LEGO Incredibles Review [PS4]
Showtime!
Rating: 3/5
It might have taken too long to get to the UK thanks to the annoying decision to delay the release because of the World Cup, but Pixar's belated sequel to the beloved Incredibles is now in cinemas. And for those fans not content with leaving the experience on the big screen, the good news is that the franchise is also the latest addition to the LEGO game catalogue.
You know what you're getting with LEGO games by now, they're incredibly charming, have their own quirky brand of humour and they're some of the most replayable games on the market (as long as you're a completist who needs to collect absolutely everything).
It's in no way reductive to say that fans of the LEGO game brand will already have got excited over this and that less enthusiastic fans of this type of game won't get much from it. They haven't reinvented the wheel by any means, though there are some unique gameplay elements (like the new Crime Wave element that makes everything feel a little more open). Again, if you're a fan of what LEGO have done before in their games, you're going to be pleased.
Though some of the puzzles are a little more complex and there's a firmer focus on cooperation than some of the other games, this is definitely one of the more accessible LEGO titles, meaning it's more appropriate for the younger end of the scale. The humour and characters will appeal to everyone, though, which LEGO games and Pixar movies both share.
The character roster here is significantly smaller than the Marvel and DC games - because the Incredibles films are obviously smaller scale - but there are some nice Pixar cameos to broaden it out. And there's enough variation in the core characters' action styles to cover for that. Who would want to play as anyone other than the family or Frozone anyway?
The same limitations are here, like vehicle handling and SOME of the animation, but there's charm in the shortfalls and it's a good companion piece to the movies. Just be wary that they'll spoil the sequel - so maybe wait to play if you've got a cinema trip planned. It's also worth mentioning that the one compromise in this being a tie-in is that the script is a little more limited than some of the better LEGO games, because there's an adaptation/tie-in remit here (which is also perhaps why it feels more geared towards the younger end of the LEGO fan age spectrum).