LEGO Bricktales [Xbox]
ClockStone’s LEGO Bricktales is a unique take on the LEGO games, in that it’s not just that the world has been LEGO-fied, but the gameplay has too! In previous LEGO games, any building is done just by smashing things to uncover the bricks you need, and then holding in the relevant button to master-build it all at speed, but here the building mechanic is very different, opting for a brick-by-brick approach.
After receiving a letter from your Grandpa, you’ll head to a dilapidated theme park and into the depths below to meet him in his laboratory. You’ll make friends with a companion, Rusty, who was crafted by your grandfather many years ago, and they’ll show you the ropes - teaching you how to manipulate bricks and build necessary items to progress, as well as other tips and tricks that are useful to know. The theme park badly needs overhauled, otherwise the mayor is set to seize the land (and your grandpa’s lab), so you’ll need to tidy up. But in order to do so, you’re gonna need to help people out - and the more people you help, the more Happiness crystals you’ll gain - which is exactly what you need to spruce up the park.
The gameplay is far more relaxed in a sense, as the methodical act of building structures - and checking their stability by sending a robot on a test run - is much slower and more deliberate, with no single ‘correct’ way to build. Instead, you are left to figure out what works (and conversely, what doesn’t) by yourself in a way that really hits the nail on the head for the act of building with LEGO bricks, though the control scheme can at times leave you feeling quite frustrated due to the fiddly nature. You’ve of course got particular structures to build, whether that be stairs, a bridge or even vehicles such as helicopters, but the freedom of creativity - within brick limits - allows you a degree of customisation to your world. My bridges look different to the bridges that Allan has built - and our individual perspectives on how things should look are free to be acted upon.
After building structures, you can revisit them to adjust their design, making aesthetic alterations now that the structural foundation is in place. This allows you to make the world look how you wish - and also removes the limit of bricks that is in place whilst building the structure itself - though I did find that I would often skip this aspect and just move on, as the slow process of figuring out puzzles and then completing builds frequently makes things move at a glacial pace.
Given that this is a game with a target audience of ages 3 and up, and the general satisfaction our kids have gotten from past LEGO titles (as well as actual, physical LEGO bricks), we thought this would be an ideal title for them - but the challenging builds often left them scratching their heads just as much as we were, and the lack of voice acting means that younger kids will struggle to follow the story and instructions due to a hefty amount of written dialogue. The visual style is naturally very similar to other LEGO titles, but has a different overall feel with a resemblance to Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker’s worlds when zoomed out.
Story %, Chests, Shop and Animals to discover in each world are recorded within the stats, which is always great to be able to keep track of your progress. You’ll be able to find chests throughout the levels - containing different item types depending on which world you’re in - and these act as the currency in the game, allowing you to buy items from the Shops you’ll find. Boo the Ghost runs the shop(s), and here you can buy new costumes, as well as new brick colours for customising your builds. One part that didn’t seem to be very highly noticeable is the Wardrobe, where you can go to customise your character. I’d already played a good chunk into the Jungle area before I even noticed this as it is contained within the pause menu.
Overall, LEGO Bricktales is a bit of a mixed bag, with decent puzzle-based gameplay and a simple, silly premise but the frustrating camera controls and limited exploration within the diorama styled environments, and stunted creativity - in terms of how we always seem to be building some form of bridge or platform, at least for the most part - all make it feel like it falls short of our built-up expectations. It might be better for people looking for specific LEGO based puzzles, rather than for younger kids, as trying to solve some of the designs might prove to be a tad too challenging, especially as there doesn’t appear to be a ‘solve this’ option, or any hints or tips if you’re starting to struggle, but if you still want to give LEGO Bricktales a go, you can pick it up on Xbox for £24.99.
In the end, we decided to give LEGO Bricktales the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Are you interested in LEGO Bricktales? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Plan of Attack for the LEGO Bricktales Xbox review code!
