When the first Lego Star Wars game released in 2005, then-developer Traveler’s Tales, now known as TT Games, opened up a Pandora’s box in gaming that has yet to be shut. The result has been nearly two decades of quality titles crafted with one of the most iconic play brands in history.
LEGO’s versatility in being able to be adapted and molded onto existing properties seemingly knows no bounds, and now that TT Games has a decade-and-a-half behind them in terms of LEGO adaptations, let’s rank all of their major franchises from worst to best. You may find that they’ve licensed more IP than you remember.
12. Jurassic World/Park
As if anyone needed YET ANOTHER reminder that there’s only one good Jurassic Park movie. The novelty of playing as LEGO versions of Alan Grant or Owen Grady is worn thin pretty quick with enemies that are, somehow, incredibly boring in a game about one of cinema's most iconic dinosaur franchises.
11. Pirates of the Caribbean
Although there is fun to be had with the LEGO reimagining of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it feels like there was so much more that could have been mined from this experience. Maybe living in a post-Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag world has spoiled gamers, but the squandered potential in this specific TT Games entry remains ever-present.
10. The Incredibles
Yet another LEGO adaptation that only serves to highlight the downfall of a beloved property. It's no secret that The Incredibles 2 is a much weaker film than its 2004 counterpart, but this LEGO game adaptation only serves to remind gamers of that at every single turn. This is perhaps the first time that adapting a specific property to LEGO felt like the property being adapted was being restricted by its LEGO coating. Being that this is an adaptation of an animated property, Lego The Incredibles feels like a strangely-charmless counterpart to a beloved Pixar classic.
9. LEGO Dimensions
While the crossover potential for LEGO Dimensions was largely fulfilled by a steady stream of consistent content releases, the high barrier to entry inherently present in the now-dead toys-to-life genre meant that this particular TT Games experiment ended much sooner than some fans would have liked. The game still featured some great sets based on properties like Back to the Future and Ghostbusters, but it just came out too late and far too expensive to catch on.
8. The LEGO Movie(s)
While the video game adaptation of The LEGO Movie is a fun romp that retreads the original's clever narrative, the follow-ups in this TT Games sub-franchise have steadily grown lazier. The latest major release, The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame, is an open-world nightmare that even the most stalwart LEGO fans were disinterested in.
7. Middle-Earth
Utilizing the audio tracks from the Middle Earth-set film series themselves, TT Games' Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit games strike a sort of surreal balance between adaptation and remake. Watching Boromir get shot full of bananas while the real audio track of Sean Bean screams in agony is something every fan of Tolkien should seek out if only to witness the absurdity of its mere existence. This is perhaps the oddest relic in TT Games' vast LEGO catalog in terms of presentation of the licensed IP.
6. Indiana Jones
Regarding the ratio of bad to good movies represented in this particular LEGO adaptation, the Indiana Jones series is batting a better average than many of the entries already seen on this list, with only one egregious cinematic mistake represented in the form of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Thankfully, enough of these games are spent in the original trilogy's loving embrace that it is relatively easy to forget about Crystal Skull's inclusion.
5. Harry Potter
The Wizarding World finds what is perhaps still its best video game adaptation to date, LEGO or otherwise. The sights, sounds, and characters that any Harry Potter fan would expect to be in a game adaptation are there, making this one of the few LEGO adaptations whose licensed IP hasn't been totally soiled by unwatchable entries in their movie counterparts.
4. LEGO Rock Band
Although the rhythm game genre is basically dead in the mainstream, Lego Rock Band was perhaps the last true aesthetic innovation in the space before it began its death spiral in the early 2010s. With a tracklist that included such classics as "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by The Police, "In Too Deep" by Sum 41, "Let's Dance" by David Bowie, "The Final Countdown" by Europe, and even the Ghostbusters theme song, Lego Rock Band had plenty of reasons for players to add it into their party game rotation. Seeing a LEGO-fied Brian May shred a plastic guitar while "We Will Rock You" plays is something no self-respecting video game (or classic rock) fan should miss.
3. Marvel
There are so many characters in the LEGO Marvel/Avengers games that it's a staggering task for even veterans of the modern LEGO series to seek them all out. With nearly five hundred total characters between their three Marvel titles so far, it's becoming hard to imagine just who TT Games would mine for their next entry into the Marvel Universe. Then again, nobody really thought Disney would be able to stick the landing of the Infinity Saga 22 movies later either, but look where we are now.
2. DC
Flying for the first time in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes felt like TT Games began to truly realize the potential they have as the videogame stewards of the LEGO IP. While the control felt somewhat wonky, these exploration mechanics are what makes TT Games' DC entries in their greater LEGO catalog stand out as the most "complete" packages in terms of what one might want out of a typical collectathon open-world game. Plus, there are more than enough characters and secrets between TT Games' many DC releases to keep the completionist in you busy.
1. Star Wars
Before becoming TT Games, Traveler's Tales released the first Lego Star Wars game in 2005, just prior to the theatrical release of Revenge of the Sith. Without that game, players may never have gotten to experience the myriad ways that TT Games has adapted beloved IP into the humble, charming world of LEGO. It also helps that playing as a Jedi in the Lego Star Wars games felt better at the time than almost any previous Star Wars video game, and these aspects of the games have aged considerably well.
The collectathon grind in The Complete Saga, which collects the first six episodes in the Skywalker Saga, is one that will always be enjoyable to go back to. However, TT Games wasn't content stopping there; it decided to top itself in almost every way with its Force Awakens tie-in game. The cinematic presentation of that specific entry seems to be carrying over into what is shaping up to be TT Games' potential magnum opus: Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. This franchise is the one that TT Games is clearly the most passionate about, seeing as they keep going back to this well to try and perfect their presentation. The reverence for this property can be seen in every part of these games, and hopefully, they will continue that tradition in 2021.