Every LEGO Video Game Ranked From WORST To BEST

Every Lego Video Game Ranked from Worst to Best In 1932, Ole Kirk Kristiansen – whose name is far cooler than both yours and mine combined – founded a toy company called The Lego Group. His dream: To create the most painful possible toy to step on in the middle of the night. His secondary dream: Creativity or something; I don’t know. Lego bricks as we know them debuted in 1949, and quickly found an enthusiastic young audience the world over. The toy has been praised for helping children develop artistically, and also for helping them learn to process loss, when they drop the castle they’ve spent 11 hours building onto the kitchen floor while trying to show their parents. It was fun for the whole family. Lego’s success led not only to a number of high-profile licensing deals, theme parks, television shows, and feature films, but video games as well. Which is good, because if it hadn’t, I’d have absolutely no reason to tell you any of this. We’ll be looking at those video games today – all of them – and ranking them from worst to best. For this particular list, we are ranking the games according to critical reception rather than personal preference. Why? Well, for two reasons. Firstly, because we’ve already ranked Lego games according to personal preference on previous Worst to Best lists for other series, such as Star Wars, Batman, and Jurassic Park. And secondly, because we’d like to leave ourselves room to rank the others in future lists. To determine critical reception, we turned to Metacritic, Game Rankings, GameFAQs, Amazon, and a few sites after which we couldn’t sleep until we thoroughly scrubbed our browser histories. We live this nightmare so you don’t have to.Don’t worry; you’ll still get our opinions in the writeups – seriously, we won’t shut up for another 20,000 words – but we’re leaving the overall placement of the entries to the critics. And may God have mercy on us all. As usual we won’t be counting mobile games. We also aren’t counting later ports or collections, so stop telling us that we “forgot Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.” It’s a collection. Yes, it has some unique content. So do just about all collections. We’re not counting it, because that’s a slippery slope that ends with us ranking multiple versions of the same game because sometimes the characters can unlock different hats. For the sake of our sanity, please understand. Speaking of small differences, you’ll see that many of these games – the licensed ones in particular – were released across many consoles. Sometimes the games are identical, sometimes they are not, and it wasn’t always easy to decide what constituted a large enough difference to warrant a separate entry. Judgement calls were made, and you may disagree with some of them. You may disagree with all of them. You may howl your displeasure into the cold night. Let it all out, my friend. Finally, there were a few games for which we could find no critical reception whatsoever. These are Lego Fun to Build for the Sega Pico, and PC games Lego Friends, Lego Bricktopia, Lego Builder Bots, and Lego Legends of Chima Online. I’m sure you’ll agree from the brief clips you’ve just seen that, truly, it was the critics’ loss. Let’s rank ‘em. I’m Benand I’m Peter from TripleJump, the only two “Lego studs” you’ll ever need, and this is Every Lego Video Game Ranked from Worst to Best. BEN NOTE: VO-wise I don’t think we should read the date, would be worth including in the title slate edit however. Ben: 92-73 Peter: 72-53 Ben: 52-37 Peter: 36-21 Ben: 20-11 Peter: 10-2 #92: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy – 47% DS (2006) Strangely with these Worst to Best lists, the bottom ranking often goes to a game with a title you’d never expect to find there. The lowest-ranked Mario game was called Super Mario World. The lowest-ranked Resident Evil game was called Resident Evil 2. And the lowest-ranked Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy VII. Okay, I’m joking; we haven’t ranked those yet. And, frankly, your response to any ranking we could possibly give to Final Fantasy VII terrifies us so much that we’ll likely nevermake that list. My point is that games that are universally beloved seem to share their names with games that are, pardon my French, VERY BAD INDEED. Such is the case with Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone saying anything truly negative about the console version, but you’d be even harder pressed to find anyone saying anything nice about the DS one. In addition to watering down the experience for a handheld – which is understandable and expected – this game was plagued by glitches, ranging from the humorous to the game breaking. Critics interpreted this as evidence that the DS version was rushed to shelves before it was finished. Judging by the scores –this being one of only three Lego games that failed to crack a 50% average – they also interpreted it as an act of war. #91: Football Mania – 49% Game Boy Advance (2002) It’s interesting that Football Mania – or Soccer Mania, if you want to get stars-and-bars about this – decided to forgo the Lego branding in its title. Perhaps they thought that more people would want to play a general football game than a Lego-specific football game, which would probably be true, but certainly they wouldn’t have fooled anyone with box art like this. Whatever the reason, the GBA version of Football Mania is the perfect game for people who enjoy football, but have no interest in playingsomething fun. It is also not to be confused with Soccer Mania for the non-Advanced Game Boy, which released in 1990 to similarly disinterested shrugs. You can choose from a number of ostensibly silly environments, which you may at some point accidentally glimpse out of the corner of your eye while you’re trying in vain to control your team. Also, it looks like somebody accidentally ate it; calling this version of football “the beautiful game” will only be understood sarcastically. On the bright side, Football Mania’s attempt at bringing the sport to a weak handheld fared far, far better than Konami’s attempt at bringing the sport to the PS5 almost two full decades later. Bigger isn’t always better. #90: Bionicle – 49.75% GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC (2003) It’s difficult to imagine today, what with…well, the entire contents of this list, but in the late 1990s, Lego found itself struggling financially. The company needed some new product that could help them stay relevant. Enter Bionicle, short for “biological chronicle,” a phrase which is utterly without meaning. It launched in Europe and Australian regions in 2000, with an American debut the following year. Providing an engaging backstory to explain what these news toys were, allowed Lego to grab a whole new generation of fans, and it worked. Bionicle was an uncommonly lore-heavy Lego product, and kids loved it. With success, of course, comes video games. And with video games, there doesn’t necessarily come further success. This wasn’t the first Bionicle game, but it was the most poorly received one. Considering the other Bionicle titles you’ll see near the bottom of this list, that’s quite an achievement. Critics seemed willing to engage with the robotic shenanigans of the Bionicle Boys – as they like to be called – but cited a number of serious issues that held it back. Uninspired levels, camera problems, and counterintuitive designkept reviewers from ever getting invested in – let alone understanding – the story. GameSpot’s reviewer even experienced a repeatable game crash during the first level on the PC version. Maybe that was the luckiest critic of all. #89: Lego Racers 2 – 50.6% Game Boy Advance (2001) A number of games attempted to be “Mario Kart, but on the GBA.” Considering that the actual “Mario Kart on the GBA” wasn’t anything to write home about, though, any pretender was more or less doomed to fail. Lego Racers 2 exists, it’s functional, and playing it won’t necessarily result in the death of your loved ones, but that’s about as far as the compliments can stretch. Critics took issue with its short length, dull tracks, and collision detection problems. We’re fairly sure we understand what they were referring to there, but it also seems as though actual collision might not be the issue; it’s more a failing of the game’s faux 3D perspective making it difficult to tell when things should collide. There is also a story mode, which consists of wandering around a map aimlessly until someone interrupts you to tell you nothing of importance. Additionally, it offers support for up to four players, if you have three friends who are unlucky enough to own copies, but it’s about as bare-bones and uncreative as racing games get. Considering everything that one could do with a set of Lego, the fact that this game can think to do little more than drive around in circles is a huge disappointment. #87: Lego My Style: Preschool – 52% PC(2000) Lego My Style: Kindergarten– ?? PC (2000) This is our first tie on the list, but it’s far from the last, so get used to it! Actually, this one is a bit of a cheat. We discarded a number of games at the start of this list on the grounds that there was not enough information to measure their critical reception. That was also the case with Lego My Style: Kindergarten, but I’ve got to imagine that it would have scored similarly enough to Lego My Style: Preschool, which did get reviewed, so we’ll put both of them here. The Lego My Style duology is often referred to as a pair of edutainment titles, and I suppose it’s possible that children could learn something from them. Such as how to turn the computer off. Ultimately, they’re more like activity centers, less interested in teaching children than they are in keeping them too distracted to wander into traffic. Here at TripleJump we are all technically adults, but we do end up having to talk about baby games an awful lot. The bright side of that tragic fact is that we can now tell good baby games from bad baby games. For instance, these don’t have Shrek in them, so therefore they are good baby games. They’re also colorful with some genuinely fun music, so it’s nice to see that some level of effort was invested here. That’s more than we can say for a few other games on this list. #86: Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension – 53% Game Boy Advance(2002) Soon after the success of the sci-fi-themed Bionicle, Lego attached itself to Galidor, a children’s sci-fi TV show that could have been the next big thing. Lego probably should have waited to see if the show were any good, because it lasted only 26 episodes. I’d say it was a miracle that it lasted that long, but typically miracles are positive things. The Galidor tie-in sets flopped, which is the sort of thing that seems like it should have been a foregone conclusion. In what reality could “The Galidor tie-in sets were massively popular” ever be said with a straight face? The GBA game somehow managed to be even less impressive, with jumbled visuals, blind jumps, and a soundtrack that sounds like somebody’s synthesizer had terrible indigestion. The most-polite outlet was Game Informer, who said it was “definitely not the run-of-the-mill GBA license cash-in,” which is a description that could only ever be used to defend something that definitely was a run-of-the-mill GBA license cash-in. Usually when we say “critics hated it,” we’re exaggerating for effect, but not this time. Cheat Code Central’s review doesn’t survive, but they resort to profanity in their blurb on Metacritic, which says enough, I think.The nearly completePC version was cancelled before release, instantly making believers out of atheists everywhere. #85: Bionicle: Matoran Adventures – 54.4% Game Boy Advance (2002) Bionicle: Matoran Adventures is about…well, let me turn this over to the Bionicle Wiki: “The story is set during the Bohrok War on the island of Mata Nui. It begins with Kongu traveling through Le-Wahi to find TuragaMatau while defeating a Bohrok swarm and the Rahi he encounters along the way. After finding the Turaga and defeating the boss Rahi, Kongu and TuragaMatau then travel to Po-Wahi. After finding Onewa and completing their quest in Po-Wahi, they travel to Ta-Wahi.” I know less about the plot now than I did before reading that, and I hope you do, too. It’s at least easy to work out that you need to switch between two characters in order to progress. That at least helps the game to stand apart from most of the GBA’s colorful platformers. It’s not fun, of course, but it’s competent. Critics took issue with the game’s short length, but frankly the chance to stop playing it sooner came as something of a relief to us. In a few cases, criticswere much more harsh. IGN’s reviewerinsulted it while also bragging about finishing “an Elmo GBC game in eight minutes” – and we are all very proud of you for that – while Planet Gameboy’s review was absolutely scathing. Well, it’s in German. I assume everything in German is scathing. #84: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy – 55% Game Boy Advance (2006) Compared to the DS version of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the GBA version is less buggy. Then again, so is an actual insect. This game does provide a largely stable experience, but is it an experience worth having? Critics were divided on that front, with most of them – even those who enjoyed it – agreeing that it was too basic for its own good. It is impressive that we got some playable version of all three movies on a handheld…but did we, really? Or did we get an assortment of stages inspired by bits of three films? That one. That’s the answer. The game ismore like a linear, superficial overview than the tip-to-tail reinvention of the console version. That might be fine. Many fans will be more than happy with a cutesy jaunt through familiar concepts, and it’s obviously fair that a handheld game in 2006 didn’t measure up to its console counterpart, but