Now to get hold of Lego Star Wars III and wait it out until Lego City Stories comes out for the Wii U

There were some long levels, but overall it was certainly shorter than Harry Potter. That’s probably mainly due to no between-level story and lesson bits.

In terms of the “whole game cleanup”, I’ve already got half of the Red Hats, including the 2x, 8x and a second 2x multipliers, meaning studs are now in abundance so I can buy up characters and other red hats as and when they become available. I’ve also gone back and done the two levels I missed True Pirate on, and have done everything in the hub (which, as I expected, is very small indeed) I can for the time being.

I’ve had the game “bug out” a few more times too. The boss fight with Barbosa, I got stuck at twice as he didn’t move when he was supposed to, got stuck FIVE TIMES on the boss fight with Davy Jones for the same reason, and the game has completely frozen my Xbox at least three times now. Still, it’s no huge hassle providing nothing permanently broken comes along.

Now for the 100%!

First, the bad stuff. It has crashed on me already – my console froze just 10 minutes in. However, it did the same on Lego Harry Potter last week, so it might be my 360. Then, on the first boss fight, it bugged out meaning Barbosa just stood there, indestructible, and I couldn’t progress. Finally, it seems so small!

You see, Harry Potter was huge. The levels were big, but more than that – 4 books with 6 levels in each, lessons, story events, and one small (Diagon Alley) and one immense (Hogwarts) hub. I mean, there were 200 Gold Bricks in total to collect!

In Pirates, that number is down to 85. The levels seem the same size or smaller, there’s only 5 per film, and the hub is tiny – just three small areas and a couple of rooms off those. Of course, I may unlock more later on (I’ve only done the first film and two levels of the second), but still – it feels small.

The good stuff: it’s shiny. OH SO SHINY. And, being Lego, it’s OCD-terrific. So lovely. It’s also easier to “get”, for me at least, than Harry Potter because I know the films. Well, some of them. It also helps that 95% of the characters don’t look so goddamn the same. Jack’s treasure hunting stuff is pretty good too, and new to the series.

Overall, the game feels like Lego Indiana Jones 3. Yes, I know it’s pierats and not spelunking, but the types of character, weapon, and environment you get are more like Indy than Harry. Not a bad thing, of course, just an observation.

Oh! And minikits are back! \o/

Now I have to give it a verdict. I said at the start that I wasn’t a fan of Harry Potter. I’m still not, but somehow I now hate the series less. The game, despite the painful not-knowing-which-house issues, was excellent. And huge. MASSIVELY huge. Aside from the Star Wars Complete Saga “two-games-in-one” title, this is by far the biggest Lego game I’ve played. Finding everything took ages. In fact, finding the last Gold Brick took almost two hours by itself!

In the end, Lego won out over Harry Potter, and I really enjoyed it. And guess what turned up in the post for me today from my wife? Lego Pirates of the Caribbean! Yay!

Well, actually 72% done now, but 48% when I completed it. But that’s normal for Lego games – the bulk is done after you complete the game. And what have I done? I’ve been scouring the levels and hub for a character who can do Dark Magic (turns out someone called Lucius can) and then going everywhere in Hogwarts to open up and access things I couldn’t before I got a dark magic character or the ability to zap metal items.

Did the same in Diagon Alley too (which I realised was “Diagonally” – facepalm.jpg – see also: Knock Turn Alley), and then went and completed all of the remaining bonus levels. I’ve got 145-ish gold bricks (out of 200), 16 red bricks (20) and just ONE house crest (out of 24). I also have about 30 more characters to unlock as well!

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again. I’m not a fan at all. It doesn’t appeal, I don’t like how it steals ideas from so many other things then claims them as its own, and I can’t stand J K Rowling’s stupid smug face.

I love Lego games.

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again. They’re simple, sure, but they’re huge, funny and tick all the OCD boxes that make me go a bit gooey and warm. And, just 6 months after release, they’re incredibly cheap.

So there you have it: unstoppable force/immovable object. Fight?

