Lego Brawls was first released for the Apple Arcade back in 2019. It’s the Lego company's first foray into the fighting game genre.
Like a few games before it, Lego Brawls has taken inspiration from the Super Smash Bros. franchise.
Its level design and combat mechanics are very similar to Nintendo’s famed fighter. But Lego Brawls’ distinguishing feature is its extensive customisation allowing players to literally create any character they can dream up.
Now after three years Lego Brawls finally makes its way to the current generation of home consoles.
Lego Brawls is a fighting game mixed with platforming elements, where players will have to defeat their opponents in different ways.
Players will be able to select from two different modes that will allow them to play online or local co-op.
The online mode features cross-play, which is fantastic as players can battle from a wide range of consoles and devices.
Each fight will feature eight players who will either go head to head or work as a team. The game has four different ways in which players can battle each other, which are Control the Point, Collection, Brawl Royal, and Free For All.
These different modes are very simple allowing anyone to pick up and play, each offering a different experience.
However, they lack extra settings that would enable players to tailor their experience.
Collection and Control the Point are initially fun variants of the usual free for all battles but they can get repetitive.
But what’s even more frustrating is that these modes are only playable online and not in Local co-op.
Players will only be able to take part in Free for all brawls and nothing else, which means this game is best played online.
Combat is very easy to grasp as players will only have access to three moves, a melee, dash, and ground pound attack.
These attacks all do the same damage but allow players to attack in a variety of ways with some knocking back the opponent.
It’s all very simple but players can customise their character’s fighting style to cater to their own playstyle.
That being said, it's all way too simple and lacks much-needed strategic depth as there isn't a wide variety of moves to choose from.
Another feature of combat are the power-ups, which probably present the best opportunity to add some strategy into the mix.
There are several power-ups scattered across each stage that can be stored and used later.
These abilities are a godsend as they open up the player's strategic options allowing them to cause some mayhem, even if it is for a brief moment.
Lego Brawls excels in customisation granting the player access to an endless pool of Minifigure parts to combine.
It’s incredible how many of Lego’s existing figures are available within the game enabling players to literally create whatever they want and change them at any time.
Lego Brawls also features a slew of unlockables that are based around different themes from the many franchises Lego has worked with.
Each theme comes with several different key parts that players can unlock through battles.
This provides the game with major replay value, increasing its longevity, especially for the completionist.
Lego Brawls is out on all current generation consoles but its performance greatly differs depending on what it’s played on.
Playstation 5 is certainly the way to go as the game targets 60FPS and runs smoothly with fast loading times.
The Nintendo Switch would be a great choice due to its portability however the game does suffer from a lot of frame drops and really long loading times.
Verdict 3 / 5
Lego Brawls is a mixed bag as it really shines with the extensive level of customisation and unlockables available.
However, the rest of the game has the makings of a fun party fighter but it just lacks in a lot of departments, which is frustrating.
But it's all way too simple and lacks any strategic depth as most players will be able to button-mash their way to victory.
Lego Brawls is out now for PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S
