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Lego Marvel!!!

Big Fresh

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The Natural

The Natural

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IGN and GameCentral are the main gaming websites I use. I sometimes use GameSpot. Here is GameCentral's big preview of the game:

 

GameCentral gets a look at the only game to feature the entirety of the Marvel universe and some of the world’s oddest superheroes.

 

Lawyers, much like comic book characters, can be either a force for good or evil. The mere fact that this game exists at all is a monument to inter-company cooperation and compromise. Given that Warner Bros. owns DC Comics they really shouldn’t be helping to make Marvel even more money, but evidently where there’s a will (to earn profit) there’s a way. Which is good, because now we get the only modern action game to feature almost the entire Marvel universe.

 

On the other side of the coin, if you ever wondered why specific Marvel characters are missing from certain games, even though logically they’d seem a shoe-in, it’s because of lawyers. In a similar manner to how the rights to make Marvel movies have been scattered all across Hollywood so too do different game licences reside with different publishers.

 

In recent years Marvel has put a moratorium on new retail games though and that together with the unifying power of the Lego licence means that this game has the biggest line-up of characters ever put to disc. There are around 150 in total, with the full list of confirmed inclusions so far available at the end of this preview (there’s also additional DLC characters, but we’re not clear if that’s included in the 150 total).

 

We’ve only see a dozen or so in action but even that encompasses a dizzying array of characters and powers. There are obvious inclusions of course, with several makes of Iron Man armour, including a Hulkbuster suit and Tony Stark on his own.

 

The game’s far from limited to just the Avengers though, with Spider-Man and his allies and rogues being another key inclusion. His web-swinging and web attacks are completely different to any of the other characters and this represents one of the game’s key advances over Lego Batman 2. There’s no longer just a stock collection of half a dozen powers that are attributed to characters as long as they’re vaguely relevant. Now everyone gets their own unique abilities and even if they have the same practical effect they still look very different.

 

To illustrate this we’re shown The Human Torch flame on and start flying round the room (a test area within a helicarrier) while hurling fireballs. Meanwhile Iceman gets his iconic ice slide, that auto-generates behind him. The Punisher has a variety of guns, and Green Goblin not only has his pumpkin bombs but also his glider.

 

These special features extend not just to the big hitters but the much more obscure Howard the Duck and even fan favourite Squirrel Girl – who can glide and fire a horde of angry squirrels at her enemies. At this point the demonstration breaks down to people calling out requests and we ask about Captain Britain and whether British developer TT Games have snuck in any specific jokes about him, to which we get some sheepish grins and a nod of the head.

 

Although we don’t hear the proof many of the characters use the voice actors long associated with them, such as Agent Coulson being the actual actor from the movies, Nolan North returning yet again for Deadpool, and cartoon actor Steve Blum voicing Wolverine.

 

Arguably the most recognisable voice though is of Stan Lee himself, who gets a hilariously overpowered character in the game who can fire Spider-Man’s webbing, has heat vision and an adamantium skeleton, and can even transform into a Hulk like version of himself.

 

A number of characters can transform from one form to the other, such as Curt Connors/Lizard and Jean Grey/Phoenix, including changing from a normal sized mini-figure to a giant-sized one. These larger figures actually exist in the real world Lego sets and are used for characters like The Hulk that just wouldn’t look right otherwise.

 

What this means in the game is there’s a new higher echelon of characters, a bit like the giants from Skylanders, that are much bigger and invulnerable to normal attacks. We’re not shown any of these others but it’s implied that characters such as Juggernaut, Blob, and the Hulkbuster armour are three others in this new weight class.

 

We’re actually shown relatively little of the game in action, with only a very brief section of one mission that seems to have been inspired by the end of the Avengers and features Hulk and Spider-Man villain Sandman. There are apparently 20 missions in the main story mode, together with an open world version of New York City that works similarly to Gotham City from Lego Batman 2.

 

We’re shown a second mission starting from the helicarrier hub, as Captain America and Mr Fantastic jump out to glide to the ground, as the developer points out Lego Manhattan landmarks such as Stark Tower, the X-Mansion, and Dr Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.

