Review #4 - LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

Hello there!

Welcome to Hedgehog Reviews, where I, Thomas, review the latest and greatest Nintendo games, movies, and very rarely TV shows and comics series. In my last review, I talked about a 3DS game called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and I think it 'May' have been quite a good review. (Geddit, because it was in May?) This time, I will be reviewing a game that I discovered much recently, a game that combines two of my favourite things to ever exist: Marvel and videogames. This game is called LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. I own the Wii U version, but I'm pretty sure it's the same as all console versions (though I heard the 3DS and PSP versions are terrible).

Now, when this game was announced, I honestly had almost no interest. My best friend was VERY excited about it though, and picked it up on the day it came out, last November. It was about four months later that he properly introduced the game to me, and once I finally realized how great it actually was, and saw that I shouldn't have judged a book by its cover, I got it as an early birthday present in April (a.k.a. last month at the time of writing). Now it's time to explain why it's so great.

Now, I don't really care much for the story in Lego games, so I won't spend too much time on this. Basically, Galactus (Fantastic Four fans probably know him), the guy who hungers for planets, has set his starving eyes on Earth (it's always Earth, isn't it? Darn it, galactic monsters). Meanwhile, on the aforementioned planet, three of the world's most dangerous villains, Doctor Doom, Loki and Magneto, have seemingly teamed up to harness the power of the recently discovered 'Cosmic Bricks' that fell from the board of the Silver Surfer, Galactus' herald. It's up to the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man (my favourite), and all your favourite Marvel heroes to fight for what's good.

"Hey!" cries Hulk. "Lego of me!"

Like in most (if not all) Lego games, there are levels that you must progress through in order to complete story mode. In this game there are fifteen, but there are now also 'bonus levels'. These are much shorter than normal levels, but this doesn't mean they are easier; there are still a lot of things to find if you want to fully complete a level (and, of course, the whole game).

Speaking of collecting, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes has a TON of things to do, characters and vehicles to unlock, gold bricks to collect, and... 'Stan Lees in peril'. Yep, if you thought ol' Stan 'the man' Lee got enough cameos in Marvel movies, this legendary comic writer also has to be rescued multiple times throughout the game, in levels and in the game's main hub, Manhattan.

Indeed, this wonderful creation allows you to
walk, float, web swing, and soar (you can actually fly extremely fast with characters  such as Iron Man, the Wasp, the Human Torch and Thor, to name but a tiny fraction) around a fully Lego version of Manhattan. This really gives the game a bigger sense of fun and freedom, and I personally love speeding through the sky above this enormous city. If you fly high enough, you can even land on what I like to think of as the game's kind of secondary main hub, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, the larger than life floating fortress from Marvel comic books and movies, most noticeably the Avengers movie (which I believe is the third highest grossing film of all time).

And now it's time for... Trivia Fact of the Month! 
Did you know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which connects film series such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Avengers and Incredible Hulk, and plays a big part in the characters and plot of Lego Marvel Super Heroes, has so far grossed over 6.3 billion dollars? That's just 9 films, with many, many more to come!

SO. MANY. CHARACTERS. 

As to be expected in a Lego game, the character roster is packed to the brim. With over 150 characters to play as, you could spend hours just exploring all the different abilities and traits of these heroes and villains. Want to throw Pumpkin Bombs all over New York as the Green Goblin while flying through the air? Want to shrink down as Ant-Man and investigate normally unreachable places? Want to turn invisible as the Invisible Woman, Black Widow or Nick Fury, allowing you to avoid security lasers? How about wreak havok as the Hulk, the Thing, the Rhino or the Juggernaut? LEGO Marvel Super Heroes makes all of this completely possible. Just check out the nearby picture for a gander at some of the many playable superhumans.

The game also boasts a wide selection of vehicles. There are land vehicles (which include motorbikes, cars and other strange ways of driving), air vehicles (such as helicopters, fighter jets and planes, including Tony Stark's expensive private jet) and sea vehicles (which oddly, there are only two of, even though there are much more in the other two categories). These vehicles can also be experimented with and explored, with some able to shoot missiles, hover off the ground and turn invisible. This makes getting around the city fast and enjoyable.

Sadly, like most Lego games, this one doesn't really have music that you'll find yourself looking for on Youtube to listen to; the game's soundtrack isn't what I'd call amazing, and I'd recommend better music and memorable melodies in future big Lego games. Though I will admit I often find myself humming along to the music that plays in New York when you're exploring the city, and the music that plays when you skydive off the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to reach the city.

Another thing that the game could possibly benefit from is stamps. As seen in my Super Mario 3D World review, some games offer unlockable stamps that can be posted to Miiverse (see Review #1 for an explanation of Miiverse). It would be nice to be able to add pictures of your favourite character or vehicle to your post, and you could edit them to make cool scenarios.

Human Torch jokes that he was the one that melted Captain
America out of the ice. Wolverine doesn't laugh. Because he's
Wolverine. 

The Helicarrier is home to many of the game's bonus features. You can come here to create your own custom characters, making mash-ups of your favourite heroes and villains. Some of mine include 'Tin Wolvie' (composed of Iron Man with Wolverine's claws) and 'Spidey Thor' (which kind of explains itself, Spider-Man with Thor's hair and hammer). You can also purchase helpful 'Red bricks' from Deadpool here, and enter codes as a faster way to unlock certain characters. If you collect all ten 'Minikits' in a level, you can unlock a small speechless comic for that level, which even without speech is still a neat goodie. Collecting minikits will usually require you to replay a level when you have unlocked more characters, and thus, more abilities.

Anyway, I hope this review showed you just what LEGO Marvel Super Heroes has to offer. Sorry if there was a little less content than usual, as I recently returned to my main High School after being away from it for a while, and have had a lot of revision to do to catch up. Check back for more new content and bad puns on 15th July 2014, where I'll be reviewing Mario Kart 8.

Goodbye for now.

Overall Score: 91%

+ Graphics work great with Lego
+ Enormous choice of characters 
+ Stays true to all Marvel fans 
+ Collectibles make the game last much longer
+ Plenty to do, and fun to play even when you've completed everything
- Music is a bit bland 
- Story could be better