Lego Dimensions, the ultimate in bricktacular mash-ups may be a few months away still, but recent weeks have seen a motherlode of information make it's way out of the wood work - whether it's Portal-themed levels, a regenerating Dr Who character, or, perhaps more amazingly, rebuildable LEGO vehicles and add-ons, which can be rebuilt into one of three different designs, with the game recognising how you've built it, we've rounded up everything we know about the game so far below. So whether you know your Team Packs from your Fun Packs or struggle to tell the difference between Wyldstyle and Gandalf (hint: it's in the beards), brace yourself for some serious Lego-envy!
The Starter Pack
The gang.
This is where it all begins - the Lego Dimensions Starter Pack. Including figures of Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle, a Batmobile vehicle, a buildable Lego Gateway portal to transport your characters into the game and the Lego Toy Pad gadget (they mean base), the starter pack comes with all you need to get started. Letting you place any combination of seven characters, gadgets and vehicles on the base, to be transported into the game all at once, the toy pad is a fancy piece of kit - but there's more to it than just being a portal. In fact, it even plays into the game itself, with different sections lighting up in different colours that trigger different effects for the figure placed there - whether it's making Batman giant enough to weigh down a pressure pad, miniaturising Gandalf so he can fit through a small door or giving your characters new elemental attacks to defeat a group of bad guys. Oh, and there's one other thing that comes in the starter pack - the game itself, promising its own story mode to play through, where oodles of worlds collide.
One day, a talented lass or fellow, a special one with face of yellow, will thwart Lord Vortech and save the realm.
At the centre of the Lego Multiverse (the land where all things LEGO live) is an ancient planet, inhabited by an evil mastermind, Lord Vortech. It's prophesied that he who controls the Foundational Elements that the planet is built upon will control all of the Multiverse - but unlike some other prophesies we can name, this one doesn't rhyme. As with any evil mastermind worth his salt (or we suppose in this case, plastic) Lord Vortech has taken it upon himself to become the supreme ruler, summoning various characters from a multitude of Lego worlds to help him recover these building bricks of many a Lego civilisation. And, in true bad guy style, he doesn't ask people nicely - he summons a load of mysterious, powerful vortexes all across the Lego-sphere, sucking in characters from the worlds of DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings and The Lego Movie to help with his evil plan.
Not ones to idly sit on their laurels and watch their friends be sucked into slavery, Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle leap into the vortex and set off on an epic adventure to save all of Lego-manity. What follows is the ultimate in mash-ups, with the trio taking in the sights and sounds of everything from Doctor Who and Back to the Future to The Simpsons and Portal - and why just stop at Gandalf, Wyldstyle and Batman? Much like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions promises a whole host of extras to spend your hard-earned cash on, adding extra characters, vehicles and items to expand your game.
Level Packs
Once you've exhausted the Starter Pack, LEGO have a whole myriad of new expansion packs you can buy, which add new worlds, new characters and new vehicles to the game. So far, only four different level packs have been announced, each packing an additional level, character, and a vehicle or gadget or two:
Back to the Future
The Back to the Future Level Pack comes with a figure of Marty McFly, the Delorean Time Machine and Hoverboard vehicles, and, of course, a new stage to play in - the 'Hill Valley Time Travel Adventure'. Set in Hill Valley, with both the DeLorean and Marty's Hoverboard at your disposal, while actual concrete details about what the level will involve are pretty much non-existent, we can have a good guess what this time-travelling bricky adventure will be about. We're bracing ourselves for plenty of flux capacitors and gigawatts, at any rate!
Doctor Who
Now, for the Doctor Who Level Pack, we know a little bit more. Coming with a LEGO-ised version of the new, 12th Doctor, as played by Peter Capaldi, as well minikits of the series-staple TARDIS and robot dog sidekick, K-9, the Doctor Who pack also comes complete with a brand new level, the 'Space and Time Adventure'. In a nice twist, should you manage to get beaten up in the level, the defeated Doctor will fall to pieces, before promptly regenerating as the 1st Doctor, all the way up to the 12th Doctor again, each time you die. The interior of his TARDIS can be customised to reflect any of the Doctor's unique styles, while a jukebox inside can serenade you with the various renditions of the Doctor Who theme music. And to top it all off, both the TARDIS and K-9 models can be rebuilt into three entirely different forms for even more space-travelling variety.
The Simpsons
Another pack Warner Bros. seem to be keeping schtum about, the Simpson's themed 'Springfield Adventure' level pack includes a figure of Homer Simpson, along with a minikit of his car and a device called the Taunt-o-Vision. Seemingly invented solely for the purpose of the game, the Taunt-o-Vision is Homer's own personal gadget, and seems to essentially be a TV, showing The Itchy & Scratchy show. With a bit of an obtuse name, exactly what it does remains a bit of a mystery - is it simply a way for Homer to amuse himself? Perhaps it distracts enemies? Or perhaps it summons the uber-violent cartoon duo of Itchy and Scratchy to give the bad guys a beating?
Live out Homer's dream of a married life driving "around in a van solving mysteries" with Lego Dimensions!
