But if their entire purpose for being there is simply to be there, then it begins to feel they're there just to fill in space in the box. Bringing them into the party is an unbelievably cool draw, especially if they're not exactly the canonical headliners in their particular universes.
It's a bit of a double-edged sword to push out a game with an enormous cast - which LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 does, boasting over 200 characters in the base game alone, with more promised to follow in upcoming expansion packs.Īt once, it's a selling point stuffing as many characters as you can think of into this game, and at the same time, something of a responsibility. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 may be finally stretching that formula almost to the point of mediocrity. LEGO games have had a fairly similar format for more than 10 years (if you go by the release of smash-hit LEGO Star Wars back in 2005 for reference), with a charming mix of boldly colored worlds, fun characters, simple puzzles, and the gleeful destruction of everything in sight. The idea is that if it works, why break it?Īnd that kind of philosophy does hold true. It's not a coincidence that every time you have a success, something of equal caliber is slated to follow it every few years later - in games as in Hollywood and popular fiction. As another upside, they created an entirely new audience upon which to unleash all the charm and whimsy of LEGO. General Marvel goodwill aside, the movies gave game makers an unbelievably rich vein of character and storyline material from which to draw. Phase One was just wrapping up, Joss Whedon's The Avengers had just come out the year before to rave reviews, and people were high on the idea of getting more. The first LMSH game came out at a time when the movieverse was really beginning to pick up speed.