Lego Marvel Super Heroes

The player can visit several locations in the game such as the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.

Following the gameplay style of past Lego titles, players are able to control 180 characters from the Marvel Universe, each with their own unique abilities.[5][6] For example, Spider-Man can swing on his webs and use his spider-sense while the Hulk, who is larger than the standard minifigures, can throw large objects, as well as shrink down into Bruce Banner to access computers.[7][8] Galactus was chosen as the main antagonist in the game.[9] According to game director, Arthur Parsons, and producer, Phil Ring, one of the main settings of Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a Lego version of New York City.[10] In addition, a Lego version of Asgard was created.[11]

The creative team has also incorporated Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee in the game. He is a part of missions called "Stan Lee in Peril" (similar to "Citizen in Peril" missions from previous games). He is also a playable character and has several of the other characters' abilities (such as Spider-Man's webbing, a combination of the Human Torch's heat beam and Cyclops' optic blast, Mr. Fantastic's ability to grapple, Wolverine's adamantium skeleton when all health is depleted, and the ability to transform into a Hulk-like version of Lee).[6]

Players can also explore the Marvel version of New York City, though they can only use a specific character and access buildings after the campaign is complete. Side missions are narrated by Deadpool[6] and take place in buildings with their own storylines. There are a total of 15 missions in the main single-player campaign, followed by 11 side missions.[12]

Many of the main LEGO minifigure characters are based on their appearance from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony Stark is modeled on Robert Downey Jr., Nick Fury is modeled on Samuel L. Jackson, whilst Agent Phil Coulson is both modeled on and voiced by Clark Gregg, Captain America is modeled on Chris Evans, Black Widow is modeled on Scarlett Johansson, Bruce Banner is modeled on Mark Ruffalo, Clint Barton is modeled on Jeremy Renner, Loki is modeled on Tom Hiddleston, Thor is modeled on Chris Hemsworth, and Maria Hill is modeled on Cobie Smulders.

Galactus dispatches his servant, Silver Surfer, to travel through the universe, in search for planets for him to consume. When the Surfer arrives on Earth, he is intercepted by Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D., before being suddenly knocked out of the sky by Doctor Doom, with his board shattering into several "Cosmic Bricks". Doom captures the powerless Surfer and brings him to his Castle Doom in Latveria, where Doom is communicating with an imprisoned Loki, revealing their plan to use the Cosmic Bricks to build a ray that would allow Doom to defeat Galactus and then take over the world. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. learns about the bricks as well, and Nick Fury unites Earth's heroes to find the bricks before Doom does.

Doom hires various villains to find the Bricks for him, starting with Abomination and Sandman, who hold Grand Central Station at ransom for a Cosmic Brick, but are defeated by Iron Man, Hulk, and Spider-Man, with Nick Fury leaving the Brick in Mister Fantastic's care at the Baxter Building. Mister Fantastic and Captain America arrive at the building shortly after to examine the Brick, but find it under attack by Doctor Octopus who steals the Brick and escapes. Pursuing him with the help of Spider-Man, the heroes defeat Doc Ock in Times Square, but he tosses the Brick to the Green Goblin. Tasked with retrieving it, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Spider-Man infiltrate Oscorp to confront the Goblin, but he pits them against Venom, allowing him to escape with the Brick.

Later, Iron Man and Hulk respond to a prison break at the Raft, orchestrated by Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth in order to release Loki, so he could aid Doom with his plans. Aided by Wolverine, the heroes defeat most of the escaped prisoners, including Whiplash, the Leader, and Abomination, as well as Sabretooth, but Magneto and Mystique release Loki and escape. Captain America and Tony Stark head over to Stark Tower, only to find that Loki, the Mandarin, and Aldrich Killian have hacked J.A.R.V.I.S. and turned the tower's security system against them. The pair eventually restore J.A.R.V.I.S. to normal before confronting the villains and learning that they came here for Stark's arc reactor. Whilst Loki escapes with it, Captain America and Iron Man defeat the Mandarin and Killian. Later, after Fury tracks down the arc reactor's signature signal to a HYDRA base beneath the Empire State Building, Black Widow and Hawkeye go investigate and face HYDRA's leaders, Red Skull and Arnim Zola, discovering that they used the reactor to power a portal to Asgard for Loki to use. As Loki escapes through the portal, the heroes, now joined by the Human Torch, Captain America and Wolverine, fight HYDRA and defeat Red Skull, whom Captain America knocks into the portal generator, unwillingly destroying it.

