Lego Video Game Reviews

I am going to lump all of the Lego games into a common review, mostly because my family has all of them and plays them almost equally. Correction, not only does my family have all of them, we even have a couple of them on two platforms. We have double coverage on Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones on both the Nintendo DS and the Wii, and we also have Lego Star wars for the Wii. That is roughly $150 spent solely on Lego gaming. So it is obvious that we are fans.

You may ask why in the world anyone would spend the cash to have the same game on two different systems, and the answer would be; we need our Lego fix on the go. Plus, the games are not the same across the mobile and home use systems anyhow, so it isn’t completely redundant.

The graphics are just ok, and there isn’t a word spoken in any of the games, so what makes them so appealing? I really don’t know, but it is utterly addictive. A single game that keeps me, my wife, my 9 year old, and my 4 year old all entertained is quite a feat, and the Lego series seems to hit the mark perfectly. My wife has gone to the extreme with these games and become a full-on gamer. With the exception of a short Bejeweled stint in lat 2004, there hasn’t been much of a psycho gamer inside her until we were recently introduced to these games.

Personally, I love walking through the game as if playing the movie. The kids style humor is good and the violence is reduced to the exploding of Lego bricks in one form or another. So, no sex with the streetwalkers to boost your life and then stabbing them to get the cash back. Sorry GTA fans. As far as long term play goes, the amount of money aka "studs" you need to acquire to unlock all aspects of the game are astronomical, so you can play for a long, long while.

The breakdown of favorites goes as follows: I’m an Indy fan, the wife loves the Batman, and the 4 year old boy goes Star Wars all the way. The 9 year old girl plays them all with equal zeal.

The only cautions I have are:
1. It will hurt your sex life as your wife will likely prefer staying up an extra 2 hours trying to get the 2X multiplier than heading to bed early for a little nookie.

2. You will likely miss workouts in pursuit more "studs" ‘cause you only need 10K more to unlock Grand Moff Tarkin.

3. Depression may set in when you look at the total game time counter which logs every second you spend playing the game. You will look one day and see it at 60+ hours, realize you are only 33% done with the game and want to pop some Prozac to elevate the guilt of all the time you have wasted playing with damn Legos.

4. All other games on the Wii will become irrelevant so getting past the "Medium" setting on Guitar Hero just got pushed out of reach. There are only so many hours in the day, so you won’t even try the drums if you have the World Tour set.

5. You will start to yell at your kids when playing 2 player because they won’t stand in the right place for you to get that last Minikit. Why can’t a 4 year old understand you only needed one more for that level, but no, he heads through the virtual door and doesn’t look back. I recommend at least a 30 min. "Timeout" and a sound spanking every time they do this…it is the only way they will learn.

On the plus side, your internet porn searches will be interrupted with searches entitled "How to get money quickly in Lego Star Wars" or "Where is the Red Brick on Lego Batman level 2.1". So at least you won’t have to clear the history every day.

Clearly, even with becoming an abusive parent and your wife forsaking her marital obligations in the bedroom, these games are a must buy. I give them 4 big stars.