I completely agree. I will always appreciate game devs taking risks and doing something new, but I feel like the Skywalker Saga was the wrong game to do it on. The main audience of people who were gonna buy the game (I think) wanted a more traditional game with more fleshed out levels. I know that for me personally, I was really excited to see how TT would take the different scenes in the movies in the levels and was a little disappointed. Not that it's a bad game, I just wished they were experimental somewhere else.
I was mainly thinking something like, rethinking big scenes from the movies with modern technology+having free roam. Most notably is episode 3, I was really excited for how an updated Grievous fight and a fight with Palpatine. What they gave us was also totally good, I was just excited for longer more creative, modern, levels.
I understand their mindset, TT LEGO games got started with Star Wars and it only made sense to go big or go home with the full franchise game. Especially since at the moment, it appears to be the final lego game until further notice. I remember there was enough nostalgic buzz at the time that even my sibling sent me videos of people breaking down the old lego Star Wars game.
The regular formula is solid enough, these are either hit or miss for me. Ninjago movie is actually my favorite lego game, controversially enough - sure the story is dumb but I'm in my twenties now and I value aspects such as gameplay and polish more than collectibles and world size. The biome variety in worlds was awesome, but unfortunately the actual software was way too buggy and prone to crashing for me to fully commit. I haven't played movie 2 but it looks like a crappy lego worlds mod of sorts, I don't know what Tt games were thinking when making that one, lmao. Lastly, I hate just about everything about the Skywalker saga: characters feel too samey, the renewed combat mechanics are overcomplicated and wasted on such a fundamentally trivial gameplay loop, the pacing is terrible and most of your playtime is spent roaming around planets searching for a bazillion different collectibles
I prefer traditional games. I hope we get the first lego movie game on switch. I would definitely buy that one (not two though). Please TT bring the lego first movie to the switch. Please with a cherry on top.
tbh some of my fav lego Games aren't on switch
lego avengers
lego the force awakens
lego star wars 3
lego dimensions
(i obviously understand why dimensions isn't, due to the fact they'd have to renew licensing and everything) (though i will never let go of the hope that they could find a work around for the toy pad and make an all digital version)
I actually enjoy Lego worlds. The game is broken for me though because it won’t allow me to brink up the tool wheel after transferring to a new hard drive. Tried refunding on steam however as I have had it for a few years and have previously played quite a few hours on it they won’t let me get the refund. Pretty annoying as the game literally does not work anymore.
i dont mind them experimenting but as long as they remember that not everyone who plays their games is a kid, looking at you Skywalker saga. I was so excited for it and i played the force awakens and it was good some difficulty but not too hard. Yet here i decided to give SWS another chance and spent 40 fucking minutes on the speeder chase mission because i didnt want to have aim lock on, not knowing that they clearly hadnt designed the game thinking people would actually turn it off. Not to mention a relatively lack of puzzles and what seemed to be a fair amount of red bricks on by default.
I made a post when it first came out asking why it kinda felt so easy and people ripped me to shreds asking, what did i expect its not Dark Souls, or you just remember it being easy cause you played it as a kid.
Out of these games, I only like Ninjago and Skywalker Saga but I would definitely like to see TT be more experimental, I think it’s about time for them to do so.
Edit: Though the one thing I would like to see them experiment with is for them to treat their employees right
Depends on what the experiment in question is and how it’s executed. Lego Movie 2 is an example of a poorly executed experiment, whereas Indiana Jones 2 and The Skywalker Saga are (in my opinion) well executed experiments.
I'd like a T rated Lego game where the characters are fully formed out of Lego, like hulkbuster in the later Lego marvel games. Imagine collecting Lego limbs to customize your character as you go.
Can someone tell me what made LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Movie 2 experimental? (I haven't played either and am assuming they are both just playthroughs of the movies.)
Ninjago had a focus on its combat gameplay more than other LEGO games and the game doesn’t separate levels and open world content. They handle the level gameplay like Super Mario Odyssey where each level is its own large environment with tons of collectibles.
