Super villains from the Marvel comics universe have teamed up to gather “Cosmic Bricks” for their own evil devices, and it’s up to Marvel heroes like Spiderman, the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and many others to work together to stop them in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. It’s yet another rollicking co-op LEGO adventure that will please fans of the franchise. It’s available for all the current and new game consoles, but reviewed on 360 here.

At heart, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is like any other in the block building series. Sock enemies, bash blocks and build new LEGO structures, drive vehicles, use teamwork, and solve puzzles. Collect LEGO studs to buy new characters and vehicles to use in Free Play, and find hidden red and gold LEGO bricks to unlock cheats and other goodies. Just like the others, a second player can join in and hop out at any time for some co-op fun.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes draws a lot of inspiration from LEGO Batman 2. All the characters are fully voiced, and you tackle missions and levels by exploring a giant hub world. This time, you’ll tromp around the Marvel version of New York City, complete with Stark Towers, the Daily Bugle, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Carrier as landmarks. While it can be rather daunting and confusing to explore this big new city, they do make it fairly easy to find the next main goal, and it’s a lot more fun once you can play as a character who can fly around, like Iron Man. There are also lots of people to save and hidden secrets in the city. You can take on mini-missions, unlock over 100 Marvel heroes and villains (including crazies like Deadpool, She-Hulk, and Howard the Duck), and even rescue Stan Lee (multiple times).

The only problems with the game are ones that are also prevalent in other LEGO titles. Sometimes goals and objectives in the main levels aren’t as apparent, and the game froze up on me a couple of times, too. But if you can look past these flaws (and LEGO game fans have had to since day one), LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is another great LEGO 3-D adventure that the whole family can enjoy, even if you don’t know much about comic books!

Kid Factor:

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Cartoon Violence. You can punch, shoot, and zap bad guys, but they just fall down or go to pieces when defeated. They make it perfectly clear that everything is made out of LEGOs, so violence isn’t really that bad. I’d be OK letting any kid play any of the LEGO games, personally. If you are defeated, you just appear right back where you were with a minimal loss of studs, so it’s not too frustrating. Even though the game has tons of spoken voice, reading skill is still helpful for the menus and tips. If a younger player does need assistance, another can join in at any time. Which is always recommended, as LEGO games are more fun with a friend anyway. Plus, kids love super heroes, but there isn’t a lot of super hero games made for kids. So it’s LEGO Marvel Super Heroes to the rescue!

Tags: Game Reviews