LEGO Brawls

“After the success of Lego Brawls on the Apple Arcade subscription service, porting it for all major consoles and PC seemed like the next logical step. However, after I played with the game for a while and found out its pricing, I couldn't root for it anymore. Even though there are wonderful plasticky ideas and I almost laughed my bricky bottom off while playing with my partner, it still plays like a mobile game priced as a AAA title.”

“I know the intention here was to put out something that a casual gamer would enjoy in mindlessly bashing out bouts while collecting an insane amount of customisable creations, but it would have been greater if there was time invested to make its “port” into a full fledged remaster for the premiere gaming platforms. If you’re looking for something in the LEGO Brand on home console, try out LEGO Batman; amazing title. But if you want to try this, I would advise pulling out the tablet and playing it there.”

“Lego Brawls fails bad, being one of the worst games of the genre.”

“While LEGO Brawls features both long-term themes like Ninjago and new ones like Hidden Side, the game lacks variety and a focus on gameplay. While you can unlock new parts for your minifig, those parts have no effect on gameplay. The lack of gameplay depth limits the time you want to spend on this game before is becomes too repititive, which is too bad as LEGO has more than enough variation in its themes and characters. All in all the feeling remains that this could have been a lot better.”

“It's not inconceivable that LEGO Brawls could turn into something fun one day. If it were beefed up with loads more content, along with more interesting and more dynamic fighters, it would definitely be a lot more interesting. But in this state, with so little content -- and with the content that is there being of such poor quality -- there's no way to classify LEGO Brawls as anything other than a massive disappointment.”

“LEGO Brawls is simple fun that is best played together locally. Kids will enjoy the LEGO themed characters and environments (Ninjago, Monkie Kid, Jurassic World, Pirate, Western, Vidiyo, Hidden Side, Space, Castle, Alien Conquest) as they battle each other to victory via brick brawling!”

“LEGO Brawls left me really frustrated. Seeing a vast creative opportunity being wasted this way was vexing. Not even having a huge amount of pieces to unlock motivates more than an hour of playing. A shame, to say the least.”

“Lego Brawls is a mixed bag as it really shines with the extensive level of customisation and unlockables available.”

“By focusing on surprising customization but not on a deep combat system or gameplay, LEGO Brawls is a decent digital hobby for LEGO collectors rather than a stimulating brawler game for competitive gamers.”

“LEGO Brawls feels like an insult to LEGO fans after the fantastic LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga released earlier this year. From the terrible core gameplay to the incredibly grindy unlock system, there are very few redeeming qualities to this package. If you're really desperate to build your own minifigure, most LEGO games already have a character creator of their own. Your time and money are best spent elsewhere.”

“Lego Brawls is an extremely basic and easy-to-learn platform fighting game that doesn't shine for its combat system or the level design of the game arenas.”

“Beyond the ability to collect minifigs and customise your character — something that does nothing to really change up the actual battling at the heart of it all — there's very, very little here to sink your teeth into. It all ends up feeling like a rather poor free-to-play mobile game, and one that doesn't perform very well on Nintendo's hardware.”

“LEGO Brawls was initially designed as a mobile game and can be an enjoyable way to kill some time playing online matches. As a console game that doesn’t add anything new to the gameplay, it’s just a generic platform fighter with little to no excitement. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the game was cheap or just free, but it’s shockingly priced at $60 AUD which makes it impossible to justify. There are tons of indie games out there that offer so much more at a cheaper price. Even with some interesting ideas, LEGO Brawls offers very little and is probably more fun to watch than play, but the novelty wears off really quickly. The biggest letdown overall is its generic gameplay that just isn’t much fun at all. Non-fighting game players often describe the genre as button mashers, and this game accurately fits that description and is a poor representation of the genre. Even stepping on a LEGO piece is more entertaining than this.”

“Once the Lego charm expires, you’re left with a console game that requires a lot more of a financial investment than free-to-play titles that have significantly more content. And as such, Lego Brawls is stuck in a strange space where it can’t quite reach its intended audience.”

“I can see LEGO Brawls' appeal as a free-to-play mobile game, where its simple mechanics and repetitive game modes are more excusable. As a full-priced console game, standing up against feature-rich AAA titles and even free-to-play titles, LEGO Brawls just doesn't stand out in the slightest. Although a less complex brawler aimed at a younger audience might make sense, in this case it's TOO simplified, where every character behaves the same and the only strategy is to run at your foes and mash the attack button. Combine that with the lack of additional single-player content and glacial progression system, and it becomes difficult to recommend LEGO Brawls to anyone other than the most devoted LEGO aficionados.”

“LEGO Brawls is, regrettably, a missed opportunity and its excessive simplicity makes this game recommendable only to young and inexperienced players.”

“LEGO Brawls may have more content than substance, but it succeeds in the intent of creating an accessible and fun competitive party game, and the incredible amount of characters, weapons, and customizations to be unlocked make it a title worth playing for months to come, as long as you are not looking for deeper, more technical gameplay.”

“As fans of LEGO, LEGO Brawls should have been the brawling game of our dreams. But unfortunately, it’s nothing but a massive disappointment.”