LEGO Marvel's Avengers
By David Wharton 26 August 2015
E3 2015 is less than a week away, with gamers primed in anticipation of all the big announcements, trailers, and surprises this time of year inevitably holds. As is typical, however, major news has already been breaking before the event has even begun. Last week saw Bethesda’s official announcement of the long-awaited Fallout 4. Earlier today DICE and EA confirmed the title for the upcoming Mirror’s Edge sequel, Catalyst. Who knows what else the week will hold?
Well, first of all, it holds the E3 2015 trailer for LEGO Marvel’s Avengers, complete with Hulk selfies and an extra-blocky version of the Battle of New York from the original Avengers film. Check it out up top.
Traveller’s Tales first revealed the existence of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers earlier this year, alongside the announcement LEGO Jurassic World, which is due to release alongside the feature film this Friday. In spite of borrowing its title from the upcoming Jurassic World, that game will adapt sequences from all the Jurassic Park movies thus far. Similarly, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers will put Traveller’s Tales’ trademark silly spin on both the original Avengers movie and this year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Presumably, that will mean the new LEGO Avengers game will let gamers play characters added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in that film, including the speedster Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and the android Vision. And if there isn’t a LEGO version of Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor somewhere in the game, I’ll build a hat out of plastic bricks and then eat that hat.
Unsurprisingly, however, this pre-E3 teaser trailer skimps on the Ultron-related material, instead showing off sequences from the first Avengers movie. There is a cameo of the villainous Ultron himself at the tale end, but no doubt TT is holding back most of the material based on the more recent film to show off during E3.
What is shown in the trailer is mostly sequences from the Avengers’ climactic battle against Loki and the invading Chitauri in the last act of the first film. There’s a (hopefully player-controlled) Quinjet blasting Chitauri ships, Hulk pausing the smashing long enough to mug for the camera, and even a LEGO version of that iconic “circle around the team” shot that was in all the trailers.
The Battle of New York was the biggest action sequence of the Avengers movie, so it makes sense that Traveller’s Tales would be pulling from it heavily for the game. While it’s all speculation at this point, but don’t be surprised if the game features other levels based on the S.H.I.E.L.D. base from the movie’s opening, or the craziness aboard the helicarrier.
One other intriguing possibility is whether LEGO Marvel’s Avengers might draw from other MCU properties beyond just the two avengers movies. By the time the game comes out later this year, Phase Two of Marvel’s grand cinematic plan will be complete, so Traveller’s Tales would have a dozen movies to draw from, not to mention ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter TV shows, as well as Netflix’s Daredevil. Given that TT has already set the LEGO/Marvel bar high with 2013’s excellent LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, it would make sense to pack this new game with lots of material, and having more than two movies’ worth of material to work with could be helpful. Dare we hope for an Ant-Man level?
LEGO Marvel’s Avengers will be available this winter for PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS4, PS Vita, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS.
