With their rise, fall and ascent to global cultural dominance, Apple and LEGO are not entirely dissimilar as brands. I’m not sure whether their similar philosophies toward business have any bearing on my appreciation for both companies, but I do know that I absolutely loved last year’s LEGO Movie.
Having recently been robbed of an Oscar nom, fellow LEGO Movie fans can at least get some of their brick-fix today thanks to the news that The LEGO Movie Video Game has arrived on iOS — giving you a chance to play what is a very fun game on your iPhone or iPad.
Essentially, this is a port of the game originally created for mobile games consoles, the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita — with the added benefit of carrying a very reasonable price tag of $4.99 (although, alas, there are a few optional in-app purchases along the way.)
It pretty much follows the plot of the movie, and boasts appearances from upwards of 90 characters from the film (think Batman, Superman, Gandalf, the Green Ninja, and more), with the action spread across 40 different missions.
If you’ve ever played a LEGO game before, chances are you won’t need any convincing to pick this up. If you’ve never played one… well, if you’re a fan of irreverent comedy, hilarious cameo appearances and, of course, colored bricks, you’re pretty much guaranteed a whale of a time.
One word of caution, however: the game takes up a ridiculous amount of space to play it, mainly thanks to the large number of cinematics that have been included. To install over Wifi you’ll need 2.2GB of available space — although this shrinks down to just 1.1GB if you download the game on your computer and then sync.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