isometric corridors can stay engaging for only so long, no matter what films they’re meant to be based on. #83: Bionicle Heroes – 55.25% GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PC (2006) The winding, confusing, sometimes impenetrable lore of Bionicle can be an obstacle for newcomers, but Bionicle Heroes offers a story that is…well, winding, confusing, and sometimes impenetrable. It is also, however, non-canon, so it doesn’t matter if you understand it; nothing in the game really happened. Actually, nothing in any game really happened. What am I doing with my life?! Talking about Bionicle Heroes; that’s what. I could have been a doctor, but I’m talking about Bionicle Heroes. Anyway, the game is a third-person shooter that sees players switching between different characters the way they might switch between guns in other games. It’s a nice idea, but critics found little to enjoy. Its highest reviews still included words such as “pandering,” “mind-numbing,” “repetitive,” and “clunky.”GameZone’s critic took the opportunity to complain that they had a headache, because writing and publishing a full review of Bionicle Heroes was evidently easier than taking some paracetamol. The Bionicle Wiki tries to put a brave face on the game’s failure by saying that it was “mostly overshadowed by higher-profile releases; specifically the launches of Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii consoles later that week.” Yes, we’re sure the game struggled because people had to choose between a copy of this or a PS3, and not because it reviewed like a dead cat. #82: Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge – 55.44% Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color (2001) Don’t worry; we don’t hate Lego Island 2. We just hate these very specific versions of Lego Island 2! And we’re in good company there, because reviewers made it sound like they’d rather be set on fire than have to play them again. That officially means that they would rate the experience of being set on fire as at least 55.5%. Sort of puts a lot of things into perspective, doesn’t it? Critics enjoyed the soundtrack and overall charm of the game, but were turned off by its repetitiveness and simplicity, which often saw you walking from one NPC to another, in the vain hope that you’d be given a sidequest that couldn’t be completed by a sleeping monkey. The handheld games largely follow the plot of the console version, but they play very differently. This is a good thing, in the sense that the top-down perspective works far better on these systems than any kind of attempt at 3D would have, but there’s not much reason to play them, unless you are in dire need of mindlessly killing time. The Game Boy Advance version is definitely the better game, but the Game Boy Color version looks as though it could have been made entirely in Microsoft Paint, and that’s charming in its own way. #81: Lego Creator – 55.6% PC (1998) The appeal of Lego, at least initially, was the ability to create and do whatever you wanted. You could as easily make a house as you could a monstrosity. Actually, the monstrosity was easier, but the point stands. Lego provided bricks in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, and your imagination was meant to do the rest. Lego Creator for the PC did its best to retain that creative spirit. Ultimately, players were presented with a sandbox. Not literally; sand doesn’t go well with Lego. It’s up to you to do whatever the heck will make you happy. Build whatever you want, place Minifigures wherever you want, and smash everything to pieces whenever you want. There were even some nice flourishes that took advantage of the technology, such as the ability to program your creations to move around with basic commands. That was a nice way of including a kind of play that you couldn’t get with physical bricks. It was a good idea, but framerate and performance issues held it back, and it was also criticized for being aimless. It really wasn’t surprising that this game’s sequels did their best to be actual games. They were better received for it, as well, which suggests that that was probably the right idea. #80: Football Mania – 56.13% PlayStation 2, PC (2002) The better version of Football Mania still isn’t a good version of Football Mania, but it would probably serve well enough in an emergency. What kind of emergency? Well…I’d rather not think about it. Point is, Football Mania – or Soccer Mania, if you want to get incorrect about this – is a passable version of the sport, but that’s about it. It’s simplified, which means that die-hard fans of footie will want to look elsewhere. On the bright side, there’s no offside rule, which means that somebody might actually understand how to play. The visuals have a predictably large amount of charm, but there’s not much to set it apart from any number of discount football games you might have found on PC at the time, often inexpensively. Okay, the game’s story mode eventually takes you to Mars. That’s at least something we can’t say about other games in the genre. Overall, though, critics found the game’s main selling point to be its visuals, which were unique but not exactly great. Once you look beyond that, you have an extremely simplistic experience with a few fun quirks, but nowhere near enough of them for the gameto stay interesting for long. #79: Island Xtreme Stunts – 57.6% Game Boy Advance (2002) Another poor showing for Lego Island, Island Xtreme Stunts is a sort of loose minigame collection. It stars Pepper Roni, Lego Island’s savior-slash-pizza-delivery-boy, and it’s about…erm…it’s about £2.50 on eBay. There’s also some kind of plot – involving a film director roping you into performing stunts for his movie – but it amounts to little more than a few text boxes you’ll need to mash through between minigames. And how are those minigames? Island Xtreme Stunts is #79 on a list of 91; how do you think they are? You spend your time sorting pizzas, playing Simon says – NOT THAT ONE – and sometimes just…pushing blocks around. Really stretching the definition of “extreme,” there, aren’t you? You’re even stretching the definition of the word “stunts.” On the bright side, one of the scenes involves you committing vehicular homicide. Sounds like this will be an excellent and no doubt completely coherent film! Your personal enjoyment of any minigame collection will boil down to how fun or exciting those minigames are, and Island Xtreme Stunts makes no attempt to be either of those things. Few of the games here had any potential to be good, and none of them even attempt to reach that potential. Sometimes we think the critics were a bit too harsh on these games. Here, however? I think they were far too polite. #78: The Lego Movie 2 Videogame- 58.5% PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, PC(2019) If any video game adaptation of a film should have been able to avoid feeling like a hollow, cynical cash grab, it was any adaptation of the Lego Movies. Traveller’s Tales by this point had adapted a huge number of beloved films into exactly this template, and they did so with love and warmth for the source material. So where were the love and warmth for something that was already made of Lego to begin with? The game positively cries out for some degree – any degree – of creativity, but what fans got was a stripped-down experience even when compared to previous Lego games. Critics were not impressed, understandably bemoaning the removal or streamlining of features that they had grown accustomed to. There weren’t many positive assessments. One small benefit was that the low difficulty made it suitable for children. Even then, though, there was no shortage of better Lego games that were just as easy. The lack of features, the removal of abilities, the small number of unlockable characters, and the reduction in the winking humor for which Lego games were known left this one feeling soulless and rushed. That’s something that Lego games had almost never felt like before. #76: Lego Bionicle – 58.64% Game Boy Advance (2001) Bionicle – 58.64% Game Boy Advance (2003) Two games with nearly identical names released for the same system with exactly the same average score? Why, this won’t be confusing at all!Lego Bionicle is often referred to with the subtitle “Quest for the Toa,” but that doesn’t appear on the box or the title screen, so I’m not sure if bringing that up makes things less or more clear. Regardless, it’s a good thing Lego Bionicle has “Lego” in the title, because otherwise it would be hard to remember that it has anything to do with that property. You do get to customize your character a bit, and that’s nice, but the rest of the game is a repetitive slog through mostly unremarkable environments as you gradually beat up and get beaten up by…well, it’s hard to tell what anything is, so we’ll just say “enemies.” The game simply called Bionicle fares better in our eyes, though it didn’t fare better with critics. This one is faster paced and more reliant on platforming, which does indeed introduce its own problems, but it sure felt like a breath of fresh air after a full game of mashing “attack.” Neither game looks good and neither soundtrack is great, so it really just comes down to the flavor of disappointment that you prefer. #75: Lego Battles: Ninjago – 59% DS (2011) The more general Lego Battles for the DS is a game you won’t hear about for a while, but it’s not because it was notably better than this Ninjago-themed version; they’re only separated by a few points in the critical reception. What is Ninjago? Well, it’s my favorite thing: not Bionicle. More specifically, it’s a series of TV shows and films about young Lego ninjas. It’s cute, and is honestly quite good for a children’s show. The game, however? Well, it’s certainly not terrible. It’s an extremely basic real-time strategy game that unfolds within the show’s universe. It controls well, it has a handful of multiplayer modes, and it looks great. Or at least I think it looks great; my entire sense of visual artistry might be tainted by the games we’ve already covered. At the very least, looking at it makes me less angry. That’s all good news, so why didn’t it perform better? That’s a valid question. In the eyes of critics who expected something more, its simplicity worked against it. For young players,for whom it might serve as an introduction to RTS games, though, it’s not a bad point of entry. #74: Lego Rock Raiders – 59.18% PlayStation (2000) There’s a bit of confusion about Lego Rock Raiders; not only were its PlayStation and PC iterations two completely different games with the same name, but the PlayStation game was available in two different versions with the same name yet again. European fans and American fans will have both played Lego Rock Raiders for the PlayStation and had different experiences. Well, I probably shouldn’t have said “fans.” Victims? The PlayStation versions were similar enough that we’re counting them both in the same entry, as the difference mainly came down to which levels were included in each. You’ll probably end up preferring whichever version you grew up with. Me? I just feel depressed that you grew up with either version. We’ll get to Lego Rock Raiders on the PC in a bit, but here you take control of a single character and wander around empty levels, wondering what you’re meant to do and how you’re meant to do it. Spoiler: You have to burrow through walls, an activity no human being has ever referred to as “rock raiding,” but it’s too late to do anything about that now. Collection missions, rescue missions, timed missions…all of them sound like they should offer different experiences, but all of them will equally make you wish that electricity had never been discovered. #73: Lego Alpha Team – 59.6% Game Boy Color (2000) In many cases, Lego video games are based on Lego sets available for purchase. In the case of Lego Alpha Team, though…well, the games were still based on the sets, but they ended up releasing sooner as a result of difficult development for both products. The concept of Alpha Team was in flux until Lego landed upon the idea of super spies. Which indeed sounds fun. It isn’t fun, but it sounds fun. The Game Boy Color version of Lego Alpha Team has no right to score better than that Ninjago game, that’s for sure. It’s a puzzle game in which you use tiles on the floor to steer your heroes around obstacles towards an exit. Think Chu Chu Rocket. In fact, don’t just think about it; go play it instead. There’s nothing wrong with a puzzle game in which you manipulate mindless characters towards a goal, but usually those characters aren’t supposed to besuper spies. I’d expect a little more brain power from someone in that profession, so watching them stop dead in their tracks because there was no arrow on the floor explicitly telling them where to go next is more than frustrating; it’s frightening. #72: Lego Creator: Harry Potter – 60.4% PC(2001) Lego Creator: Harry Potter is often thought of as ground zero for the explosion of licensed Lego games that followed…and that’s not entirely correct, but it’s not entirely wrong, either. Incidentally, most things are neither entirely correct nor entirely wrong, so stop being so absolute about things! You ALWAYS do that! Lego Creator was its own endeavor, and the Harry Potter-themed sequel was just an experiment that, hopefully, would dig into the pockets of Potter fans who otherwise might not have given two bricks for Lego Creator. It worked, and licensing became a huge push for Lego video games moving forwards. But Lego Creator: Harry Potter isn’t…what’s the word I’m looking for? Good. It was notable for its novelty at the time – and rightly so – but in retrospect, it’s a relic of an era before Lego games were…y’know…fun. The better-known games developed by Traveller’s Tales have completely overwritten this one in the cultural memory, and that’s a good thing. What became of Superscape, who developed this game, however? Well, they went on to produce Alien