Lego The Incredibles

Game Title: Lego The Incredibles
Released: June 15, 2018
Game Length: 20 Hours
Grade: B

Story

Changes: When it comes to a Lego game, there are always going to be a bunch of changes. Let's go over them in a little more detail:

1. The game chooses to highlight the events in Incredibles 2 before the original film. This clearly was meant to be a push to market the game with the release of the movie. However, playing the game this way simply made it too confusing for someone like me. This was not a good decision.
2. The game must accommodate two players all the time. This means that sections where you normally see one character has been modified with an assisting character. We've seen this before with Rey dragging a mind controlled stormtrooper in Lego Star Wars: Force Awakens or a confused goblin following Bilbo Baggins in Lego: The Hobbit. Bob is accompanied by Frozone on the island since it is entirely possible for both of them to receive the same invitation. Jack Jack makes a copy of himself when fighting the racoon. Elastigirl has a series of sidekicks help her out on her mission against Screenslaver in several levels. Since this is a kid's game, they even went out of their way of Bob hiding behind "an injured super" as he reaches the server room with a very alive but confused Gazerbeam. While these drastically change the story told through the films, it does allow some creative writing to unfold while playing the levels.
3. Villains have henchmen and there is much more resistance in completing your task. When you think about it, it would probably be a bit boring chasing after one guy through an entire level. So the Underminer has an entire crew trying to stop you in the first level. There are a lot more guards and security when you are navigating the island. You will notice the remains of the other omnidroids as you try to avoid the flock of robot birds. You spend a lot more time fighting The Screenslaver and the people under his control. Bon Voyage has a band of mimes that try to stop you as you chase him into the vault. This builds tension and expands better gameplay.
4. There are more superheroes. Instead of only showing off the Incredibles fighting along Frozone, we get to see a bunch of other superheroes helping out. There are scenes with flying superheroes carrying off villains and extinguishing fires. There are also a lot more people who need to be rescued in the game. They also made the narrative choice to hint how there are other superheroes "living in society" by casually revealing some of their super powers while at Insuricare or other public spaces.
5. They play on your expectations. There are a series of cutscenes and events where things don't happen exactly as you remember from the film. For one thing, there are a lot more pigeon and cake jokes. Radio newscasters and characters will add their own list of puns and funny dialogue. Some bombs don't blow up right away. A security bird will have technical problems triggering an alarm. Dash will be able to turn the incredibile into a plane and discovers where everything is on the boat before Violet. Perhaps one of the funniest moments is how Syndrome isn't able to take Jack Jack away. Then you have added scenes like the couple attending a reception after their wedding and the pizza delivery guy being a bit more obvious who he is when used as a scapegoat. There are much better sequences with how you navigate through parts of the plane when it explodes and how you must chase after the Screenslaver through the building.
6. This is a Pixar game. Every now and then you'll see subtle, or not so subtle, references to the Pixar company or its other films. This includes the Pizza Planet truck, the "Mine" birds from Finding Nemo, an early animation of the company showing on a couple of the screens, the A113 number, the house from Up floating in the background, Burn-E from Wall-E appearing at the pod center, and a Buy N Large advertisement. More about the unlockable characters below.

DLC: There is The Incredibles Parr Family Vacation Character Pack available to purchase for this game. Unfortunately, there are many people who seem to have trouble accessing it. Some have gone to the point of installing Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 to "make it work" but even then there is very little substance to enjoy. You get all the same family members in their tropical attire with Bob sporting a Hawaiian shirt and Helen having a little flower in her hair. I would advise not to try and get this pack.

