So today’s entry is a no brainer when it comes to how it fits. “Gremlins” remains a cult classic film to this day, even at 32 years old. If you somehow haven’t seen it, you’ll likely of heard of it.
https://youtu.be/zoK0BzYUTrU
The film is set in the days before Christmas, so as you might expect this film will long remain in the lexicon of films to watch around the holidays.
Well to the surprise of many. Gremlins and a whole host of other dated, timeless, and current franchises have been brought back to life and given a faithful recreation through the medium of Lego Dimensions.
Lego Dimensions is the newest attempt (as of 2016) into the “Toys to life” gaming world. We’ve had Skylanders, Disney Infinity, Amiibo, and some smaller scale attempts at this way of making you keep investing into a game through being physical items that through a means of scanning can be registered into your video game and basically act as a longer winded process of getting some downloadable content.
Disney Infinity and Amiibo I invested heavily in, but truth be told it was mainly just because I’m a major fan of the works of Disney and Nintendo, so at the end of the day I’m happy with just buying these somewhat expensive little figures.
With Lego I had my doubts at first. I’ve enjoyed a few of TT’s licensed Lego games in the past, but Amiibo and Infinity didn’t really give me the enjoyment from a game that I felt I should of got for the price I put in. I went ahead and asked for Lego Dimensions as a Christmas present from my girlfriend last year as I didn’t really have anything I needed so figured I’d just ask for something I was curious of but didn’t want to feel like I’d gambled my own money on.
Eventually I got playing the game and immediately felt like I’d made a good call, although this excitement was partly fuelled by me investing in “The Simpsons” and “Midway Retro Gamer” level packs. Then I could truly give me something to measure my fandom vs how well they do the licenses justice, and long story short. I love it.
I’ve picked up a couple of different add-ons for the game since then, usually only purchasing sets based off franchises I’m highly familiar with just to be able to woo over all the little nods and fine details the game developers have put into each particular universe. I’ll have to go into the other offerings of Lego Dimensions in finer detail at another time.
Gremlins for Lego Dimensions is a great little “Team Pack” for your consideration. Whilst you don’t quite have a story driven narrative to pursue through like “Simpsons”, “Sonic”, “Ghostbusters”, etc. You do get 2 Lego Figures; “Gizmo”, and “Stripe”, along with an RC Car Vehicle and a Polaroid Camera which have unique abilities and uses across the entirety of anything you do or anywhere you go in Lego Dimensions.
Every figure has a hub world tied to it, and naturally Gizmo and Stripe allow (and any other figures you bring along with you). In this case it’s Kingston Falls, in the heart of the holiday season (as seen in the first movie). As is a common theme with every other Dimensions franchise I’ve played so far, the fine details are superb.
The streets are loaded with familiar locations and touches you’d pick up from the movie. From the Christmas Tree stall, to the movie theater, and the Chinatown district where the whole concept of a Mogwai, plus more. Within this open world you’ll find a lot of puzzles to solve in order to collect more of the Lego brick currency you’ll use throughout the game. These puzzles are mostly nods to scenes in the movie, with some smaller ones being more about rewarding your general exploration.
As a fan of the movie it’s great seeing Cory Feldman’s character in his Christmas Tree outfit, or the fact that the movie you play for the bad Gremlins in the movie theater is clearly an unlicensed nod to Snow White (in the movie it actually is Disney’s Snow White). Cute touches like how Gizmo’s weird little run animation mimics the limitations of how it was in the film due to the robotics and puppetry of the time, plus Gizmo and Stripe have character specific abilities that come based off actions they’ve done in the movie.
All the above and more, nicely topped off with the score from the movie ambiently sealing the feel.
Nothing seems off bounds when it comes to the selection for what TT Games has licensed so far for Lego Dimensions. It’s as if 2 games of pop culture bingo are happening in the office. One game is drawing franchises that are popular with the world (and definitely kids) as of today. Whilst in the other room we have someone 30+ writing down what was cool when he was a kid and we’re seeing a lot of results from that game. Gremlins, Knight Rider, A-Team, The Goonies, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters (’84), Midways arcade games of the 80s…
As a self claimed fan of the game so far I enthusiastically welcome each new wave to be announced. Whilst secretly hoping for; “The Warriors”, “Terminator 2”, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, “Rocky”… heck I could go on naming things for hours, but hey how about an actually amazing “Home Alone” game done in the Lego engine. That’d easily make a future years iteration of this feature.