LEGO Marvel Collection, Image: Warner Bros
The LEGO Marvel Collection is a compilation package of the three currently released LEGO Marvel games: LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers, and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. It also includes all previously released DLC packs for all three games including all every character and level pack currently available. This makes it an ideal investment for those who haven’t yet dived into the world of LEGO Marvel video games.
You can, but it’s fairly short:
You’ll get more information on the three included games by watching their individual trailers. You’ll be pleased to know I’ve done the legwork for you, here’s the trailer for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, this is the trailer for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2, and this final link will take you to the trailer for LEGO Marvel’s Avengers.
As with all the LEGO games, the LEGO Marvel Collection is very family friendly. In Europe, the game is rated PEGI 7 and in the US it is rated ESRB 10+, with Common Sense Media recommending it for ages 10 and above. My nine-year-old has really enjoyed playing all three of the games in the pack.
The LEGO Marvel Collection is available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If you’re downloading the game to your console’s hard drive, the whole bundle checks in at a little over 43GB in total, so you’ll need to double check that you have plenty of space before hitting download.
A lot! With three complete video games and over 20 bonus packs filled with new levels and characters, even the most die-hard gamers are going to be playing this for a while. Here’s a breakdown of everything that’s included.
The content of the three games doesn’t include anything for Endgame, so you can stay completely spoiler-free while playing.
The main stories from LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 are not based on any of the films. Instead, these two games follow their own brand new plotlines that are more based on the comics than the MCU – you’ll spot a number of characters who haven’t yet appeared in any MCU films including the Fantastic Four. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 does include an Infinity War Character and Level Pack, which is as close as we’ve gotten so far to a full Infinity War game.
LEGO Marvel’s Avengers follows the storylines of The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron with additional bonus content based on a few more recent films.
The gameplay in the LEGO Marvel Collection is the same as with previous LEGO video games – if you’ve played any of the LEGO games before, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into here. As these are technically old games wrapped up in a new package, I’m not going to do full reviews of them – there’s years worth of in-depth content out there covering all three – instead, I’ll give you an overview.
All three games can be played in either single or two-player mode and the usual levels of LEGO game violence apply. Enemies will explode into LEGO studs when defeated as will objects in your environment which you can destroy to increase your stud total – used to purchase additional characters and skills. Violent and sad moments from the films are turned into more lighthearted scenes for these games. Coulson’s death at the hands of Loki in The Avengers still occurs (sort of) only we see Coulson sneakily watching the others from the background a few seconds later after Fury has placed a vacation ticket on top of his “body”. Presumably, it’s a plane ticket to Tahiti. It’s a magical place…
There’s a lot of slapstick comedy to find too. Coulson’s Destroyer gun launches a boxing glove on a spring at Loki, a rocket-powered pig roams around Stark’s lab, and Fury can always be seen drinking what appear to be pink milkshakes – a nod to Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction perhaps? The comedy continues in the sound effects too. One of my favorite moments across the entire LEGO Marvel Collection came while I explored the Helicarrier hub in LEGO Marvel’s Avengers only to hear the following over the ship’s tannoy:
“In light of tomorrow’s visiting congressman, please ensure your desks are in a presentable state. Yes, he’s from the party we don’t like. No, you may not use your possessions to spell out rude messages about what you think of his economic policies.”
Across the LEGO Marvel Collection, you get to play as hundreds of different superheroes and supervillains from across the MCU and comic book universes and using their different skills and powers to explore the world. Hawkeye uses his bow to shoot at distant targets, Black Widow uses her spy skills to become invisible and sneak past security cameras, Thor uses Mjolnir to attack enemies and fly, while Scarlet Witch uses her psychic abilities to control others and manipulate her environment.
Some of these characters are easier to control than others. I found the flying characters the hardest to master alongside Spider-Man and his web-slinging, while grounded characters were the easiest. My favorite characters were those who feature both a melee and a ranged weapon, such as Black Widow who sports long-range pistols alongside her electroshock batons because these felt like they gave me the best performance without constantly needing to switch characters. Several characters also allow you to switch between versions of themselves. A good example of this is Tony Stark in LEGO Marvel’s Avengers who can wear a number of different Iron Man suits, casual clothes, and even the Hulkbuster armor.
