LEGO Dimensions E3 Recap
E3 has come and gone for another year, and there was a heap of exciting stuff shown both in and out of Toys to Life. LEGO Dimensions was one of the bigger presences in the genre, with a heap of reveals and streams showing off the new content coming to the game over the next year. It can be hard to track down everything, so we’ve compiled a variety of streams and interviews from the big outlets and summarised the main points in case you’re not able to watch them all. Arthur Parsons and James McLoughlin are co-directors of this new content, and were the main faces of the game at the show. If you haven’t already, check out the official reveal of the new content for a list of new franchises being added.
3 Developers at E3
Summary:
- 16 NEW IPs being added
- 21 Battle Arenas, each with their own unique weapon, traps, and interactions
- Story Packs let you play through the entirety of the movie they’re based on
YouTube Live
Summary:
We’ve got screenshots of this stream in an earlier article.
- We get our first look at the Gizmo minifigure. He’s adorable!
- A Stripe figure (the antagonist of Gremlins) was shown off for the first time, following his official confirmation earlier
- Battle Arenas have four modes – Capture the Flag mode was the one shown off in the footage. You appear to gain points over time while you’re in possession of another team’s flag, and gain some points whenever you defeat an opponent’s character
- The battle takes place in the Adventure Time Battle Arena, which is themed around Pillow World
- You can gather studs in the map to purchase traps – in this map you can build bean bag turrets, but nobody did so during the video
- When you enter the map, and respawn during the match, you skydive and have some control over where you land.
- This map has lifts that raise you to higher platforms. We see an example of these lifts being used to evade pursuers.
- Power-up bubbles float around, and change between different icons. The icon on the bubble influences what power-up you get
- When talking about how old toys can be used in the new content, the devs mention that “it can all be played singleplayer”
- When asked about the release schedule, it was stated that there is an initial wave in September, then additional waves in November, January and March.
- When listing off some of the characters in the game by name, the developers say “The Goonies”, rather than just Sloth (the only revealed Goonies character).
IGN Live
Summary:
- Story Packs for Ghostbusters (2016), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The LEGO Batman Movie
- When Gizmo eats the Scooby Snack from the Scooby-Doo Team Pack, instead of growing large he turns into a Gremlin
- The developers don’t have to go asking for all the licenses because a lot of rights-holders contact the developers to get their properties in the game. Everyone who gets involved know that pretty much everything is possible within the game and so have to be alright with the team doing whatever they like
- Game Directors James and Arthur both say their favourite new thing in the game is the Battle Arenas. The idea for them came about from the fact that most people ended up fighting their friend while playing Co-op in the other LEGO games
- Battle Arenas support 1-4 players
- Every PACK in Year 2 content has its own Battle Arena. Year 2 will reportedly have 20 packs so there’s a 21st arena that comes from somewhere else. Might be from Green Arrow/Supergirl since they have Gold tags.
- Tournament Mode lets you string together matches across different arenas
- Harry Potter’s special attack is the Patronus Charm
- The Ghostbusters Story Pack will allow you to play as all four new Ghostbusters with only the one figure
- All the Goonies will be playable – it’s implied this will be through the Sloth figure similarly to how the Ghostbusters work
Facebook Livestream
This was streamed twice. The main content of each stream is the same, but there’s a few minor variances in details
Summary:
- Reveal trailer shown off again – it still looks brilliant
- The team are happy that the game is a “cross-generational experience” where kids and their parents introduce each other to their favourite franchises
- The Mission Impossible move intro is recreated LEGO style for the Level Pack
- The Mission Impossible Level pack begins in the embassy from the beginning of the first film
- Level Packs will be double the size they were in the original game
- Ethan Hunt can use special panels to scan any LEGO minifigure in the world and disguise himself as them. Doug says that Ethan disguising himself as the Lumpy Space Princess is something that needs to be seen
- Characters from different brands cameo in the background of the Ghostbusters Story Pack
- The Rip keystone ‘rips’ open a new dimensions. The Ghostbusters travel to this dimension and find a room with a puzzle that needs to be solved in order for them to progress through their own dimension
- The Ghostbusters can be switched between like characters in normal LEGO games
- You can play as “all five Ghostbusters” – mistake or spoiler?
- In co-op each player cold be in a different dimension at once using the Rip keystone
- There’ll be “at least three” new Keystone Abilities through Story Packs. This is vague PR talk for “there’s definitely more than three”
- Harry Potter Team Pack unlocks the Quidditch Battle Arena
- Adventure Time Level Pack unlocks the Pillow World Battle Arena
- Green Arrow is an exclusive figure that will never be sold in stores, and only given away at fan events. Keep an eye on their social media though because they’ll be posting about giveaways and other places you’ll be able to find him
GameSpot Stream
Summary:
- No gameplay, just an interview
- The developers are pretty much aiming to just get every license they possibly can
- Sloth will let you play as all the Goonies – there’s an implication that there’ll be a Level or Story pack following the movie
- The game allows adults to bring kids into their favourite franchises
- Marceline from Adventure Time is getting a Fun Pack
- All Story Packs will come with a character, an item, and a portal dressing
- The four Battle Arena game modes are laid out – Capture the Flag, Tag, a mode where you push a giant inflatable around to destory other players’ bases, and an Objective Mode that has small goals players must complete within the time limit
- Brian Blessed is the narrator of the Battle Arena
- Each Story Pack will add a new Keystone with a new mechanic
- The list of franchises the team wants to get is huge, and leaves plenty of stuff they can bring in in the future. A mix of old and new, for adults and kids
- The focus is on bringing new fans into the current game with new packs, not making a sequel. Using the one game makes it more accessible and doesn’t cause confusion about compatibility
- There’s a lot of collectors out there who are in it just for the LEGO and don’t even play the game. Exclusive figures help with this and the team aims to secure exclusives when they can. Some properties aren’t likely to get sets outside of the game so Dimensions is a great opportunity for new brands to be represented in LEGO
- Gizmo comes with the toy car from the end of the first movie and a camera. Gizmo will be able to ‘Rambo Up’ and wield a bow like he can in Gremlins 2
Family Gamer
Summary:
- Arthur was busy with other LEGO games during Year 1 but was brought in for Year 2
- Arthur and James split up IPs between them and became directors of content belonging to those franchises
- Boss fight against the old woman ghost from the Ghostbusters trailer – she locks the characters up with chains and summons possessed suits of armour
- 1:45 – A look at the alternate builds of the items included in the Mission Impossible pack
- Mission Impossible uses the movie audio
- Part of the Mission Impossible level is set in the embassy from the beginning of the film
- 2:23 – A-Team alternate builds
- One of the Harry Potter Battle Arenas is set in a Quidditch pitch. Looks like the Quidditch World Cup?
- Dementor Swarm is a power-up in the Harry Potter arena
- 4:29 – Ecto-1 alternate builds
- Hire-A-Hero is here to stay, but you can’t hire characters who aren’t out yet.
- Ethan Hunt can disguise himself as other characters in the level to solve puzzles, and has a bunch of other gadgets
- Rip keystone takes the Ghostbusters to a room in another dimension that has a puzzle in it.
Make sure to keep an eye on the LEGO Dimensions Facebook and Twitter pages for more information on the Green Arrow figure distribution
You’ll have lots of chances to get your hands on the LEGO Green Arrow minifigure this year. Watch our pages! #E32016 pic.twitter.com/P9kzi9qfMq
— LEGO Dimensions (@LEGODimensions) June 15, 2016
Have you seen any other new footage that we’ve missed? Let us know!
