Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Year: 2013
Rating: E10+
Time Played: ~23 hours
In 2013, you would have been stupid to not cash in on the phenomenon that was the up-and-coming Marvel Cinematic Universe. A year after The Avengers (2012) showed what could be done with a handful of movies, and suddenly everyone is into Marvel superheroes. It then makes sense that Lego would release the Lego Marvel Super Heroes video game in 2013. What’s even better is that the muddled movie rights for Marvel IP don’t apply to video games, thus making this game a smorgasbord of superheroes to play with.
I can appreciate how this game incorporated some of the popularity of the MCU (I mean, look at the characters front and center on the cover), but didn’t completely need to adapt to the movie versions of these heroes. The voice-acting work for these characters was top-notch and really brought the quality of this game above the various grunts and cheers of the playable characters present in earlier Lego video games. Having New York City as an open-world hub to explore between levels was also a great way to present the game (similar to how Lego Lord of the Rings did it).
Perhaps I had become burned out on Lego video games by the time I got to this one, but I found some challenges to be harder than I would have liked—even for a game aimed at children. I understand there needs to be some challenge here to not make completing the game 100% a walk in the (Central) park, but race courses and RC car mini-games end up being frustrating when they don’t control as smoothly as I’d like. If there were some upgrades I could buy with studs to make these challenges easier in the late game, then maybe I would have been more inclined to complete the game 100%.
Another top-notch Lego game with an almost-complete roster of Marvel heroes, I give Lego Marvel Superheroes 4.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