vs. Predator mobile phone games, this abomination, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion…for flip phones. Probably best someone else picked up the reins for Lego Harry Potter. #71: Lego Fever – 60.5% PC (2006) I’m pretty sure that our desire to create this list in the first place proves that we’ve contracted Lego fever, but it is our solemn duty to press on. This game – available as one of a few Lego Premium games purchasable through Lego dot com – doesn’t have much of a presence anymore, but a small amount of gameplay footage survives. It’s not all that old, so we’ll be curious to hear from folks in the comments who have played it. It was a puzzle game with what seems to be a decent variety of objectives. You might be matching colored blocks, keeping a chipper little minifigure safe as it walks through town, or manipulating the environment to solve puzzles. All of that seems decently fun, and it’s a nice match for the concept of Lego in general. We found few reviews overall, and none of them were particularly brutal, so its poor critical performance might just be due to the fact that it didn’t do enough. For what it was, folks enjoyed it. But did they enjoy it enough to justify a $20 transaction on Lego’s website? Evidently not. It’s a shame, because a full version of the game released for the DS – or some other console with a touchscreen – could have been a great little title to take on the go. #70: Lego Creator: Knights’ Kingdom – 60.66% PC (2000) The second Lego Creator game is more of an alternative version of the original than a truly unique experience. That’s not intended as a complaint; Lego sets themselves are the same way. This is the gaming equivalent of preferring a set of bricks with a Medieval theme to preferring the ones in primary colors. It differs in having a bit more intensive a tutorial, which itself contains a few clear objectives to get you started, but overall it’s a similar experience that just takes on a different theme, aurally and visually. This gamehas a bit more structure than its predecessor, but not as much as the Harry Potter game, leaving Knights’ Kingdom to feel like a sort of midpoint between two stages of the series’ development. Critics weren’t enthusiastic about it, but they weren’t enthusiastic about the others, either. There is some inherent thrill in building up your own Lego kingdom just to plant explosives all around it and watch the pieces rain down, so that’s something. Also, “Knights’” in the title is possessive, which is hurting my brain. Wouldn’t a kingdom that belongs to a knight be a “knightdom”? Actually, “knights’” is plural as well as possessive, so maybe this would be a “knightsdom”? I don’t know; you sort it out. I just saw what comes next on this list, so I have bigger things to worry about. #69: (nice)Drome Racers – 61% PlayStation 2, PC (2002) Nice? As if Drome Racers weren’t bad enough, it has to trick me into saying “nice” because it landed at #69? You’re not nice, Drome Racers. You’re not even a game; you’re a looming threat. We can take solace in the fact that the later GameCube port scored only 54%, and that would have reduced the overall average somewhat, but just about any score feels too high for Drome Racers. The overall idea of a futuristic racer is good, but it’s not as though you couldn’t already find muchbetterexamples. Drome Racers has you drag racing multiple times in order to qualify for standard races, which is tedious enough to mention verbally, let alone to actually do, over and over again. And the controls are awful, with roads feeling like long sheets of ice. You’ll be grateful any time you’re taken off road, simply because there’s traction. Some of the visuals are nice – for 2002 – but the moment you find yourself appreciating any of them, you’re brought face to face with hideous character models that make you yearn for the plastic simplicity of the minifigures that populate most other games. Don’t try to give us humans, Lego. Not like this. We haven’t done anything to deserve this. #67: Lego Knights’ Kingdom – 62% Game Boy Advance (2004) Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins – 62% 3DS (2013) Lego Knights’ Kingdom is one of the rare Lego games that doesn’t look all that much like a Lego game, and indeed its graphics work against any enjoyment one might get from this. It’s dreary, uninspired, and seemingly unfinished, with combat being so easily exploitable that it’s hard to believe it was playtested at all. Simply holding your shield up is enough to defeat many enemies, as they will cast spells that ricochet and kill them instead. GameZone was the politest outlet, claiming that the gameplay would “entertain you until the end,” but even that wasn’t worth more than 70% to them. The Chase Begins should also have been a much better game. The great Lego City Undercover on Wii U keeps making reference to hero cop Chase McCain’s earlier run-ins with the villainous Rex Fury, so this is a natural story to tell. Sadly, it tells that story almost entirely without voice acting, robbing the characters of so much of their personality. It also takes place in most of the same environments as the Wii U game, which means that we’re seeing very little new content, and all of it runs far worse. A Lego City Undercover game tailored to the handheld could have worked great. Instead, we got a game that attempts to do things that the hardware can’t do well. #65: Lego The Lord of the Rings – 62.6% 3DS, DS, Vita (2012) Lego Friends – 62.6% 3DS, DS (2013) Lego The Lord of the Rings for the 3DS, DS, and Vita is…well, it’s the handheld equivalent of a console game. It’s absolutely fine, which means that half the critics saw it as an affront to humanity and the rest had never played a better game in their lives. Then there’s Lego Friends, which ends up with an identical average for similar reasons: polarized scores. In Lego Friends, you wander Heartlake City, engaging in minigames, grooming dogs, and increasing your friendship level with others. It’s not great, but it’s not bad. It’s a simple, wholesome experience that is right at home in a young child’s library, even if it’s unlikely to be the most memorable game there. A glowing review in the Financial Times of all places hit upon the right idea: It’s unthreatening fun for young gamers, with the right kind of creativity at its heart. At the other end of the spectrum was Nindojo, with the review tagline, “You’re better off socializing in real life.” That’s not the scathing indictment you think it is, Nindojo. Don’t rely on any game as a replacement for that! Lego Friends has its issues, but it’s only this far down the list because it’s easy for game reviewers to point and laugh when they see the color pink. And that says more about them than it does about Lego Friends. #64: Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Universe in Peril – 62.67% 3DS, DS, Vita (2014) Usually, these Lego games release across multiple platforms with the same name, even if they’re different games. Universe in Peril, however, was the subtitle given to the handheld version of Lego Marvel Super Heroes, making it far easier to research, find footage for, and know definitively which gameit was that reviewers were talking about. Do this more often, Lego, please. Actually, are handheld games even a thing anymore, or has the Switch killed that concept outright? We’ve just sorted out 92 Lego games; don’t ask us to sort that out, too. The game received a wide range of scores, from an impressive 80% at the high end all the way down to an appalling 30% at the low end. In a sense, this shows that there’s no winning formula to the handheld games. Universe in Peril does a good job of boiling the adventure down to a series of frantic, bite-sized chunks – something that many reviewers praised – but the fact that it isn’t the full experience led others to conclude that it felt unfinished and “butchered”. It’s a fun little handheld game that did its best to stand out as its own complementary product rather than a replacement for the console version. It may not have succeeded, but its intentions were good. #63: Lego Racers 2 – 63% PlayStation 2, PC (2001) We’ll get to the first Lego Racers game eventually – it’ll be a while, though; you could probably take a nap and not miss it – but, for now, I’ll just say that Lego Racers 2 could easily have improved upon what came before simply by providing more. More tracks, more customization, more items…more anything. Fans would have been happy with that. Finding more ways to smash and crash little Lego vehicles is what kids have been doing since the toy was invented. So what went wrong? Well…how long have you got? Critics took issue with nearly every aspect of the game, with returning features feeling like downgrades and new features feeling like unnecessary bloat that actively made the experience less fun. Both the PC and PS2 versions faced heavy criticism for performance issues. The music and sound effects felt cheap as well, and while it’s up for debate whether or not the game looked worse, reviewers were fairly unanimous in their conclusion that it certainly didn’t look much better, despite the more powerful hardware. The Adventure Mode, which should have been a selling point, was instead singled out as a reason to avoid it, as it unnecessarily got in the way of the actual races and spread whatlittle fun there was to be had across far too wide a surface. #62: Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues – 63.8% DS, PlayStation Portable (2009) Hands up if your favorite Indiana Jones film is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Right, you keep your hands up, and everyone else: Raise your hands if your favorite is Temple of Doom. Okay, and now raise your hands if it’s The Last Crusade. Well, there’s nobody left, so I don’t even have to ask about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And that’s too bad, because Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues for the DS and PSP only features levels based on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Whereas the console game spanned all four of Indy’s adventures, here you’re stuck with literally the only one nobody ever wished to experience in the first place. For good measure, they also removed the level creation feature. God, I’m surprised it didn’t run off with your partner, just to twist the knife. Someone really needed to… “whip this one into shape.” Hello? I was waiting for applause or laughter or something… The most puzzling review came from GamesRadar, whose critic complained that it didn’t have “lightsabers, chattering droids, and the Death Star.” There are many aspects of the game to take issue with, GamesRadar. The fact that you couldn’t be bothered to read the title of the game before playing it isn’t one of them. #60: Creator: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – 64% PC (2002) Lego Minifigures Online – 64% PC (2015) The final Creator titlewas Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which takes a big step in getting us closer to the modern Lego games we know and – mostly – love. The change in design philosophy here is likely down to a switch in developer: Qube Software, who also made…very little, as far as I can tell, but one of those games was Coronel Indoor Kartracing, which I’m sure we can all agree looks like mankind’s greatest achievement. The Creator Harry Potter games weren’t included in the Lego Harry Potter Collection, despite being the first Lego Harry Potter games, so it’s unlikely that anybody on either the Harry Potter or Lego side of things is keen on remembering them. Then there’s Lego Minifigures Online, which had a soft launch in 2014 – more of a widescale beta – but we’re counting the worldwide release in 2015. Reviewers weren’t impressed, and indeed questioned the ethics of releasing a free-to-play MMORPG targeted at children. Developer Funcom eventually backpedaled on that, shifting to a more-traditional pay-to-play model, but it didn’t generate as much revenue under that arrangement, and was shuttered forever after a total of 15 months. Personally, I think if a game can only be financially successful by hoping children can find their parents’ credit cards, it’s better off dead. #59: Lego Legends of Chima: Laval’s Journey – 64.5% 3DS, Vita (2013) I understand four of the six words in this game’s title, but something tells me that they aren’t the important ones. Legends of Chima seems to be about lion people who are friends with some people based on other animals but enemies with people based on yet more animals. Right up my alley. Actually, it wasn’t up anyone’s alley. Legends of Chima was intended to replace Ninjago, which had begun in 2011. It turned out to be a bad move, replacing a show people liked with a show people hated, however. Who’d have thought? Ninjago continues to get episodes and mini-movies to this day, while Legends of Chima was cancelled within two years of its debut. Its tie-in games, therefore, are just footnotes to footnotes, but Laval’s Journey was decently well-received by critics. Scores tended to land between 60% and 70%, with reviewers enjoying its humor and extolling its merits as a fun platformer for a younger crowd. The fact that the show was far from a hit made it easier for reviewers to appraise Laval’s Journey on its own merits rather than as a tie-in, and that seems to have done it some favors, as the game is better than the show’s reputation would have one believe. It also received a later port to the DS, for those who prefer their games to run poorly. #58: Bionicle Heroes – 64.8% Game Boy Advance (2006) The Game Boy Advance version of Bionicle Heroes is better than the console version, but so is being eaten by a horse, so that says very little. Even so, there is some fun to be had here. Mindless fun, yes. Minutes of fun, yes. Utterly unmemorable fun, yes. But, still, we’ll take what we can get. The game’s plot requires a degree in Bionicle History so I won’t pretend to understand it, but it ultimately boils down