 

Once the pair get to the ground it becomes clear that despite all the new features and characters the nature of the game is still the same as always, with its simple combat and abilities-based puzzles. Mr Fantastic can not only stretch under gates and glide, but can also morph into different shapes such as a teapot and a pair of pliers (which we thought was more of a Plastic Man kind of a thing, but we’re no experts on Marvel).

 

Captain American has his shield throw of course, used to work out-of-reach switches, but it can also be used to protect him from flames as the two co-operate to get into the Baxter Building after its security measures are turned on by someone else.

 

We’re not sure who that someone else is but the game’s story revolves around the Silver Surfer’s surfboard shattering into a number of ‘Cosmic Bricks’ which Doctor Doom and other villains are trying to acquire. The game’s ultimate villain though seems to be Galactus.

 

There’s nothing in Lego Marvel that is truly revolutionary for the series but then given how enduringly popular it is that’s not something we imagine anyone was expecting. It certainly seems to be the most content rich entry so far though and visually the next gen version we saw looked excellent, with great animation and attention to detail.

 

Even if you couldn’t care less about Marvel (and we’re relatively indifferent) the Lego games have always been excellent co-op adventures and we suspect this is going to be the best yet.

 

And here’s that list of all those characters so far confirmed:

 

Abomination, Acolytes, Archangel, Arnim Zola, Beast, Black Widow, Blob, Captain America, Captain Britain, Colossus, Cyclops, Daredevil, Deadpool, Destroyer, Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, Doctor Strange, Elektra, Extremis Soldier, Frost Giant, Galactus, Gambit, Ghost Rider, Green Goblin, Ultimate Green Goblin, Hawkeye, Classic Hawkeye, Heimdall, H.E.R.B.I.E., Howard the Duck, The Hulk, Bruce Banner, Human Torch, HYDRA Agent, Iceman, Invisible Woman, Iron Man Mark I Armour, Iron Man Mark VI Armour, Iron Man Hulkbuster Armour, Tony Stark, J. Jonah Jameson, Jean Grey, Phoenix, Juggernaut, Kingpin, Leader, Lizard, Curt Connors, Loki, Magneto, Malekith the Accursed, Maria Hill, Mr Fantastic, Ms Marvel, Mysterio, Mystique, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Professor Xavier, The Punisher, Red Hulk, General Thunderbolt Ross, Rhino, Rocket Raccoon, Roxxon Guard, Sabretooth, Sandman, Sentinel, Silver Surfer, Silver Samurai, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Squirrel Girl, Stan Lee, Storm, Super-Skrull, The Thing, Thor, Venom, Viper, Vulture, War Machine, and Wolverine.

 

After the demo we were able to speak to game director Arthur Parsons, who had the following to say about the game’s combat, it’s bugs, and what it says about next gen Lego games…

 

GC: I think Lego Batman 2 is still my favourite of the Lego games, but what was slightly disappointing about that was that the superheroes didn’t really have their own unique powers – just the use of one or two from a pre-existing pool. You seem to be going all out to make everyone as unique as possible in this one, but surely that’s a nightmare in terms of balancing the gameplay? Or do you just not care because that’s not the point?

 

AP: Yeah, it isn’t the point. It’s… we actually started off with a 100 characters and we just kept it tight, but Marvel, Lego, and ourselves just kept adding character after character and it kept getting bigger and bigger. We wanted the game to be current in 12 months times, so we put characters in there from Captain America 2 and Thor 2, or whatever it might be. And it kind of just ballooned a little bit.

 

But I think it’s more because we’re all geeks. I know video game developers are normally geeks, but we’re Marvel geeks. So far us it’s, ‘We might never get this chance again, let’s just go to town on it.

 

GC: I think this must be the only game, except perhaps for some MMO, that actually has every single character. Is there anyone at all you weren’t able to use for legal reasons?

 

AP: Yes, there was one. But I can’t actually say who it is, because I’ll get shot. [laughs]

 

GC: So by a process of elimination!

 

AP: Yeah, you could probably work it out. But there are these 7,000 characters in the universe so it might take a while. [laughs] But there were one or two, but a lot of them actually we couldn’t have early on and over the course of development they became available. We got agreement. I think some of the characters are co-owned, so it’s just getting everyone to say yes. So it’s not a massive problem from our perspective, I think we pretty much got everyone we wanted.

