Everybody loves LEGO. Now that we Millennials have a little bit of money to spare on completely pointless things our cherished childhood memories, we’re buying branded LEGO collaborations by the truckload. And those of us who play video games aren’t getting left out either, because the proliferation of fantastic — and admittedly not so fantastic — LEGO video games means we can play until our hands go numb.
Many of these LEGO games are collabs with other franchises, so there are dozens of classic characters from across the multimedia space rendered lovingly in video game block form. And do you know what? Some of those LEGO renditions are just way more fun to play with than in their original games.
10
Captain America
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Did Cap Better
I’ll come out and say, first off, that Captain America: Super Soldier wasn’t the greatest game ever made. It had mixed reviews, and I think that’s perfectly fair. It did have Chris Evans reprise his role as Cap, though, which is always nice for a tie-in game.
But I think LEGO Marvel Super Heroes has a much more fun version of Captain America. In both games, you can use Cap’s shield in combat. That’s a satisfying part of the Captain America superhero fantasy, but LEGO turns it into a much more general tool. You can hit enemies, reflect laser beams, create platforms, protect from environmental hazards, and use it for puzzle progression. For me, that delivers much more of the fantasy.
9
Thor
God of Thunder? More Like God of LEGO
Thor in Thor: God of Thunder is another example of a perfectly passable rendition that puts combat skills front and center. For the type of game that God of Thunder is, that makes sense. But for me, it doesn’t quite sell the superhero fantasy as well as the LEGO version does.
In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, Thor appears and his classic electricity powers and hammer get reimagined and reinterpreted for the LEGO setting. This means Thor can fight with Mjolnir, throw it at targets, fly, generate electricity, and use his powers to activate generators and progress through puzzles. I find that much more fun.
8
Stan Lee
The Marvel Godfather
Stan Lee is the superhero GOAT, but you wouldn’t usually think of him as a playable character in any video game. But he has been! He appeared as a cameo DLC character in The Amazing Spider-Man, where he had some Spider-Man abilities.
That was cool, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a one-off kind of deal. Except Stan Lee also appeared in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 as a fully playable character. And he was super overpowered in an extremely fun way. He had Spider-Man powers, Wolverine claws, heat vision like Cyclops, telekinesis, and more. The sequel boosted him further, giving him Excelsior Hulk, Iron “Stan,” and “Stanbuster” transformations. Easily the definitive Stan Lee experience.
7
Violet Parr
LEGO’s Not So Shrinking Violet
The Incredibles video game was an action-adventure beat ’em up platformer, and to be honest, it wasn’t great. Its rendition of Violet Parr was lacking. She had limited-duration invisibility, but no attacks. Her parts of the game focused on invisibility and stealth, but the limitations made them extremely difficult and unsatisfying to play.
Not so in LEGO The Incredibles. In LEGO The Incredibles, Violet Parr has invisibility, psionic force fields, projectile attacks, hacking skills, underwater movements, force-field protection abilities, and environmental manipulation. She’s way more fun to play and sells the Violet Parr fantasy better than the original Incredibles game. The game has its own issues, but the Violet Parr experience isn’t one of them.
6
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic in LEGO, Not Just LEGO Sonic
I’m not going to tell you that Sonic isn’t a fun character in other Sonic games, because that’s just not true. What I will say is that LEGO Sonic is fun in an entirely different way. Original Sonic is great, but LEGO Sonic?
In LEGO Dimensions’ Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack, you don’t just play as a LEGO version of Sonic. It feels like they’ve dropped Sonic, complete with his normal 3D physics, into the LEGO world. To be honest, it feels like a childhood game of pretend: you’re Sonic speeding around a LEGO world. For me, that just feels much more fun. You aren’t LEGO Sonic; you’re Sonic in LEGO.
5
The Doctor
When the LEGO Game Is Better Than the Original
Full disclosure, Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock was an awful game. Its PS3 MetaCritic aggregate rating is just 39. The idea is actually really fun: you get to play as Matt Smith’s Doctor and River Song. Unfortunately, technical issues dragged it down. I’ll be fair here, because I think it’s genuinely difficult to translate the Doctor into video game form: the Doctor isn’t a combat-oriented character at all, and his main mechanics are a bit more nebulous than most games can accommodate.
That being said, the Doctor Who LEGO Dimensions Level Pack managed it. The LEGO Sonic Screwdriver can repair objects, hack computers, shatter glass, and operate machinery. The Doctor can also regenerate into different incarnations through the TARDIS. The level even uses time travel as a mechanic, letting you change the environment and then travel in time to use that change to create new routes. It’s just a much more fun version of the Doctor.
4
Harry Potter
LEGO Nailed the Wizard Fantasy
Some of the Harry Potter movie tie-in games were great, and others weren’t so great. For the most part, they did make you feel like you were Harry Potter, at least in a limited way. I enjoyed them as a kid. But the magic was actually kind of repetitive and didn’t sell the wizard fantasy in quite the way I would have liked.
What really surprised me was playing LEGO Harry Potter with my niece. There’s just something incredibly appealing about the approach, from the charming LEGO aesthetics to the multipurpose spell casting. I feel like a wizard using magic to solve problems, and the co-op gameplay is really fun. For me, this is the definitive Harry Potter.
3
Wolverine
More Than Just Flashy Combat
Wolverine has been in a bunch of different video games over the years, but I feel like LEGO Marvel Super Heroes did it best; especially compared with the recent Marvel’s Wolverine. The new game has excellent, if a little repetitive, combat. The problem is that, in my opinion, it doesn’t really sell the experience of being Wolverine. I don’t feel like Wolverine.
But LEGO’s Wolverine? Now that’s really fun. You can actually control Wolverine in and out of combat, and he has a really fun suite of tools to use. You can use his claws, climb and destroy walls, activate super senses, dig, and traverse the environment. I feel like a superhero, and that’s what I find fun.
2
Iron Man
We Can All Be Iron Man
The original Iron Man game wasn’t very good, which was reflected in its generally unfavorable reviews. That sucks, because Iron Man has always been one of my favorite superheroes. But both LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and LEGO Marvel’s Avengers have really fun Iron Man gameplay that makes up for it.
LEGO has really cooked with some of these games, and LEGO’s Iron Man is a very succulent meal. You can fly, hover, shoot missiles, use a chest beam and heat beams, interact with technology, and enjoy multiple armor configurations. It’s just way more fun to play than the original Iron Man games.
1
Superman
The Man of Steel Can Be Fun Too
Superman is so overpowered that a constant problem in comics, cartoons, movies, and video games is the central question of “How do you make an invulnerable, super-powerful superhero fun to play without being overpowered?” The thing is, that’s really hard to do. And when you manage, it’s often not very satisfying to play. You don’t feel like Superman. This was a major problem in Superman Returns, for example.
LEGO took that question and said, “We’re not doing that.” Listen, I’m not going to say you can just outright ignore Superman’s stupidly overpowered abilities when designing Superman content. If every Superman-related work did that, we’d have a lot of boring stuff and a handful of works designed to really put Superman through the gauntlet. But it’s actually really fun in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Superman has a bunch of his classic powers — flight, super speed, heat vision, freeze breath, X-ray vision, resistance to normal damage — and can manipulate environmental objects with his abilities. Is he overpowered? Yes. Is he the most fun version of Superman to play? Also yes.
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