Fury asks for Thor's help to take Captain America, Wolverine and the Human Torch to Asgard so that they can stop Loki, only to discover that Loki is now commanding the Frost Giants and has taken over Asgard. Confronting Loki, the heroes discover he came here to steal the Tesseract from Odin's vault, which he uses to unleash the Destroyer armor on them. The heroes emerge victorious, but Loki escapes and, while arguing what to do with the Tesseract, Wolverine steals it and brings it to the X-Mansion, believing Professor X could unlock its secrets. After learning of this, Doom dispatches the Brotherhood of Mutants to attack the mansion and retrieve the Tesseract, as he needs it to power his Doom Ray. The X-Men - Jean Grey, Cyclops, Iceman, Storm, and Beast - fight them off, defeating Brotherhood members Pyro, Toad and Juggernaut, but Magneto and Mystique make off with the Tesseract. Tracking down its signature to Latveria, Fury initiates an assault on Doom's castle, joined by the Fantastic Four - Mister Fantastic, the Human Torch, the Invisible Woman, and the Thing. After tearing through Doom's defenses and Doombots, as well as defeating the Green Goblin, the heroes confront Doctor Doom, who is holding a prototype Doom Ray. After Doom is unable to make it work, Loki knocks the heroes unconscious with his sorcery and escapes alongside Doom, letting him believe that the Doom Ray worked, before the heroes awaken and rescue the Silver Surfer.

Shortly after, S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks down Doom aboard an A.I.M. submarine and Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Thor are sent to deal with him. Defeating numerous A.I.M. agents, as well as MODOK, the heroes cause the sub to sink, but manage to breathe underwater with Jean Grey's help and confront Doom aboard a smaller sub he escaped with. As they all return to New York, Magneto brings the Statue of Liberty to life and uses it to attack the sub, saving Doom. He then commands the statue to attack a Roxxon Industries power plant and steal its nuclear core. Hulk, Mister Fantastic, and Wolverine attempt to stop him, entering the statue's head, where they defeat Mastermind, but Magneto has the statue toss its head away, before leadiang it to Savage Land, where he intends to use the stolen nuclear core to power his space station, Asteroid M. Sent to stop him, Captain America and the Thing arrive on the island and join forces with Storm to fight through Magneto's Acolytes, alongside the island's security system and Velociraptors. They soon defeat Magneto and Rhino, but the former is revealed to be Mystique in disguise, allowing Magneto to launch Asteroid M into space.

While Doctor Doom and Loki arrive on Asteroid M and continue building the Doom Ray, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Thor, having just escaped from the destroyed submarine, learn about the situation and volunteer to board Asteroid M to stop the villains. Using one of Stark's jets, the heroes board the space station and defeat Magneto, sending him flying back to Earth, where he lands in the Baxter Building, before Iron Man and Thor are subdued by Doom, who has just finished building the Doom Ray. Just then, Captain America, the Thing and Storm, having boarded Asteroid M as well, arrive to aid Spider-Man in fighting Doom, defeating him, before the Thing also sends him flying back to Earth. However, Loki then reveals that Doom was under his mind-control and he manipulated him all along to build the Doom Ray for him, which is actually a craft powered by the Tesseract that would allow him to control Galactus and destroy both Earth and Asgard. When Galactus arrives to consume Earth, Loki uses the craft to mind-control him into destroying Asteroid M with everybody still aboard.

After the heroes land safely on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury realizes that Loki and Galactus must be heading to New York first and decides to unite Earth's heroes with the villains to stop them. The heroes - Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Mister Fantastic, the Human Torch, Cyclops, Storm, and Fury - and the villains - Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin, Venom, Abomination, Magneto, and Mystique - join forces aboard the Helicarrier and manage to open a large portal and toss Galactus and Loki into it, while Thor destroys the craft with his hammer. Galactus and Loki are teleported to an unknown part of space, where the former prepares to eat Loki as revenge. On Earth, Fury retrieves the Tesseract and the heroes decide to give the villains a head start to avoid capture, in exchange for having helped save the world. With all the Cosmic Bricks collected and reassembled back into his board, Silver Surfer recovers his powers and departs into deep space, promising to lead Galactus away from Earth.

