Although previewed at PAX East only a day or two before its official release, Nintendo went all out for their promotion of the game this year. Along with two dedicated stations for the game, they set up a “mug shot” picture-taking booth to entice con-goers into the booth area.
Everyone who participated was given either an orange prison jumpsuit or a grey prison shirt to wear, along with a message board containing the name of a character from the game. While an impressive, giant Chase McCain made of LEGO dominated the photo area until the booth opened, he was moved off to the side while photos were taken.
Naturally, subjects were encouraged to play the role of a criminal getting their mug shot taken, and the booth appeared to be quite popular for the duration of the event!
As for the game itself, I had a chance to play on one of the stations, manned by… uh… a young, thin, blonde Eastern European woman who—while very pleasant—knew almost as much about the game as I did. She wasn’t terribly helpful with the control scheme, and knew just enough to help me get started. However, when I got stuck or had trouble driving Chase’s police car, she had no idea what was going on.
I can’t say I’ve ever known Nintendo’s con booths to contain these lovely, somewhat-clueless ladies before (though it’s not unheard of for many other companies), but they did have a rather large booth this year compared to last, so it may have been a case of being short-staffed (and she was the only one I saw there who appeared to be an outside hire).
The fifteen minutes or so that I played of LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins was extremely silly, fun, and yet after that short period… somewhat tedious. The vehicle controls are notoriously awful (which you’ve likely experienced if you’ve played LEGO games before), but manageable once you get the hang of the mechanics. The puzzles were a little more complex than I’ve seen before, and I did feel that I would play past the 15 minute mark of this particular title.
However, it’s still a LEGO game… and if you’re tired of LEGO games, this may not be the game for you. Personally, I feel it would have to give me something fairly spectacular to set it apart from other LEGO games and keep me playing beyond an hour or so—but with only a fifteen minute demo, it’s hard to make that call.
Ultimately, I was enticed—so if I get my hands on a copy sometime soon, I’ll give it a shot. And if not? Well, no time wasted either.
(PS: You can see my LEGO City Undercover photo below… I went for the “just got out of the asylum” look… I think it worked, yes?)