 

GC: I always enjoy Lego games, but the one intractable problem is that the combat is so simplistic. Obviously you have to make it fun for kids but… [notices a Lego-built planet wander into frame on the title screen] Oh, that’s Whatshisface the Living Planet!

 

AP: Yeah, Ego! [laughs]

 

GC: Sorry, yes… in Lego Batman 2 you could be fighting Zod or Brainiac or some other super powerful enemy and all you did is just punch them three times to beat them. Which was not only boring in itself but functionally identical to a fight with a non-powered character.

 

AP: Yeah, we’ve tried to make sure that the combat is a lot better. So you’ll see there are characters like… Elektra’s got her sais and it’s a lot more interactive. Again, for the kids it’s still very easy to do but the animation and the way it feels… you feel you’re doing something in a lot more complicated fashion. There’s a lot more special finishing moves in there as well.

 

And because of the big figures we’ve had to do a lot more work on the combat too. So a lot of the big figure work is actually more interactive, in term of quick time events, and a bit more dynamic. So it is somewhere we’ve pushed but to make sure we don’t go all Street Fighter on it.

 

Ultimately our target audience is six, seven, eight-year-olds. It’s quite a tricky sort of area to go but I think we’ve improved it drastically on recent games purely and simply because of the diversity of characters.

 

GC: So again how does that work in terms of balancing? How can Elektra be expected to fight the Hulk?

 

AP: [laughs] We actually put in a very early rule that mini-figures can’t hurt big figures. So a kid’s gonna know that whenever they’ve got a big Lego figure to fight they’ve got to find either a way of using Lego to fight them or use another big figure against them.

 

It’s that sort of subliminal messaging that makes kids think, ‘Oh, it’s Juggernaut! I need to use such-and-such’. So yeah, we’ve been very conscious of doing that in this one. But then we’ve got some huge characters that are like 40 or 50 foot tall.

 

GC: So Galactus will be whatever is he… 30 foot tall.

 

AP: Exactly. It’s 26 foot I think is the official Marvel wiki.

 

GC: That’s very good, you are a Marvel geek. [laughs]

 

AP: [laughs] But yeah the showdown is ultimately, you play 20-odd characters in the level against Galactus and that’s… pretty amazing, that one.

 

GC: I know you have a quick turnaround on these things but the other big problem with them is that they do tend to be very buggy, and a lot of them are the same bugs that there’s been for half a decade or more.

 

AP: [hearty laugh]

 

GC: Is this realistically going to be any different? I remember trying to 100% Lego Lord Of The Rings and it was almost physically impossible because of all the bugs.

 

AP: Ah, I haven’t played that one yet.

 

GC: I mean you seem to have a bigger budget than usual this time, with all the voice actors and everything?

AP: We’ve actually had a month or two longer than normal on this one. So we are trying to get this one as clean as possible. We hate it when there are bugs in there, our QA leads are there sobbing head in hands, ‘Ack! We missed it’. But I think it’s because of the complexity, because there’s so much stuff.

 

But yeah, we’re at the point where even Steven [the other developer in the room] and I are helping with testing. Because we’re finished the content, we’re just trying to make it as clean as possible. We hate the games coming out with bugs, so we’re looking at AI glitches, we’re looking at camera bugs, we’re trying to make sure everything is clean. We’ll never get it all but hopefully we’ll get the majority this time.

 

GC: I think a lot of people when they saw the trailer for the Lego Movie immediately said, ‘Why can’t the games look like that?’ Is that something that’s going to be possible in the future, where everything is made out of Lego bricks?

 

AP: Funny you should say that, but I don’t know if you’ve seen the game of the movie? [Gestures to closed room behind us, which is not open to journos.]

 

GC: No, they won’t let us in!

 

AP: Ah, well that is almost exactly as it looks in the trailer. So even the movement and the animation, everything is exactly like the film. So our other studio is actually doing that one for next year, for the film launch.

 

GC: Oh yes, I forgot about the movie game. Well that does have interesting implications for future tie-in games.

 

AP: It does! [laughs]

 

GC: OK, that’s great. Thanks for your time.

 

AP: No problem at all, thanks.