This game is, as the title suggests, based on the first four books of the series. Like Lego games before, each of these is then split into 6 levels, making 24 levels in total. Then, also like other Lego games, there’s a “hub world” of sorts in the form of Hogwarts – which is way bigger than any previous Lego game hub. In addition, there are also some minor story sections (which don’t count to the level total), and quite a few magic lessons too, as well as the usual bonus levels, making the game probably the biggest Lego title of all, bar perhaps the really-two-games Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.

Mind you, the levels in Harry Potter are often massive, and seemingly more so than previous Lego titles, so it feels even longer.

This evening, I completed the first level of Year 4, meaning I have 5 of 24 levels left. Of course, that’s barely half the game – there’s still all the OCD red and gold brick collecting, the saving all the “students in peril”, the finding the school crests, doing the bonus levels (I’ve only done 5, for reasons I’ll mention in a minute) and unlocking everything. Which may take some time.

So far, so Lego. What upsets things somewhat is the Harry Potterness of it all. OK, so I don’t know enough about the Harry Potter universe for it to completely sicken me, but this also causes problems. In Lego Star Wars, at no point did it matter that I’d not seen the first three films, here I can’t complete certain bonus levels or do certain things in the hub simply because I don’t know which colour corresponds to which house, or (worse) which characters are in each house. Or even who anyone is.

I was stuck for an hour on a 3 minute bonus level because I needed to wave my arms in front of a green and white flag for a door to open. I guessed it wanted a character from a particular house, but I didn’t know which was green and white, so tried every single one of my 43 unlocked characters (you have to traverse the entire level to change to the next character, then walk to the flag, then back, each time) on the door only to find it didn’t open for anyone at all. Rubbish.

In summary: it’s a great game but better without the wizards.

1) Replay every level in Super Story Mode, completing each chapter in under an hour.

2) Replay every level in Challenge Mode, where I have to collect all of the blue minikits, which are hidden, in under 10 minutes per level.

So, being positive and assuming I do all that in half of the time limits without having to try again (unlikely – I’m expecting some tight finishes!) that’s at least another 6 hours of play. And I’m already at 31. Time for a break from this for a while, I think!

Not that I mind, as I’m enjoying it, but there’s a lot of OCD game here. I’m up to about 75% complete, but still have most of the levels still to do at least twice more, and all of them to do at least once more, as well as a few bonus levels and other stuff.

Another 15+ hours to go – easy.

Then I got, played, completed and 100%ed Lego Indiana Jones. And Lego Batman. And Lego Indiana Jones 2. I wanted to go back to Lego Star Wars but some of the achievements are utterly ridiculous – you have to complete every single level without dying! Also, there’s The Complete Saga anyway, which is the first game plus the second game (which was based on the second trilogy), so I decided to get that instead.

Problem was, it was never cheap. I only saw it for under £20 once, and I was too slow to buy it. Then I found it at Play Asia and, since I had a load of credit there and it had just come down in price, I managed to buy it for just 61p!

It arrived a couple of weeks ago, and, 12 hours of play later, I finished it. As in, I completed all the levels in story mode. The in-game counter only said I’d done about 33% though, as I’ve all them pesky minikits and gold bricks and red bricks and True Jedi things and everything left to do. And all the bonus levels. Lots.

After a few more hours redoing levels and completing some bonus levels, I’ve now reached 45% done. This is going to take a little while, I think!

You see, Lego games are some of the BEST. THINGS. EVAR. However, Harry Potter and Harry Potter Related Things are some of the WORST. THINGS. EVAR. So Lego Harry Potter is an irresistible force meeting an immovable object, innit?

I don’t know. It was OK. But I hated it. And I loved the Legoness. And having idiot wizard children and beardman and a rubbish dog was stupid. But smashing things and collecting studs was great. But it was Harry Potter and I wanted to smash my TV instead. Gah!

You know I’ll buy it.

