3.5/5 ★ – Endless_backlog's review of Lego Marvel Super Heroes.

13hrs For me this is a game that thrives off of nostalgia and boasts a huge selection of 180 playable characters. From the expected feature of Avengers and Spiderman, to more unusual inclusions of Fantastic Four and X-Men. Lego games thrive best when you’re a fan of the IP it’s showcasing and Marvel Superheroes has something for everyone (you can even unlock Blade!). The story begins with identifying the latest threat to the world, as Dr Doom and Loki team up to destroy Earth using a Doom Ray made up of pieces of Silver Surfers board. From here the squad of heroes band together to take them and all of the classic villains they have employed as henchmen down. The levels all follow a similar structure with a random assortment of playable heroes completing a task and taking down a couple of boss fights along the way, taking you across many iconic Marvel settings like Stark Tower, the Daily Bugle and the X-Mansion. What makes it so addictive and compelling is seeing the interactions we wouldn’t normally see, like Thing, Storm and Captain America teaming up to beat Rhino. With such a huge cast of characters come a multitude of ways to solve puzzles and progress through a level. Smart characters like Iron Man can hack computers, strong ones like Hulk can lift and break heavy objects, invisible ones like Black Widow can evade security cameras, clawed ones like Wolverine can dig and climb walls and characters like Spiderman can yank down walls. There’s also some unique skills like Storm flying over fire to extinguish it. Although some characters have the same skills as others, their mannerisms and the way they perform attacks keeps each of them feeling very individual and not the same with a different skin. I liked some of this attention to detail like wolverine becoming an exoskeleton when low on health or transforming between Hulk and Bruce Banner to smash, hack or build. Mr Fantastic transforming into a ridiculous object such as a hammer to solve a puzzle quickly reminds you a large target audience is for kids. The campaign is progressed through linear story missions but there is some free roam to play before this. The S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier acts as a hub where you parachute into NYC to explore or help civilians from everyday crimes. Onboard the helicarrier there is a room where you can create and customise your own character from multiple piece options. Flying remains the best form of traversal around the city with Iron Man and Human Torch very fun to fly, but you can also run, swing around or levitate. There’s a lot of side missions such as races but the only one that interested me was saving the multiple helpless Stan Lees from danger. I also really liked that Deadpool made an appearance as a fourth wall breaker. Despite not getting the chance to play as him in the campaign, just seeing him lurking around in the background was good fun. Overall, Lego Marvel Superheroes doesn’t just spam Marvel fans with a huge roster of characters and thrive off nostalgia. You can tell the developers put a lot of love into every aspect. As it doesn’t follow any of the movies it was given free rein and has produced a genuinely good independent storyline with lots of memorable moments, customisation and post campaign fun.