to moving a little cartoon robot around the screen and killing everything you see. There’s no reason to keep playing once you’ve massacred your way through even one of the game’s 19 levels, but we’ve seen worse. It’s slight, and you’d almost certainly enjoy a night of sitting quietly in the corner more than you would ever enjoy this, but it’s at least competent, and that’s a big step forwards. Interestingly, early in development, the console game was intended to be a first-person shooter. The team abandoned that idea, but implemented it for the DS game, which you won’t hear about for a while, because it was actually something that people liked. #57: Lego Battles – 65% DS (2009) Lego Battles is a simplified real-time strategy game with a great sense of fun, pulling from disparate Lego themes such as pirates, knights, and astronauts. It’s even divided into three distinct stories, making things feel a little more natural and less like a mashup for the sake of a mashup. Most of the criticism came from the fact that the strategy elements were simple…which is an understandable drawback for seasoned RTS fans, but we’re reasonably certain that this was intended for a much younger audience, so that critique is a bit misapplied here. There were also, however, concerns about poor AI, leading to units becoming stuck or stranded easily. That’s a completely fair criticism, as it often meant you’d spend your time micromanaging troops rather than developing larger-scale tactics. On the bright side, reviewers did enjoy the ability to play as villains in each of the stories, as well as the unlockable characters and the customizable freeplay mode. It was a cute exploration of a genre that Lego games have rarely touched. That’s a shame, because the Lego Battles games were excellent first steps, and it would be nice to see something more fully realized. #56: Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge – 65.14% PlayStation, PC (2001) Depending on who you ask, Lego Island 2 for the PC is either an impressive way to build an actual game upon the loose foundation of its predecessor, or it overcomplicates things with a plot nobody was asking for. Lego Island 2 promotes Pepper Roni from one of several playable characters to the central protagonist. I’d say that this makes him a breakout character, but it’s the Bricksterwho will BREAK OUT in this game. From prison. He breaks out from prison and you have to catch him. You’ll be laughing later, believe me. The game involves you bringing this dangerous criminal to justice, because you are a child who delivers pizza on his skateboard, and everybody else in this universe is incompetent. Critics didn’t hate it, but the increase in structure led to the tasks and minigames feeling less fun. Ultimately, it does a good job of expanding on what we saw in Lego Island, but the experience feels less like you’re discovering things and more like you’re being led around on a guided tour. In the first Lego Island, you could more or less go anywhere and do anything you wanted. Being told that you need to play Whack-A-Mole to continue, by contrast, just makes you realize how much you’d rather be doing anything other than playing Whack-A-Mole. #55: Lego Rock Raiders – 65.29% PC (1999) The PC version of Lego Rock Raiders is often overlooked in favor of the PlayStation game of the same name. That’s disappointing for two reasons. First, that game is rubbish. Second, this game is marginally less rubbish! It’s another RTS, but this one isn’t aimed at quite as young an audience as the Lego Battles games were. In fact, this one can get rather difficult and time consuming. It’s the kind of RTS that is less about skirmishes and more about resources and infrastructure. Your main job is to survive in a hostile alien environment as opposed to survive against…hostile aliens. Those exist as well, to be clear, but you’re in far more danger of asphyxiation. The levels are overlong and complex, and while the inability to save during missions makes sense – doing so would remove the necessity of developing any true and sustainable strategy – the fact that they can fail after several hours of progress and require starting from scratch is never much fun. That was a common concern with the genre, admittedly, but it’s worth at least mentioning here. I wish I could say that this game were a hidden gem, because then I’d get to make some tortured pun about mining, but it isn’t, robbing me of even that small pleasure. #54: Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars – 65.33% 3DS, DS, PlayStation Portable (2011) A handheld version of a Lego game based on spinoff content was always going to face an uphill battle. With that in mind, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars can take solace in the fact that it’s not…well, any of the junk we had to wade through in order to get here. For what it is, it’s absolutely fine. And if there were Star Wars fans who also loved the Lego games and also loved the Clone Wars spinoffs and also didn’t have a home console and also did have a 3DS, DS, or PSP, then they were probably quite happy with what they got. Critics, unsurprisingly, compared this game to its console counterparts and found it wanting. They had a point. There are 77 characters here, as compared to 115 in the main versions. It’s missing levels, and entire setpieces and battles are omitted. On the bright side, it had some unique minigames. Which, for most people, means that there was no bright side. NintendoLife had a fair assessment, claiming that it was far better than it could have been, but still held it accountable for serious bugs, a lack of multiplayer, and mediocre gameplay. Compared to the console versions or not, those are all things that Traveller’s Tales could have addressed here. #53: The Lego Movie Videogame – 66% 3DS, Vita (2014) The Lego Movie: Great. The Lego Movie Videogame on consoles: Not great. The Lego Movie Videogame on handhelds: Exists. Does that mean it deserves a 66% average? If it means I never have to think about it again, yes. What understandably held this one back is the fact that it’s a stripped-down and even-more-linear version of a game that felt stripped down and linear to begin with. In terms of getting The Lego Movie Videogame on more shelves so that more people would buy it, the 3DS and Vita version accomplished what it set out to do. But anyone who didn’t enjoy the console game already – for any reason – isn’t going to find themselves won over by this one. IGN appreciated the fact that it was a bite-sized experience suited to handhelds, but even that reeks of “bug that we swear is actually a feature.” They did go on to say that it feels like “a series of mini-games and puzzles crammed into where the story should be,” and that it’s not a “grand LEGO adventure.” A fair assessment, but a fairly damning one when “grand Lego adventure” also happens to be the perfect three-word summary of the film on which it’s based. #52: Lego Island – 66.4% PC (1997) Lego Island was a huge success in its day, and is likely responsible for bringing a whole generation of fans to Lego in general. It’s a rather open-ended experience with multiple playable characters. You can build, you can race, you can deliver pizza…it was full of activities that weren’t inherently exciting on their own, but there were enough of them – and there was enough charm around them – that Lego Island stood out in a sea of interchangeable and forgettable children’s games. There are indeed objectives, but the main appeal was just being on Lego Island. For its time, it was an impressively large and exciting open world. Today…well, it’s not as impressive, unfortunately, but if you can put yourself into the shoes of a late-90s child, it’s easy to see why it would have been so appealing.The game even has a following to this day, and it’s an only partially ironic one. Lego Island received awards and recognition for its quality, but critics on the whole weren’t as taken with it, which is reflected in its middling review average. But that’s okay; children huddled around the family computer were looking for something different from what game reviewers were looking for. Lego Island knew its audience. Ultimately, that’s why we’d call it a success, even if its overall ranking doesn’t seem like one. #51: Legoland – 66.8% PC (2000) If you’ve never been to Legoland, odds are you’ve had a lifetime of sleepless nights during which you’ve asked yourself, “Why have I never been to Legoland?” And if you have been to Legoland, you’d ask yourself a different question: “Why do I not own Legoland?” Well, Legoland for the PC could at least help somewhat. Structured like the Tycoon games, Legoland gives you a chance to build the Lego-themed amusement park of your dreams. Or nightmares. Or, even more accurately, the nightmares of the little digital Lego people trapped within the game who are permanently at your mercy. There’s a story but, really, you’re just here to create alternately fun and chaotic theme parks, which is good, because that’s by far the best part of the game. In addition to pleasing patrons with your attractions, you will also have to make sure to satisfy the park inspector, Mr. Bimble. And, yes, I’m aware that “satisfy Mr. Bimble” sounds like the filthiest English phrase imaginable and, no, I’m not sure why, either. The game received criticism for being too buggy and not nearly as creative as a Lego theme park creator should have been, but there’s a lot of fun to be had here. We just wish it got a sequel. And not one that, say, just had you doing a load of inane stunts with no real connection to the previous game.Ahem… #50: Island Xtreme Stunts – 67% PlayStation 2, PC (2002) Lego Island was a colorful sandbox full of charm and activities. Lego Island 2 was a more-structured, but just as silly, adventure with a clear plot and goals. The third Lego Island installment is just a load of minigames because you’re a stuntman for a movie now, or whatever. The clear next step, obviously. There is more to Island Xtreme Stunts, plotwise, but it’s just an excuse to have you participate in a variety of small activities so that somebody you’ve never met can make a movie that you’ll never see. The stakes, I’m sure you’ll agree, are sky high. Speaking of steaks, while the reviews were less than favorable overall, there did seem to be a running theme of food metaphors. Game Informer’s critic said “the real meat of the game is as dry and tasteless as roast beef at Old Country Buffet.” GameZone referred to it as “warmed-over soup in a gaming world that’s serving up filet mignon and lobster.” IGN’s reviewer just ignored the game entirely and sang that “Babybel” jingle. Alright, I made that last one up, but you get the picture. ProTip: Fill your stomach before you sit down to write your game reviews. Your tum-tum and your readers will thank you for actually focusing on the games. #49: A Big Pile of Hamburgers Oh, god, sorry. Right. #49: Lego Stunt Rally – 67.6% PC (2000) THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH STUNTS, THANK YOU. Actually, this one is more of a traditional racing game. And I don’t mean traditional in this sense. I mean traditional in this sense. The game handles the steering for you in large part, removing a lot of the thrill and satisfaction. In response to the game’s title, it’s tough to feel like you’re doing stunts when you can’t even feel like you’re steering. This also dampens the excitement of the game’s track creator. That’s a nice feature, but if the game steers around your creations for you, what’s the point? Extremely young fans would likely get more out of this one, and that’s great, but we think the critics were a bit too lenient here. A PlayStation version was in the works as well, but was never released officially. In 2020, however, a developer who worked on the game distributed the prototype. It’s unfinished, obviously, and never made it to shelves, so we aren’t counting it here. Butthat’s a nice win for video-game preservation, and we’d like to see more of that. #48: Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin – 68.34% 3DS, Vita (2015) The elemental ninjas are back in Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin, and it’s their job to…solve elemental puzzles. Well, that worked out nicely. Tropes aside – though the fact that Shadow of Ronin has a plot focused on amnesia might suggest that we shouldn’t put tropes aside – the game is definitely not bad. It has an impressive amount of variety, with on-foot sequences broken up nicely by flying and driving. It also looks good for the hardware, and the soundtrack fits nicely. But that’s all superficial. Once you get down to playing it, things feel a bit unpolished. The platforming in particular is floatier and fiddlier than it should be, and the combat is both repetitive and mindless, which is never a good combination. Puzzles too often come down to switching to the character with the right ability and then using that ability. But how did the critics feel? They were all over the map, really, with scores ranging from 40% to 82%. The writing seemed to rate highly and the simplicity seemed to be poorly received, so no surprises there at least. Shadow of Ronin gave people more of what they were expecting from Lego games at this point. