Lego Bricktales – Review

Many Lego-themed video games have been released, but the most successful ones haven’t made the most of the Lego brand’s strengths. In fact, one could argue that the influence of Lego games like those developed by Traveller’s Tales would not have been as great if not for the inclusion of various licences. And so it is that Lego Bricktales is an oddity, opting out of the familiar “Lego game” formula in favour of something that aspires to be more imaginative, constructive, and faithful to the Brick.

To put it another way, you’ll be immersed in a cutesy, diorama-like Lego world where Minifigs break the fourth wall, minor inconveniences are presented, and the solution is in your block-building hands. It’s also visually appealing, with well-detailed settings to explore, pleasant lighting, and a distinctive Lego look that reinforces the game’s playful atmosphere and makes you feel like you’re actually playing with Lego blocks.

Traveling through time and space to fix problems and make Minifigs happy is, presumably, the point of the story. By doing so, you can acquire a Happiness Crystal and use it to revitalise your grandfather’s run-down amusement park before it is shut down for good and he is relegated to inventing in his basement. Extremely schmaltzy, but amiable MacGuffin standards. Its purpose is to plod along and point you in the right direction as you solve each puzzle; it even has a few jokes thrown in for good measure.

Thankfully, Lego Bricktales’ main selling point is its puzzles. Each one requires you to build something in a contained area, a grey wasteland where you must use bricks to create a path out of a paper bag. The solutions seem obvious at first: construct a bridge, platform, or ramp. Since physics plays a role and you’ll want to make sure your building can withstand your crash test robot before putting it to use in the real world, these activities are a good way to ease into the concept.

There are a number of variants on these that increase the difficulty by placing additional constraints on your movement, putting your mental agility to the test alongside your Lego knowledge. But the same set of tools can be used to make other types of puzzles, such as ones in which you have to recreate a statue, solve a riddle by arranging objects in the correct order, or even just create your own marketplace, zipline, or rollercoaster train.

In the same way that actual Lego might, Bricktales piques your interest by stimulating your imagination. You’re not penalised if you solve a puzzle in its most simplistic form, but the rewarding “clickety-clack” of the Lego bricks and the sheer fun of creating something from nothing but a few simple pieces keeps you coming back for more. Checking off the objective is simple, but the fun comes from doing so in whatever way you find most elegant or creative.

When this happens, Lego Bricktales shines like a bright star. Sadly, you won’t feel particularly challenged by the tasks presented to you, and the pacing of these puzzles will feel a little off. The construction of a minecart capable of catching, transporting, and depositing a pile of Lego dots representing coal is a classic example of this. It’s a chance to put your creative Lego-building skills to the test, but the solution isn’t particularly difficult or time-consuming to figure out.

The potential is there for challenging puzzles that keep you guessing until that “eureka!” moment, when you realise that you’ve solved a difficult problem using Lego as a medium, but Bricktales never quite lives up to that ideal. Instead of using Lego bricks in creative ways to solve problems, you’ll end up building yet another bridge, walkway, or platform.

Once you’ve solved a puzzle, you’ll unlock sandbox mode, where you can build whatever elaborate creations your heart desires. However, in my opinion, Lego Bricktales is at its best when players are restricted to a certain number of bricks. The puzzles are like prompts, and the few possible combinations of bricks serve to encourage originality.

To make up for the limited variety in its puzzles, the game’s explorable environments all feature secret collectibles and chests that, when opened, grant you access to one of five playable skills. This probably takes inspiration from those Travellers’ Tales games and gives you a reason to go back in time after learning a new ability, but it ultimately falls flat in Lego Bricktales. The exploration is a little monotonous, with its slow, plodding movement and excessive amount of pointless back and forth navigation. To top it all off, the payoff is more bricks for the sandbox mode you’re not even going to use.

It feels more like a missed opportunity than a major flaw in Lego Bricktales, but it never takes away from the experience itself. A good time can be had by anyone who understands the concept of mindlessly stacking plastic blocks.