 

Formats: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, DS, 3DS, and PS VitaPublisher: WB GamesDeveloper: TT Games (22/11 on XO, 29/11 on PS4)Release Date: 15th November 2013

 

Credit: metro.co.uk/gamecentral.

 

There ya go Big Fresh!

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The Natural

The Natural

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New IGN preview:

 

Anyone who’s busted up their share of blocky bad guys, collected plastic studs aplenty, and unlocked every character from Gotham City to a galaxy far, far away probably knows what to expect from a LEGO game. While each new entry in Traveller’s Tales’ successful series does its part to tweak the tried-and-true template—whether by adding an open-world or a fully-voiced cast—they never stray too far from the franchise’s reliable formula.

 

The forthcoming LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is similarly playing it safe, following closely in the minifig footsteps of its predecessors. According to game director Arthur Parsons, though, what his team’s latest might lack in game-changing innovation, it more than makes up for in Marvel fan service. “The whole game revolves around personality. It’s basically our excuse to bring as many Marvel super heroes and super villains onto the screen and to a videogame as we possibly can. In effect, it’s equal to a kid having all these LEGO figures in a toy set and just playing.”

 

The main story—co-written by Marvel scribe Mark Hoffmeier—will see players kicking brick behind the Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spiderman through Marvel’s Manhattan (meaning it includes the metropolis’ most well-known landmarks, like Liberty Island, as well as fiction-supporting locales such as Stark Tower.) But these 20-plus primary characters barely scratch the spandex of the game’s 150-strong roster. The majority of the brimming Marvel cast is unlocked during both the campaign and free play mode. In fact, fans of more peripheral characters, from mainstream movie stars such as Ghost Rider to comic book cult faves like Howard the Duck, will probably have more fun fooling around in the latter as they will following the script of the former.

 

Stan Lee’s groupies, for example, won’t be able to unlock the comic book icon by simply sticking to the critical path. As Parsons explains, recruiting Spidey’s co-creator into your roster is one of the title’s most involved tasks. “We have 50 Stan Lee’s in various perilous situations. In one of them he drinks this toxic soda and transforms into Stan Hulk, and you end up having to beat him up; when you beat him up, he transforms back to Stan and he’s like ‘Excelsior, thank you!’, and off he runs. Once you’ve rescued all 50, you then get to unlock Stan as a playable character.”

 

While Stan’s fans could potentially get their money’s worth by repeatedly rescuing the silver-haired legend, Parsons explains how Punisher purists can help their favorite vigilante on an uncharacteristic quest. “Punisher has a really cool mission. We basically turned him into an environmental crusader, rather than a mass killer. So all the bad guys are driving around high pollution vans and he wants you to take the environmentally-friendly battle van to take them down.”

 

As this example makes abundantly clear—at the expense of The Punisher’s badass rep, no less—LEGO Marvel aims to retain the pop culture-skewering attitude of its predecessors, delivering an experience that tickles parents’ funny bones even as it blisters their kids’ thumbs. While I didn’t witness any of Frank Castle’s or Stan Lee’s LEGO-fied shenanigans during my demo, I did watch Mr. Fantastic transform into a tea pot. Working alongside Captain America, Mr. Reed Richards accessed various blocked areas—by also turning into a pair of bolt cutters as well as a screwdriver—while the Star-Spangled Avenger bested baddies with his shield. Parsons points out that the flexible Fantastic Four founder will also morph into an air traffic tower, a fire engine, and a wrecking ball over the course of the campaign.

 

Again, while the gameplay here isn’t particularly novel, it benefits nicely from the character-specific traits coupled with the series’ trademark humor. This magic mix also reveals itself when I see the Hulk shrink back into Bruce Banner’s body; the former can toss vehicles and buckle blacktop, while the latter can, well, pass through doors his angry alter-ego can’t fit through. More entertaining than the powers though, is seeing Hulk’s beefy biceps hung on Banner’s scrawny frame mid-transformation.