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing came down entirely to how much you actually enjoyed that formula in the first place. #47: Lego Chess – 68.4% PC (1998) Good lord; it was hard enough to find something to say about Star Wars Chess, and now you expect me to talk about Lego Chess? It’s chess. The pieces are Lego. What do you need, a roadmap? Okay, well, like Star Wars Chess, it wasn’t really “chess” that this game was attempting to imitate. It was 1988’s Battle Chess, specifically, which became massively popular due to its creative animations. Those did a great job of helping kids to visualize what the pieces were meant to represent, and how certain interactions between them could play out. It took the abstraction out of chess, basically, and replaced it with good old-fashioned video-game violence. Lego Chess did…exactly the same thing, though its animations were far more complicated, featuring more than 70 long sequences of CGI slapstick that could have come straight out of Looney Tunes. Did this make the game of chess more fun, or just cause it to last longer? Well, both, probably. It’s a perfectly decent game, and a child interested in learning chess would likely find it amusing, but that’s it. There was a “story mode,” but possibly due to development constraints, it consisted only of playing chess three times. Lego Chess is fine for what it is, but it certainly isn’t much of anything. #46: Lego Worlds – 68.67% PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (2017) Do you know what makes money? Minecraft. Do you know who likes money? Everybody. You. Me. Everybody. And being as both Minecraft and Lego are down with the “everything is made of blocks” aesthetic, it’s no surprise that we eventually got a game from one that leaned heavily into the appeal of the other. Even so, Lego Worlds is Lego Minecraft in a superficial sense only. You zip around a number of procedurally generated…Lego worlds, interact with NPCs, complete quests, and alternately build and demolish thingsto your heart’s content. Compared to the largely freeform appeal of Minecraft, this does about enough to give Lego Worlds its own identity, though it never quite escapes the comparison. It also doesn’t quite manage to balance structure with procedural generation, as critics soon realized, with some worlds feeling dense with content and others feeling utterly barren. Reviewers tended to agree that it was grindy and repetitive, with the building mechanics feeling unrewarding. Those are all things that Minecraft, love it or not, handledmuch bettermany years earlier. #44: Lego Stunt Rally – 69% (nice…) Game Boy Color (2000) Lego Marvel’s Avengers – 69%(nice.) 3DS, Vita (2016) Remember a few entries ago, when we said that the critics were too lenient on Lego Stunt Rally for the PC? Well, how the heck do you think we feel looking at this? NOT NICE. NOT NICE AT ALL, THANKS. Lego Stunt Rally for the PC was a disappointing game and something you should call your doctor about if you accidentally ingested it, but Lego Stunt Rally for the GBC is a bad game. Honestly, I’m still not convinced it is a game. It could just be a joke. And if it were, it would be a bad joke. You still can’t steer, the game looks horrendous, and the construction mode is even more cumbersome and less fun than something that was too cumbersome and not fun to begin with. Thankfully, it was tied in its overall review average with the handheld iterations of Lego Marvel’s Avengers, which is far better. It’s not perfect, though. Itonly contains stages based on The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, rather than the additional movies covered in the main games.It also features long loading times, disappointing draw distances, and an overall lack of visual polish. Still, reviewers were glad that it got as close as it did to the main versions, with The Vita Lounge calling it “the most ambitious Vita LEGO title yet.” Really, the critics just wish it had done even more. That stands in stark contrast to Lego Stunt Rally, where the only other thing we wish that game would do is vanish from existence. #43: Lego The Incredibles – 69.33% PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, PC (2018) As is the case with a few games on this list, Lego The Incredibles actually features content from more material than the title lets on. Here, you’ll find characters, vehicles, and Easter eggs from other Pixar films, such as Up, Cars, and Toy Story. That makes this one worth playing even for those who don’t feel that The Incredibles and The Incredibles 2 are the two best Pixar movies. You know,wrong people. We’rejoking. We’re not that invested in the debate. But you might be, and the more you argue in the comments, the more popular YouTube will assume this video to be. So, fight us. Please. Fans of the films will be well served by the familiar beats here, though a few plot points and confrontations have been altered to be more family friendly. Yes, more family friendly than a family film. It’s fun, and the Crime Wave feature is both a great addition to the Lego formula and a fitting one for a family of superheroes OR SUPERHEROINES. The Incredibles may not have been the most obvious Pixar film for a Lego game to focus on, but it’s one that works surprisingly well. #42: Bionicle: Maze of Shadows – 69.4% Game Boy Advance (2005) The second-best Bionicle game brings me so much closer to being able to forcibly remove the word Bionicle from my vocabulary with a pair of dull scissors, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Bionicle: Maze of Shadows absolutely does take place in a series of maze-like environments, so that checks out. And if you played it on an early GBA without the backlight, “shadows” is probably appropriate, too. Also, the game’s plot makes no sense to me, so “Bionicle” gets a tick as well. Another win for accurate titling. There’s very little to say about this one, as evidenced by the fact even the critics kept rather quiet. The game unfolds over the course of six long levels, broken up intermittently by puzzles and combat. The puzzles are fine and the combat is also fine, but you’ll want to keep checking your breath in a mirror to make sure you haven’t died of boredom. Reviewers took issue with its controls, its dreary environments, and its turn-based combat, which was never as intuitive as it should have been. Fun fact: Every one of them who played the game has forgotten that they ever played the game. I’m looking forward to joining them. #41: The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game – 69.67% PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, PC (2017) There are a lot of things that The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game does right. Its title isn’t one of them but, still, other things are good. For instance, it includes content from the show as well as the film, which a nice way of giving fans a bit more to sink their teeth into. It also includes multiplayer, which many of the Traveller’s Tales Lego games do, but this one supports four players. Quite good, right? Well… yes. Sorry if that sounded like I was trying to trick you. That stuff is good!It’s just not all good. The camera was less cooperative than usual. There were no proper hub areas. And, perhaps most disappointingly, the game had a different cast. This would have been less notable if it weren’t for the fact that it contained clips from the film…with the new actors dubbing over the original actors. PlayStation Lifestyle was particularly disappointed with this, claiming that the performances sounded “forced and completely phoned in.” They also suggested bringing in the talent from the TV show if finances or logistics wouldn’t allow for the film cast to reprise their roles and…yeah, that’s actually a really good idea. These problems probably didn’t prevent Lego Ninjago Movie fans from buying the game, but it certainly seems like it was destined to disappoint them. #40: Lego Ninjago: Nindroids – 69.7% 3DS, Vita (2014) The highest-rated of the Ninjago games – though probably not deservedly – Lego Ninjago: Nindroids is a game for people who are willing to accept a review average of 69.7%, but won’t give a review average of 69.67% the time of day. In other words, yes, it technically reviewed better than The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game, but was it by enough to matter? Especially when reviewers could only say things like, “it isn’t the worst Lego game ever made,” and “we’re getting tired of the lack of variety.” Gameblogtold the game to go away and never come back. They said it in French, but, still, ouch. Sorry, Ouich. Digitally Downloaded’s reviewer decided to try something novel: play it with a child who was actually a fan of the source material. That’s the sort of thing that should probably happen more often when reviewing children’s games, since they aren’t actually made for adults trying to scrape reviews together on a deadline. Even so, that child ended up making a list of things that “annoyed him throughout the game,” such as – again – using different voice actors and giving characters abilities other than what they had in the show. It’s one thing to miss the mark with a wide audience, but to annoy your target audience…well, Lego Battles: Ninjago doesn’t seem all that disappointing in retrospect, does it now? #39: Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues – 69.75% PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2009) It is a sequel’s duty to build upon the things that fans enjoyed about the original, while still providing an experience that is fresh enough to warrant attention on its own. It is never – and I really can’t stress this enough – a good idea, therefore, for a sequel to be in any way associated with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That’s the big mistake made by Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. The previous game already adapted the three films that anybody cared about. What Lego Indiana Jones 2 does is…that. Again. But a little bit differently. And then makes you play through a longer sequence based on something that you hate. I’m beginning to see where this might have gone wrong. On the whole, it is still fun. It would honestly be difficult to be anything but fun, considering just how innately charming the Traveller’s Tales formula is. But for those who owned the first game, there was precious little incentive to bother with this one, even with the reimagined levels. It was a far lesser imitation of things that fans had already experienced. Which, I suppose, is true to The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It’s not a bad game, but since a superior predecessor already existed, was it a necessary one? #38: Lego Loco – 69.8% PC (1998) Based on the prominent train on the game’s box art, you might expect “Lego Loco” to be short for “Lego Locomotive,” however…well, maybe it is. I have no idea. But the game itself isn’t about trains. It isn’t really aboutanything. At first glance, you might think, “It’s Sim City with Lego.” And, indeed, Sim City with Lego is an excellent idea and what somebody absolutely should have made at some point. Instead, though, it’s more of a city builder than a city simulator. You don’t have much control over the actual operations of the city, there are no clear objectives, and if your favorite part of Sim City wasn’t plopping down infrastructure, then you’ll find little to enjoy here. There is fun to be had in laying out a city and watching it slowly attractinhabitants. Inhabitants that you, as the godly figure looking down from above, can pick up and drop wherever you like. There’s little purpose in doing this, but there’s little purpose in doing anything else, either. It’s a cute and non-threatening diversion of a game. Well, non-threatening except for the bomb option that allows you to nuke the city and everyone in it so you can start fresh. That’squite threatening. Other than that, though? Non-threatening. It’s also the only game in which you can mail postcards to the Loch Ness Monster and get a reply. That’s got to be worth something. She never writes back to me in real life. (Call me, Nessie.) #37: Lego Universe – 70% PC (2010) Lego Universe was Lego’s first attempt at an MMORPG, and it was also clearly the superior one. It wasn’t exactly bursting with content, but it was a fun combination of two different kinds of gameplay. There was the campaign, of course, which saw players traveling huge maps and teaming up to fight monsters. Then there was the ability to create your own home on property that would only be accessible to friends. It was, to be frank, probably exactly the right way for Lego to approach a genre like this, but it quickly became clear that it was underperforming financially. Launching in October 2010 and closing in January 2012, Lego Universe only really existed for around a year, which was no doubt disappointing to everyone who hoped that it could turn a profit. The developers did try to maintain interest in the game by adding content relevant to Ninjago and planning on incorporating other Lego sets, but it was shuttered before most of that could be implemented. Critics felt that it was…well, that it was deserving of a 70% average, which is about right. As an MMORPG, it didn’t offer much, but as an online gaming experience for young fans, it was not bad. With more time and a lot more support, it could have turned into something special. Instead, it’s a forgotten novelty. #36: The Lego Movie Videogame – 70.83% PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (2014) 2014’s The Lego Movie was an impressive achievement for what could have been a 90-minute advert. It managed to capture the bright, chaotic fun of the toys within the confines of a big-screen adventure film, while also delivering a sweet story about creativity and growing up. Critics adored it, and so did the public; it made around $470 million on a budget of about $60 million. It was also Chris Pratt’s earliest voice-acting role in a film, before he went on to voice…well, everyone. Including you! Certainly, much of the goodwill engendered by the movie – rightly engendered, I should add – made its way into reviews of the game. A 70-ish% average is slightly high for what we get here. Critics pointed out that since Lego was, in a sense, adapting itself, it couldn’t poke fun at the source material the way other Lego adaptations were able to, and that’s indeed unfortunate. Even the positive reviews contain the unmistakable whiff of disappointment. With many of these games, we felt critics were a bit too harsh. Here, it feels like they were maybe too polite, wanting the game to be more fun and interesting than it actuallyis, simply because the film really was that good. In