The Pros and Cons of the Lego Videogame Series

If you've never played a Lego console game, it might seem strange to you that anyone would want to play a game wherein their favorite heroes are converted into little Lego People, fighting in a Lego World.

Half the appeal is that it's ridiculous. Thus far, Lego Batman has the most appeal because of the incongruity of the Dark Knight as a Lego piece. (Let's just forget the old TV series, shall we?) As a long time Batman fan, I expected to be half-offended, but instead I found myself giggling a little during the previews.

The Lego series began with Star Wars. After chewing through that they went to Indiana Jones. It's actually fun to watch a cut scene, wherein the little Lego actors re-enact a scene from the movie. The scenes aren't always exact copies and they're handled with humor. These are, after all, virtual plastic actors made of interlocking toys.

The game play is also fun. Every time you strike down an enemy, they shatter into a thousand Lego pieces (welll-maybe not a thousand). The other part I like about it is the low penalty for death. If you die you immediately come back. You don't have all the "money" you did before, but you don't have to worry about reloading. If you long for complexity, this is not the game series for you. It's a perfect game to enjoy with your kids.

The only thing I've found frustrating is that you travel in a group, and sometimes the other people in your group are hard to control. Princess Leia died in a fall, but then she kept respawning in the same precarious position, only to fall to her doom, over and over. All of the characters are tethered together so you can't really go far without one another. That's standard practice if two people are playing, but the leash feels shorter in this game and a bit restrictive.

Since the advent of freeplay worlds, such as Morrowind and other RPG style games in which you have the freedom to roam where you please, the Lego series will feel like a throwback to very linear games of the past. You can't exactly go back once you've been through an area-you have to keep going forward. One of the good things about the new Batman Legos is that they have a freeplay mode after you've completed a level. That means that after you've completed your main objective, you can go back and collect coins you missed.

Legos is simple, satisfying and a concept that I'm sure will be run thoroughly into the ground. But I'm looking forward to all the titles they'll be releasing until they finally do!