10 Games That Need the LEGO Treatment Next

Over the years, we’ve seen several popular IPs rendered in plastic bricks as LEGO grabbed more and more official licenses. With Star Wars leading the way, things like Harry Potter and both Marvel’s and DC’s extensive fictional universes were transformed into LEGO toys, and eventually games. From Indiana Jones to The Lord of the Rings, fans have built and battled their way through these simplified and spoofed games. Since so many ostensibly serious, or semi-serious properties made the transition well when they got the TT Games treatment, we can’t help but wonder: what other franchises or titles would work well with virtual bricks and minifigs?

Mass Effect

Mass Effect has been hot on everyone’s mind lately with all the buzz around Andromeda. While the main franchise is heading out to a new galaxy, a fresh take on the original trilogy would be most certainly welcome. LEGO Mass Effect could build upon the basis of the first two LEGO Star Wars games, both of which covered three movies each, which in this case would be the three games. The menu-hub, where the player interacts with all the characters they’ve unlocked and begins levels, could be based on the Citadel, since that was the unifying hub in the three Mass Effect titles.

Now, the Mass Effect games are all pretty lengthy and filled with content, especially if we take the DLC into account. A LEGO rendition would not be able to cover all of the story elements, so much like in the case of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and The Lord of the Rings, LEGO Mass Effect would feature abridged versions of all three games. Since LEGO games always incorporate some aspect of the source material as the main feature, LEGO Mass Effect could add Paragon and Renegade interrupts into cutscenes – which have so far been static throughout the LEGO games.

Assassin’s Creed

You might point out that Assassin’s Creed isn’t exactly a family-friendly property, what with all the murder. However, let us point out that the ending of Raider of the Lost Ark isn’t particularly family-friendly either, but Indy got two LEGO games nonetheless. Depending on which Assassin’s Creed titles LEGO includes in a game, the levels could be set up in different ways. The first two games, and to some extent Brotherhood, are more or less structured in a narrative sense around assassinations – for example, the finale of every sequence in the first game is an assassination.

Based on this structure, each individual level would focus on the set-up of an assassination, such as getting rid of a number of archers guarding battlements. LEGO games have pretty simple boss battles pop up every now and then, however in this case every level would be topped off with a boss battle with the assassination target. An interesting way of integrating Assassin’s Creed gameplay elements would be the inclusion of hiding spots and the blending mechanic. In some cases, the player would even be required to build their own haystack, for example. Who knows, maybe the upcoming movie will prompt LEGO to swipe the license and make this a reality!

Final Fantasy

With such an astounding number of Final Fantasy titles out in the world, TT Games would definitely have its hands full adapting each of those that would make the transition well. The earlier titles, which had a greater focus on the “fantasy” part of Final Fantasy, feel like they would be better choices, since their visual and character designs generally erred on the side of family-friendly. While some LEGO titles have experimented with open-worlds (such as LEGO City Undercover), it might be too monumental a task to recreate the recent Final Fantasy XV with bricks and minifigs.

Nonetheless, turn-based combat and RPG elements aren’t something characteristic of LEGO titles either. So why pick Final Fantasy? The vibrant and colorful worlds that usually serve as the settings for these games would be wonderful to behold as bricks, and come on, who doesn’t want to ride a LEGO Chocobo? Final Fantasy VII might serve as good source material, since it’s fondly remembered, and the game is pretty blocky by default. Also, TT needs to find a way to make “friendship” a gameplay mechanic if they tackle this.

Uncharted

Uncharted really seems like an obvious choice, seeing as Uncharted is basically Indiana Jones, which has already been adapted as a LEGO game twice before. In all seriousness, the vibrant and beautiful locations featured in the Uncharted games just beg for a LEGO rendition, and the gameplay mechanics wouldn’t be difficult to replicate either. Cover-based shooting has been done in LEGO titles before, and things like a climbing mechanic unlike the typical platforming style of LEGO games would be easy to set up.

The LEGO game could cover the first three main titles, while a potential second game could include the recently released fourth installment alongside all the spin-offs that have been added to the franchise since (Golden Abyss was pretty damn good, after all). Plus, miniature Nate and friends would be so cute!