reality, though? Everything is mediocre. #35: Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game – 71.29% 3DS, DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2011) Yes, it’s a rare and welcome instance of the handheld versions and the console versions being discussed in the same entry. They’re not identical, but they’re impressively close, with the differences being more superficial than usual, so we’re bundling them together. That’s good news for us – one fewer entry means we’ll get to spend a few more seconds with our loved ones tonight! – and also for fans. Fans of Lego games, fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean, fans of Jackanisms in general, really. The game covers the events of the first four films in the series, which is an impressive amount of material. There’s also the welcome fact that the playfulness of the films works well with the already silly spirit of licensed Lego titles, which definitely makes it feel like a natural fit. The game even worked well for those who weren’t fans. The Gamers’ Temple’s reviewer, for instance, opened and closed his review with the firm assurance that he abhors the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but his actual appraisal of the game was positive, and he gave it an Award of Excellence. If anything, that shows just how appealing a formula Traveller’s Tales had managed to develop by this point. If Lego versions of characters you hate can win you over anyway…that says a lot. #34: Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 – 71.5% DS, PlayStation Portable (2010) The handheld versions of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 are quite good approximations of the console versions, meaning that they’re not really as far a step down as these things usually are. Still, it’s worth noting that you’ll be getting a simplified and shorter experience, with the removal of hubs and reworked boss fights. That’s probably not a dealbreaker, but it also means that these versions aren’t worth seeking out over the others. These games performed well with critics, who latched on to their sense of wonder and discovery, something more or less inherited from the source material, but Traveller’s Tales should still get some of the credit for translating it so well. It was also nice just to spend time with the characters, even if the experience wasn’t quite as enchanting as it was on consoles. Even its harshest reviews made a point of praising the amount of content and noting how effortlessly charming the entire thing was. It was a licensed title with its heart in the right place, in other words. Being held back by the hardware didn’t prevent the game from providing fans with a fun adventure in a world that they loved. Really, could we ask for much more? Yes, and we’ve got 33 games’ worth of “more” to cover, so let’s keep moving. #33: Lego The Hobbit – 71.6% PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (2014) Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films are often derided for being one short story spread across three long movies. Lego The Hobbit, however, did what most moviegoers only wish they themselves did: It gave up after the second one. Yes, Lego The Hobbit is a strange game that didn’t quite come together the way Traveller’s Tales obviously wanted it to. For starters, it released with content that only covered the first two films, intending to add the third as DLC. That never happened. Then the entire game vanished from digital storefronts on Jan. 1, 2019, which was mysterious, returning several months later without explanation, which is more mysterious still. Something seemed to be happening behind the scenes, signaling a more troubled production than Lego games usually experience. Critics enjoyed what there was of it, but it was difficult to form a solid opinion when they knew that one-third of the story wasmissing. The fact that it never showed up at all was insult to injury.Cheat Code Central even advised fans to wait for an inevitable complete edition, which would “probably be at or just under the price of a full game.” Sadly, that turned out to not be inevitable. It was, in fact, evitable. #30: Bionicle Heroes – 72% DS (2006) Lego Batman: The Videogame – 72% DS (2008) Lego Rock Band – 72% PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 (2009) Bionicle Heroes for the DS is the best Bionicle game by a landslide, not least because it marks the last time any of us will ever hear the word “Bionicle.” Lego Batman, also for the DS, is a lesser – but still very fun – version of one of most beloved Lego games. But the real highlight of this three-way tie is Lego Rock Band. As with Rock Band games in general, players used instrument-shaped peripherals to play and sing along with a selection of songs, which had a decent amount of variety here. Younger fans could enjoy the stylings of Incubus and Vampire Weekend, while fans who were far, far closer to the grave could be reminded of real music by David Bowie and Queen. Did it have much to do with Lego, though? Well…not really. You had a few customization features, but other Rock Band games had those. Mainly, the appeal was the novelty of playing as a band of minifigures. The Lego branding also ensured that the game and its setlist would remain family friendly, which was a selling point in itself. Fans of all ages could rock out to “Walking on Sunshine” without fear that it would be followed up by “Gee, I Sure Do Love Heroin,” by Cannibal Hank and the Half-Eaten Corpses, or some such thing. God, am I old? I’m feeling old… #29: Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – 73.05% 3DS, DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Vita, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2011) That was a lot of numbers. Lego Harry Potter fans – fans of Lego Harry Potter, that is; not Harry Potter fans who were themselves made of Lego – were either better or worse served by this sequel depending upon how they played the first game. If they played it on handhelds, they were likely happy now, considering how much closer this one was to its console equivalents. They still weren’t identical, but they were much more similar and far less easy to dismiss as inferior. If they played it on consoles, however, then this didn’t feel like much of a step forwards. Critics understandably cited a lack of improvement in areas that should have received attention. It was still glitchy, it was still subject to long stretches of monotonous gameplay, and there was an overall lack of inventiveness. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” yeah, but do at least try to improve it. Still, “relatively disappointing” does not mean “bad,” and a number of reviewers called it the best Lego game yet. It’s just that they expected something more from a sequel, and that’s not totally unfair of them. Fans who just wanted another Lego Harry Potter game to finish out the story got exactly what they were after. Those who hoped that the short series would go out with a bang, however, were left with a whimper. #28: Lego Marvel’s Avengers – 73.23% PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (2016) You probably don’t need superpowers to destroy a city made of Lego, but it helps. And when such superpowered ruffians are destroying that city, who are you going to call? Why, some other people whose superpowers will enable them to cause additional, incidental destruction…but for justice. Lego Marvel’s Avengers adapts two Avengers films, two Captain America films, one Thor film, and – a wonderful bonus – that one Iron Man film that everybody hates. Still, there’s a lot of variety here, and the game nails the one thing that all superhero games should nail: spectacle. The visuals in this game have improved substantially from previous Lego titles, and that goes a long way towards making things feel not just exciting, but engrossing. Critics took issue with dull open-world areas, but praised the variety within the actual levels. There was also a sense of “quantity over quality” with the roster, asthe superheroes were more interesting to play as than the normal humans. With more than 200 characters to unlock, that was probably a given, but it’s a fair criticism. Still, Lego and superheroes go together well, and even this high on the list, we haven’t seen the last of them. #27: Lego The Hobbit – 73.4% 3DS, Vita(2014) Did the console version of Lego The Hobbit deserve to place as highly as it did? I’d say no. But does Lego The Hobbit – which sounds more like a command the more I say it – for handhelds deserve to place even higher? I’d say no again, but much more forcefully. That’s just an inherent quirk of the review system, I think. The console version released on six platforms, and the average score on those platforms varied between 68% and 76.4%. The handheld version, however, was released on only two platforms, and they scored comparably to each other, meaning that there was very little spread and no chance of the overall average being tanked by a particularly inferior port. All of which is to say that Lego The Hobbit on handhelds performed better simply because there were fewer opportunities for it to go wrong. IGN called it “disappointing and frustrating,” andPocket Gamer UK said it was “a significant step backwards for the Lego games on handheld.” If that’s the case, then…maybe score the game lower? You are allowed to do that when you don’t like something. Numbers do go lower than seven. #26: Lego DC Super-Villains – 74.25% PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, PC (2018) Let me be clear that landing just outsidethe top 25 is impressive enough on its own. Well done, Lego DC Super-Villains. Having said that, we think that it deserved to rank better, due in large part to the fact that the entire game centers around a supervillain of your own invention. That’s true to both the Lego spirit and the dreams of children everywhere. We’ve all thought about dressing up in a flame motif and giving theatrical speeches from the top of a skyscraper, callingourselves The Burning Sensation. We all…diddo this…I hope? Well, either way, you get to do it here, and I get to feel less alone. In many ways, your super-villainous avatar is along for the ride, as more established evildoers enact their nefarious schemes, but there is still a lot of fun to be had while aiding and abetting their criminal activity. You get to cause a lot of chaos on your own, as well…and you don’t even have to feel too bad about it. Everything’s made of Lego! They can rebuild that city you demolished just fine. It’s a fun time, and there’s a lot of appeal in creating a bad guy OR BAD GAL and running amok in established locations. It’s not the most memorable Lego game, but it’s fun while it lasts. #25: Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 – 74.33% PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, PC (2017) The Lego games do a good job of drawing from various aspects of a franchise’s history in order to provide experiences that are a bit wider in scope than folks might expect. Typically, though, that’s just a matter of including areas or characters from a number of movies. That works well, but Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 ties that wide-reaching inspiration right into its narrative. This time, goodies and baddies alike are drawn into Chronopolis, a sprawling city that consists of areas ripped right from different time periods. Is that a good story, or is it an excuse to bring everybody together, regardless of where (and when) they should be? Well, it’s the latter, obviously, but it works perfectly well for setting the stage, and that’s what’s important. The timeline zaniness also allows for characters such as Groot and Spider-Man to shift between incarnations. Completely unnecessary, but thoroughly welcome. Critics praised the wealth of content and variety on offer, not to mention the comedy, which was in full force in this one. Lego and superheroes really are a great fit for each other, and there’s still one Marvel game left to cover. Andlet’s not forget a certain D.C. superhero we’ll soon be seeing much more of. #24: Lego Jurassic World – 74.89% 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,Vita,Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (2015) Lego Jurassic World is…well, it’s a Lego game with dinosaurs, isn’t it? Of course it was going to do well. People love Lego. People love dinosaurs. It would have been a success unless the game box turned out to be full of bees. Despite the title, Lego Jurassic World covers the events of the first four films in the series…that is to say, one of the most successful and beloved films of all time, and three movies nobody talks about unless they have to make a list like this one. Even then, they only do it briefly. Like I am right now! Licensed Lego games were well established by 2015, but the nostalgic charm of Jurassic Park – as well as the memorable setting and characters – helped it stand apart from some of the others. It was particularly praised for its sense of humor but, really, you might as well praise sugar for being sweet. The regular complaints were in full effect by this point, with critics understandably bemoaning the fact that Lego Jurassic World hewed closely to an established formula. They really should watch our list of Every Jurassic Park Game Ranked from Worst to Best, however; most of those strayed far from established formula and they were utter tosh. We’re all for experimentation, don’t get me wrong. But when experimentation results in a buggy, barely playable mess…give me familiar, colorful plastic bricks any day. #23: Lego Star Wars: The Video Game – 75% Game Boy Advance (2005) There’s no denying that the GBA version of the first Lego Star Wars game is inferior to the console versions. It looks far worse, it’s much simpler, it’s much shorter, there’s no hub area, there’s no multiplayer, and watching the cutscenes is like flipping through a brochure. We know all of that, and all of that is fair criticism. But