Top 10 Franchises That Should Be Announced As LEGO Games at E3 2012

Build it and they will buy?

by David Hilton

©2012 David Hilton

Next year we are rumoured to be getting a Lego Lord of the Rings game, most likely to be shown at E3.

We’ve already had Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Rock Band, Lego Indiana Jones, and Lego Harry Potter plus their sequels.

A gamer could be forgiven for being a bit tired of playing with Lego.  But what makes all these Lego titles so popular is their simple, co-operative, humorous adventure-style gameplay that the whole family can enjoy and often play together.

Seeing a favourite franchises made into colourful kiddie-block glory is also a highlight for some.

Lego has charm and has endured as a toy for so long because of the ‘build and destroy’ that allows for incredible creativity and destructive tendencies at the same time.  It can be both mindless and incredibly challenging.

I believe that if Lego video games are going to keep expanding there are some obvious franchise choices that are being missed, especially ones to attract or keep core gamers.

These Lego titles should be announced at this year’s E3.  Or the next one.  But definitely by the one after that!

Here are my Top 10:

1. Lego Assassin’s Creed

This one is obvious given the awesome video (see below) someone made imitating the E3 Trailer of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations last year.

So it probably wouldn’t be as stealth oriented, but doing leaps of faith off architecturally detailed historic buildings and watching Lego heads roll across Lego cobbles has to be an awesome idea.

We already have Prince of Persia Lego you can buy and build, but there has been no game made of Ubisoft’s franchises, and I would argue that Assassin’s Creed would be ideal.

It would be similar to the portable games, but with co-op where your friends and family could jump into the robes of another Assassin and help out.

Just watch the video and tell me it wouldn’t rule!

Lego Assassin’s Creed Shenanigans:

2. Lego Halo

This one is even more obvious.

After all they do have Halo Lego you can buy in stores.

Halo Lego environments like inside a ship or out planet-side driving a Warthog with a few other Spartans would be a huge hit.  Especially if you can do cool jumps with lots of explosions going off.

You could choose to be a green, red, blue, or whatever colour Spartan and then take the fight to the covenant with a variety of weapons and vehicles to find and use.

Maybe even some flying action in a Halo Hornet to spice things up?

3. Lego God of War

So we have an exclusive from Sony too, God of War could be a great deal of fun as a Lego game.

I considered the Uncharted Franchise, and though it would be awesome, it might be too similar to Lego Indiana Jones.

Lego God of War would allow for some excellent Ancient Greek-inspired ruins to be further ruined by Titans, Gods, and Kratos.

Floods, lightning, earthquakes, huge creatures…along with the odd puzzle, and huge set piece (pun intended) battles!  Imagine how fun that would be.

Though the gratuitous sex gameplay may have to be toned down a bit.

4. Lego Avengers

You can’t have a Lego Batman game and not have a Lego Avengers game.

Especially with the huge success of the film and the fact that these super-heroes would allow for co-operative play where each player got to choose who to be.

It’s a comic-gamer fan’s dream!

Besides Lego is making Avengers sets.

The recent film with the invasion from outer space would make for quite the super-battle.  Especially with some super villains thrown in.

I’ve got dibs on Lego Iron Man, though I bet Lego Hulk would be the most fun to play.  Imagine the destruction he could do to a Lego environment!

I’d say this is commercially the best of my options to choose because it would appeal to a huge variety of age groups and make the perfect family game.

5. Lego Aliens

Sure the Alien films are scary and the upcoming Prometheus film also looks scary, and even the upcoming Gearbox-made Aliens: Colonial Marines game looks a bit scary, but Lego Aliens would still be fun!

Setting up Lego turrets and mowing down Lego face-suckers to green strobing and flickering light while watching your Lego teamates get dragged off screaming, surviving the onslaught only to face that big mother Alien at the end?

Game over man.  Game over.

The tongue in cheek humour that could be brought to bear on the Alien franchise would be fantastic.  There is a huge amount of quotable dialogue that can be made fun of in the usual  Lego miming way.

I still remember Alien being made fun of in Spaceballs all those years ago.

This would be more shooter than adventure, but there have been enough films that it could be very entertaining.

A Lego version of that cargoloader Ripley used to fight the mother Alien could be a lot of fun.  Assemble from a flatpack and then…fight!

6) Lego 007

If Indy can get a Lego game done of his franchise, so can Bond, James Bond.