In a mid-credits scene, Fury oversees the repair of the Statue of Liberty, when the Guardians of the Galaxy - Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon - show up, having been called earlier by Fury to hopefully help fend off Galactus. After Fury apologizes to the Guardians, Star-Lord warns him that there is something else threatening Earth. Shortly after, while having lunch with the construction crew, Fury encounters Black Panther, who was looking for his cat Mr. Tiddles. After finding him, Black Panther tells Fury that the people of Wakanda thank him for helping save Earth.

Reception

Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PS4) 84.00%[13] (PC) 80.60%[14] (X360) 80.71%[15] (PS3) 81.90%[16] (Wii U) 83.38%[17] Metacritic (PS4) 83/100[18] (PC) 78/100[19] (X360) 80/100[20] (PS3) 82/100[21] (Wii U) 82/100[22] Review scores Publication Score AllGame [23] CVG 7/10[24] Destructoid 8.5/10[25] Game Informer 9/10[26] GameSpot 7/10[27] GameZone 90/100[28] IGN 9/10[29] Play 85/100[30] Polygon 8.5/10[31] The Escapist [32] Revision3 [33]

Lego Marvel Super Heroes received generally positive reviews upon release. Among its strengths, reviewers cited its humor, variety of missions, characters, and open-world gameplay. According to review aggregating website GameRankings, Lego Marvel Super Heroes received an average review score of 84.00% based on 15 reviews; according to Metacritic, it received an average review score of 83/100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Steve Butts of IGN gave the game a 9 out of 10, praising it for being: "the best thing to happen to Marvel games since 2006's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance". He added, "it's a warm and witty, multi-layered approach to the brand that ties in hundreds of Marvel's most iconic characters, settings, and stories".[29] Steve Hannley of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4/5, calling it "one of the best Marvel games this generation".[34] Game Informer gave the game a 9 out of 10, while Polygon gave the game an 8.5 out of 10.[26][31] GameZone's Matt Liebl gave the PS4 version a 9/10, stating "on a console filled with shooters like Killzone and Call of Duty, TT Games' Lego Marvel Super Heroes presents a nice break from the complex sports titles and intense shooters that overrun the console".[35]

Though the game was generally well-received, it garnered some criticism, often regarding the frame-rate and the repetitive nature of the missions. Chris Barylick from GameSpot noted that, "Lego Marvel Super Heroes looks and sounds lovely, but its presentation quirks often prove distracting. Certain characters repeat the same lines of dialogue ad infinitum, which can get tiresome; there are only so many times you can hear Tony Stark proudly describe himself as 'Tony Stark...genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist' before it gets old". He also noted that "the frame rate occasionally drops, particularly upon entering co-op mode, and a small black box occasionally appeared in the air over my characters' heads towards the end of the game. At one point, my character would respawn directly next to his still-present corpse, while a boss fight against Red Skull had me wandering around the room for several minutes looking for scenery to smash before I realized I had encountered a bug and had to restart the level". Asides from the negatives, Barylick gave the game a 7/10, praising its humor, open-world and variety.[36]

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment President David Haddad has stated that Lego Marvel Super Heroes is the bestselling Lego video game of all time.[4]

A sequel titled Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 14 November 2017.

Two add-on packs were released for the game. The first, Super Pack, included 8 characters: Dark Phoenix, Winter Soldier, Symbiote Spider-Man, Hawkeye (classic), Beta Ray Bill, Thanos and A-Bomb as well as two vehicles: The Spider Buggy and Hawkeye's Sky Cycle, and 10 races that can only be done with the new vehicles. The second, Asgard Character Pack, was released in November to coincide with the release of Thor: The Dark World, and included 8 characters: Malekith, Kurse, Sif, Volstagg, Odin, Hogun, Fandral and Jane Foster.[37]

• Official website
• Lego Marvel Super Heroes on IMDb