The ultimate way to combine hands-on block building with virtual adventures arrived last year with Lego Dimensions, a third-person video game incorporating real Lego toys that magically ported into onscreen, third-person action.
The recently released Ghostbusters Level Pack (Warner Bros. Interactive and Lego, reviewed with Wii U, rated E+10, $29.99, 115 pieces) is a slick set tied to the legendary paranormal comedy from 1984 that starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramos — offering the chance to build and appreciate one of the legendary ghost hunters and two of his crucial pieces of equipment.
Specifically, children (or young-at-heart adults) first construct a 1.5-inch tall, minifigure version of Peter Venkman (Mr. Murray’s character, complete with trademark hairline). He’s fully work-garbed and wields a proton pack
Now, fire the game up on the Wii, place Peter on a special pad connected to the console, and he will appear in the gaming environment — ready to take part in key scenes from the entire first movie.
However, a player also gets prompted quickly to build two more toys.
First, he will put together a truncated version of the famed Ghostbusters mobile Ecto-1 (under 2-inches long with no rear wheels but a pretty recognizable design) and a necessary ghost trap (with moving doors).
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The directions to craft these items appear in the video game making this type of experience irresistible to the Lego fan, trust me.
Now onscreen, Mr. Venkman uses that wicked ghost-blasting laser from his proton pack (“don’t cross the streams”) and a bizarre spin move to destroy stuff. He gets help from the other Ghostbusters Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore to save New York City from the evil Gozer.
The roughly 2-hour-long movie level captures the silliness of the film action, includes dialogue snippets from the actors and takes a player through scenes such as capturing Slimer in the hotel, working in the firehouse to contain ghosts caught in the trap and even fighting a massive marshmallow man.
Fans of the movie will also love the appearance of minifigure versions of other characters such as EPA grumpy pest Walter Peck, secretary Janine Meinitz, damsel-in-distress Dana Barrett and annoying neighbor Louis Tully.
Additionally, available in the latest wave of Lego Dimensions add-ons is the DC Comics Fun Pack ($24.99, 92 pieces).
The set offers constructible versions of the Batman’s nemesis the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime’s gal pal Harley Quinn, the Joker’s chopper and the Quinn-Mobile.
The block building follows the same rules. Build the character, pop him on the toy pad to get the character into the game and get a prompt to also build his vehicle.
The toys offer Harley wielding a massive hammer, and the Joker, garbed in purple, packing a pistol. The chopper has a rotating blade, and the vehicle has a hammer that moves from side to side.
The in-game representations of each offer a Joker with a gun and special power to unleash chattering teeth to bite at opponents, the acrobatic Harley gets a massive hammer to pound on items and friends, the chopper flies and has missiles, and the vehicle has the hammer that crushes items.
Unfortunately, the “Fun Pack” does not offer a new level of action, but it’s super easy to have Peter Venkman, the Joker and Harley work together in any of the game worlds and challenges.
By the way, all of the vehicles mentioned in the Lego Dimensions Packs have alternate builds that will add enhanced abilities to the item such as rebuilding the ghost trap into a laser-launching proton zapper.
Note: To appreciate Peter and the gang, a player will need the “Lego Dimensions Starter Pack” ($99.99), which includes the full game, toy pad and multiple minifigure characters such as Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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