When I was young, E.T. was a super popular movie.  Every kid in my first-grade class HAD to wear E.T. sweatshirts to school, and “Turn on your Heartlight” blared on the radio nonstop.  But you know what’s strange is that I really didn’t like the movie that much.  I preferred flicks like Gremlins and Ghostbusters, so I don’t know if that makes me a messed up kid or not.  I just felt the E.T. movie was too long and slow-paced, and E.T. himself was so ugly.  He looked like a Rotisserie chicken.  And the movie played up Reese’s Pieces way too much.  Once I FINALLY got to try them, I was severely disappointed.  But even I can’t deny that E.T. is an iconic and influential movie and the E.T. ride at Universal Studios is pretty fun.  So it’s no surprise that E.T. would show up in LEGO Dimensions.  The game is available for nearly all current game consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here. I have to say that the makers of the game were pretty brave to put E.T. in here, as the last time E.T. was in a game was on the Atari 2600, and that particular title helped start the video game crash in the early 80’s!  But I don’t think that’ll happen here!

LEGO Dimensions is essentially like Skylanders, except you build and play with LEGOs instead.  I even wrote a big article about it a year ago that you can read.  You get E.T. as a playable character and a Phone Home item to build.  The game gives you instructions on how to build the phone once the E.T. LEGO man is on the pedestal.  Here’s a closer shot of the box they come in.

While E.T. is small, he is a pretty versatile character to play as.  He can build blocks with his psychic powers, repair machines, and since he has healing abilities, if you get hurt he will automatically refill his hearts, making him practically indestructible.  If there are security cameras around, E.T. can wear a disguise and bypass the camera.  Just hold down the button and Elliot will zip by on his bike and dress up E.T. like in the movie.  What’s strange is that E.T.’s swimming animation has him with the disguise on.  I don’t know if that’s a bug in the game or what.  It would’ve been cool if the E.T.LEGO figure had a LED light on his hand or a red light on his torso that would light up when you put him on the pedestal.  I don’t know if that would’ve been too hard to do with LEGOs, though.

The item that you build along with E.T. is the Phone Home figure.  But aside from being able to pick it up and move it around, I can’t figure out what it actually does.  You can upgrade it and rebuild it to be a satellite and such, but as a phone it’s pretty much useless.  I wonder if kids today would even know what it is, since most people use cell phones now.  I like the fact that the phone cord is the same piece that’s used in the LEGO Ghostbusters proton packs!  You’d think the item you would build would be a vehicle like Elliot’s bike or something, especially since there are many opportunities to use vehicles in the E.T. hub world.  Anyway, here are the figures out of the box and built.

When you play as E.T., you can visit his hub world and battle arena.  The hub world is pretty much like the other hubs in LEGO Dimensions, with missions to complete and structures to build.  You can visit the suburbs at dusk, and everything is all decorated for Halloween, since at one point in the movie, Elliot and E.T. go trick or treating.  It kind of reminded me of playing Costume Quest in the game, though.  Elliot’s house is also there, all covered with sheets and hazmat tubes.  You can also visit Elliot’s elementary school, the bridge and surrounding mountains, and even E.T.’s spaceship!  Since I wasn’t a big fan of E.T., the hub world didn’t excite me much.  But I imagine fans of the movie would like it.

Kid Factor:

LEGO Dimensions is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Cartoon Violence and Crude Humor. It’s a LEGO game, so it’s pretty safe for kids.  Anything you destroy just falls to pieces.  If you’re OK with your kids watching the movie, they’ll definitely be OK with this game, too.  While I would recommend most LEGO games to all ages, I think LEGO Dimensions is best for older kids.  One, the things you build are pretty complicated sometimes, so they would need to be experienced LEGO handlers.  And like other LEGO toys, the sets are pretty expensive so kids would need to know how to keep up with and take care of their toys, as the game is useless without them.  And plus using the pedestal is not very intuitive.  Also don’t forget the whole choking hazard thing with small LEGOs!

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children