Lego Marvel Super Heroes- Retro Review

Good afternoon gamers! As the Lego Movie Videogame review did so well, the guys behind The Gamerhub got me to write another review. This time, I’ve played through Lego Marvel Super Heroes. For those unaware, this is the game that basically spawned all the Lego Marvel games, and is by far and away my stepson’s favourite of the Lego Marvel franchise. So, with a nice head on, I’ll take you through this game, with a fair amount of optimism.

The Plot

This game’s plot takes elements from many different Marvel Films, but basically adds a few elements. Sadly, this game does one thing that as of the time of writing, Hollywood hasn’t done yet: Dr Doom seems like a credible threat and also works to further the plot in several ways. His biggest flaw? Trusting Loki. Considering some of the plot elements are ripped from Avengers Assemble (2012), you’d think that Dr Doom would have learned this, but alas. He still makes for an awesome secondary villain. The other antagonists are the aforementioned Loki, and the world-eating Galactus. Basically, Doom, Magneto and Loki trap the Silver Surfer to get their paws on Cosmic Bricks to take over Earth and Asgard. Unfortunately, Loki’s plans involve using Galactus to eat both realms, and both heroes and villains have to team up.

Something to watch out for…

All the regular Avengers (minus Namor) appear and are playable, as well as the X-men and some villains from the comic book franchises. Some are done well, others not so much. I’ll get further into that in the next section. One stand-out plot point I’ll bring to your attention is how they use Sandman. The use of his powers in the first true boss battle in the game is awesome. It certainly makes me want to sleep with one eye open at times. His set-piece involves Grand Central Station and is truly unforgettable. He’s defeated by an over-used Iron Man and Spider-Man with water. Don’t let that put you off, though, this set-piece is really something.

The gameplay

Like most games in the Lego franchise, this game is a mixture of open-world exploration and levels taking you through the story of the game. In this case, there are 15+1 levels to complete. Collect the Lego studs, all the collectible minikits, and free the sadly late Stan Lee from danger to 100% each level and unlock the characters. Some are easier to do than others, and all the levels have really bad puns in their names. Worse than the Metallica joke I threw in earlier, and that is saying something.

As always, the game directs you through each level with a considerable amount of hand-holding, but this is a game for families. (Psst! Lego! Could we have a Lego Skyrim please?). If you can get past that particular staple of the Lego franchise, then this game is fairly enjoyable, with a great raft of characters to play as. The amount of different Lego sets you can play around in as well are impressive. Asgard, New York and even Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters look really good. Asgard, in particular, looks just like it does from the films.

Here comes the negative bit though folks. Some characters are overused and at points, that gets a little grating. I got pretty sick and tired of playing as Iron Man, as much as I love Tony Stark. Also, considering he’s in just about every single cutscene, Nick Fury gets seldom playtime as a character.

When I gave lashings of praise onto the sets, I do wish we could have seen more of them, as opposed to just being in a level though. I’d have loved to have explored more of Asgard in particular, as we don’t get to see all that much of it. I understand this criticism was taken on board by Traveller’s Tales, but still, this is a real down point for me.

The soundtrack

Back to the positive stuff here: The soundtrack (as far as the music is concerned) is a real bonus, with lots of musical references. There’s nods to the 60’s and late 80’s cartoons in there, as well as musical cues to different MCU films. Sadly, at the introduction of Iron Man, we don’t hear any Black Sabbath, but I’m waiting for my Lego Avengers review to tell you if I get to. The pacing of this music is really good as well. At most points in the game, you’ll hear the soundtrack rise up to a crescendo at boss battles in a way that the Lego franchise often doesn’t get enough credit for. When you absorb visual media, a good portion of why you react to something is due to audio. This game gets it just right with the non-diegetic sound.

However, again, there’s some aspects of the game’s sound design that leave a lot to be desired. I know that the budget on this game was tight, and this game made a lot of money, but it would have been nice for the budget to stretch. Particularly stretching to voice artists other than getting Stan Lee in. I could understand missing out on some, but hearing sound-alikes for Robert Downey Jr and Samuel L Jackson gets grating at points.

Any difficulty completing it?

It’s a Lego game, so not really. Getting Deadpool as a playable character was a real pain in the ass though. Any completionists reading this will feel my pain here. If Lego are reading this, I’d love a difficulty changing option, and I’d pay good money for a Lego Dark Souls game.

Any moments stand out?

Not really. The memorable bits for me are likely to get me to rant, as some of the uses of the characters are better than what the films have managed so far. This particularly references the Fantastic Four here, who even here get a bit mistreated. Ben Grimm (The ever-loving Blue-eyed thing) is a really emotional character and the beating heart of the Fantastic Four. He isn’t a big, dumb, orange rock-monster.

The post-credits level however, is awesome, with a lovely nod to the films.

Overall impressions?

This game, Lego Marvel Superheroes, spawned the Lego Marvel franchise of videogames. It’s not hard to see why. It’s a fun game, with plenty of jokes aimed at mum and dad, as well as the kids. There’s plenty to laugh and have fun with, and surprisingly few amounts of glitches and bugs. The raft of characters and level design are pretty good, and the soundtrack is still the most underrated aspect of the Lego games. The Stan Lee nods are now really bittersweet. This game is available on all major last gen consoles. You can play it on Steam, Xbox One, and Playstation 4, and I played through it on Xbox One.

That’s my review done for you! Next up in this series for me is the Lego Marvel Avengers game, but the next thing you can expect from me tomorrow and the day after are reviews of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS4.

Hope you enjoyed it, and don’t forget to have a look at what it feels like to have a PS5 for the first month.

Yours for The Gamerhub,

Davey.