I’ve been saying for a long time that Lego games are undervalued. While Mario, Crash and Spiro sit comfortably on 3D iron thrones these days (Yooka-Laylee is probably sitting in a plastic recliner right next to them), the genre was rather boring not so long ago. Mario was in postmodern 2D, Spy was trying to sell you Skylanders, and I think maybe Crash was in rehab.
Traveler’s Tales (TT) Lego Star Wars video game attracted a lot of attention when it was first released in 2005, but no one thought that it would essentially carry the genre of 3D platforms after a generation of consoles. Over the years, not only is each new version a constant success with the young audience thanks to Lego’s endless bag of licenses, but TT has always tried not to cut back and continues to offer charming 3D marathon collections with an amazing amount of content and repeat value. And if the game formula has remained largely unchanged since the days of Lego’s Star Wars, it’s only because the simple, addictive platform game is surprisingly outdated.
That’s the case with Jurassic Lego World on Nintendo Switch. We’re only a year away from the release of Jurassic World: Warner Bros. has unearthed these 2015 fossilised game giants and brought them to life with crazy voodoo DNA on the Nintendo Switch.
The game follows the events of the first four films of the Jurassic Park franchise, reinterpreted in Lego. In a way, the title is a bit misleading, because Jurassic World represents only a quarter of the game. So to get to Chris Pratt’s Lego, you have to go through a lot of Jeff Goldblum’s Lego first. All kidding aside, don’t be fooled, because your dollar buys you four movies. Most table tennis tablets don’t fit in one Lego game, but certainly enough to immerse you completely in the legend of Jurassic Park. I’ve only seen the movies once so far, and now plastic dinosaurs are chasing my dreams, so I say good work.
How does Lego Jurassic World differ from other Lego games? Well, not so much, because the most surprising mechanism of the game is that Jurassic Park is probably the first franchise adapted by Lego that contains no fantasy elements in the gameplay. Star Wars, Harry Potter, and even Batman tend to play their more supernatural themes to some extent to make them work as game mechanics. I can count on my hands the number of times a character from the original Star Wars trilogy uses the Force. But in Lego games, the Force is used all the time for everything from opening cabinets to disarming attacking Droids. Jurassic Park, on the other hand, is located in our world, and although it requires some freedom of science fiction, above all it respects the possibilities of the real world. So I was curious how fun a Lego game could be if you removed the beautiful spells and powers and replaced them with arrows and dinosaur bones.
Again, TT makes me look like an idiot, because, no, the game’s always fun. While Lego Star Wars and Lego Marvel focus more on unique skills and battles, Lego Jurassic World is more of an open world presentation based on a puzzle, and it turns out to be a great way to turn the story into a playable form. You don’t spend much time fighting dinosaurs as you maneuver around the island, dodging them and eventually controlling them. Most levels take you to an open environment where some kind of threat or blockage prevents you from moving on to the next part of the level. Of course it is your job to neutralise the threat and move on, but how to do that is usually not easy. Then you will be left to your own devices, exploring the environment and getting in touch with a variety of NPCs and decors. Eventually you will find a way to move the scene forward, whether it’s building something, destroying something, or destroying something and then building something.
In between missions you can roam the real Jurassic Park, the central world of the game, with a map, jeeps and the usual Lego assortment. It’s a super charming way to connect all the movies and it was actually one of my favorite parts of the title as a whole.
The gameplay remains as consistent as ever, and it feels good on the Nintendo Switch. The HD textures are fantastic, whether anchored or in the bag, and the cooperative drop-in/out mode of the previous inputs is vibrant here. This is an absolutely welcome feature at a time when the local multiplayer is usually on the list of endangered species.
While Lego Jurassic World seems to meet all the criteria for an acceptable Lego game, there is a major problem in the audio category. The early Lego games didn’t really care about the voting, but they told the whole story with slapstick and movement, like a ridiculous cartoon. But with the growing popularity of games and the fondness for table tennis to tell more and more interesting stories, Lego games have started offering full dialogues and actor voices with the 2012 Lego DC Super Heroes 2.
Since the Lego DC games were original stories rather than adaptations, it was no problem to let her play it in her voice. But if you modify something like a movie, it can get complicated. Instead of rewriting the dialogues or using sources for Goldblum’s imitators, TT used the original sound of the film, worked all the animations around it and recorded bits of the original dialogue to fill some gaps.
They’ve done it before with varying success, but in the Jurassic Park series they really had to re-record everything. It’s not to denigrate the original performance, that’s not the point. The mere fact that a sound recorded 25 years ago, combined with a new sound, will be unpleasant and uncomfortable, no matter what you do. Subtle changes in sound quality when an NPC comes into contact with one of the main characters are enough to disrupt the tone of the whole scene.
This seems like an incredibly small thing, and those who are less sensitive to sound quality may ignore it completely, but when your honesty is focused on consistency, even a small deviation like this doesn’t sound right. The most recent Lego games have been much improved, both in terms of writing and playing with the voice, but this title remains a delicate compromise in this process. It seems like a great opportunity to go back and do some things again instead of just providing a one-on-one port.
Overview of the Lego legal world
- Graphs – 7/10
- Sound – 6/10
- Gameplay – 9/10
- Late call – 8/10
8/10
Final thoughts: GRAND
Lego Jurassic World is an incredibly easy to learn platform game. It is a solid return to old school adventure games and a super fun way to discover the history of the franchise. It is certainly not as close as Lego triple A, but this game shows a lot of love for Jurassic Park fandom, and the fans noticed it almost immediately.
Evan Rude is a student of journalism and an amateur gambling historian. His favorite Guitar Hero III song was Even Flow.
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