This was one of the last toys-to-life game sets that came around with Skylanders, and Disney Infinity. It did humor very well, and was made by the team that did the Lego video games across multiple platforms, Traveler's Tales. Its kind of a wish-fulfillment, multiple worlds, multiple heroes all interacting with each other to save the galaxy, or in some quests, find members for a garage band. It copies much of the formula of other Lego games, just on a massive scale. There are adventure levels you can repeatedly go into to clear 100%, hub worlds, and loads and loads of unlockable characters and tools. The game includes a flat board that has spaces for 3 characters (actually you can overstuff to about 8), which means a lot of swapping things out to use (such as cars or other people). The game itself takes advantage of the board in minigames that are important to the story.. such as placing characters on glowing parts of the gameboard to shrink or grow them, to remove mind control from a boss attack, and many other uses. Its cute, but after awhile it just kind of gets in the way of the action.

The difference is the characters that normally would be unlocked with the lego money in game --- are now all Suggested Retail Price real money. The rub is you need the physical figures, as in buy them in a store, to use --If you saw them as DLC, there is easily over $200 worth, staggering. But Lego Dimensions didn't quite work out how the companies hoped it would, and now you can nab these things at a serious discount - the game enjoyed 2 years of content, but it has been discontinued.


Graphics: 9

On almost all levels the graphics are great, and with so many popular franchises being sent up, there is a definite love and care to emulating the style. In some cases, it was passable, Back to the Future for instance - but in many others, Sonic, Portal, Teen Titans, Dr. Who, there was a level of fan-service that was above and beyond, easily a 10... but with so many products I'm grading overall.

Just an example of great vs lame... The Back to the Future hubworld is really dull and has very little in it... it was the first one made in game, but it seems they wanted to rush through it just to get to more fun projects. The Dr Who package is amazing.. the Doctor is an alien that has had over 12 actors play the title role (same character, but different face).. and the game includes every single one of them, plus their own title music, and their own TARDIS (their spaceship), it was a very kind, detailed surprise for a Dr Who fan like me.


Sound: 8

There is a lot of voice work in this game. The 3 main characters (which you can switch out any time), Wildstyle, Batman, and Gandalf, all have tons of lines -- Gary Oldman is the voice of the villain. And each of the characters you can get has their own unique dialog except strangely for Bart Simpson... some kind of contract negotiation didn't go through , so Bart must play the entire game without a peep. What I really enjoyed are when characters would interact with other franchises in ways you wouldn't expect. Dr Who meeting Doc Brown from Back to the Future, for instance. Harley Quinn of Gotham City talking about Homer Simpson.

Unfortunately, a lot of sound effects are sub-par. The explosions and attack sounds in particular, are fairly rote. And while it is nice to have all that dialog, some characters have much less. The music is very good, since it borrows from the main TV shows/movie/cartoon subject matter. I did enjoy being Wonder Woman, and having her 80's TV theme song play every time she took flight.


Addictiveness: 7

I think a lot of this has to do with the amount of similar cgoals, and if you enjoy grinding. A lot of the content is doing the same things; finding all the missing minikits and rescuing some mystery hostage in the story levels, finding all the hidden areas and races in the hub world - it can get very tiring. A lot of that may go undone, particularly if you don't love the subject matter or its not done very well (A-Team and Knight Rider hubs feel like you're doing the same stage twice), its a chore to get through, though optional.


Story: 6

If it was just wrapped up in the season 1 this would have a higher score. I'm sure if they had gotten their original plan of 3 years of content, this would be different. but there is a noticeable change in quality plot compared to season 1 and season 2. Season 1 tells are very tight story that ropes in all involved worlds, with the heroes and villains taking a stand for or against evil. Season 2 is very loose and has no build up or really any narrative. When you see all the hubs, you might be curious what is in them, but the new worlds don't fit into the grand scheme in any way, its kind of sad and makes them feel flat and less interesting.

In Season 1, Scooby Doo has a great reason why you'd put teams together. You could have the Ghostbusters, the Wicked Witch from Wizard of Oz or Unikitty hanging out with anyone- they all have the same goal. Season 2 has stuff like Beetlejuice, Harry Potter, Adventure Time and Powerpuff girls, and there's no introduction to why they are there or know each other. It sounds pretty neat though, I wish they'd put something there, but budget concerns made them scale back.


Depth: 7

There is a lot to do, even if much of it seems samey. The story mode is quite good, and wraps up well in Season 1. Sadly there is no real story mode in Season 2 content, but they include battle mode, which is kind of a PVP thing.. not too interesting though. The massive amount of characters means you will have to shell out a lot of ingame lego points or actual $$$ to fully complete a level, as it often requires anywhere from 8-12 people to get everything... and thats just one level! That cashgrab can be a big turn-off.


Difficulty: 4

Its not meant to be a hard game, but there are certain parts that are frustrating. These are long-standing issues with the Lego games in general, things like bad camera control, unclear goals, that make you not sure what you're supposed to do. A walkthrough to steer you through a weird boss fight or finding the last hidden docking station can do wonders. You have as many lives as you want, all it takes off for dying is ingame money, which is used to grade you at the stage end, buy things or 'borrow' a hero you don't have (bought) for a bit. So if spending a ton of money on lego figures isn't an option, the game does give you an out, just be prepared to grind for lego stud money A LOT.



Overall: 7.4

With Toys R Us going out of business, and everyone slashing prices on Toys to Life genre, you can definitely pick up some of these Lego Dimensions on the cheap if you're interested. When its a level you love, its fun and often includes a lot of humor and fan service. If you've played Lego games to death already, this jumbo-sized entry does not reinvent the wheel, despite some new touchpad powers.