it’s still an impressive game, and a fun one. What’s more, there are combat abilities in this version that aren’t available in the console ones, which is good, because the GBA game is a straight action experience. And while that may be less interesting than the console version’s puzzles, it’s not inherently bad. It’s not even inherently disappointing. It’s just different. Critics praised it – rightly – for looking and playing as well as it did on such weak hardware, and the novelty of seeing Star Wars and Lego combined was still fresh; reviewers recommended it for that alone. Nowadays? Well, it’s a bit easier to find better games combining the same two things, isn’t it? For what it was, Lego Star Wars for the GBA deserves credit. But for what it is? I think we’ve since done much better, and that’s a good thing. #22: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham – 75.16% PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (2014) Lego Batman 3 lands just barely outside the top 20, and that’s a strong showing for everybody’s favorite brooding billionaire. We might rank it a bit higher, but critics tend to tire of these games once they’re familiar with the formula, and Lego Batman 3 didn’t do quite enough to keep them interested. They praised it for its accessibility and its silliness, but wanted a bit more from the third outing in this particular subseries. What they got was more of the same, and when “repetitiveness” was already coming up in reviews of earlier Lego games, “more of the same” can be a damning complaint. We’ve mentioned Lego’s tendency to widen the scope of these games just slightly beyond what one might expect, but that seems to have backfired in the case of Lego Batman 3. Critics felt that it reached too far, with cameos from figures such as Conan O’Brien, Kevin Smith, and Daffy Duck as the Green Loontern coming from a different franchise entirely. On the positive end of the cameo spectrum, however, Adam West voices “Classic Batman,” in his only video-game appearance as the character. We mentioned that in our Every Batman Game Ranked from Worst to Best list, but it’s worth mentioning again, because Adam West elevated everything he was in. Rest in peace, Adam. #21: Drome Racers – 75.42% Game Boy Advance (2003) There was no shortage of great 3D racing games on the PlayStation 2, but Drome Racers for that systemwas terrible. And there was no shortage of terrible 3D racing games on the Game Boy Advance, but Drome Racers for that system is great. For better or worse, Drome Racers does always manage to stand out from the pack, I suppose. This one really is an impressive game, especially when you take into account the hardware. 3D games in general weren’t common on the GBA, and few of them were any good. A fast-paced racer running this well is worth a look in itself, but it’s also genuinely fun. This version of Drome Racers is significantly streamlined, and that’s a good thing, as it allowed both the developers and players to focus on the actual racing. The items work well, the AI is challenging, and even though the tracks are built from untextured polygons, they all feel distinct, like they take place in unique environments. It’s unfortunate that this game was saddled with the title Drome Racers, as it’s not only the least-engaging title for a racing game in history; it’s also the title of one of the worst racing games in history. But this one is fun, and it’s one hell of a pleasant surprise. #20: Lego Racers – 75.45% PC (1999) Best known for its later ports to the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation – ports which scored 9 points and 12 points lower, incidentally– Lego Racers was originally a PC game, and it was quite a good one. It combines Lego and racing, as one would certainly hope considering the title, but neither of them felt like an afterthought. Developer High Voltage Software did a good job of working out what might make a Lego racing game fun, as opposed to just wondering what one might look like. The game allows players to build their own vehicles, which…is better in concept than it is in execution. Critics weren’t even in agreement about how much it mattered. Most of them said that the impact was negligible, but NextGen magazine – in an otherwise unfavorable review – praised the fact that it “had a major effect” on how the vehicles controlled. Overall, though, reviewers enjoyed it for its creative approach to the genre, and indeed it holds up for a few quick laps today. Interestingly, the game inspired a similar arcade game that was playable – for a short time, at least – at Legoland Windsor. That game was also called Lego Racers, though it was later renamed Rocket Racers. It was placed into and taken out of service several times over the course of 11 years, closing for good in 2011. #19: Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes – 75.73% 3DS, DS, PlayStation 3, Vita, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2012) We’ve seen that Lego Batman 3 reached a bit too far when broadening its scope, but Lego Batman 2 struck the balance much better, incorporating other D.C. assets such as Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Superman who – let’s be real here – could benefit from a few more appearances in decent games. In fact, his interactions with Batman are the runaway highlights of Lego Batman 2. The acting in general is great, with some characters being voiced by their counterparts in other media, while other roles are filled out nicely by a rogues gallery of VO heavy hitters, such as Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and Nolan North. The writing is excellent – so long as you don’t want to take the grown man in bat pajamas too seriously – and the humor does a great job of keeping you invested even when the gameplay doesn’t. That’s good, because the gameplay isn’t perfect, with vehicle segments being singled out for criticism by reviewers, and “repeatedly smashing things for studs” being once again used as an example of just how dull things can get. Those things are absolutely true, but there’s no denying the infectious charm of Lego Batman 2. Traveller’s Tales knows darned well how to take what could be disappointing and make it memorable. That’s a superpower in itself. #18: Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars – 75.75% PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2011) For what could have been an absolutely disposable tie-in to an often-overlooked series, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars does a darned good job justifying its existence. Covering material from both the 2008 film and the subsequent TV show, the game is great fun even for those who haven’t bothered seeking those things out. Critics enjoyed it quite a lot, praising its visuals, its wealth of unlockables, and its sense of humor…practically everything that one would expect from Lego games of that era, but here Traveller’s Tales, in the words of IGN, “have really outdone themselves.” Performance improvements, a head-to-head PvP mode, enhanced vehicle segments, lightsaber fights, and more all came together to make this an impressive step forwards rather than the stopgap release it so easily could have been. Right? Right. So, let’s get serious about this, since we’ve adapted all of the original Star Wars films, all of the prequels, all of the sequels, and even spinoffs, can we finally get a Lego Star Trek game? So many characters, aliens, and environments to explore. So many classic moments to immortalize in humorous Lego form. Captain Kirk fighting the Gorn, Captain Picard enjoying some mariachi, Captain Janeway marching a loyal crewman to his death…it would be a laugh a minute! Oh well. It’s not likely, I know. We didn’t even get a Star Trek level pack for… #17: Lego Dimensions – 75.76% PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One (2015) In a few of our previous Worst to Best Lists – Ghostbusters Games, Jurassic Park Games, Simpsons Games – commenters expressed disappointment that we didn’t rank the relevant Lego Dimensions content. That’s understandable, but do let me be clear that it wasn’t overlooked or ignored; those things were DLC for a different game, rather than games of their own. There’s also the further fact that if we ranked Lego Dimensions content packs each time, we’d end up talking about essentially the same experience across as many as 30 different lists. A small number of them added some degree of story, most of them just added a level or some characters, but all of them were…look, let’s be honest; it’s hard enough to talk about different Lego games without repeating yourself. Now imagine having to talk about the same Lego game more than two dozen times.Nobody deserves that fate. As a toys-to-life concept, Lego Dimensions is great. Lego already exists and serves a purpose outside of the game, so anything you buy for Lego Dimensions isn’t doomed to collect dust and clutter your home without purpose when you inevitably lose interest. They might be the only example of toys-to-life that are actually…y’know…toys. Reviewers criticized the similarity of the experience across content packs – in fact, you witnessed me criticizing that very thing at the beginning of this entry – but its charm was undeniable, and it was supported by many different franchises over the course of two years. But there simply isn’t enough to say about it that justifies bringing it up again on multiple other lists. Sorry. #16: Lego Batman: The Videogame – 75.83% PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2008) The first Lego Batman game was almost as much a revelation as the first Lego Star Wars game was. Fans and critics alike were taken aback by just how brilliantly the two worked in Lego form. Batman has always been a character who can strike just about any tone, depending upon the material. From the comedy of the 1960s TV series to the semi-grounded whimsy of the Tim Burton films to the serious and introspective Christopher Nolan movies, Batman has proven to be remarkably versatile for an established character. And that’s to say nothing of his comic book appearances, which by this point have spanned an even wider range of tones. Bringing the Caped Crusader into the Lego fold was an excellent way of celebrating his history as a character, and it pleased both longtime fans and young children meeting him for the first time. Later Lego games – Batman or otherwise – had bigger environments, more characters, and more variation in the gameplay, but there’s merit to the relative simplicity of Lego Batman: The Videogame. Just seeing – and playing as – the famous heroes and villains as little plastic toys is innately satisfying, and while it may well not be everyone’s favorite game, it’s hard to imagine that it’s anyone’s least favorite. #15: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham – 76.6% 3DS (2014) Yes, the console version of Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham couldn’t quite crack the top 20, but the 3DS version sits comfortably here at #15, higher than any other Lego Batman game. Indeed, it’s just a fraction of a point away from doing even better. Another quirk of the review system. Possibly. Probably. Definitely, yes. It’s a stretch to call Lego Batman 3 for the 3DS “better,” but there is an argument to be made that it’s more impressive for its hardware than the main version was for consoles. It’s not the same game, but it comes rather close at times, and manages to provide an experience that isn’t “equivalent” but is at least “respectable.” Nintendojo was surprised at just how much of the developers’ love for Batman survived the transition to a handheld. They said that “true passion for the source material is evident throughout the game,” and that it was “clearly made with fans in mind.” And that’s correct; Lego Batman 3 for the 3DS doesn’t feel like an inelegantly sanded-down version of the main game; it feels as though some effort were made to create something that would be worth playing on its own. I wouldn’t rate it quite as highly as they did, but I can’t argue with anybody celebrating that fact. #14: Lego Alpha Team - 76.67% PC (2000) Remember Lego Alpha Team for the Game Boy Color? Well, hopefully not, because it was absolutely awful. In fact, forget I said anything. Lego Alpha Team for the PC is much better. It retains the basic conceit of that game, but implements daring changes, such as “not looking and playing like absolute dog plops.” A gamble, certainly, but it paid off. Your job – as Agent Dash, which probably sounded cooler in his head – is to stop the evil Ogel. You know it’s evil because “Ogel” is “Lego” spelled backwards. It’s why I keep scowling at my neighbor Neb. I just know he’s up to no good. And I’m already quite evil, so he must be really bad. You place panels on the floor to help Agent Dash maneuver his way through levels, and the interface works rather well. Also, you can see the level, which makes it far better than the GBC version and makes quite a lot of difference in terms of how much fun the puzzles are to solve. The game looks good and, by 2000 standards, the voice acting isn’t half bad. Is Lego Alpha Team great though? Lego Alpha Team is not great, but it largely achieves what it sets out to do, which was a very welcome surprise. There’s a good few hours’ worth of puzzle-box rooms to solve and, this time, they’re actually worth solving. #13: Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 77.08% PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Vita, Wii U, 3DS, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (2016) The Force Awakens and its Lego game adaptation have one thing in common…actually, wait; they have hundreds of things in common. That was the whole point. Let me start again: The Force Awakens and its Lego game adaptation have one unexpected thing in common. They each hewed closely to an established and familiar formula, but it was a comforting and welcome one. What really interested audiences was what would come next, now that a