The recently announced 007: Legends game is going to be a lot of fun, but imagine something similar done in Lego?

Levels taken from films with titles like: The Man with the Golden Lego, Legopussy, Legofinger, From Russia With Lego, The Spy Who Loved Lego, Lego Is Forever, Lego Royale, Live And Let Lego, Quantum of Lego…

It again wouldn’t be ‘stealth’ oriented, but the humour and action would make up for that.  And the Lego gadgets and vehicles to play around with could also make for some interesting gameplay.

With villains and henchmen like Jaws, Klebb, Oddjob and Mayday there would be some good confrontations, and there usually is an offsider for Bond to allow for co-op play.

The amount of exotic locales that could be done up in Lego vistas is massive.

This is another game that young and old could enjoy together and already has a huge following.

7) Lego Game of Thrones

This fantasy novel series turned massively popular TV fantasy series deserves a good medieval Lego game.

The sword fighting, the dragons, the armies, the conflict between so many for the Iron Throne…it would all make for a great Lego interpretation.

Why, even the beginning credits look like some invisible hand is building all the cities and fortresses, in a more sophisticated Lego-esque style.

Co-op play would be a must, and of course having a direwolf is a must too.

The only concern I have is that the adult content and the subtle nature of the political intrigue might mean that the title isn’t entirely suited to a Lego game.

Still, who cares.  I’d buy it, just to have my baby dragons knock some Lego henchmen off a tower.

8) Lego Left 4 Dead

These days every game genre seems to have zombies, so this list shouldn’t be the exception.

Though this game wouldn’t suit the toddlers, a game where your Lego team has to survive against a Lego zombie horde using bile bombs, pipe bombs, katanas, axes, shotguns, chainsaws and, against witches, flashlights, would make for some funny gameplay.

Imagine the Lego destruction caused by a Boomer exploding?  It would be an interesting mix between some sort of side-scrolling shooter and a horde or spec-ops mode experience.

In any case curiosity might draw a lot of gamers in, as it certainly would make a good party game after a few beers.

9) Lego Red Dead Redemption

Technically Red Dead isn’t a franchise…yet.

However we have a Lego game in a medieval world (Harry Potter/ Lord of the Rings) and one in a pirate world (Pirates of the Caribbean) so it would be a shame to not have one in a wild west world.

Riding a Lego horse through a rugged desert Legoscape full of Lego bandits and Lego South American revolutionaries would combine two children’s popular games from my past: playing cowboys and playing Lego.

Add a Lego train to the mix and there would be a third: playing with a train set.

I think they’d have a hit on their hands.

10) Lego Call of Duty

You knew this one was going to be here didn’t you?

This game series is so prolific that there would have to be a Lego version sometime or other.  Think of it as simple math: Call of Duty name + Lego image = instant $$$$.

The characters in Call of Duty have about as much personality as a little plastic toy, so it isn’t such a big stretch to see a side-scrolling styled shooter starring a bunch of modern warfare troopers fighting off the terrorist masses while blocks of Lego blow up everywhere.

Lego Paris.  Destroyed.  Lego London.  Obliterated.  Lego New York. Pulverised.  All by Lego Makarov or some other Russian or South American or Arabic Lego bad guy.

Cynicism aside, (yeah right) the game does sound like it actually could be fun.  Shooting and destroying is a staple of video games and works in a variety of gameplay styles, so why not Lego games?

Of course the ‘mature’ feeling the franchise is going for would be lost, but people already make fun of the series, so why not make a Call of Duty game that takes itself less seriously?

Lego Lunacy?

So there you have my Lego game list.  I’m hoping at least one is announced.

I did briefly consider Lego Mass Effect, but decided the ending would undoubledly have ruined the whole experience, leaving gamers feeling bitter and vengeful. [Ed.: And don't forget entitled! ]

Which franchises would you have chosen from movies or gaming?  Comment below.

©2012 David Hilton

Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Blogbanter, Console gaming, E3 2012, Editorial, Events, GameBanter, New Xbox 360 Games, PS3 News, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | "Lego Batman", Lego 007, Lego Aliens, Lego Assassin's Creed, Lego Avengers, Lego Call of Duty, Lego Game of Thrones, Lego God of War, Lego Halo, lego indiana jones, Lego James Bond, Lego Left 4 Dead, Lego Lord of the Rings, lego Pirates, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Red Dead Redemption