), and the level design is more in tune with older LEGO games, even if it’s still lacking that charming simplicity. But I hate how many scenarios they’ve changed. So in the movie—a lot of the time, characters are alone and hardly ever in pairs. Now, I understand why this doesn’t work for the game, but they change crucial story elements that made the movie… so incredible and unique in the first place (excuse the pun). One of these happens late in the game when a character that was originally killed in the movie isn’t killed in the game—forcing them to join you as a partner for the level, and it rubbed me the wrong way. They could’ve just spawned in another character for co-op, or had—I don’t know, another way of making it a two player level that doesn’t very largely change a huge part of the story. Another change I don’t like is the absence of the guy that attempts to do that thing—okay I really do understand why this wasn’t included—but fuck, it’s such a huge part of the movie’s story that acts as the catalyst for everything that happens to superheroes and their eventual downfall, so I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. They could’ve tackled it like they’ve tackled many other dark aspects of the movies they’ve adapted, but it’s honestly not that big of a deal so I'm giving the game a pass for that. The free play in this one was surprisingly good. It’s fast, and doesn’t aim to waste your time. There aren’t that many invisible walls meaning you can fly straight past huge moments to collect what you need to collect, and it works. This is also complimented by the fact that the pacing is a lot quicker; the animations don’t have long wind-ups, and this makes going through the levels much more enjoyable because it’s not tedious. That’s actually a huge reason why my score isn’t lower; the game isn’t too long and doesn't try to waste your time—and it gets a few bonus points for that.
Oh and the music? I mean shit, it’s Michael Giacchino—can’t get any better than that… bangers after bangers. And playing this after LEGO Jurassic World was a blessing in disguise because this one actually has voice acting! Which was very surprising. The voices aren’t perfect replications, but they don’t have to be… and it’s a lot better than ripping audio straight from the movies, which I think they still do? But I honestly can’t tell, and I keep finding conflicting results online. I haven’t said anything about the character roster yet, and that’s because it’s not very good. This links back to my general point of TT Games picking franchises that don’t translate all that well to their formula, which is the case here too; with the whole—changing scenarios during levels, the open world, and the character roster that has a lot of characters that we’ve never seen in the movies apart from slight mentions. This was clearly not a good pick for a LEGO game… Oh and bugs! Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! FUCKING OPTIMIZE YOUR GAMES PLEASE.
Playtime: 14.5 hours
Every Game I’ve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Superhero Games - Ranked
LEGO - Ranked
2018 - Ranked