Video Game Series Review - LEGO City Undercover

Now the reason why this is so late, is because that I've been waiting for the 3DS game and want to review that in addition to the Wii U one. Now that both of them are out and I have played them, it's time for me to state my opinion on them. Could this be the best LEGO games ever? Let's find out:

LEGO City Undercover

The game takes place in the fictional world of LEGO City, which is basically a combination of the stuff you see in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC and a few others. Chase McCain, our main protagonist, has returned to LEGO City after spending a few years from it due to accidentally reveal the true identity of his love interest, Natalia Kowalski (who changed her surname to Smith and dyed her hair blond, prior to the events of the game) live on national TV. He's is called back as his arch nemesis and LEGO City's most wanted criminal, Rex Fury, has escaped prison and is causing a crime rise in the city, according to Mayor Gleeson that is. Anyway, he is reinstated as a cop and gets help from his new partner in crime, Frank Honey and his love interest (Frank's that is), Ellie Phillips who equips Chase with a device that allows him to keep in regular contact with her and everyone else and to help him investigate crimes and all sorts (the device itself doesn't have a name, so we can just assume that it's a modified Wii U Gamepad). From then on, Chase must now lower the crime rate in the city, work undercover and explore all known City elements to bring Rex Fury to justice once more. But is Rex Fury the one to blame? Play the game to find out. Now with this game being an open world game, you can explore the massive world that LEGO City is and come across many famous landmarks that have been given the LEGO treatment, which I think is pretty neat. In addition to the main quests, there are loads of side quests that mostly involve stopping crimes, doing crimes, retrieving items, building stuff and finding every single Easter egg in the game. Speaking of which, the game is full of Easter eggs that pay tribute to the game's publisher Nintendo and to all known 80s cop shows and films, including LEGO versions of Starsky and Hutch, Sherlock Holmes and Watson and even Dirty Harry. There's even some celebrity impersonators including a Morgan Freeman one and even an Arnold Schwarzenegger one that makes quotes from his films for all the time you are around him. It borrows many elements from most of Rockstar's games, mainly GTA, minus the blood, gore, nudity, drugs and language (although some of those are teased throughout) and I know a lot of people have said that you play a cop rather than a criminal, but I say that they are right, but you're mostly a cop, pretending to be a criminal more than anything else. Only criticisms that I have are the loading screens are long, but considering how big the game is, that's to be expected, there is the odd glitch here and there and I do wish that when you drive in a vehicle when exploring the open world, you can have some music in the background. But those aside, this game is great. Its one of the greatest LEGO games ever made and is a major step forward in the games that TT Games make. I hope that this isn't the last we see from all the features in the game, because they all work well. 9/10

The Chase Begins

In my personal opinion, I wasn't expecting anything that impressive than on the Wii U in this game and even though the cutscenes look great, the rest of it isn't. Its not as visually good as the Wii U game and for the most part, you'll be doing the same stuff as before. The only difference here is that there is less voice acting involved, a different but similar story is used and the majority of the buildings from before are under construction, but with it being a prequel, that's to be expected. The story is basically Chase McCain being the new recruit in the police force and is trying to prove his worthiness by finding LEGO City's most wanted criminal, Rex Fury and sending him to jail while doing other things along the way. With the exception of the obviously absent characters such as Frank Honey and Ellie Phillips, the majority of the characters from before are here. Overall, I would think that you would have as much fun here as on the Wii U game, if you don't mind how mostly quiet the game is, lack of voice acting and the toned down graphics. As I said, it's basically the Wii U game without the Gamepad but with a new story, toned down graphics and little to no voice acting. 7/10

Overall, regardless of how you see it, the Wii U game is the superior one here. The 3DS game on the other hand, just gives us more character development than everything else, but as 3DS games go, it's to be expected. But regardless, this is one of the greatest LEGO video game series out there and I look forward to playing more of them. 8/10