Game review: Build your own dream team of superhero in ‘Lego Marvel’s Avengers’
"Lego Marvel's Avengers." (Warner Bros.)
"Lego Marvel's Avengers." (Warner Bros.)
Parents need to know that "Lego Marvel's Avengers" is an action-adventure game that combines the Lego brand of building toys with characters and stories from Marvel Entertainment’s movies, TV shows, and comic books. (Common Sense Media/TNS)
Parents need to know that “Lego Marvel’s Avengers” is an action-adventure game that combines the Lego brand of building toys with characters and stories from Marvel Entertainment’s movies, TV shows, and comic books. The game’s story loosely follows the events of both “Marvel’s The Avengers” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” while including elements from other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Players take control of various characters from the Marvel Universe as they fight off villains and solve puzzles to save the world. Violence is cartoonish in nature, with characters using their abilities to beat up enemies and blow up objects, all of which shatter into Lego studs and pieces.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Whether the world is being invaded by aliens or taken over by a robotic despot, when evil strikes, it’s time to call in the superheroes: the Avengers. In “Lego Marvel’s Avengers,” players can unlock and take control of more than 200 characters as they take part in some of the biggest moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Put together your own comic-book dream team and have Iron Man and Captain America come together to capture Loki in Stuttgart, or take Squirrel Girl and Mockingbird to Sokovia to stop the machinations of Ultron. Heroes, villains, and even Stan Lee himself make this one of the most power-packed Lego video games to date.
IS IT ANY GOOD?
When villains’ schemes leave Lego bricks scattered around the globe, the Marvel Universe rallies behind a single cry: “Avengers assemble!” “Lego Marvel’s Avengers” is every Marvel comic fan’s dream, packed with an insane amount of content. While the game’s Story mode covers specific content from six Marvel movies, complete with audio and voice-overs pulled straight from those flicks, the cast of characters available to unlock covers the gamut of the Marvel stable, from the original 1939 incarnation of the Human Torch to more modern characters such as Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel. It’s not only the cast that’s gotten bigger, though. The game itself, especially the free-roam New York City hub, feels substantially bigger than prior Lego games.
Of course, all the characters in the multiverse don’t mean a thing if the game isn’t fun to play. Thankfully, that’s not a problem. Action is pretty much nonstop from start to finish. The controls, for the most part, are simple to pick up and play. There are a couple of quirks, such as flight, and new elements, such as powerful team-up attacks, that can take some practice. Plus, despite the overall size of the game and its wealth of side missions, collectibles, and secrets during the game’s free play, the actual Story mode feels a bit light. But even so, there’s so much to do outside of the story, you’ll rarely feel like there’s nothing left to do. If you’re a comic-book fan, a Lego fan, or just a fan of action games in general, “Lego Marvel’s Avengers” is a great addition to your video-game superhero lineup.
RATING AND CONTENT
Recommended for ages 11 and older
Quality: 4 out of 5
Positive Messages: 3 out of 5
Positive Role Models: 3 out of 5
Ease of play: 3 out of 5
Violence: 3 out of 5
Language: 0 out of 5
Sexy stuff: 0 of 5
Consumerism: 4 out of 5 (Are products/advertisements embedded? Is the title part of a broader marketing initiative/empire? Is the intent to sell things to kids?)
GAME DETAILS
Platform: Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Price: $59.99
Developer: Warner Bros. Interactive
Release Date: January 26, 2016
Genre: Action/Adventure
ESRB Rating: E10+ for cartoon violence, comic mischief