Gameplay

World Hub: There is a cycle that you can become absorbed in outside of the main campaign. You'll be alerted to a crime wave inside one of the districts. Upon entering the district, you'll be alerted to breaking news. Jayne Jamison, a play on Jonah Jamison from Spider-Man, will squeeze as many puns as she can while announcing what sort of villainy is happening around you. This will initiate two or three missions where you must fight villains, navigate some hazard to retrieve a vehicle, extinguish fires, dispose giant bombs, collect some items, or fight a boss. Upon completion, the map will reveal all the collectable items and place you in front of a major Pixar Build-mat. If you have enough supplies, you'll unlock a Pixar character that will let you interact with something nearby for a red brick. These red bricks do not cost to unlock. Collecting the items around the district is super easy, barely an inconvenience since most will have absolutely no puzzle or interaction required to do beforehand. There will be about a dozen that will appear after building something and another dozen requiring a certain power. There are also some "Family Builds" that will let you build some sort of theme park ride that doesn't reward you anything. One cool thing is how the day and night cycle will advance automatically. If at any time you want to replay a crime wave, you can visit any of the villains you locked up in prison.

Interface: Animated loading screens are back and versify with each level you choose. You now share the character roster with opening blind bags (similar to Lego Ninjago), vehicles, and red brick powers. Whatever menu you accessed last will be shown again when you hold the button down. Your charge meter is now shown around a generic Incredible logo that appears at the base of your character. Your screen now receives modifiers like frozen ice when cold, ooze when near toxic waste, smoke particles when there is a lot of fire, dirt when near miners, and red stains when accessing the menu. The mini-map will expand to a large map and further into a 3-D interface. Waypoints can be placed anywhere and a blue line with guide studs will choose the shortest path possible (even when it takes you off the main road). LB & RB will also let you access the level screens where action shots cover the entire screen. Challenges and Crime Wave status are listed as well. The best part: there is a timer at the bottom of the screen. The sad part: the name of your character never shows under your vitals. I also feel things would be much better if they separated the heroes, villains, civilians, and especially the Pixar characters in their own categories in the roster. There are a few bloopers and a bonus level where you destroy a city with an omnidroid after the credits (which strangely does not have a laser).

Abilities: The combat system has been simplified to the point where many characters simply don't do anything special. They are able to attack, use a barrage of attacks on stunned characters, do a ground smash, or use their special ability that normally destroys anything around with a bigger ground smash. Every now and then there will be a little extended sequence added to your attack. You are not able to grab enemies and the vast majority do not emit any kind of beam. So what the developers decided to do was change the B-button so it would force the character to perform their idle animation. Unfortunately, a lot of characters still don't really have anything fascinating to show. Those with authority salute like the ambassador, her security guard, and the policeman. Chad Bently will crouch in terror and the anchor-man goon will do a little jig. The brainfreezer goon will shake his bum at people. A few better ones is how The Screenslaver will check her laptop and the Krushier will squeeze a rock slowly into a smooth ball. Edna will take out a scrap of notebook, design an outfit, and make visible black marks before scrapping it. Occasionally, it will be vastly different like how Bom Voyage will make one of four different mime expressions when he makes a completely different one when he isn't moving. I like how Violet's boyfriend Tony Rydinger and the babysitter Kari McKeen scream loud enough to break glass. I really wish Rusty McCalistor would be able to ride on his bike in addition to blowing bubbles with his gum. I also wish the cat that the Old Lady sends out could jump or be able to fight back against enemies.

Other: You can visit the Custom Creator at Edna's home and establish some abilities very early in the game. Instead of listing every single thing as a separate power, they allow you to choose the element type and automatically assigns a list of functions to your character. Fun Fact: Edna Mode will shout "No Capes!" when you access the cape menu. Creating a character will light up the slot in the roster. The only special vehicle in the list is the Incredibile with the option to disguise itself as a standard vehicle or turn into a boat whenever it touches the water. There are a list of micro-vehicles you can unlock when you collect all ten micro-kits in a level. Some of these reference other Pixar films. What's surprising is the vast majority are pretty generic. The Hot Rod is only a little interesting with how it shoots fire out the sides. The tunneler doesn't go under the ground and the velocipod doesn't spin. I halfway expected to see the famous RV, a limousine, or even the refurbished red Incredibile shown at the end of the film. The game will automatically select the default character and sort by category when a puzzle element is present. Lasers and grapple hooks will lean into their target now. Bricks will emit little Incredible logo smoke to better identify them behind objects. There are a ton of weird jokes like: What do you get when you push a piano down a mineshaft? A Flat Miner. Characters will have their own lines of dialogue when jumping into vehicles, collecting items, or stuck trying to do a puzzle they can't solve. My final tally: 106/120 Minikits; 191/210 Gold Bricks; 91.1% Completion; 68/93 Blind Bags; 94/119 Characters; 34/40 Vehicles.

