Lego games are not exactly few and far between. For every major franchise of ‘Geekdom’ there is a Lego game; Lord of the Rings, Batman, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean all have Lego games, and now we can add the Marvel to the list, but with Lego Marvel Super Heroes creators Travellers’ Tales haven’t just given us a retelling of The Avengers, they have given us a story that covers nearly every corner of the Marvel universe, and managed to include more characters than you would ever have thought possible.

The story begins with the Silver Surfer being attacked as he passes by Earth, his surfboard shatters into cosmic ‘bricks’ and a host of Marvel villains team up to make use of the power that these bricks hold. Nick Fury and SHIELD catch wind of a bad guy plot and begin calling in heroes like Iron Man, Hulk, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four to help out.

If you have played a Lego game before now, and I’d honestly be surprised if you haven’t, then the basic gameplay has not changed. You go through a level, beating up bad guys, smashing everything to collect Lego ‘chips’. It’s not in the core gameplay that Lego Marvel Super Heroes stands out, but in the abilities.

It’s fair to say that in previous Lego games there have been often characters that had the same abilities as each other so you could often go through the game with a fixed ‘team’. Luckily then that the Marvel Universe has such a wide variety of characters that often particular puzzles can only be solved by one particular type of characters. Some characters will have the ability to fly, or turn invisible, but often these are executed in different ways, Thor’s Hammer vs Iron Man’s suit, but then the characters secondary abilities are different Iron Man’s laser beam Vs Thor’s lightning. Some puzzles – like sandpits – can only be used by one specific character. You will end up replaying levels in Free Play more than just once.

A Lego game wouldn’t be a Lego game without two things, one the Lego obviously, and two, the trademark humour. These are very self-aware games, and they play up to the camera, from the slight ribbing of Captain America’s knowledge of the 21^st Century, to cast members other, real world personas. I think I laughed for about 10 minutes when I came across a wonderful hint to a movie involving a plane, and some snakes.

The main world that the game is set in is New York, specifically, Manhattan Island. You’ll visit other locations, but usually there will be a section between levels that will require you to go from one A to B, and it’s up to you how you go there. When I was first let loose in this wonderfully realised map I was playing as Iron Man, I then spent about 30 minutes flying around landmarks and just seeing how far I could go. It was a great feeling, the city is a good size, plenty of things for you to explore and side quests for you to take on. There was never a sense that I was totally lost, which is something I felt when I played Lego: Batman 2 last year.

My only real issue with the game is that switching characters in the Manhattan sections isn’t very intuitive. In Free Play levels it’s a case of holding down the ‘switch’ button until the menu pops up, but in Manhattan you have to first switch your character at specific points on the map before you are given free access to it. It was confusing why I could do it in one section but not the other, but once I figured it out it was fine, if not a little annoying.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes isn’t just the best Lego game that has been made so far, it’s also possibly the best superhero game that has ever been made. Lego perfectly encapsulates the fun and light hearted side of the Marvel Universe, a side often missing from the darker DC. Plus with the rights to movie characters within the Marvel Universe split between different studios, this game may be the only place to see all the Marvel Heroes in one story.

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