I had a pretty good time with the LEGO Movie Videogame. Compared to some of the other LEGO movie games I've played, I think this one benefits quite a lot from being based around a single movie. The story is easy enough to follow that even if you haven't watched the movie, you can still understand what's happening (even though at the end of the day, the movie was created for children and the story is quite simple and easy to follow). For my sister and me, it was also a fun way to remember the story while playing through it.
On top of that, I particularly enjoyed the building minigame. It feels different enough from the usual LEGO gameplay to keep things interesting, and the rhythm minigame was another nice addition, especially since the song "Everything Is Awesome" is quite addictive. Neither of these changes the overall gameplay, but they give you something different to do and fit pretty well with the theme of the movie and the LEGO theme overall.
I also liked the split-screen options. Having both dynamic and static vertical split-screen is a nice feature, especially since I'm not a fan of dynamic split-screen. Having the option to switch to the classic screen division is always nice.
Last of all, in terms of length, I think it's about what you'd expect from a LEGO game. The main story took us a little under 10 hours without spending much time on the side activities. Of course, there's also plenty of extra content to go back to if you want to complete and collect everything.
The game also has several hub areas based on locations you've visited throughout the story. Each one has its own missions, activities, and collectables. They aren't massive open worlds, but they still provide some extra content if you want to do more than just follow the main story.
My biggest complaint is how the video and graphics settings were handled. The options aren't available from the main menu and instead only appear once you're actually inside the game. This was especially annoying for me because I was initially trying to figure out why the game seemed to be locked to a lower resolution than my PC, which made the game screen smaller than the actual monitor screen. I spent some time trying to work out how to enlarge the picture, only to eventually discover that the relevant settings were in the in-game menu instead of being available when you first launch the game. It's a small issue, but it's unnecessarily confusing.
What is more, the game is still populated with various bugs and glitches, which often lead to you having to restart the whole level. Either an interaction is bugged, or the character gets stuck, and even after being killed, you respawn at the same location where you got stuck.
All in all, I think LEGO Movie is a pretty enjoyable LEGO game, especially if you liked the movie or want something to play cooperatively. It doesn't reinvent the LEGO formula, but the extra minigames and the movie adaptation make for a fun experience. To sum up, it was a nice way to replay and remember the movie while still having enough gameplay and extra content to make it worthwhile. 7/10
