Review No. 15 Lego City Undercover - Wii U (12+)

Strong Points:
Lots of costumes and vehicles
Funny storyline
Lots of collectibles
Lots of cameos
Good abilities
Easy to use
Large open world map

Weak Points:
Most costumes don't add anything new
Special assignments get boring after a while
You have to travel between the police station and downtown a lot
Combat is humorous but easy and quite boring

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:

North America: 18 March, 2013
Europe and Oceania: 28 March, 2013

Controls:
Player:
A: choose menu options/grab
B: jump
X: choose character
Y: fight/shoot
L: police whistle
R: take snapshot
ZR: change character
ZL: change character
Left Analogue Stick: move player
Right Analogue Stick: move camera
Start: pause

Vehicle:
A: accelerate
B: reverse
X: get in/out of vehicle
Y: nitro (if it has any)
R: take snapshot
L: honk horn/put on siren
ZR: accelerate
ZL: reverse
Left Analogue Stick: move vehicle
Right Analogue Stick: move camera
Start: pause
Tilt Gamepad Up: jump

Helicopter:
A: ascend
B: descend
X: get in/out of helicopter
R: take snapshot
ZR: ascend
ZL: descend
Left Analogue Stick: move helicopter
Right Analogue Stick: move camera
Start: pause

Lego City Undercover is a computer game which was only released on the Wii U.
It was developed by TT Fusion a division of Traveller's Tales. Lego city is an action-adventure style of game which follows the adventures of Chase Mcain, a police officer, trying to arrest Rex Fury, an old enemy. He meets a wonderful collection of characters including the loveable and humorous new recruit Frank Honey and Natalia Kowalski Chase's love interest who has to go into hiding when Chase reveals her identity when she testifies against Rex Fury.

The player goes through a series of special assignments which are much like the missions of past Lego games where you can collect a certain amount of studs to become the 'Lego City Hero'. What is new to the series is that you can now do four little missions (e.g. destroy 4 of the same thing) to earn a police badge part. Once you get all four of these you get a gold brick (you also get a gold brick for completing the level and getting 'Lego City Hero'). There is an option to play in free play mode after you completed the level so that you can get all the extras (e.g. red and gold bricks, characters and vehicles).

The player also goes through car chases, free runs and puzzles which cannot be replayed.

Characters can talk to you via cut-scenes and the GamePad video caller. This video caller is brilliant feature which allows you to get fully involved in the game without having to stop and watch a cut-scene. Citizens also talk randomly without subtitles to make it seem like you are in a real city.
The GamePad also has a detector which you use for various missions, the ability to take photos and share them on Miiverse and a map all which are added later in the game.

There are over 200 characters and over 100 vehicles to collect with some being given away as well as codes by Nintendo.

Conclusion: this game is an interesting concept from TT Fusion and Traveller's Tales and a good step forward from just doing film licensing. However, it was let down from the severity of the loading times and that there was no co-op. I can't wait to play Lego Marvel Superheros which is being released later this year.

Rating: 92%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.