Characters

The Incredibles: The primary source for your powers will come from the Incredibles family:

• Bob as Mr. Incredible is your strongman. He can lift up very large items and let people get underneath or on top to get various objects. He can also carry large platforms, even entire floors, and toss them across the room. He has the ability to smash walls, but you can also do so automatically with his ability to charge into broken sections. He can pick up enemies and allies alike and toss them at things. This will allow you to target railings with your buddy as well.
• Helen Parr as Elastigirl is your transformer. She can stretch across passageways through vents. She also becomes ladders and bridges for people to advance into other areas. Her super power enables her to wind herself up and punch every single thing in a given radius. Amusingly, she can also turn into a sort of hopper ball, but no one is able to grab hold of her handles. She will occasionally play jump rope with her own arms when you aren't paying attention. What is really neat is how she performs a flip when you press the button while running or automatically performs one when you approach a fence (as long as you aren't carrying anything). Another cool feature is her ability to slightly bend her body when making turns on her bike (from a pure animation perspective). She can also turn into a boat when in water.
• Dashiell Robert Parr as Dash is your runner. Although he isn't the only one that moves faster than the average character, many of the puzzles will require him exclusively. Similar to Lego: Marvel Avengers, there are ramps that will have a race track light letting you know when you can launch. However, you cannot physically run up buildings and you can only have a momentary boost by pressing the B-button. He can run on hamster wheels to charge up stations. Ironically, most of the time you will need him to jump into her sister's ball form or hook onto his mother while in boat form to make any advancement. His speed and ability to run on water makes him nearly the only candidate to make it for the gold medals in some of the world hub races.
• Violet supports the group by making use of her various utility abilities. Her purple sphere can do so much from hooking into ball sockets, collecting translucent purple bricks, bypassing toxic hazards, deflecting lasers, and ironically one of the rarer options to sink underwater. Anyone can jump into the sphere and be protected from enemy fire. Violet can also turn invisible to avoid enemies and sensor cameras. As seen only in Incredibles 2 film, she can fire psionic blasts either on land or during her chase sequences on water. If you wait long enough, you'll see her practice generating a defense sphere in the air.
• Jack Jack is, amusingly, your jack of all trades. He is the one character that can switch between forms. His fire form can be used to ignite campfires or fire at gold bricks. His standard form has telekinetic powers to form portals, move objects, and have him hover over water (since he can't swim). He will turn into his solid form when smashing the ground. He also sports a hefty pair of laser eyes that he won't hesitate to use when enemies admire his cuteness. His monster form provides him super strength. There is one more surprise in his arsenal: holding down the X-button creates four duplicates of himself. These will follow you and attack like any other character. However, they are very fragile and will disappear if you swap characters. His super power generates an expanding electronic field. Press the B-button to watch him clap. Because this is a video game, it appears that Jack Jack is capable of driving any vehicle. Don't try to do a puzzle he can't do or otherwise you will see him cry.
• Lucius Best as Frozone is your mobile caster. Although there are a few other characters who can use either water or cold elements to extinguish fire and construct frozen sculptures, Frozone sports his trademark ice abilities to skate across the ground or water at quicker speeds. He pulls out his spherical sled that enables him to climb or descend in the air across great distances. His special power shoots icicles at all foes around him. He also has the ability to shoot frozen bullets that gradually encases enemies in an ice brick that you can break with specific attacks. Simply press the B-button if you want to watch him juggle some ice cream.

