Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s the moment of truth. Sticks and stones and Bane can break my bones, but can words commit the most insidious crime of all by sapping the charm from Legos? Are these tiny torch-bearers of the mantra “actions speak louder than words” truly meant to sprout tiny, block-shaped vocal cords? Perhaps, I fear, we’ve gone too far. Maybe Lego Batman 2 should be a series of text prompts and color-coded meters. Or maybe it should take the form of a bucket filled with tiny plastic bricks and imagination. There is, however, no turning back now. I can see the trailer signal shining from just beyond the break. I suppose it’s time.

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This is no surprise but confirmation comes that Lego Lord of the Rings will be released in the Autumnal phase of 2012. I was quite disconcerted when the Joker started talking in a video for the next Lego Batman, which looks quite superb, but the trailer for Lego of That Ring goes even further, re-enacting scenes from the film and using the dialogue right in there. I’m not sure I like it and I hope it’s just for the trailer. I like the comedic and intentionally stripped back take on the source material the previous games have presented. Watch and see what you make of it all.

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All the heroes and villains are coming out to play in the cumbersomely titled Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, or at least a great deal of the heroes and villains created or legally owned by one major comic book publisher. I’d go through the trailer and try to identify as many as I can but I’m already confused as to whether there are several Robins running around or whether it’s the same Robin wearing different puzzle-solving costumes. Wonder Woman and Green Lantern are the only heroes known to be included beyond what we see here but it’s the villains I’m more interested in. Watch the first footage below, enjoy the reassuringly familiar musical themes, and see who you can spot.

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LEGO Batman 2 was announced very quietly and a few months later an image appeared to semi-prove that it definitely existed. Now a press release has arrived to tell us that it’s real, although without confirming that it was previously announced. Exciting stuff but what does it all mean? I choose to believe that a game starring Batman, Robin and several other DC chaps and chapettes will be available in Summer 2012. More below.

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Hooray! A Batman game that won’t use the word ‘bitch’ every five seconds, though God only knows what all the cutsey, wordless Lego-dude chuntering really means. “Oh great Satan, dark lord of my heart, let me worship you, let me consume the souls of the innocent and strangle kittens in your honour” – that’s what Lego Commissioner Gordon’s really saying, I bet.

So, Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes has maybe been outed, at least if this oddly stark image on Bricktuts.com is to believed. (Uncropped full version of the above pic with more stuff here). If it is accurate, it also means Batman’s bringing all his special friends to the build’n'smash party – which no doubt would mean even more open, joyful silliness than the first game. Lego Superman – i.e. invincible flying man who can destroy any object – must be be a conceptual nightmare, mind.

Egad, there’s a demo of Lego Harry Potter: Years 5 – 7 all of a sudden. Why the surprise, you ask? Because you haven’t been paying attention to Adam and me, when we’ve told you over and over how great the first Lego Harry game was. And as I’ve mentioned before, I’m saying that as someone who would rather eat his own shins than read one of those illiterate books. Honestly, I tried to read the first one and just wanted to mark it with a red pen. Does she even have an editor? Anyway, the good news is the Travellers’ Tales games are brill, and the Harry Potter one was exceptionally good. And I suspect this one could match it. Naturally the game is out in American a week earlier than in the UK, what with Harry Potter being a British book, and the game developed by a company in Britain… hang on, what? At least we can all get the demo at once. Warner? What are you doing?

With all the talk of genuinely blood-curdling experiences over here, I bring you something else in the build up to Halloween. Lego. This short trailer for Lego Harry Potter Yrs 5-7 doesn’t actually show any gameplay, but it does capture one of the things I like about the Lego games; they don’t buckle under the occasional self-importance of the franchises they depict.

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Like John, I thoroughly enjoyed the first installment of Lego Harry Potter’s schoolyard mishaps and I was pleased that Years 5-7 will be available this year on 18th November. A huge part of the early years’ appeal, however, was the use of Hogwarts as a hub world and the later stories, as you could conceivably have avoided discovering, do take the action away from school somewhat. Hopefully this won’t lead to a loss of the exploratory jollity in between the driven narrative sections and will, instead, provide more hubs to wander around. Judging by the trailer below, the more serious the story becomes and the more adultescent it attempts to be, the more ridiculous and entertaining the Lego equivalent becomes. Good. Let’s stop being too earnest about wizards for a while.

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Something I still haven’t done, that I was originally planning before Christmas, is to write a WIT for Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4. I know that sounds like a strange game to review long after it came out, and perhaps not quite in the target audience for RPS, but blimey, it’s a brilliant game. Certainly I’m a sucker for Traveller’s Tales’ Lego games, but not without an eye for quality. Lego Star Wars: great. Lego Indy: poop. And as it happens, I can’t stand Harry Potter. But Lego Harry Potter was a level above all the others, not only nailing the regularly repeated formula exactly, but also framing itself very differently. One day I’ll write it, and probably call it a “retro”. Indeed, I could time it with the release of the next game in the series, Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7, which Warner has just announced for the 18th November this year. Which is splendid news, even for a boy-wizard-hating git like me.

It’s a mistake, in light of Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean, to accuse Traveller’s Tales of diminishing returns with their Lego series. I keep seeing that happening. It’s wrong. If anything the problem is the stability of their consistency. I’ve had a think about why.

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The latest Traveller’s Tales Lego game, Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars, came out yesterday. I’ve played the Story Mode through to completion, and fought against replaying the entire thing in Free Play in order to have time to write this review. Is it any good? Well, I’ve sort of given that away. Yes, it’s extremely good. Here’s Wot I Think to prove why.

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