 

As the Hulk and Abomination engage in an amusing slap fight outside of Sand Central Station (LEGO Marvel’s Sandman-infiltrated version of the NYC landmark), Parsons again stresses his studio’s focus on getting the cast just right. “Each of these characters is kind of like a distillation of that character. Wolverine, for example, is pretty much invulnerable to attacks and he regenerates. So, if he dies in our game, he just turns into another Adamantium skeleton, but with Wolverine’s hair and sideburns…you can run around and eventually he’ll regenerate back to a fully formed, healthy Logan. We’ve just tried to make sure every character is, above all, a visualization of what they should be.”

 

I’m looking forward to playing through this Marvel mash-up’s main story, but ditching the critical path to find Rocket Raccoon is what will keep me awake past the wee hours, ya know, when I’m not saving Stan Lee’s bacon for the 50th time.

 

Looking forward to this.

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The Natural

The Natural

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Achievement List is up: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/lego-marvel-super-heroes/achievements/

 

And it includes confirmation of Black Cat, Electro, Kraven, Red Skull, and Star-Lord!

 

Thank you. Got me more excited for it.

 

Symbiote Spidey and Winter Soldier shouldn't be DLC. Least Spidey is already in the game unlike Winter Soldier.

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Big Fresh

Big Fresh

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As the days go by, my hope for Namor is dwindling. One of the TT games guys mentioned there was only one character they couldn't use in the game for legal reasons, I can't imagine who else it could be. Which explains why he hasn't been added to Super Hero Squad Online, Marvel Heroes, or Avengers Alliance yet too. I'm very sad.

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Big Fresh

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Here's two pictures of the character grid:

 

Posted Image

 

Posted Image

 

And the internet's best speculation on uncovering it:

 

Tier 1 (20 characters)
Iron Man | Hulk | Spider-Man | Captain America | Mr. Fantastic | Hawkeye | Black Widow | Wolverine | Human Torch | Thor | Cyclops | Jean Grey | Storm | Beast | Iceman | Invisible Woman | Thing | Nick Fury | Maria Hill | Agent Coulson

Tier 2 (20 characters)
Abomination | ? | AIM Agent | ? | Ant-Man | Archangel | Arnim Zola | ? | Beetle | Black Bolt | Black Cat | Black Panther | Blade | Blob | Bullseye | Captain Britain | Carnage | Colossus | Curt Connors | Damage Control

Tier 3 (20 characters)
Daredevil | Deadpool | Destroyer | Doctor Doom | Doctor Octopus | Doctor Strange | Doombot | ? | ? | Drax | Electro | Elektra | Emma Frost | Frost Giant | Galactus | Gambit | Gamora | Ghost Rider | Green Goblin | Green Goblin (Ultimate)

Tier 4 (20 characters)
Groot | ? | ? | Heimdall | HERBIE | Howard the Duck | HYDRA Agent | Iron Fist | Iron Man (Hulkbuster) | J. Jonah Jameson | Juggernaut | Kingpin | Kingpin Henchman | Kraven | ? | Lady Deathstrike | Leader | ? | Loki | Magneto

Tier 5 (20 characters)
Magneto Acolyte | Malekith | Mandarin | ? | ? | Mini Sentinel | MODOK | ? | Ms. Marvel | Mysterio | Mystique | Nightcrawler | Nova | Odin | Pepper Potts | Power Man | Professor X | Psylocke | Punisher | Quicksilver

Tier 6 (20 characters)
Red Hulk | Red Skull | Rhino | Rocket Raccoon | Rogue | Roxxon Guard | Sabretooth | Sandman | Sand Goon | Scarlet Witch | SHIELD Agent | ? | Silver Samurai | Silver Surfer | Spider-Woman | Squirrel Girl | Stan Lee | Star-Lord | ? | Super-Skrull

Tier 7 (20 characters)
(Symbiote character #1) | (Symbiote character #2) | ? | ? | Union Jack | Venom | Viper | Vulture | War Machine | Wasp | Whiplash | White Tiger | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ?

Tier 8 (18 characters)
? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ?

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Big Fresh

Big Fresh

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Big news day from New York Comic Con. Hold onto your balls:

Moon Knight

Task Master

Nightmare

Kurse (big figure)

Electro (movie costume)

Nightmare

Polaris

Shocker

Pyro

Aunt May

Iron Fist

Power Man

Maleketh

Havok

Absorbing Man

She-Hulk

Future Foundation Costumes

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