Why You Can Trust CNET Lego Jurassic World comes to Android, iOS
Way, way better than sitting through the movie. Cheaper, too.
I'm not a movie reviewer, but when a movie tie-in game comes along, I'm allowed to express my opinion regarding the source material.
Which is this: "Jurassic World" was a noisy, soulless, idiotic reboot that stole two hours of my life. Thankfully, Lego Jurassic World -- just released for Android and iOS -- is a video game, not a movie, and it incorporates plots and characters from all four films, not just the eponymous one.
For those unfamiliar with the Lego video game series, they're charming, funny, largely non-violent recreations of popular movie and/or pop-culture franchises: "Harry Potter," "Star Wars," Marvel superheroes and so on. Most of the gameplay is of the platform/puzzle-solving variety, with occasional arcade minigames mixed in.
"Hey, you remembered to lock the raptor cage, right?"
When they were younger, my kids absolutely ate them up. And I loved playing as well (or even just watching), because there's always a liberal dose of humor mixed in.
Lego Jurassic World arrived on game consoles last summer, and although some adult reviewers were a bit nit-picky about certain gameplay mechanics (which, to be fair, rarely vary from one Lego game to the next), everyday players loved it.
The game spans 20 levels, recreating scenes from the four movies and letting you play as various characters from each. The over-arching goal: collect that controversial amber containing dinosaur DNA. There's also a Dino Customizer that lets you mix-and-match dinosaur colors, body parts and abilities.
The app joins a handful of other Lego titles that have made their way from game consoles to mobile devices, including Lego Lord of the Rings, Lego Marvel Superheroes and The Lego Movie Videogame. (Several of these were iOS-only upon their debut, but most are now available for Android as well.) Like those, Lego Jurassic World is priced at $4.99 (£3.99 or AU$6.49).
Although the gameplay more or less mirrors that of the console versions, iPhone 6s owners can take advantage of 3D Touch for certain actions -- though in my brief testing, it wasn't immediately obvious what those actions were. Thankfully, save for an incomprehensible menu system, the game was a pleasure to play. The iconic soundtrack, the audio clips from various characters, the challenging puzzles and amusing cut-scenes -- it all adds up to a lot of fun.