Iconic toy and game maker LEGO has teamed up with Gameloft to launch of a brand new Android game in 2019 in celebration of 40 years of minifigures and playsets. With the launch date not yet set in stone and no official title decided on, details about the title are scant. The companies have revealed that gameplay will take place in a brand new LEGO world and set players on an ‘epic adventure’ across a sizeable portion of the preceding four decades of toys and video games. Among the minifigures, users will be able to play with are the Red Classic Spaceman from 1978 and Captain Red Beard from 1989’s Set 6270. The more recent Hot Dog Man minifigure from 2015 will be included as well.
Background: Gameloft is among the longest-lived game makers on any mobile platform. Although the company has built a reputation over the years for sometimes releasing titles that are widely and almost unanimously criticized, many of its games are lauded as being smartphone classics or at the top in their respective genre. On that front, Gameloft is also one of the most prolific developers — with titles ranging from arcade-style racing and sports to MMORPGs, puzzle, and adventure games. The most recent announcement appears to fall into the latter of those categories but Gameloft and LEGO’s description may hint at RPG, open-world, or sandbox elements too. Specifically, the companies say that players will be able to “play with” the top sets from across the decades despite defining the title as falling under the adventure genre.
As alluded to above, LEGO is no stranger to the development of video games either. The toy maker has featured titles on nearly every available platform for gaming at various points in its history. With the exception of titles directly linked to movies or franchises — such as its Star Wars, The Hobbit, or Harry Potter series — those have largely been quirky adventure games. Summarily, LEGO titles allow users to take on the role of various LEGO minifigure characters with new characters becoming available as the story progresses. Even within just a single game, each character is given its own unique personality and stylings leading to a ton of diversity — in terms of both feel and in-game capabilities. All of that is, more often than not, portrayed alongside LEGO’s often tongue-in-cheek pop culture-based humor.
Impact: Given the breadth of the timeline LEGO and Gameloft will be delving into for the new Android title, there will undoubtedly be a scaled up range of nuance and wit suitable for players of any age or era. There is a very real possibility that will surpass nearly any other game that’s currently available on a mobile platform — held back primarily by download size and the performance of a user’s Android smartphone. The new LEGO game will also be one of the best looking on mobile, judging by the in-game renders the pair has released. Since there’s still no solid release date in place though, let alone many other details, that could still feasibly be a long way off.