LEGO Movie 2 is similar to LEGO Worlds gameplay-wise. So it’s pretty obviously different from other games. Making it more experimental
ngl, I may have to wishlist and check out Ninjago then. When the open world elements got bigger and bigger, I found the levels to become very chore like. I would often just get thee minikin finder red brick first and from there just go through them one by one. Exploring the cities could be fun because even when everything isn't a collectable, there was still a lot of world design and detail that was fun to look at. I could see Lego Ninjago being more fun if it focuses on the open world exploration and discards the levels.
I was on the same boat as yours and Ninjago ended up being my favorite lego game. It very much turns the "chore-like" back and forth between levels and open world collectathon into a seamless and more enjoyable mix, at least for me. Folks hate on it because of how long the loading times are, but at least you're not constantly cycling through them like you are when hunting for dem pesky minkits in most other games. Plus the combat system, while still nothing to write home about, is genuinely fun, and the aesthetics are great. There isn't much to the open world, most of it is pretty linear anyway, but I actually appreciate the focus on density versus sheer map size for once
Thats the thing. A lot of LEGO games take time not because puzzles are challenging but because the space between getting to each collectable.
When I get the game, are there any frequent glitches I should be aware of for getting 100%? I find a lot of LEGO games will have like 1 gold brick that for some reason glitches and can't be collected. There was the bat mission in DC Supervillains, and I almost didn't get the gold brick in the orange crate in Incredibles if it wasn't for the Boat exploitation.
LEGO Movie 2's customizer isn't great, but it's not awful. You can't recolour pieces, and characters have no abilities in the game so that's obviously a downside, but i think every character piece in the game is available in it.
pretty much the same as something like LEGO Worlds except that one actually had abilities, but LEGO Movie 2 has more pieces and isn't just the standard minifigs. You can play through most of the story as a custom character, only switching a few times for specific quests, which is nice.
See i actually have quite the fond memories of the Lego Movie Videogame 2 cause i 100% it in an all nighter and even though it was annoying at times i did like that they tried something different but they just need to flesh out the different more.
The game needed a stronger story line that made sense with the movie and not basically giving you weird fetch quests and a whole galaxy filled with extra content that could've easily be missed.
I prefer traditional games that are long to finish and that has character creator.
I love how long LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga is to finish at 100%. It would have been even better with a character creator.
i feel like most of the experimental games have at least a few features which should stay for all future LEGO games.
- LIJ2: level builder. It's really a shame that only stuck around for 1 more game, it's the perfect concept for a LEGO game, even if you don't care about making levels, it allows you to make fun, simple environments to play around in.
- Worlds: being able to spawn in enemies at will and place objects down (especially small, destructible objects and things like usable turrets), the grapple gun, and first person view.
- Ninjago: i haven't played that one, heard it has a combat arena mode thing.
- LEGO Movie 2: again, grapple gun and placing down objects like in Worlds. Also, using an actual "buildable objects" menu with a bunch of things to progress is an interesting approach to puzzles involving building because here it can actually work as a puzzle since you have to know what to build and where. The game makes it obvious but still, i liked that. It's a system they could expand upon.
- TSS: the new gameplay overall. Combat, aiming, movement, etc. Upgrade system, especially the "base upgrades" which are so much better than "oh great, i finally got the last red brick. What is it?... oh, red brick detector.", or having "slightly faster sprint" as a red brick. a few NPCs you could interact with just for voice lines was also nice. Multiple routes to progress through levels (including some which allow you to just skip parts of a level in free play, which i like far more than just having checkpoints as it makes the levels feel more open). And optional stealth like the kijimi level was also nice.
I always liked the Battle Grounds experiment in LEGO Star Wars 3 and I never understood why they didn't bring back for LOTR or Hobbit. There was even an arcade mode where you could just take part in endless battles outside of the levels.
Worlds was a disappointment, the Ninjago Videogame was pretty good, LM2TV... Is LM2TV.... and the Skywalker Saga is just worse than TCS in so many ways.
