LEGO DC Super-Villains’ Custom Characters Have A Lot Of Potential

At LEGO DC Super-Villains‘ E3 Demo, I spent a little too much time in the character select screen. The game is all about you creating a ne’er-do-well of your own and I thought… do they have a purple hat and black overalls in this thing? Could I really be any bad guy I could dream of?

Alas, LEGO DC Super-Villains‘ character creation options were mostly locked off. I could only choose to play as a preset original villain or as a randomised one.

I play a lot of LEGO games, and usually ignore the option to create custom characters. This time you can’t, and I’m intrigued. While you can still swap among multiple characters when running through LEGO DC Super-Villains‘ levels, the game’s story involves the rise of a rookie villain created the player.

As you’ll see in the clip we captured of my time with the demo, you acquire powers for the villain as you plan. You can customise, say, what kind of heat beam they will shoot in terms of colour, pattern, and even whether it comes out of their hands, chest or gun.

There are piles of official LEGO DC villains in the game, of course. In the level I played, I swapped between Lex Luthor, Solomon Grundy and Cheetah. A character select screen showed options for many more.

LEGO games have lost some lustre for me in recent years, as incremental design changes haven’t been enough to keep the overall formula from feeling stale. Last year’s LEGO Ninjago Movie game surprisingly breathed fresh life into the franchise by offering a deeper combat system.

I didn’t see that combat system here, but I did see some promise in how it lets players build up a character. I hope the new game dives deeply enough into that potential.

If nothing else, though, the game should provide some comic relief thanks to its good cast of characters. Here’s Cheetah, for example, using her claws on a guard:

This new LEGO game will be out on October 17 on all the major platforms. If you’re itching for a new LEGO game right now, though, guess what? There’s also a new one about The Incredibles out now. So many LEGO games. They need to keep experimenting with new ideas to keep them fresh.