LEGO Marvel’s Avengers

Genre: Open-World 3D Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is a family-friendly Open-World 3D Action-Platformer released in 2016 on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS with a similar but different game bearing the same title released on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Wii U. As with the console version of the game, this release focuses mainly on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and specifically the first two Avengers films.

Okay, so look. I’m gonna’ level with you. After playing the console version of this game, I was not looking forward to playing the handheld release. The console version of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is considered by many one of the better LEGO games, but I found it to be terribly disappointing, with buggy gameplay, frustrating design choices, and good ideas that were ultimately overpowered by all sorts of nasty problems.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo 3DS version of this game seems to be pretty widely reviled, which fits my expectations of Nintendo 3DS versions of LEGO games – at best, they are usually a slightly-worse version of the console release… but usually they’re far worse.

So imagine my surprise when I jumped into the Nintendo 3DS version of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers and found it to be… quite good, actually. Almost great, even. Seeing how much my opinion of this game differed from other critics, I poured more time into it than many of the other LEGO games I’ve reviewed, thinking that perhaps I may have missed something. But the more I played this game, the more I found myself impressed with just how ambitious it is, even if it doesn’t always manage to live up to that ambition.

I’ll start by saying that LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is the best Open-World game on Nintendo 3DS. Granted, that’s not exactly a strong genre on the platform. I can only think of one other, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins. However, while that game was highly-restrictive and covered with fog, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is… well, also pretty foggy, but not nearly as much. What’s more, this game’s version of New York City is absolutely massive compared to the restrictive environments of The Chase Begins.

Of course, that’s not to say that this game nails Open-World design on Nintendo 3DS. There are various side-missions and hidden stuff to find in this Open-World, but it still feels a tad empty and devoid of things to do. However, it’s still fun to fly around the city in high speed as Iron Man, or effortlessly plow through traffic as Hulk.

That’s another element I think this game gets right far more than most Traveller’s Tales LEGO games – it is actually fun to use many of the abilities here, and they’re not all just melee combos and ranged weapon attacks. Characters like Captain America and Hulk can now use a forward charge to plough through enemies and breakable items alike, and Iron Man’s flight can now propel him through the air like a missile. Granted, it’s a bit awkward here to control flying characters, and combat isn’t as fluid as I’d like, but this game actually managed to avoid feeling like “just another Traveller’s Tales LEGO game” to me.

The presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. As I said, the Open World elements have a fair amount of fog, and this game doesn’t have the same level of detail as the console versions of the game, nor does it have the nice lighting effects of earlier 3D LEGO games on Nintendo 3DS. But it looks decent enough. And these visuals are joined by the music from the Avengers films, as well as characters’ voices being pulled directly from their lines in the films, much in the same way the console version of the game does.

Does this game have issues? Yes, and I’ve already gone over quite a few of those – the clunky flying controls and stiff combat, the lack of content within the Open-World portions of the game, and all of that. And in addition to these, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers on Nintendo 3DS is yet another entry in the series on handhelds without any multiplayer to speak of. There is absolutely a lot of room for improvement here.

However, despite the issues this game has, this is one of my favorite LEGO games on the Nintendo 3DS. They actually managed to bring the Open-World experience to the Nintendo 3DS in a way that’s much more successful than LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, address some other issues with the series, and overall present a good alternative to the console version of the game… in fact, this may be the only time I prefer the handheld version of a LEGO game. It’s far from perfect, but I believe that LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is a highlight for both the LEGO franchise and the Marvel franchise on the Nintendo 3DS.

tl;dr – LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is yet another game to feature Traveller’s Tales family-friendly LEGO game 3D Action-Platformer formula with some Open-World elements. And against all odds, this time I think they actually managed to make an Open-World game work on Nintendo 3DS. It’s not without its flaws, but I think the combination of ambitious game design for the underpowered handheld, as well as gameplay that brings something new to the table, combine to make this one of the best LEGO games on the Nintendo 3DS, despite those flaws.

Grade: B-

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