LEGO Worlds review on Nintendo Switch

LEGO Worlds descends upon Nintendo Switch

After first arriving on PS4 and Xbox One, LEGO Worlds is available now for Nintendo Switch. This is a LEGO game unlike any that’s released before, mixing elements of Minecraft and TT’s LEGO series into one. Explore new planets, uncover hidden treasures, and watch your LEGO worlds spring to life before your eyes.

Mix and match your favourite characters, creatures, and vehicles in this creative sandbox build-your-own-world adventure. From Cowgirls to Pirates, Rowboats to Helicopters, and Camels to Crocodiles, the sky’s the limit in LEGO Worlds.

Let your imagination run wild

LEGO Worlds is not your typical LEGO game—it’s different in a variety of ways. For starters, it’s not tied into any licensed property so it doesn’t parody a Hollywood movie like most past games. Instead, it offers its own original LEGO characters, worlds, and gameplay mechanics for you to enjoy.

Surprisingly, LEGO Worlds doesn’t really have any story of its own, but that’s OK. In this game you get to use your imagination to come up with stories that are fun for you. After customizing your astronaut character, you’ll crash land on a strange planet ripe for exploring. This is where your grand LEGO brick-building adventure begins.

Your first task after landing is to collect—yep, you can guess—those bouncy LEGO studs we all know and love. The first world is a tutorial of sorts, introducing you to the building mechanic and taking on tasks from NPCs. All worlds in this game, including the introductory one, are all randomly generated, so it changes every time you play. Tasks you might need to accomplish within these worlds are varied, and are also randomly created. One moment you might need to repair your rocket’s engine, and the next take photographs with chickens.

Build your dream LEGO worlds

Unlike other sandbox games where you begin building right away, LEGO Worlds takes a vastly different approach. In order to unlock characters, vehicles, and creatures you’ll need to travel around and complete various objectives. Some could be simple fetch quests, others require you to take pictures, or you may need to trade specific items. This mini-quests give the game a nice sense of adventure and encourage thorough exploration.

The worlds in which you visit are filled with friendly NPCs, most of whom need your help. Often this is the form of requesting food or a tool they need, but sometimes you may need to rescue them. Environments also contain a plethora of wildlife for you to tame, some easier to tame than others. Your reward for completing these challenges is having the characters or creatures added to your LEGO building list.

Another way to fill out your LEGO construction list is by using the Demiscovery tool. It acts like a scanner, which you can use to scan animals, vegetation, vehicles and more. After scanning the object a one-time fee of LEGO studs will permanently unlock it for you to use. The cool thing is there’s no limit to how many copies of the object you can then place—1, 5, or 100, the choice is yours. Objects you haven’t yet discovered are easy enough to find, just look out for the subtle glow they emit.

Become a Master Builder

In-game you’ll have a tool selection wheel that’s used to shape the world around you. Want to build a huge mountain for you to climb? You can do that at the snap of your finger. Want to carve out a massive cavern below your feet? You can do that, too.

It doesn’t just end there though, in fact terraforming is just the beginning of what you can do. In a flash you can construct entire cities complete with houses, citizens, pets, vehicles, and more. Furthermore, you can access blueprints to construct buildings at the push of a button. There’s also a copying tool to make repeating the same object even easier. After you’ve unlocked a fair number of objects, the only real limitation is your imagination.

Collect gold bricks

LEGO Worlds offers a meta-challenge in the form of gold bricks to find and acquire. These ultimately count towards you goal of becoming a Master LEGO Builder. There are 100 gold bricks in all to collect, scattered around a multitude of different randomly-generated worlds.

What’s cool is that at the push of a button you’re able to generate entirely new worlds to explore. All of which will contain a certain number of gold bricks to discover. There’s a huge diversity of world terrains, too, from molten hot zones, to lush jungles, to colourful candy-like environments. This makes it pretty exciting when generating new worlds, as the possibilities are nearly endless.

Collecting gold bricks is no easy feat, too. Generally these quests are harder and take longer to complete, and you have to keep your eye out. I often found myself hopping back-and-forth between worlds to tie-up any loose ends and ensure I got the gold bricks.

Massive amount of content

LEGO Worlds is packed with hundreds of mini-quests, items, and collectibles waiting for you to discover. A lot of the characters, vehicles, and creatures from straight from other LEGO games (such as LEGO City), so a lot will be familiar. The main difference this time, of course, you have the freedom to create your very own LEGO worlds using bricks.

To share your LEGO creations or build collaboratively, you can launch the two-player mode and play locally or online. You can even request a random online player to join your game if you so choose. Being able to build with others is a lot of fun, and helps extend the overall longevity of the game.

Final Thoughts

LEGO Worlds is a fun game that opens up and expands the more you play it. Some minor technical features hold it back though, like the odd slowdown and occasional finicky camera. Still, they rarely detract from the overall fun, of which there is a lot to be had. From scanning objects to add to your collection, to collecting gold brick, to building your own LEGO worlds—this game has it all. If you’ve enjoyed previous LEGO games, LEGO Worlds is right up your alley.

+ Wonderful sense of freedom
+ Excellent creation tools
+ Great LEGO graphics
+ Near-infinite worlds to explore
+ Fun game for all ages

– Lengthy load times
– Occasional camera clunkiness

OVERALL

Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 3.5/5
Sound: 4/5
Lasting Appeal/Replayability: 4.5/5

Overall Rating: 3.9/5 (78%)

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