LEGO The Incredibles (Switch)
While there are many LEGO action games based on film franchises, usually they are drawing from series with quite a few movies as source material. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, and more all had at least three films to draw from, but while Disney and Pixar’s The Incredibles only had two films as source material, this doesn’t seem like too much of a step down. A bit more time spent with the events of each film warped through the comedic and construction-focused lens of LEGO sounds doable, so the two tales of superheroes whose crime-fighting lives intersect with mundane family concerns feels set for a pretty reasonable translation into the LEGO game format. Things do get off to a rather odd start though, LEGO The Incredibles deciding you should first have to play through the events of the second movie before you can access any levels adapting the first.
Admittedly, most people who would pick up a game based on The Incredibles would have likely seen one or both of the films so presenting them out of order likely won’t hurt many people’s understanding of the plot, especially since the TT Games brand of LEGO video games tend to focus on comedic subversions or twists to the film events so they’re often more a loving parody rather than faithful retellings. With this game and the film The Incredibles 2 coming out in the same year though they likely wanted to put forward the new movie’s events to capitalize on the one fresher in player’s minds, but there are some advantages of taking this approach. The Incredibles 2 is the story of a society that had outlawed superheroes, the Parr family having recently been forced into superheroics in the previous film and now rubbing up against the political effort to overturn the superhero ban. The mother Elastigirl ends up the primary face for the movement while Bob Parr ends up struggling with becoming a stay at home dad to this three superpowered children, but while the push for superhero legalization starts to recruit new heroes to its cause, a villain named Screenslaver seeks to put a stop to it with hypnotic control. In the film the primary focus is on Elastigirl and Bob’s contrasting lives, the mix of comedy and action already translating well to a sillier presentation seen in the game, but LEGO The Incredibles is able to focus in a bit more on members of the supporting cast. The extra heroes like the acid-spitting octogenarian Reflux and the electricity focused hero He-Lectrix are paired up with Elastigirl for some of her superhero missions that let them not only show off their abilities more than in the movie but they also can be given a bit more character, He-Lectrix clumsily stumbling into slapstick situations constantly while Reflux can’t help but constantly draw attention to his advanced age.
Players are able to swap between the focused heroes for a mission as necessary to use their different power sets or two players can each assume the role of one of the characters, the adaptation of The Incredibles 2’s plot focusing much more on the gameplay side as you need to interact with your environment to create ways onward or overcome boss characters you don’t fight directly. It does feel like the game is burying the lede a bit though as the events of the first film are more amusing and creative in how they alter the story line to fit the format. Many more of the humorous story scenes have strong ideas for how to break away from the course of events in funny ways, and while The Incredibles 2’s plot had some awkward cutaways to the home life of Bob Parr to try and keep all the necessary details in play even when they didn’t comprise of any interactive elements, the first movie’s feel more tightly adapted and free of such rough expositional drops. The Incredibles also features some of its own interesting twists to accommodate the co-op play and focus on utilizing characters as a set of specific tools. In the original film Bob Parr’s days of being Mr. Incredible come to an end when heroes are outlawed but his desire to keep his glory days going leads to him being lead into covert superhero action by way of a mysterious benefactor on an isolated island, his family eventually forced to get involved when the benefactor’s true intentions are revealed. Here though, Mr. Incredible’s island action is joined by his ice-themed ally Frozone so the characters can have consistent banter and bounce thoughts about the situation off each other, and while Gazerbeam was mostly a plot device in the film, here he is not only foreshadowed well, but he makes an actual appearance and has an amusing angle of being a somewhat loopy amnesiac who is still stoic and unable to take a joke despite his condition. Voice acting definitely gives the characters some more room to stretch their comedic legs, and while some characters had to be recast due to the big names not likely wanting to be part of the project, some characters like the speedster son of the Parrs Dash have an actor reprising their role to lend some authenticity to the interactions.
Both sides of the experience at least have plenty of set pieces from the films to draw from to keep the action constantly moving through new locations. Elastigirl finds herself needing to stop a runaway train and riding a bike through the city, Frozone and Mr. Incredible team up to save people from a huge burning hotel, and even exploring the wreck of a plane at sea is turned into a fairly varied but not overly long set of quick ability-focused puzzles. Even a simple scene in the films like the baby Jack-Jack messing with a raccoon can be twisted into an elaborate backyard brawl where the raccoon inexplicable gets water gun artillery, the wacky changes applied to the movie stories opening things up to a wider range of interactions. While there are some simple platforming challenges and every now and then you’ll need to smack around enemies with fairly basic attack strings, the major focus tends to be on utilizing character-specific powers to alter the world or overcome obstacles. While not all of the environment in LEGO The Incredibles is made of the building brick that gives the game its distinct look, there are plenty of destructible objects that can be broken either for studs that serve as a collectible and currency or to rebuild things into new devices and tools that can often be quite elaborate in design despite the simple building process.
Depending on the situation, different power sets will be necessary like Mr. Incredible’s strength breaking apart durable objects or Elastigirl using her stretchy body to reach places or help others climb to new heights (although these often involve designated interaction points since the two heroes could probably solve a lot more puzzles if their superpowers weren’t restricted in such a manner). Sometimes the task is fairly straightforward but other times you will need to figure out how to utilize your team of heroes to overcome an obstacle. Unfortunately Violet, the shy daughter of the Parr family, is saddled with one of the abilities that doesn’t work the best. While her invisibility works fine, she can also make a forcefield bubble to roll around in, this useful for going underwater and slipping past lasers but saddled with sometimes needing to carry other characters inside the bubble. The button press to enter or exit the bubble as another character is the same as swapping between characters in general leading to some fiddly interactions if you’re not standing just so, and even when in the bubble you’ll often just have something like Dash using his super speed to spin the bubble quickly on a device they need to power that is one of the less engaging interactions. There’s even a segment where you’re racing across water with the Violet and Dash bubble combo that could have redeemed the concept some if it wasn’t practically impossible to fail during it, but most power interactions are either swift and simple ways of making progress or more involved but not overly difficult puzzles that give exploring some interesting energy, especially if you’re trying to find extra goodies. You’ll need to replay some levels to find them all since only then can you make a team of characters with every possible power at your disposal, but even in a first playthrough there are hidden collectibles within reach if you can figure out what is needed to grab them.
