LEGO Bricktales Review: Build your own adventure!
Welp, Grandpa’s gone and done it again. He’s a brilliant scientist, but he’s a bit, well… mad. And in his madness, he’s accomplished (and forgotten) quite a bit. Like his portal machine — insanely cool doohickey that’ll allow people to teleport wherever they want to go. Cool, right? Unfortunately, it’s come at a hefty price — Grandpa promised he’d clean up the themepark his portal is sitting on, but he got so wrapped up in his work that he plumb forgot! Shame, because forgetting the promise means the land — and his portal — will be condemned and bulldozed. Isn’t there anything anyone can do?
That’s where you come in to save the day in LEGO Bricktales, a brick-building adventuring game that’ll be sure to please fans of LEGO, Minecraft, and more. Developed by Clockstone and published by Thunderful Publishing, LEGO Bricktales asks players to “experience a charming story as you explore beautiful LEGO® dioramas and help the people inhabiting them,” while using “an intuitive brick-by-brick building mechanic to solve puzzles and bring your creations to life!” Available on console and PC for a friendly price of $24.99, LEGO Bricktales offers a fresh take on a classic toy experience.
As previously mentioned, LEGO Bricktales opens up on some quality bonding time between grandfather and grandchild… except it’s more grandfather explaining his newest scheme and grandchild getting roped into fixing everything for him. You see, darling grandpapa failed to keep up his end of the bargain, so his beloved portal will be scrapped since the land it sits on will be deemed an unfixable eyesore. Luckily, Grandpa’s hoverbot, Rusty, has come back from exploring the vast corners of the universe and has decided to help us out with the most powerful fuel of all: happiness crystals. By teleporting all over the known LEGOverse to help plastic people become happy, the trio will be able to collect enough happiness crystals and save Grandpa’s greatest creation.
LEGO Bricktales’ gameplay is composed of two major parts: exploration and construction. Both segments play greatly into each other, the exploration parts acting as a prompt for the construction portions, and the construction bits solving problems experienced during exploration. While both gameplay portions are extremely simple upfront, they offer additional challenges for those wanting to sink their teeth into the meat of things a bit deeper, although it’s entirely optional.
The exploration portions of LEGO Bricktales are very stop and go, and that goes doubly so if you’re a completionist. Dropped off first in a jungle biome, players will be plopped into one diorama with a very linear path forward into the next diorama. Until you get some power-ups, there’s little need to venture off the beaten trail, but if you’re like me, you’ll try anyway. Once you do get those power-ups needed to unlock new areas, it’s easy to spend most of your time inching forward, then backtracking to the end with said powers to ensure there’s nothing that’s been missed. In that sense, exploration can be a bit frustrating, but if you just take LEGO Bricktales for the initially linear ride that it is, you’ll have a good time.
If you were surprised that the construction portions of LEGO Bricktales would be the best part, well… surprise? Construction in LEGO Bricktales is a genuine challenge and joy. Players will be prompted to construct specific things, like a bridge or helicopter, that will help our fearless protagonist press forward. Of course, it’d be too easy to let players have every LEGO in existence, so some parameters are set in terms of build area and brick types/amounts. Once you’ve built your contraption, you’ll have to put it to the test — if it can withstand actual physics long enough, you’ll not only pass, you’ll unlock sandbox mode on that challenge to build however you want with infinite blocks. Very cool for when you felt a bit constrained on a challenge and wanted to do better. Best part? What you build is directly implemented into the exploration portions!
Once you finish up with the tasks needed in a specific biome, you’ll receive a happiness crystal and head home. Grandpa will be so excited to clean up the place that he’ll let you design the rides at the themepark! I loved this additional touch of creativity that I got to provide not tied to any missions, as it allowed me to just freely build as I desired on something fun, colorful, and entertaining. I can see people spending hours in this portion of the game, decking out their ferris wheels and whirly-go-rounds to perfection.
Although LEGO Bricktales is a well-made and genuinely well crafted game, I couldn’t help but think I was the wrong demographic throughout the entirety of my playthrough. Not because of gender or interest, mind you, but because of age. I can see this being a preteen or teenager’s favorite game — one they obsess over with every last construction challenge, who takes pride in finding every easy-to-spot collectible, and who laughs at all the cheesy (but well-written) jokes. I’m not saying adults can’t play this game; more like I’m just saying that those of us who have more than two decades under our belts may not enjoy the stop-and-go exploration portions as much as actual children might.
LEGO Bricktales cleverly combines familiar LEGO construction play patterns with an all-new exploratory experience. Although the exploration segments feel a bit too aged-down for this tired millennial’s tastes, the construction is delightfully challenging and exactly what I would have hoped to see in a LEGO game. If you want great LEGO prompts and don’t mind extremely linear (yet still charming) storytelling or are a literal child, LEGO Bricktales is here to unlock your wildest imaginations.
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
Available on: PS4, PS5, XBox One, XBox Series X, Switch, PC (Reviewed); Publisher: Thunderful Publishing; Developer: ClockStone; Players: 1; Released: October 12, 2022; MSRP: $29.99
Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of LEGO Bricktales provided by the publisher.