There are numerous goals to achieve in each of the levels, alongside other things to unlock in the various hub worlds. Each level will need you to reach a specific stud target, find hidden canisters, locate a red brick which unlocks a new ability, and rescue a Stan Lee in Peril (who will thank you for “saving your Generalissimo, brigadiers!”) As is standard in a LEGO video game, you won’t be able to do this on your first playthrough of the level in Story Mode. You’ll need to unlock various characters to use their special abilities and go back in Free Play at least once to find everything. Whether you see this as adding extra value to the game (you’ll need to play each level twice as a minimum in different ways) or repetitive is up to you.
I have loved playing the LEGO video games since the first LEGO Star Wars game back in the early 2000s and these three additions to our collection are no different. I will admit a strong personal preference for LEGO Marvel’s Avengers out of the collection, but all three are just as funny and enjoyable to play as I have come to expect from LEGO games. I’m already hoping for a full Infinity War/Endgame game to be added to the series soon (LEGO Marvel’s Avengers 2 anyone) along with content from Captain Marvel, because who wouldn’t want to play as Goose? In short, if you love Marvel and have ever enjoyed a LEGO video game, you’re going to love these and if you’ve never played one before, this is a fantastic introduction.
It’s not perfect of course. It’s not always obvious what you’re supposed to be doing or which actions will trigger moving you on to the next scene – frustrating when you’re trying to clear rooms methodically in order to maximize your studs – and I still found controlling vehicles as challenging as it was in the first LEGO video games, but that might just be me.
One thing that did annoy me, was one of the dialog choices lifted from the films. Each of the main MCU characters has set lines taken from the films that will play at random when baddies are defeated during the fight scenes. For example, you will often hear Captain America announce, “Hey, that’s enough!” as we hear him say to Iron Man and Thor when they are fighting in The Avengers. Black Widow’s choice is somewhat more problematic. Her oft-repeated line is “one less thing to worry about” which does make sense, only that line is lifted from the scene in Age of Ultron where Natasha tells Bruce about her forced sterilization at the hands of the Red Room. Not the most appropriate thing that could have picked to be hearing again and again during battles.
I’m not a huge fan of LEGO games featuring original storylines, but the stories in two LEGO Marvel Super Heroes games are engaging and fun to play through. In the first installment, the heroes (including the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and others) must work together to stop Doctor Doom from creating the “Doom Ray of Doom” and taking over the world. The story takes players to regions as varied as Manhatten and Asgard, while Deadpool narrates a dozen separate side missions. In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2, Kang the Conqueror forces heroes from a number of different time periods and realities to work together through levels which take place across 17 different locations including Knowhere, Wakanda, Xandar, and alternate versions of Ancient Egypt, Medieval England, and Manhatten. The time travel element of this game’s plot allows players to switch between variants of the characters, for example, switching between Baby Groot and his adult form. The storyline to this second game is incredibly long and complicated so there’s an enormous amount to do, the Wikipedia plot summary is nearly 4,500 words long!
For those who have yet to invest in any of the LEGO Marvel video games, this is a fantastic package. The amount of content here from the three base games alone is enormous and will keep my family playing for months before we even get stuck into the DLC packs. Considering that the LEGO Marvel Collection is retailing for the same price as other full price popular games, it means you’re effectively getting three games plus a basket full of DLC for the price of one. It’s a bargain even at full price, but if you can pick it up from Amazon or elsewhere on sale, it becomes an absolute steal.
That being said, I do wonder how well this will sell. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes has been out for well over five years now, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers for three years, and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 for 18 months. I would have thought that most people who were interested in playing one of these would have picked up a copy by this point, leaving folks like me who were always interested but never got around to buying them in a very small minority. Anyone who already owns even one of the three games packaged here isn’t going to find the LEGO Marvel Collection nearly as much of a good deal, and those who bought the later games on release and paid extra for all the DLC packs may feel a little stung.
Cynically, I do feel that this is a bit of a marketing gimmick to get a seemingly new LEGO Marvel video game product out on shelves in time for the Endgame hype without actually producing anything new, but hopefully, it will work out for some people looking to invest in the series so far or pick up new copies for a different console.
GeekMom received a complimentary copy of the LEGO Marvel Collection from Warner Bros for review purposes.
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