I do like that TT dont mind going out of their comfort zone and do new things... But boy do they not have a good track record with them
It’s experimental due to how much it changed the formula. I would include Batman 2(even though City was initially going to the the first game with and open world and voice acting) but these are just more recent examples.
They used it properly in previous games as well as some parts of TSS. Both are just big areas for more collectibles. TSS’s bigger addition with the open world was more story gameplay in the open world. The problem is that it was poorly executed with the story bits mostly being walking from point a-b. Only rarely would we get some interesting story gameplay in the open world. And unfortunately we can’t replay the few good parts. Good idea but bad execution.
All you need to do is improve the open world story gameplay and make it so that you can replay each episode without restarting the game then it would be perfect. We just have to wait for the next game.
I think experimental refers to any LEGO game that does something out of the mode that doesn't stick. Best example be Indiana Jones 2. Skywalker Saga feels like that because, it was the last lego game. It's impossible to know for sure but until another game comes out Skywalker Saga feels like anomaly in its gameplay compared to the previous games.
I love experimental games. No matter how good the game itself is, there’s always at least one feature that I find really interesting and fun to play with
The experimental games are definitely fun, but I feel like the Skywalker saga is a bit too big.
I completely agree. I will always appreciate game devs taking risks and doing something new, but I feel like the Skywalker Saga was the wrong game to do it on. The main audience of people who were gonna buy the game (I think) wanted a more traditional game with more fleshed out levels. I know that for me personally, I was really excited to see how TT would take the different scenes in the movies in the levels and was a little disappointed. Not that it's a bad game, I just wished they were experimental somewhere else.
I feel like maybe if they did it like a larger force awakens it would be fine,
I actually liked the idea of owning capital ships and visiting new planets in an open world game
Oh yeah, for sure, that was an awesome idea and really cool, absolutely. I just wish the levels were a little more expensive is all.
Out of curiosity, in your opinion, how could they make it different/better than the Complete Saga (beside updated visuals)
I was mainly thinking something like, rethinking big scenes from the movies with modern technology+having free roam. Most notably is episode 3, I was really excited for how an updated Grievous fight and a fight with Palpatine. What they gave us was also totally good, I was just excited for longer more creative, modern, levels.
I understand their mindset, TT LEGO games got started with Star Wars and it only made sense to go big or go home with the full franchise game. Especially since at the moment, it appears to be the final lego game until further notice. I remember there was enough nostalgic buzz at the time that even my sibling sent me videos of people breaking down the old lego Star Wars game.
The regular formula is solid enough, these are either hit or miss for me. Ninjago movie is actually my favorite lego game, controversially enough - sure the story is dumb but I'm in my twenties now and I value aspects such as gameplay and polish more than collectibles and world size. The biome variety in worlds was awesome, but unfortunately the actual software was way too buggy and prone to crashing for me to fully commit. I haven't played movie 2 but it looks like a crappy lego worlds mod of sorts, I don't know what Tt games were thinking when making that one, lmao. Lastly, I hate just about everything about the Skywalker saga: characters feel too samey, the renewed combat mechanics are overcomplicated and wasted on such a fundamentally trivial gameplay loop, the pacing is terrible and most of your playtime is spent roaming around planets searching for a bazillion different collectibles
The only bad thing about skywalker saga for me was the characters lack of ability. Sith electricity is just a regular attack animation.
I like Ninjago the best of those 4 and I wouldn’t mind another game like it.
Experimental, its why I rare indana Jones 2 way over the first, one is alot more memorable than the other.
I prefer traditional games. I hope we get the first lego movie game on switch. I would definitely buy that one (not two though). Please TT bring the lego first movie to the switch. Please with a cherry on top.
tbh some of my fav lego Games aren't on switch lego avengers lego the force awakens lego star wars 3 lego dimensions (i obviously understand why dimensions isn't, due to the fact they'd have to renew licensing and everything) (though i will never let go of the hope that they could find a work around for the toy pad and make an all digital version)
Um you can buy Lego star wars the skywalker saga on switch. It has all of them in it.
