LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

Genre: Open-World 3D Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, released on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Wii U in 2013, and then ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021, is a family-friendly 3D Action-Platformer featuring a unique story based on characters from both Marvel comics and films, with a story about heroes and villains both struggling to obtain “cosmic cubes” created by the destruction of Silver Surfer’s board, with a greater threat looming over things (is it Galactus? I think it’s Galactus. It’s probably Galactus).

The gameplay in this game revisits the standard Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO game formula, which is mostly unchanged here, complete with the series’ signature excellent drop-in drop-out multiplayer co-op. Eventually, after getting through enough of the game’s story, this game’s structure opens to allow access to an Open World, much as we saw in Lego Batman 2 before this. However, while Lego Batman locked access to everything behind specific upgrades unlocked through the campaign, here it boils down to ability types shared between multiple characters. Have a character with a fire ability? Then they can deal with gold bricks, whether it’s Dark Phoenix, Human Torch, or an Extremis Soldier. Many characters have multiple abilities, so a part of the fun here is finding a character that has your favorite mix of abilities.

Despite the original release of this game being a decade old, it still looks pretty good, with detailed environments, good lighting and shadow, and even some impressive effects involving numerous bits and pieces moving around at once, such as in the first boss battle with Sandman, who is literally made out of hundreds of small LEGO bricks representing his sandstorm. There’s a lot going on here, and the performance is mostly pretty solid, with smooth framerates that I only noticed occasionally hitching for a brief moment when a new event was loading before continuing on unhindered.

This strong presentation here is bolstered by some good voice performances, including Clark Gregg reprising his film role as Agent Coulson, Adrian Pasdar reprising his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark from the 2010 Iron Man animated series, Fred Tatasciore reprising his role as Beast from the 1980s X-Men animated series, and plenty of other veteran voice actors filling other roles here, including Dee Bradley Baker, Jeffrey Combs, John DiMaggio, Nolan North, Phil LaMarr, Steve Blum, Tara Strong, and of course the late Stan Lee chiming in with a bit of narration now and then. Suffice it to say, the voice actor list for this game reads like a who’s who of the industry.

And meanwhile, the soundtrack is… here. It sounds sufficiently superheroic, in a generic way. I’m not complaining, but there’s nothing here that’s especially memorable.

When it comes to complaints, there are three that I keep coming back to. First, it takes far too long to reach this game’s open-world, making players go through the first few linear missions before freeing them to explore. And second, the combat in this game is tedious and repetitive, just like almost every other Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO game. Finally, when it comes to the Nintendo Switch version of the game, this game still sells for $10-$20 more than other versions of the game, for no apparent reason – this game is a decade old, so why are we still being overcharged for it!?

Still, if you’re looking to play one of the better Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO games on Nintendo Switch, it’s hard to go wrong with LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. This is a solid port of a strong entry in the franchise. If you’re a fan of LEGO and/or Marvel and haven’t picked this one up yet, now’s as good a time as any!

tl;dr – LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is a solid port of one of the better games in Traveller’s Tales’ family-friendly franchise of LEGO mash-up games with good (though at times simple and repetitive) 3D Action-Platformer gameplay and Open World elements (once you get to them). The Nintendo Switch version is inexplicably more expensive despite this game being a decade old now, but if you enjoy LEGO and/or Marvel and want a strong co-op experience that combines both, this is an excellent choice.

Grade: B-

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