Even a casual fan of nostalgic gaming experiences will be familiar with Lego apps, popularized by the classic Travelers Tales games for their inventive gameplay and hilarious mime retellings of movies that traumatized us as kids. But the Play Store’s additions to the Lego gaming library cannot be understated, engaging with alternate gameplay styles and themes; although usually sticking withquality co-op coded experiences.Pulse-pounding racinggames, very young kids' playgrounds, and even some classic building simulators for getting creative without remortgaging the house. AP keeps an eye out for the latest and greatest creativity toys onAndroids' most reasonable phones, so here’s our roundup of the best Lego games on the Play Store. Trust me, we’re building up to something.
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10Lego Marvel Super Heroes
There’s a reason this is the best-selling Lego video game ever released. Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a blast. The combat is fun, even if it isn’t incredibly challenging. There’s something very satisfying about flying around as Iron Man shooting missiles at bad guys. Ultimately, there are a lot of things your characters can do, each bringing their abilities. So once you get the hang of the controls, there’s a lot of content here to keep you coming back to the game. Dozens of levels, ten challenges per level, and 90 playable characters mean you’ll be busy with this game for a long while.
9Lego Star Wars: TFA
The Star Wars name is what proved the viability of themed Lego video games by being ridiculously fun to play. This game is no different and has all of the elements that continue to make the franchise so popular even today. The controls feey great, and the floating d-pad is a welcome addition when not using a physical controller. If you decide to spring for the full game at $7, you’ll have hours of content to play through and over 100 characters to unlock. It’s not a bad deal if you need to take your Lego Star Wars on the go.
8Lego Duplo World
It’s tempting to think of video games as the exclusive domain of adults and adolescents, but games are a fundamental part of how children learn so it’s no surprise that games are being made for them. Some of them are hot garbage, but others, like Lego Duplo World, are some of the best games out there for young children. It’s targeted to children between the ages of 2 and 5 and its content is aligned with the Headstart Early Learning Outcomes Framework, the gold standard for Pre-K instruction in the US. If your toddler needs a distraction (or you need a break from your toddler), Duplo World is worth a look.
7LEGO® Legacy: Heroes Unboxed
Lego Legacy: Heroes Unboxed is an impressively polished RPG experience set in the colorful Lego-verse, with unique quests and appropriately themed characters. The combat should feel familiar for seasoned Final Fantasy veterans, turn-based battles with direct attacks, party buffs, and overpowered super moves that play into character personalities. Players also get access to a multiplayer mode which allows for competitive ranked fights between friends and randoms.
There was potential to make Lego Legacy: Heroes Unboxed a generic RPG with a themed skin, but the game went much further, committing to the bit with funny characters, engaging combat, and a world genuinely worth exploring. Unfortunately, you do need a Netflix subscription to join in, but it’s well worth the investment.
6Lego Batman: Beyond Gotham
Beyond Gotham is the third game in the Lego Batman trilogy and may be the best because it lives up to its title and reaches beyond the confines of a Batman story and delves into the full DC universe. Instead of butting heads with the traditional rogues' gallery of Joker and company, the Caped Crusader now has to match wits with Braniac who’s intent on shrinking the earth to keep as a curio.Lego Batman: Beyond Gotham has over 100 playable characters and lives up to the high standards set by the other Lego games in Traveler’s Tales stable.
5Lego Tower
Lego Tower is a Tamagotchi game with the veneer of a tower sim. You have to add floors to your tower and decide whether to put in residential, retail, recreational, or service units to make money to build more floors and upgrade your building. When the game gets up to speed, there are a lot of moving parts to keep up with, but it’s always easy to come back to and pick up where you left off. Compared to some of the other Lego games out there, this one is very lightly monetized, which is nice.
4Lego Jurassic World
This 2015 Lego adaptation follows the events of the first four Jurassic Park movies, and it’s a solid adaptation. You start out playing through the major beats of the first movie, unlocking characters, breaking stuff, and collecting studs. Keep in mind, the Android version has been cut down from the original release, so it is more its own thing, where playing through the firswhereasie only took me about 45 minutes. So expect a shorter adventure, but it’s one made to work well on touchscreen devices.
3Lego Friends: Heartlake Rush
Heartlake Rush is an endless runner in the same vein as Subway Surfers. There are missions to compete, upgrades to purchase, and enough of a challenge/reward balance to bring you back for another play. These strengths outshine a lack of depth, which is to be expected from a game similar in style to Subway Surfers. Sure, Subway Surfers has tons of content available, but the game has been around for ages, whereas Heartlake Rush is much newer, so it isn’t as fleshed out. Still, if you’re looking for a Lego theme with Subway Surfers gameplay, Heartlake Rush is what you’re looking for.
2Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin
If you’re unfamiliar with the extensive lore of Ninjago, this game might leave you a bit in the dark as far as the plot is concerned. The controls are a little wonky and would have benefited from a floating d-pad, but what’s there is serviceable. Thankfully, once I plugged in a gamepad, things got much better. And Shadow of Ronin has some of the most fun combat in any Lego tie-in game I’ve played, so a controller is definitely recommended to get t of this one.
1Lego Bricktales
Lego Bricktales is everything a Lego game should be. At its most basic level, the game is a series of construction challenges. You have to build a structure with a limited set of bricks that makes a stable path from one point to another, whether that’s a set of stairs or a bridge. When you think you’ve got it, you send your robot to test it. If the robot can traverse the obstacle using your construction, you can move on to the next challenge. Once you’ve completed a challenge, you can return to it in sandbox mode which gives you access to unlimited bricks. The controls can be a bit wonky at times, but once you figure out how to control the interface, you’ll be building in no time. If you’re looking for some low-tempo Lego fun, Bricktales is worth the price.
To pay or not to pay, that’s the question with Lego games