Beyond the stories of the two films though, LEGO The Incredibles also has an open city to explore, although perhaps it is for the best the game doesn’t emphasize it as much as the structured adventure. While the story mostly has you play its chapters back to back unless you want to jump off an explore the city, Municiberg and New Urbem are decently sized areas that don’t always fill that space with interesting content. A lot of little basic interactions around town exist like stopping random thugs, putting out fires, interacting with simple objects, or finding the Incredibricks you can use in Family Builds to sometimes get special rewards, but a lot of these are fairly basic checkmark quests or the kinds of activities you’d hope to be doing on the way to something more interesting. They don’t demand attention so you only have to do what you can be bothered with, but much of the space is devoted to sprinkling these about so city exploration loses some of its charm when you realize its mostly shallow nature. Some challenges like races at least have a bit more to them and there are a few rewards of substance to be found like extra characters. Some of them are familiar characters from The Incredibles films while the game invents a few new superheroes and villains to flesh out the ranks some and give you a wider range of abilities to play with, but perhaps the more intriguing addition are the characters from other Pixar films. The different Family Builds can net you characters like Sulley from Monsters Inc. or Wall-E from his self-titled film, and while sometimes they will choose a less expected character from the films like going for Spot the caveboy from The Good Dinosaur since making a dinosaur character might have been a bit of work for an optional goodie, you also can play as Flik the ant from A Bug’s Life and Lightning McQueen from Cars is an easy adjustment since the city already lets you drive cars around if you so wish.
The better part of city play though are the Crime Waves, each subsection of the map eventually having a supervillain and their gang show up to cause some mayhem. The part of town will change a bit and a few characters will give you some more structured if still rather simple goals to work towards, each supervillain having two Crime Waves each before things cap off with unique boss fights that play more into the game’s better focus on movement and interactions than actual fighting substance. One of the more enjoyable parts of these Crime Waves though are the associated scenes, each one introduced and concluded with a Breaking News segment where a reporter strings together a surprisingly natural set of puns related to the current villain’s activities, and the villains themselves are a fine bunch as well. Some like Bomb Voyage the explosive-slinging mime are villains featured in the films who are able to get more focus with these dedicated segments while others are original inventions, one of the highlights being Anchor-Man, a former newscaster with a nautical theme that includes some entertaining ideas born from that unexpected mixture of ideas. While the city exploration is technically optional, the Crime Waves at least give it something more effective than poking around for small rewards, this extension of the game’s life thus justified and packing in some enjoyable moments despite feeling a bit lost in other respects.
THE VERDICT: LEGO The Incredibles makes some unusual choices like putting the second film’s events first and building an open explorable city with mostly shallow tasks to fill it up, but the core adventure and Crime Waves give you plenty of well-structured content even if it’s presented a bit oddly. The actual humor shown during the play is kid-friendly but still legitimately funny and occasionally clever while the levels and boss battles are good hosts for the ability-focused problem solving that teases the brain just enough to remain engaging despite not being that complex. When LEGO The Incredibles is focused it’s effective, and thankfully it doesn’t shove you into its free-form content often so you can enjoy where it succeeds and then mop up the weak extras only if you please.
And so, I give LEGO The Incredibles for Nintendo Switch…
A GOOD rating. LEGO The Incredibles does teeter close to being a grade lower, the city exploration, Violet’s bubble woes, and the basic combat sometimes sucking the energy from the experience, but besides an introduction to Crime Waves early in the story you aren’t forced off the plot’s path and can get a full set of entertaining levels that play into the game’s better focus on utilizing your characters and their abilities to get around environments. More side quests with some substance or more legitimate puzzles could spice up when you’re just trying to find something to do around town and combat does work when it’s focused more on the battlefield being a danger and a tool for striking back against your opponent, but dumping a bunch of extra content onto the game beyond the more effective structured experiences isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Younger players may enjoy looking around for simple collectibles as a low pressure activity and some goodies do even have interesting applications like unlocking Dory the fish from Finding Dory giving you a good amount of freedom for exploring underwater areas. LEGO The Incredibles probably should have put its best foot forward and focused on the more effective humor of the first film’s representation in-game before moving onto the greater action potential of the second film, but there are still enough skills across the experience and different situations to use them in that you hit on the main appeal of this LEGO game format. Like trying to find the right LEGO brick to build what you’re working on, figuring out how a set of abilities can solve a problem opens things up to more play and things coming together in a satisfying way.
A rise and fall between effective ideas and less exciting simple interactions does put LEGO The Incredibles on shakier ground than some of the other games within this format, but while it wasn’t the most obvious film franchise to pick for a LEGO game adaptation, it still finds areas where it can succeed in giving you fun powers to play with, unique challenges to overcome, and amusing scenes that might actually draw a laugh out of you. It does feel a little messy or half-baked at parts, but you’re often in charge of either quickly getting past it or ignoring it in favor of more effective content so it won’t bog the adventure down. It’s not quite an incredible game, but there’s still good times to be had with the Parr family in this simple but appealing LEGO story.