Superheroes: Most of these characters are seen while Mr. Incredible is accessing Syndrome's computer, listed by Edna, introduced by Winston Deavor, or somewhere in the background of both films. Their character and personalities have either been expanded upon or made entirely from scratch. Fironic's dialogue is nothing like what I imagined while watching the movie. Thunderhead "isn't the brightest bulb" as you can tell with his lapsing dialogue. Not all flying characters wear capes and not everyone are as useful as the main family. Helectrix, Reflux, and Voyd are the three characters that will assist Elastigirl during the campaign. Since Syndrome is not technically a superhero, he is the one character that can use his device to levitate characters slightly above the ground.

Pixar Characters: Generally made available after completing a crime wave, there seems to be more built into these ones than the characters from the films:

• Bing Bong from Inside Out has a bunch of different lines of dialogue. He can summon his wagon that shoots rainbow colors behind it and equipped with a squeaky horn. Bing Bong will pull out a yellow core memory when approaching dark spaces and cast an imagination wave for his special ability. He will play music from his elephant trunk quite frequently.
• Dory from Finding Nemo is perhaps the only one you will use for anything underwater, including the world hub races. She is capable of moving around on land with the help of a magical bubble filled with water. She still spouts a couple of forgetful lines of dialogue when collecting things.
• Flik from A Bug's Life is an usual one. He will take out his spyglass to look at a distance when you press the B-button. He will hover on a dandelion when falling and while using his super ability. He can also throw acorns at things.
• Junior is Pixar's mascot and functionally doesn't do much other than light up dark spaces. However, his movements and sound effects make this a curious enough character to try out for a moment. He also summons the iconic ball that you can push around.
• Lightning McQueen from Cars might move very fast, but he isn't quite a functional character when it comes to standard activities. He will show off his flashes with the press of the B-button. He will still be able to attack to some degree and jump around.
• Linguini from Ratatouille doesn't do much on his own. What's great is that he can summon his friend under his hat to come out and access small pathways up walls. Also pay close attention while fighting as you just might see him hit someone with a pan while his little friend squeezes out some mustard under his hat. He will cook some sausage on a pan after pressing the B-Button.
• Merida from Brave stands out from the rest by shooting her bow and talking in that ridiculous accent. Her animation, as well as her dialogue, includes chasing around a blue wisp.
• It doesn't take long to realize Miguel is from Coco when he pulls out his guitar. Holding the B-button will enable you to play music and force people to dance only if you are facing them. You can still move around while doing so. Simply pressing the B-button will enable him to play a little tune before putting it away (as long as you don't move). His special ability makes him cast an incredible sound wave from his guitar.
• Russell from Up is another exclusive character you will get to know better. If it wasn't for "Amy the Construction Worker" I made in the custom creator, I'd probably be using him for every pair of investigative tracks I came across. You'll hear him spout lines from the film and pull out his trusty Junior Wilderness Explorer guidebook. What's also great is the ability to call Kevin, the elusive tritagonist bird, that anyone can ride and peck at things.
• Sully from Monsters Inc has super strength. He roars at his enemies and can break glass. That is his super ability as well. By simply pressing the B-button, he will also do some "hide under the bed" drills. Fun fact: his car is a reward for collecting all the mini-kits inside a level.
• Wall-E is a playable character and can shoot lasers out of his eyes... since they had to give him some super power. He does pull out a plant in a base when pressing the B-button, but you aren't able to see inside his hollow interior.
• Woody from Toy Story is very vocal. It might not seem like he does much, but you can spot him pulling invisible guns and watch enemies pretend to be defeated. He can summon Bullseye, his horse companion, that anyone is able to ride.

Summary

Review: While there are some fascinating new changes made with Lego The Incredibles, there isn't enough here to justify the cost of the game. The retake on the main story and showing off the entire city might be somewhat enjoyable, but forcing you to play through the sequel first wasn't the best of decisions. At least there are some bonus characters along with some funny gags that will keep you entertained for a few more hours. I don't recommend this game.

 

 

3-16-2023