All done! Finished the final two achievements (replay all the levels in Quick Play, and the quite difficult Complete Hangar 51 In Under 5 Minutes).  The Hangar 51 one took 6 or 7 attempts, but finally I managed to do it in 4:46 having fluked three hits on the end of level boss. Phew!

That means I’ve 100%ed it, 1000/1000ed it, and seen and done everything the game has to offer. Hurrah!

Not only have I completed Lego Indiana Jones 2 today, but I then went on to 100% it. Since I’d been playing to get 100%, that wasn’t too long afterwards as I’d already done nearly everything necessary. The final few % came from just buying stuff in the Creator mode, which was a bit unsatisfying. I still have two achievements left to get though.

My overall verdict of the game? Pretty good. The hub worlds were a bit confusing to start with, but I grew to love them and I hope future Lego games also have them. The levels themselves were a little short, and the Super Bonus Levels were pretty rubbish (not a patch on the equivalents in previous titles, anyway) since you just smash trees and collect studs.

You know, at first I wasn’t sure of this new hub-based level structure, but I’ve grown to really like it. I’ve noticed there’s no Free Play mode any more either – instead, you redo old levels, differently. Like the giant spider creature you fight: Go back there later and you do the same level only it’s all trampolines and careful jumps rather than a boss fight!

I’m now most of the way through Chapter 2 of the Crystal Skull. The hub world here is huge, and the puzzles in it and hidden items really add to the fun. There just seems so much more to do in it than any of the other Lego game “hubs”.

What I’m not so keen on, however, are the vehicle “bash them off the road” levels. Mind you, I’ve not really liked any of the vehicle levels in any of the previous games, and these are different in that you can get out and walk, so it’s not all bad.

It actually took quite a while to get into the game, but once in, it was all great!

Clearly it’s going to be more of the same Lego stuff, but there are differences. Each “episode” has its own hub world where some of the action takes place, and other levels (“proper” and bonus) are opened up from. There are puzzles in the hub to do this. The actual levels themselves are more like the original title, only (so far) they’ve been a fair bit shorter. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course.

The graphics have been really upgraded since the last Lego title too. No longer do they just look like shiny PS2 bricks – they’re proper HD now!

So far, I’ve completed two “proper” and three “bonus” levels, as well as some of the smaller story events, for The Crystal Skull.

There’s not a lot else to say about it, really, apart from that the finale track was a bit poor compared to The Final Countdown (which could have the the finale, only they added a bit more game onto the end).

I’d also like to know why every single time I play a random setlist gig, I have to play that Counting Crows track. Every. Single. Time.

Of course, the tracks in Lego Rock Band are more “mainstream”, and not just obscure B-sides from 1970s dinosaurs.

Really enjoying it so far, and have just shy of 300 stars. I’ve mainly been playing guitar, but have done a few vocal tracks (two while trying to play guitar at the same time – it didn’t go well) and a few bass tracks.

Makes my left hand ache somewhat, though.

This week I’ve been pecking at the remaining minikits, which for some reason were mostly on the Penguin levels – both hero and villain. The last minikit I got was by far the most difficult in the game. Harder than the whole of the rest of the game put together (erm, even though the rest of the game was very, very easy…). You have to slide down an icy slope, through 5 gates. Only you can’t jump, and you can barely veer to either side, making it virtually impossible.

I realised that swapping character after the first two gates made it easier, but that still relied on your CPU controlled partner crashing into a stalegmite or three before you pass the second gate (otherwise they overtake you, missing gates).

Anyway, all done! What next?

I’ve got all the power bricks from all the Hero missions, most of those from the Villain missions, all bar about 3 of the minikit pieces from the Hero missions, and about half of those from the Villain missions.

I’ve also got a few people to rescue on various levels, and I just know I’m going to get frustrated on the ice-slide section of one of The Penguin’s levels.

I’m still to work through the rest of the Villain missions though, and I’ve also got 200 achievement points yet to unlock too. I think I’ll get most of them all at the same time, though, once I’ve 100%ed the game. Currently I’m at around 85% done!