I actually enjoy Lego worlds. The game is broken for me though because it won’t allow me to brink up the tool wheel after transferring to a new hard drive. Tried refunding on steam however as I have had it for a few years and have previously played quite a few hours on it they won’t let me get the refund. Pretty annoying as the game literally does not work anymore.
I'm not a fan of the new gameplay in the Skywalker Saga tbh
i dont mind them experimenting but as long as they remember that not everyone who plays their games is a kid, looking at you Skywalker saga. I was so excited for it and i played the force awakens and it was good some difficulty but not too hard. Yet here i decided to give SWS another chance and spent 40 fucking minutes on the speeder chase mission because i didnt want to have aim lock on, not knowing that they clearly hadnt designed the game thinking people would actually turn it off. Not to mention a relatively lack of puzzles and what seemed to be a fair amount of red bricks on by default. I made a post when it first came out asking why it kinda felt so easy and people ripped me to shreds asking, what did i expect its not Dark Souls, or you just remember it being easy cause you played it as a kid.
Out of these games, I only like Ninjago and Skywalker Saga but I would definitely like to see TT be more experimental, I think it’s about time for them to do so. Edit: Though the one thing I would like to see them experiment with is for them to treat their employees right
traditional ofc but if future lego games are gonna be like the skywalker saga I would not be opposed
Depends on the game. Lego movie 2 wasn't great but Ninjago and Skywalker Saga are top tier
Depends on what the experiment in question is and how it’s executed. Lego Movie 2 is an example of a poorly executed experiment, whereas Indiana Jones 2 and The Skywalker Saga are (in my opinion) well executed experiments.
I'd like a T rated Lego game where the characters are fully formed out of Lego, like hulkbuster in the later Lego marvel games. Imagine collecting Lego limbs to customize your character as you go.
Can someone tell me what made LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Movie 2 experimental? (I haven't played either and am assuming they are both just playthroughs of the movies.)
Ninjago had a focus on its combat gameplay more than other LEGO games and the game doesn’t separate levels and open world content. They handle the level gameplay like Super Mario Odyssey where each level is its own large environment with tons of collectibles. LEGO Movie 2 is similar to LEGO Worlds gameplay-wise. So it’s pretty obviously different from other games. Making it more experimental
ngl, I may have to wishlist and check out Ninjago then. When the open world elements got bigger and bigger, I found the levels to become very chore like. I would often just get thee minikin finder red brick first and from there just go through them one by one. Exploring the cities could be fun because even when everything isn't a collectable, there was still a lot of world design and detail that was fun to look at. I could see Lego Ninjago being more fun if it focuses on the open world exploration and discards the levels.
I was on the same boat as yours and Ninjago ended up being my favorite lego game. It very much turns the "chore-like" back and forth between levels and open world collectathon into a seamless and more enjoyable mix, at least for me. Folks hate on it because of how long the loading times are, but at least you're not constantly cycling through them like you are when hunting for dem pesky minkits in most other games. Plus the combat system, while still nothing to write home about, is genuinely fun, and the aesthetics are great. There isn't much to the open world, most of it is pretty linear anyway, but I actually appreciate the focus on density versus sheer map size for once
Thats the thing. A lot of LEGO games take time not because puzzles are challenging but because the space between getting to each collectable. When I get the game, are there any frequent glitches I should be aware of for getting 100%? I find a lot of LEGO games will have like 1 gold brick that for some reason glitches and can't be collected. There was the bat mission in DC Supervillains, and I almost didn't get the gold brick in the orange crate in Incredibles if it wasn't for the Boat exploitation.
Thats super interesting actually. How fast are they 100%able?
Ninjago was very fast to me but I have yet to 100% LEGO movie 2.
how good are the character customizers in them?
Ninjago has a okay customizer and I never really used the character customization in LM2 so I don’t know how it is.