Portal
Now, this one was a bit of a surprise - if you'd asked us to come up with a list of potential Lego worlds for Lego Dimensions, a stage based on the 'first-person puzzler', Portal, wouldn't have been in it. Coming with a figure of perpetual test subject, Chell, the legendary Companion Cube and one of those pesky Sentry Turrets (Hellooooooo? Is anyone there? Target lost...), you'll be thinking with portals all through the included 'Aperture Science Facility Adventure' level. If it's anything like the subject material, expect a brain-bending puzzle stage, where you need to solve all kinds of physics-based problems with the aid of your portal gun - or, if you feel like it, with Lord of the Rings' beardy dwarf Gimli riding around in the duck-shaped Cloud Cuckoo Car.
Fun Packs & Team Packs
But it wouldn't be much of a 'toys to life' game without umpteen figures to buy - characters, vehicles, weapons and more from dozens of franchises collide in Lego Dimensions' 'Team Packs', which pack two minifigures and two vehicles/gadgets, and 'Fun Packs', with just one figure and a vehicle/gadget. And, by the way, did you know that every vehicle in Lego Dimensions can be built and rebuilt into three different possible configurations, giving you several different modes of transport in one! Check out the rather lengthy list of so-far-announced packs below:
Lego Ninjago
Lego Ninjago Team Pack
- Cole and Kai figures, Boulder Bomber, Blade Bike
Lego Ninjago Fun Packs
- Lloyd, Lloyd's Golden Dragon
- Sensei Wu, Flying White Dragon
- Jay, Storm Fighter
- Nya, Samurai Mech
- Zane, Ninjacopter
Jurassic World
Jurassic World Team Pack
- Owen and ACU minifigures, Velociraptor, Gyrosphere
Scooby Doo
Scooby Doo Team Pack
- Scooby Doo and Shaggy characters, Mystery Machine, Scooby Snack
DC Comics
DC Comics Team Pack
- The Joker and Harley Quinn figures, The Joker's Chopper, Quinn-mobile
DC Comics Fun Packs
- Aquaman, Aqua Watercraft
- Bane, Drill Driver
- Superman, Hover Pod
- Wonder Woman, Invisible Jet
- Cyborg, Cyber-Guard
Back To The Future
Back To The Future Fun Pack
- Doc Brown, Travelling Time Train
The Lego Movie
The Lego Movie Fun Packs
- Benny, Benny's Spaceship
- Bad Cop, Police Car
- Unikitty, Cloud Cuckoo Car
Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings Fun Packs
- Gollum, Shelob the Great
- Legolas, Arrow Launcher
- Gimli, Axe Chariot
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz Fun Pack
- Wicked Witch, Winged Monkey
Lego Chima
Lego Chima Fun Packs
- Cragger, Swamp Skimmer
- Eris, Eagle Interceptor
- Laval, Mighty Lion Rider
Doctor Who
Doctor Who Fun Pack
- Cyberman, Dalek
The Simpsons
The Simpsons Fun Packs
- Bart, Gravity Sprinter
- Krusty, Clown Bike vehicle
Still More To Come?
Doing a bit of Sherlock Holmes-style sleuthing that the man himself would have been proud of, we headed onto the official Lego Dimensions website, where we came across two franchises that have been mentioned by name/logo only, with no more details given. The first is Ghostbusters, which doesn't really need that much of an introduction - because when there's something strange in your neighbourhood, you know who you're going to call. Expect plenty of paranormal activity, ectoplasm, and ghost-sucking vacuum cleaners with everyone's favourite Ghostbusting team when it comes (presumably) later this year.
The second however is a bit of an unusual one - something called 'Midway Arcade'. The now defunct games company, Midway, were perhaps best known for their coin-op arcade machines that included everything from Pac-Man to Joust to Gauntlet, and oodles more besides. It seems a bit of an odd choice for the block-building mega mash-up Lego Dimensions, but still - perhaps it'll give rise to some Xzibit-style 'Yo Dawg! We heard you like games...' mission, where your Lego-y game characters have to go inside some other games to... do something or other, presumably linked to saving the world. Or maybe there's simply an arcade area in the main hub area where you can kick back with a few rounds of Root Beer Tapper instead.
We can ride a velociraptor? Sold.
The folks behind the game have specifically stated that they don't plan on releasing a Lego Dimensions 2 any time soon, instead focussing on releasing more and more expansions as time goes on, "for years to come". All the Level Packs, Fun Packs and Team Packs mentioned above are just for this year, with more still to be announced before launch - and then there's loads more to come next year and potentially the year after too, giving Lego Dimensions the potential to be a humongous game. We just hope the expansions are substantial enough to keep you playing for long enough, given that they claim to be an "all new game level" - singular.
Lego Dimensions hits all major platforms (Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and Wii U) later this year, on the 29th September. It's looking to be quite a pricey launch though, with the Starter Pack retailing for somewhere between £89.99 and £99.99, with Level Packs and Team Packs at £29.99 a pop and Fun Packs at £14.99! We don't know about you, but we better start saving!
