Marvel is having a great year with the success of movies Thor: Ragnarok , Spider-Man: Homecoming , Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 , and Netflix TV shows like The Defenders and Iron Fist . So is Lego, with the success of The Lego Batman Movie and their famous building block syndication. So it’s only natural they team up for an outing of Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, featuring all your favourites from this year.
What’s it about?
Forging its very own story, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 takes place in Chronopolis, a world that’s twisted by time after Kang the Conqueror captures entire cities to make one massive cut-paste job of time zones. So you have the Old West; Black Panther’s home, Wakanda; Asgard; a futuristic Nueva York; and even a coliseum. It all makes for a superb playground for the super heroes to wreak havoc in.
The story itself is dripping with Lego’s signature fun, slapstick take on the franchises. The heroes stumble, bumble and fight through the storyline in hilarious sequences, with their own little quirks that they display in the movies, throwing them into one large sandbox, watching how they react with other heroes, with comedic results — making the story one of the best so far among the Lego games to play through with your kids.
How does it play?
Sticking close to the formula of past Lego games, Marvel Super Heroes 2 does get tedious and quite messy at times. Taking a page out of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the game breaks that tedium with flying sequences and a lot of well-animated cinematic sequences that, if strung together, look like they make up a fantastic Lego movie of their own.
The time manipulation feature, which allows characters to move through levels by rewinding and forwarding time is cool. But not as great as the one used in Titanfall 2. However, it does add a puzzle element to the game. The best part though, are the heroes, each with their own special ability and little comical nuances that lighten the mood. From Thor and Hulk to Rocket Racoon, Star-Lord, Spider-man, Iron Man, Ant Man, even Iron Fist and Dr Strange. Plus, there’s a whole plethora of villains and heroes dropping in for cameos. The sheer star power will make you light up with joy.
Should you get it?
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is one of the best Lego games so far, and since the untimely demise of the mobile Marvel Heroes, Super Heroes 2 will fill that void.
Every fond video gaming memory from the 16-bit console era is complete with a Sonic the Hedgehog experience. At the height of Sega’s console domination, their answer to Mario, in the form of a speed demon rodent, was a hit. Now, Sega has been trying to reboot Sonic with varied degrees of success. Sonic Forces is one such attempt with a very interesting take on the plot.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2
Developers: Traveller’s Tales
Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
Price: ₹2,499 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, ₹2,999 for Nintendo Switch
Sonic Forces
What’s it about?
The bad guy has won. Doctor Eggman has defeated and imprisoned Sonic and has taken over the world. This leaves you, playing as a new Sonic character, to help Sonic’s friends form a strong resistance and break Sonic out of prison and put an end to Dr Eggman’s plans. You team up with the likes of Tails, Silver, Knuckles, Amy Rose and Classic Sonic, and battle it out against Eggman’s robotic minions, Metal Sonic, Shadow, Zavok, Chaos and an all-powerful robot known as Infinite.
Mario has always focused on a threadbare storyline, focusing instead on level design and gameplay elements. Sonic Forces does provide a single-player campaign with a coherent storyline, but it’s something Sonic does not need. The story itself feels like those My Little Pony cartoons, with a friendship-themed moral under it all, when all we want is to feel what it is to be Sonic again. It seems as though Sega wants to make it relevant for new-comers and kids, as well as the grownups who were once kids when they loved Sonic. It’s a tough line to tread, and everything ends up a mishmash, even the gameplay.
How does it play?
Sonic was brilliant as a platformer, as it was fast, beautiful and had a rollercoaster quality to it. Sonic Forces feels like a collection of levels designed by several different people, rather than one team. From the really fun rollercoaster with the old school 2D retro-like levels to the endless runner-like levels, the perspective keeps shifting, making it fun in short bursts, but never really bringing you in. Sure, several games have managed to pull off this multi-platform gaming style, like the classic Contra: Hard Corps and most recently it’s the award-winning Nier Automata. Sonic Forces seems disjointed, with the levels that are short, and are like a bag of Skittles. Except there, you don’t get to pick and choose which colours or flavours you like best. What does go for the game is the pretty cool create-your-own-Sonic.
Should you get it?
Despite its shortcomings, Sonic Forces is not a bad game. It’s a lot of fun, and it still retains some of that Sonic spirit, especially in the rollercoaster and classic Sonic levels. It would be a good play on the Nintendo Switch. Though, it’s best to wait until it hits bargain bins, even if you are a Sonic fan.
