Computer game releases don’t usually excite me. With so few hours in a week to spend on my geek pleasures, I’ve learned over the years that books and tabletop games win out. Lego Dimensions, however, is an entirely different proposition. Whilst I don’t have time to play them, the various Lego franchise games always make me pause to reconsider my position. Lego Dimensions looks like it will force a complete u-turn.
The concept is not a new one: a portal game, where real-world representations of characters cross over into the screen (Like Skylanders or Disney Infinity). What Lego Dimensions brings to the table is a) it’s Lego and b) it’s all your favorite Lego franchises jumbled together. The trailer shows Batman and Gandalf working alongside one another! It’s the stuff my teenage geek-dreams were made of.
Due to be released in September 2015, Lego Dimensions promises a mash-up of the DC universe, Lord of the Rings, The Lego Movie, The Wizard of Oz, Ninjago, and, perhaps best of all, Back to the Future. A tempting smorgasbord of geek influences.
The games are set to be released across all the major console platforms. PS3, PS4, XBox One, XBox 360, and the Wii U. The starter pack will include the Lego Toy Pad (the game’s portal that you build out of Lego!) and 3 minifigures, Gandalf, Batman, and Wyldstyle (from The Lego Movie). If that wasn’t enough, you get a Batmobile too.
In essence, the game appears to be trying to digitally recreate my living room floor, with jumbles of bricks and pieces from various universes combined together in ways no adult could ever conceive. If it works, it will extend the creativity of Lego onto the screen in a way that’s never been done before.
Inevitably, expansion is on the horizon, with new packs being made available almost immediately upon the game’s release. These will include Legolas, Wonder Woman, Marty McFly, and many more from across Lego’s franchises with the notable exceptions, at the moment, of Marvel and Star Wars. This looks like it could be a great game for the whole family to play; with the promise of the a Wicked Witch of the West minifigure, even the mother-in-law can join in the fun.*
Lego Dimensions will be available on September 27th and can be found on Twitter (@LEGODimensions), Facebook and Tumblr. An extended version of the trailer is available here.
*In the unlikely event she ever reads this, I should point out my mother-in-law is a lovely woman whom I greatly admire!
With the DC characters already involved, I doubt that the Marvel minifigs will ever be used. I seem to recall that when the Marvel line rolled out, Lego was contractually obliged to state that they could not recommend mixing the DC and Marvel sets.
I guess I’m the odd ball that I don’t overly love mixing up my favorites. I LOVE the lego starwars game and the LOTR game but I have no desire to play Luke and Froddo together. Can’t stand aliens, black power or lasers in my D&D games/books either. Call me a purist! 🙂
Plus Disney (read: Marvel) already has Disney Infinity. So yeah, not planning on seeing Marvel characters anytime soon (read: ever).
I agree, Marvel seems unlikely. I also can’t see why Disney wouldn’t want to bring Star Wars to Infinity, so I doubt we’ll see that either. I sort of understand where you’re coming PS, but my children have no such boundaries. They’ll mash anything up!