The 5 Best Lego Games of All Time

LEGO Bricks are one of the most popular toys of all time. Afterall, as kids we weren’t old enough to get into Casino Red.

I do not know a single person who either doesn’t know what they are or didn’t play with them as a kid. With their immense success, it’s no wonder that they expanded into other formats too.

Originally, this started when LEGO began it’s first partnership in 1999 with Star Wars, and released the LEGO Star Wars X-Wing Fighter (7140). This original set is now only available second hand, for about $700 on Amazon. As LEGOs success grew and grew it eventually expanded into the medium of films and games.

LEGO games are renown for their quality level design, superb co-operative gameplay, their hilarious pantomime / slapstick humor, and their definitive LEGO aesthetic. To date there have been 85 LEGO titles- most of which even the most avid of LEGO fans will have probably never heard of (LEGO Loco, anyone?).

With so many to pick from, I decided to make a list: Here are (my) top 5 favorite LEGO games… that I’ve actually played.


1. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

LEGO Star Wars

Gosh, who would have seen this coming?

The Complete Saga is the OG of LEGO games. It took two of LEGOs previously most popular titles, Lego Star Wars and LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy, and combined them into a single cohesive game.

For the first time, you could play through the entire LEGO Star Wars franchise from start to finish without even needing to change CDs (can you tell how old I am?).

It’s also just a supremely superb game. The comedy is on point, the level design in excellent, the character roster includes all of the fan favorites, and it has all the definitive LEGO quirks that make these games so iconic.

The humor, the Co-op, the collectibles, the platforming- this is the game that set the gold bar (or should I say, Gold Brick?) for the rest of the games to follow. If there is ever a single LEGO title that I would pass on to the next generation, it would be this one.


2. LEGO Harry Potter

I’ll be including both Years 1-4 and Years 5-7 in this entry, in spite of the fact that, technically, they are two separate games. LEGO Harry Potter is basically everything I ever wanted out of a video game. I got to play through the story of Harry Potter, through the lens of LEGO, with all the spells and creatures and lovable characters from the books.

The gameplay also differs from the previous games, by giving Harry and co. access to an increasing range of spells and abilities as they progress through the school years. This makes different characters useful in a variety of different situations.

Harry has his invisibility cloak, Ron has Scabbers, and Hermione has her books (all of which are used for different puzzles). I fondly remember trying to work out which character was the most optimal character in the most situations (I ended up deciding the answer was Lupin).

Harry Potter Years 1-4 was also the only LEGO game I got close to 100% completion (I was missing a single character), but I lost the save due to a variety of reasons that are not the game’s fault. Take that as you will.


3. LEGO Batman

LEGO Batman

Ah, Batman. One of the most iconic Superheros of all time, and only beaten out in popularity by Spiderman. He’s also the star of one of my favorite LEGO games of all time, and it only lands in the spot it’s in because of how good the others are.

There is so much to love about this game. Batman’s rogues gallery is legendary, colorful, and mix wonderfully with LEGOs humor (especially the more comic book / cartoony versions that the game makes use of). The music in this game is STILL stuck in my head.

There are no words to describe the feeling of completing the game, only to discover that you can play it all again- but this time, from the VILLAINS PERSPECTIVE. That blew child-me’s mind.


4. LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

Controversially, I AM going to put another LEGO Star Wars in the #4 spot in my list. Some would say it deserves the top spot, but that just goes to show the quality of both of these games.

However, for me, The Clone Wars gets edged out by sheer nostalgia, and the fact that it only covers a fraction of the content of the The Clone Wars show. When released / developed, only the first two or three season of The Clone Wars cartoon had been released on TV- which are arguably the worst ones.

Still, there are plenty of virtues to extol about this game. The primary being the graphics, which is immediately better than it’s predecessors in just about every way. The lighting and reflections in particular are great, and the textures are crisp and sharp. In terms of gameplay, the level design is phenominal, the added Battle Mode was great, and the character roster was fun and diverse.


5. LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

LEGO Indiana Jones 2

A surprise entry to this list, I’m actually going to specify the sequel, rather than the original. Much like The Compelte Saga, Indiana Jones 2 takes the first three movies, and adds the fourth to the roster.

The graphics are superiro, the hub is easy to navigate, the levels are better, and this game actually has the ability to make custom levels- which was awesome. It’s a feature that I wish was kept in later games, but alas.


Conclusions

Now, clearly, this list is very subjective. This is far from a “definative best list of all time” or anything like that. Your opinion may differ from my own- and that’s completely justified. You might also have noticed that none of the games that I picked have voice acting.

Voices were only added to these games in LEGO Batman 2, which was released just as I was reaching the age where I no longer played “kids games” anymore. Since voiceless games are the ones I grew up with, those are the ones I’m biased towards. I have also simply not played the majority of more recent games, like LEGO Marvel Avengers.

There are two games in particular, however, that I think are worth mentioning. The first is LEGO Jurassic World. I was not a huge fan of the franchise to begin with, but my younger brother was obsessed so I played it through with him begrudgingly. On the one hand, I’ll cherish those memories forever. On the other, I hope to never play it again.

The other is LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The largest LEGO game to date doesn’t make this list for a variety of reasons. Poor level design, the lack of character customization, the bloated character roster, and the unnecessarily massive open world collectathon.

I’ve ranted about it enough in other articles. Suffice it to say, I have a lot of gripes with the game. It’s by no means a terrible game, but when I think of what it could have been, I’m left largely disappointed.

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