whole new trilogy had begun. Then filmgoers got The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, and they’ve been communicating exclusively in profanity ever since. Like the film, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a comfortable experience that does everything well, even if it does little perfectly. Reviewers enjoyed its flourishes, such asthe ship combat sequences and the use of actual dialogue from the film. GamesRadar was one of the few truly critical voices, deriding it for numerous “game-breaking glitches.” Whether they experienced more of them than other reviewers or just judged it more harshly as a result, it’s tough to say. Overall, critics enjoyed it, and looked forward to what would come next. What ended up coming next was...a Lego Star Wars game that covered this exact film again. That was unexpected to say the least. Still, it also covered eight others, so we’ll cut it some slack. It was also very good. So good, in fact, that we’re far up the list and you still won’t be hearing about it for a little while. #12: Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures – 77.17% PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2008) With Lego Star Wars becoming an unexpected phenomenon, it made sense that Traveller’s Tales would have looked into adapting George Lucas’s other properties. Lego American Graffiti got stuck in development hell, Lego THX 1138 fell apart when nobody could remember how to spell it, and Lego Willow was…well, it would clearly have become the greatest game ever made, and that wouldn’t have been fair to the rest of the developers. So they settled on Indiana Jones, a little-known franchise about a man who really likes whips. In all seriousness, Indiana Jones is just about as good a fit for Lego as Star Wars was, with its memorable characters, adventurous spirit, and enormous pop-cultural impact. In addition to adapting the narratives and setpieces of the first three films, Lego Indiana Jones uses some music from the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV show. This is great, because the music is the only thing that should ever be salvaged from the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV show. The critics were absolutely on board, with PC Zone UK calling it, “classic, no-nonsense joy based around possibly the finest trilogy of films ever made.” Sounds like somebody has never heard of a little thing called AUSTIN POWERS. Point is, people enjoyed it, and it absolutely earned its spot on this list, just outside the top 10. But wait…this is #12? How is this possible?! Well, I’ll tell you… #10: Lego Star Wars: The Video Game – 77.5% GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC (2005) Lego Builder’s Journey – 77.5% Switch, PC (2019) Yes, it’s a tie! There are two games ranked at #10 on this list, and we did it just to drive you crazy. Granted, we had to go back in time and bribe a load of critics in 2005, but it was worth it. We’ve seen quite a bit of Lego Star Wars content on this list already, so it’s worth turning our attention to Lego Builder’s Journey instead. This is a puzzle game with an impressively wistful atmosphere and a strangely moving tone. What’s happening is left to interpretation, and we wouldn’t dare try to foist one specific interpretation onto you, but it’s your job to both work out what each level needs you to do and how to accomplish it, all through the help of scattered Lego bricks. It’s a simple concept – so simple that the game doesn’t need to explain it– and it’s remarkable how easily it elicits an emotional response as the game progresses. Kids can certainly play it, but it’s aimed more at adults who have “outgrown” toys, and it’s a gorgeous, memorable reminder of what they’ve left behind. If your default response to new Lego games is that “it’s more of the same,” then you owe it to yourself to check out Lego Builder’s Journey. It’s a fresh take on a familiar concept. If you want more experimentation within the franchise, then this is the game to support. #9: Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 – 79% PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2010) For Lego Harry Potter fans – again, the fans are human, Harry Potter is Lego – things never got better than the console version of the first game. Fans across all four platforms even got an equal helping of quality; in the other entries, we had to calculate overall averages from the critical responsesthat each version received. Here, however, we were able to give our calculators a break, as all four versions averaged exactly 79%. By this point, fans and critics alike knew what to expect, but the addition of spells that Harry learns as he progresses in his studies was a nice way of keeping gameplay varied while remaining true to the source material. And, in this case, the source material was the films, as the games hewed closer to those than the books. Critics cited technical issues with the game that would no doubt be ironed out for a sequel. They weren’t, as we’ve seen, but in 2010 there was no doubt. The fools. Really, though, they just enjoyed exploring Hogwarts, uncovering new areas, and experiencing the story through a silly Lego lens. #8: Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – 79.4% PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC (2022) Traveller’s Tales could have just released a collection of their previous Lego Star Wars games with updated visuals and we would have been perfectly happy. If they were feeling generous, they could even have tossed in some Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker levels, not that anyone would notice. Instead, though, the developer gave us an entirely new experience, covering nine full films. They’re just showing off, frankly. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is positively brimming with content. So much of it, in fact, that one of the criticisms is that there’s simply too much of it, with reviewers finding it easy to get bogged down in optional objectives when all they want to do is advance the story. I have a tip for them: Ignore the optional objectives and advance the story. No, no need to thank me! Is there too much to do? Well, maybe, but for a game like this, that’s obviously part of the draw. The Skywalker Saga even goes out of its way to pack itself full of obscure characters and deep-cut Easter eggs that many casual players won’t notice. And, good; Ghost Droid is bae, do you hear me? It’s still a bit easy, and the game is overly helpful far too often, but Lego games have simply never looked better, sounded better, or felt better to play. Admittedly, this game is going to cover at least one film that you hate – and possibly as many as six films that you hate – but, again, the audacity is part of the appeal. Is it any wonder that the one Star Wars game that outshines it in terms of critical reception is the one without any trace of the prequels or the sequels? The answer is no, but try to act surprised anyway, okay? #4: Lego Chic Boutique – 80% PC(2006) Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures – 80% DS (2008) Lego Rock Band – 80% DS (2009) Lego City Undercover – 80% Wii U (2013) We’ve seen versions of three of these games already, but what we’re really here to talk about is one game that, quite clearly, stands far above the rest in terms of quality: Lego Chic Boutique. Yes, the others may have earned the same score, but in our hearts, there is an obvious winner. It’s certainly the most exciting of the four to talk about, and the one that makes me proud to call myself a fashionista. …right, the fact that you’re only seeing still images gives you some idea of how little footage of this game exists and therefore how few people even remotely care about it. It scored shockingly well, causing it to tie with the DS versions of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures and Lego Rock Band, as well as the realhighlight of this entry: Lego City Undercover. Grand Theft Auto in Lego is such an appealing prospect that we can’t thank Traveller’s Tales enough for getting it right. The writing is often corny but, hey, so are corn flakes. It’s genuinely funny at times, and the gags come so thick and fast – quiet back there – that there’s rarely enough time to be disappointed by a joke before you get to the next one. The gameplay is great, the world is appropriately chaotic, and the voice acting is actually really good. It’s simple and child-friendly, but it’s stuffed to bursting with optional objectives and humorous genre cliches that will keep adults amused for a whole other reason. In our writer’s opinion, it’s the best of the Lego games. But we’re focusing on the critics here, and they weren’t in agreement. Still, placement just outside the top three is impressive enough. Even if it is tied with a matching game nobody’s sure actually existed. #3: Lego Marvel Super Heroes – 80.17% PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC (2013) Lego Marvel Superheroes is based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but features a unique story in which… it actually doesn’t really matter, because it’s just an excuse to pull a whole load of heroes and villains together and give them a chance to punch each other in a world made of Lego. As it should be. The game puts a strong emphasis on fun first, and that is exactly the right impulse when dealing with such larger-than-life characters. It had the standard Lego humor but also provided large environments to explore and a massive amount of content and characters to enjoy. It was heralded by many, including IGN, as being one of the best Marvel games ever made, and it’s difficult to argue. Previous games may have taken themselves more seriously, but few were as engaging or as memorable. There’s even a playable Stan Lee, who is only slightly more powerful than he was in real life. Oh yes. You think he invented all of those superpowers for his heroes? That’s the “official” explanation. You may believe that, but I sure don’t! As of 2017, Lego Marvel Super Heroes was the best-selling Lego game, and that’s impressive. It’s a solid adventure and is one of the most-loved Lego games overall, so marvelous work, everyone. Just…Marvel-ous. #2: Lego The Lord of the Rings – 80.85% PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC (2012) Traveller’s Tales’ retelling of Peter Jackson’s retelling of J. R. R. Tolkien’s retelling of an argument about jewelry is officially the second-best Lego game ever made, according to critics. That means that you already know what #1 is but, please, you made it this far; go on, stick with us through the end of the video. Anyway, it’s probably not too surprising that Lego The Lord of the Rings – a title so cumbersome that you know lawyers were involved from the very start – performed so well. But what made Lego The Lord of the Rings stand out above so many other genuinely solid entries? In all honesty, it seems to have been an inherent fondness for the source material. Lego The Lord of the Rings – and yes, I’ll keep saying it until you hate is as much as I do – does introduce new ideas, but critics ended up praising it for its mood, its characterization, and the opportunity to walk around this particular world. The Telegraph even awarded it a perfect score of 100…even if their critic’s name looks suspiciously like one of our presenters became an arsonist. We were pleasantly surprised to see Lego The Lord of the Rings end up so high on this list. It’s just as pleasant to see the one game that performed better…but thatone wasn’t nearly as surprising. #1: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy – 84.33% GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, PC (2006) Yes, in a TripleJump Ranked List first, the same game bookends the entire list! Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is both the crowning achievement of Lego games, and the most embarrassing thing they’ve ever done. In its own way, that’s impressive. The game was basically guaranteed to be a success. People already – and almost universally – loved Lego Star Wars. The only thing they universally didn’t like was the trilogy of films upon which it was based. The prequels were dull and lifeless, and while Lego Star Wars injected some levity into the experience, the fact is that those weren’t the stories that Star Wars fans most wanted to revisit. Enter Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, which had the bright idea of adapting movies that people actually enjoyed. The result was a new way to experience comfortable old classics, reconnect with favorite characters, and basically bash the bricks outof everything and everyone you came across. You could even do it as an absurd custom character. We’ve ranked these Lego games by way of their critical reception but, in this case, I can make it very clear that we are in full agreement with Lego Star Wars II’s place at the top. It’s hard to imagine ranking any of the other gameshigher, as Lego Star Wars II gives us everything we could reasonably ask for from either a Lego game or a Star Wars game. It’s the rare blend that brings out the best in both of its ingredients. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy: Congratulations. You’ve earned your place at the very top.

Channel: TripleJump

Views: 401,757

Keywords: Every LEGO Video Game Ranked From WORST To BEST, lego, lego games ranked, every lego game ranked, best lego games, worst lego games, triple jump ranked, ranking every lego game, ranking every lego game from worst to best, lego indiana jones game, lego marvel games ranked, lego island, lego star wars the skywalker saga, bionicle game, lego dc super villains, lego pirates of the caribbean, lego hobbit, lego universe, lego harry potter, lego star wars, triplejump, lego lotr

Id: gVkbaPcbNAc

Length: 108min 28sec (6508 seconds)

Published: Fri May 20 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/tjmwatton]

My brain didn’t read the Lego logo and thought it was “Every Video Game Ranked Worst to Best”