Life

Games: Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 a great antidote to Hollywood superhero fatigue

The latest issue from the Marvel-Lego union represents the pinnacle of caped cuboid capers
The latest issue from the Marvel-Lego union represents the pinnacle of caped cuboid capers The latest issue from the Marvel-Lego union represents the pinnacle of caped cuboid capers

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 (Multi)

By: Warner

THE torrent of superhero crossovers dribbling from Hollywood's rusting pipe has congealed into a gelatinous GCI blob, each as nondescript and cookie cutter as the next. But if Marvel fatigue has set in, the antidote comes in the form of another block party from Warner’s ever-joyous Lego crossovers.

In this sequel to the 2013 smash, do-gooders once again get punchy among the moulded masonry for the pinnacle of a tried-and-true formula that’s been snapping up licenses since the original Lego Star Wars debuted over a decade ago.

When time-bending Kang the Conqueror (Peter Serafinowicz chewing up the recording booth) creates the hub world of Chronopolis from offcuts of various eras, it’s up to a swollen team of Marvel licenses to take him down amid a series of battles that span Ancient Egypt and the Old West to New York City in 2099.

With similar gameplay to its predecessors, 20 campaign missions boil down to visiting a location and guiding your team of bumbling studded studs through some light puzzling, punching and platforming before the inevitable boss battle. New to the party is a time manipulation feature, which allows characters to rewind their actions – a nifty addition guaranteed to get the younger grey matter fizzing.

Locations in the open hub world run the gamut from recent silver screen outings to obscure comic book lore. Its boroughs are crammed with fun ways to earn a vast array of unlockables, from finding Black Panther's cat to staging a Hulk musical, while any fatigue is stifled with the series’ trademark slapstick and lashings of cinematic sequences worthy of a Lego movie in their own right.

The iconic chunkified Lego look is swaddled in slick production values and a retro comic aesthetic, and as you’d expect, there’s plenty of star power, both iconic and obscure – from Thor, Hulk and Spider-Man to more recent pithy offshoots such as Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy (Baby Groot!).

Given the time travel conceit, heroes will also turn up from alternate time periods and realities, such as Cowboy Captain America, Medieval Hulk and Spider-Man 2099. Despite an absence of X-Men or Fantastic Four (Marvel spitting the dummy out for not owning the movie rights?), there’s enough pulp plastic on show to satisfy the most hardcore shut-in, right down to the Lego Stan Lee cameos.

The latest issue from the Marvel-Lego union represents the pinnacle of caped cuboid capers. And while the formula may be getting a little long in the tooth for those who care to remember, younger gamers giddy on big screen superheroics will be too busy tripping the plastic-fantastic to care.