The game pad you start with actually supports seven objects at one point, too, so if you have seven things, you can whack them down on the pad and they will all load, handy because this is a two player game, and while one person can play with up to seven little in-game toys, two will share it better.
It will even light up and encourage you to move characters and elements to different sides of the pad, making this game pad not just a place for you to activate characters, but also interact with them.
Beyond the characters and levels, however, Lego Dimensions aims to do something else, and this appears to be one of the major things that separates it from other “toys to life” titles out there.
We mentioned earlier on that games like Infinity tend to provide merely statues for you to play with, which aren’t really toys kids are going to get a lot of fun out of outside of the game. Dimensions aims to do this differently.
In the Dimensions game, you’ll actually have little vehicles to drive around with.
For instance, in the main pack you buy, you’ll find the Batmobile, because you can’t have Batman without the Batmobile (how would you expect Batman to get everywhere… walk?).
But rather than just make the Batmobile like a character toy that appears in the game, the Batmobile — and every other vehicle in the game — is something you’ll actually have to build, complete with Lego instructions appearing on the TV screen. Better, you won’t just be building one version of the vehicle, but will eventually be able to build two more versions of a vehicle, and these will unlock different parts of the game and allow you to do different things.
In fact, while you usually only get one character per pack, sometimes two, the rest of the little things are vehicles, making a Dalek a vehicle in the Doctor Who pack, while the Back to the Future DeLorean is a vehicle that will also be modifiable into a train (from the third movie).
This element serves to make Dimensions not only different from its competitors, but also about what the core of Lego is: building stuff, and it’s something anyone who has ever played with Lego will recall, because building Lego stuff is fun, even if you’re well past the minimum age requirement.
Playing the game recently at a hands-on with its developer, it was hard not to let our jaw drop a little, because between the cute Lego inspired graphics, the sharp and surprisingly mature writing, and the incredibly huge array of character voices TT Games and WB were able to grab for this title, there is a really great little title here, not just for kids but for adults, also.
“We’re just completely stretching the limits of what toys to life means,” said Doug Heder, Producer at WB Games.
“We’re evolving the category we’re bringing stuff in that none of our competitors have ever done before in their games.
“Honestly for us, we’re trying to create a new paradigm around what toys to life can be and what it can be down the road for years to come,” said Heder.
The moment Doctor Who appeared on screen, the sci-fi nerd in us — which we need to admit is actually much bigger than people realise (shock horror, we’re sure) — simply lighted up.
Already, at this point, from seeing the involvement of Valve’s “Portal” to the legendary “Back to the Future” movie franchise, we were thrilled, but bringing BBC’s good Doctor?
That’s something else. In fact, it’s something else to the nth level, because rather than just throw the current Doctor — Peter Capaldi — in and hope for the best, as well as the Tardis, Lego Dimensions won’t force you to play as this doctor if you don’t want.
Few franchises have had as many actors play one role as Doctor Who has, and with 13 versions, people have their favourites. Fortunately, you can play as whichever one you want, and TT Games has sampled voices from the TV shows to use as their character sounds, while also rebuilding the Tardis for each character.
Don’t want to play as Capaldi and prefer Tom Baker? Do it. Don’t want to be him anymore and prefer David Tennant? You can do that, too.
This is a game that plays to geeks of all kinds, from the sci-fi obsessed to the ones that love a good movie reference, too, because you’ll find Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Jurassic World, Lord of the Rings, and a few other things here and there, not to mention some in-jokes inside the various levels, such as a Gandalf jumping forward and backward in time when he’s in the time-travelling Tardis of Doctor Who.
In short, this is the game every geek will want to play with, and if you have forgotten about toys because you were too mature for them or someone you knew told you to grow up, this is the game you’ll want to get out to let you play with your inner child. If you have children already, better, because you can explore your favourite franchises together, and maybe inspire a little geek in them, too.
Lego Dimensions will be available from September 28 on the Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Xbox One, and Nintendo’s Wii U.