LEGO Movie 2's customizer isn't great, but it's not awful. You can't recolour pieces, and characters have no abilities in the game so that's obviously a downside, but i think every character piece in the game is available in it. pretty much the same as something like LEGO Worlds except that one actually had abilities, but LEGO Movie 2 has more pieces and isn't just the standard minifigs. You can play through most of the story as a custom character, only switching a few times for specific quests, which is nice.
It depends on the examples of each of those individual words
Yes
Well, I like the 2 on the right
See i actually have quite the fond memories of the Lego Movie Videogame 2 cause i 100% it in an all nighter and even though it was annoying at times i did like that they tried something different but they just need to flesh out the different more. The game needed a stronger story line that made sense with the movie and not basically giving you weird fetch quests and a whole galaxy filled with extra content that could've easily be missed.
Why not both?
Urgh. I would Love to say its okay for them to Experiment but honestly, Out of all These examples, Ninjago was the only one that really worked for me
Traditional licenced IP games
I prefer traditional games that are long to finish and that has character creator. I love how long LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga is to finish at 100%. It would have been even better with a character creator.
i feel like most of the experimental games have at least a few features which should stay for all future LEGO games. - LIJ2: level builder. It's really a shame that only stuck around for 1 more game, it's the perfect concept for a LEGO game, even if you don't care about making levels, it allows you to make fun, simple environments to play around in. - Worlds: being able to spawn in enemies at will and place objects down (especially small, destructible objects and things like usable turrets), the grapple gun, and first person view. - Ninjago: i haven't played that one, heard it has a combat arena mode thing. - LEGO Movie 2: again, grapple gun and placing down objects like in Worlds. Also, using an actual "buildable objects" menu with a bunch of things to progress is an interesting approach to puzzles involving building because here it can actually work as a puzzle since you have to know what to build and where. The game makes it obvious but still, i liked that. It's a system they could expand upon. - TSS: the new gameplay overall. Combat, aiming, movement, etc. Upgrade system, especially the "base upgrades" which are so much better than "oh great, i finally got the last red brick. What is it?... oh, red brick detector.", or having "slightly faster sprint" as a red brick. a few NPCs you could interact with just for voice lines was also nice. Multiple routes to progress through levels (including some which allow you to just skip parts of a level in free play, which i like far more than just having checkpoints as it makes the levels feel more open). And optional stealth like the kijimi level was also nice.
I always liked the Battle Grounds experiment in LEGO Star Wars 3 and I never understood why they didn't bring back for LOTR or Hobbit. There was even an arcade mode where you could just take part in endless battles outside of the levels.
You could add indiana jones 2 to this screenshot per the title of the post
I like this gameplay, i hate micro transactions in Lego games.
Worlds was a disappointment, the Ninjago Videogame was pretty good, LM2TV... Is LM2TV.... and the Skywalker Saga is just worse than TCS in so many ways. I do like that TT dont mind going out of their comfort zone and do new things... But boy do they not have a good track record with them
Just because the Skywalker Saga uses the open world properly instead of just for collectibles doesn't make the game experimental.
It’s experimental due to how much it changed the formula. I would include Batman 2(even though City was initially going to the the first game with and open world and voice acting) but these are just more recent examples.
I think the new formula is the best because why should a game have an open world if you don't actually use it.
They used it properly in previous games as well as some parts of TSS. Both are just big areas for more collectibles. TSS’s bigger addition with the open world was more story gameplay in the open world. The problem is that it was poorly executed with the story bits mostly being walking from point a-b. Only rarely would we get some interesting story gameplay in the open world. And unfortunately we can’t replay the few good parts. Good idea but bad execution.
All you need to do is improve the open world story gameplay and make it so that you can replay each episode without restarting the game then it would be perfect. We just have to wait for the next game.
I think experimental refers to any LEGO game that does something out of the mode that doesn't stick. Best example be Indiana Jones 2. Skywalker Saga feels like that because, it was the last lego game. It's impossible to know for sure but until another game comes out Skywalker Saga feels like anomaly in its gameplay compared to the previous games.
I love experimental games. No matter how good the game itself is, there’s always at least one feature that I find really interesting and fun to play with