Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 (Nintendo Switch)

Powah Dunk | December 4, 2017 | Review | No Comments

Just like time you just can’t stop the Lego train, from successful toys and movies to at least 2 games a year now it’s Lego Madness. Rather than attempting another direct movie tie-in the team at Travelers Tales have gone the route of an original story using a licence. Lego Super Marvel Heroes 2, Is this the hero we needed or the one we didn’t want?.

Avengers No Assembly Required

If you haven’t played a Lego nor seen one I’d have question which rock you had been hid under, regardless of that though Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is a family focused platformer combining the licences of everyone’s favourite building set & the Marvel Super Heroes.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 unlike Lego Marvel Avengers isn’t strapped in to the movie licences, this means rather than following the plot of the recent films TT Games are more free to explore the lore and worlds of all the Marvel property.

So with Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 having free reign with the property, what does it do with it?. Kang the Conqueror is laying waste to a planet & the Guardian’s of the Galaxy just happen to be passing, after a little fighting and the GoG’s signature banter, Kang makes his move over to Earth to take on the Avengers & Co. Kang then creates Chronopolis fusing areas from different times and spaces, the perfect excuse for an all star mash up!.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 does a fantastic job of digging deep into Marvel’s rich history for characters, locations and easter eggs. The main narrative is a funny, enjoyable romp and the character interactions with each other are charming and well thought out. The game is aimed at children so I wouldn’t expect Secret Empire levels of depth in the story, think more tongue in cheek 70’s cheese and you’ll be more than fine.

You’ve Got A Keen Hawk-Eye

My only issue with this was it doesn’t use ALL of the Marvel licence and anyone familiar with Marvel as of late knows where this is going but if you aren’t allow me to explain. Marvel has had some issues as of late with the licences of X-Men & Fantastic Four, this has boiled down to them refusing to include any of the “Mutant” cast or the Fantastic Four cast in any Media put out by them, yes that extends here and it hurts that they are omitted here, especially since they made quite the impact in the original Lego Marvel Super Heroes, yeah Deadpool also fulls under the “Mutant” banner so you’ll have to settle for Ms Poole instead.

Visually Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is colourful & crisp for the most part, handheld mode on the Switch does dull it somewhat which is a shame but considering this is very close to PS4/XBOX One visuals exceptions can be made.

The characters all animate brilliantly, it’s easy enough for smaller children to follow the story just by watching what is going on, all characters are easily identifiable and the stages all look like Lego versions of famous Marvel locations, even if some of the sets are made with stuff other than Lego still!.

The game features full voice acting, some of it is brilliant and some not so much, looking at you Captain America!. With the game not being tied to a licence they are able to use voice actors other than the film actors so the sound quality on them is leaps above what was on offer in Lego Marvel.The game also features some licenced music for the Guardians bounce around to as you’d expect.

Arcade’s Re-Revenge

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 as mentioned earlier is a family focused platformer, this means rather than the intricate jumps of titles like Super Meat Boy you get a much more forgiving experience with little to no punishment for missing a jump or taking too much damage. The game tends to focus more on it’s collectible side, you have studs to collect, mini packs, gold brick, pink bricks, Stan Lee plus side objectives to complete, this sees levels not only lasting longer but giving it that replay value due to some stuff hidden behind different heroes abilities.

The game controls fluidly with the combat being nothing more than bashing the attack button or holding it down for a focused attack. The game is also rife with tutorials and prompts to help younger players. Don’t let this fool you though as there are a few puzzles which had me head scratching for a few minutes.

The game’s campaign lasts around the 7/8 hour mark, a fair bit more if you stop to explore the open worlds available and do all the side quests, you’ll also get more mileage out of the game if you use the Free Play mode which allows you to re-live the previous levels with any of the hundreds of characters on offer, allowing you to get any missed collectibles.

The Nintendo Switch version of the game sadly suffers with a wonky frame rate, when the action gets hectic it can slow down a fair bit, the draw distance in the open worlds isn’t anything to write home about, cutscenes have a tendency to skip frames thus ruining the animation flow & I have suffered several hard crashes with the title.

The Infinity War Never Changes

Overall there is a lot of fun to be had with Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 especially for the younger audience, there is a tonne of characters and collectibles to find, a charming story and so much fan service. It’s ideal for the Switch’s on-the-go functionality it’s just a shame is crippled by bugs & crashes, still enjoyable if you can handle them though.