Dark Souls

Mixing the upbeat, colorful, family-friendly humor of LEGO with the crushingly depressing bleakness of Dark Souls might seem like an odd choice. That said, the world and vistas of Dark Souls rendered in bricks would be a wonder to behold, and simply seeing the LEGO versions of the wide array of enemies the franchise has seen would be worth it. Again, there have been three Dark Souls games so far, so the three episode structure remains intact.

While each Dark Souls game is, again, too extensive to be completely covered by a LEGO adaptation, highlights from each title could be included. In terms of gameplay mechanics, bonfires could be scattered throughout levels which would need to be built by the player, and the invasion multiplayer feature could also be implemented. And anyway, who wouldn’t want to play as a Siegmeyer minifig?

Red Dead

While Red Dead Redemption 2’s release is still a ways off, Rockstar could potentially broker a deal with LEGO to make an adaptation of Revolver, the original Redemption, and Undead Nightmare, right? Well, true, that won’t ever happen in the real world, but we can always dream. The Red Dead franchise is full of memorable and fleshed-out characters that would populate the roster of unlockable minifigs in a LEGO game.

In terms of gameplay, various animals could be hidden in secret locations throughout the various levels to mirror the hunting mechanic from Redemption. LEGO did have a wild west theme going on long, long ago, though in recent years they haven’t really revisited the setting.

Diablo

In case you doubted that there is any overlap between the Diablo and LEGO audiences, one dedicated fan went ahead and built an entire diorama of New Tristram as it appears in Diablo 3’s Adventure Mode in extreme detail. Incidentally, LEGO has tried its hands at an isometric action RPG-lite recently in the face of Minifigures Online. Unfortunately, the game closed its doors this April, but was fairly popular leading up to its untimely death. LEGO Diablo could fill that void easily.

Naturally, much would be needed to be done in order to tone things down to a family-friendly level – but then, it’s easy to replace exploding chunks of demon flesh with various red bricks and studs. Since LEGO is all about building things, mixing and matching minifig accessories on your character would be a good way to reflect the looting aspect of Diablo. The whole three-games-three-episodes structure makes a return here as well, and seeing as LEGO titles like to add secret levels, that notorious cow level would have a place in this title too.

The Last Guardian

You’d think that something with as large a following as The Last Guardian would have at least one LEGO rendition of it on the internet, but no. No-one has yet decided to build their own Trico, or recreate the ruins of the strange castle that is the game’s setting in a diorama. Nonetheless, we feel The Last Guardian would make a good transition to brick form. It’s already a heartfelt, family-friendly adventure that focuses on the solving of puzzles and platforming with a light focus on combat.

The Last Guardian has a pretty… unique take on physics which sometimes has us screaming at the screen. Who knows, perhaps having some LEGO-based puzzles instead of those pesky barrels that just wouldn’t obey you would be a nice change for the property.

Titanfall

While, unfortunately, K’NEX beat LEGO to the punch with an officially licensed wave of Titanfall building sets, we can still dream to see the towering mechs appear in a LEGO game. Titanfall 2 would be better suited to adaptation than its predecessor, since the original Titanfall was a multiplayer-only shooter. Titanfall 2 had a single-player campaign that was praised for, among others, intuitive level and puzzle design, as well as the dynamic between the player character, Jack Cooper, and his Titan companion, BT-7274.

Titanfall 2’s campaign was structured around large, unique set-pieces with interesting puzzles or mechanics that wouldn’t really re-appear, and these were strung together by simpler shooter sections. This structure lends itself well to a LEGO game, since each level could be centered around such a box. Since two-player co-op has always been a staple of LEGO titles, the dynamic between Jack and BT comes in handy as well.

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is yet another pretty dark and grim property that by conventional standards doesn’t mesh well with bricks and minifigs. However, it seems we weren’t the only ones who got the idea that it would make a good LEGO game, as a skilled animator put up his own mock-gameplay-video of the concept on YouTube three years ago.

While the harsh post-apocalyptic world and heavy themes of The Last of Us are anything but family friendly, the co-op aspect would be a given with Joel and Ellie as playable characters, and as the video displays, the item-combination and stealth mechanics could be carried over to the brick rendition of this title.

This post was originally written by Aron Gerencser.