Dearest TT Games,
We absolutely adore what you did with Batman in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. You cleverly wove together Batman’s biggest adaptations and stories from the Christopher Nolan trilogy, Batman: The Animated Series, 90s live action cheese, and even a sprinkle of the Arkham video games, into one epic narrative. All while retaining LEGO’s signature humor, references, and easter eggs.
And let’s not forget about the gameplay. You managed to reinvent the LEGO videogame that we’ve become so familiar with. By paring down the number of characters and loading up on their special abilities, each character feels fun and different to play. New difficulty levels, enemy types, and combo-drive combat makes the beat ’em up gameplay truly shine. And drop in/out co-op is the final ingredient that makes it a truly memorable family gaming experience.
But, now we have a problem.
We’ve completed all the Riddler trophies, finished all the AR challenges, and found all the Waynetech Caches. We need more of this excellent urban open-world gameplay.
Sure, there’s still the upcoming villain-centric DLC. But there’s so much more to mine beyond the Bat-verse.
To help give you some ideas, we’ve complied a humble list of other licensed properties that would fit the mold of the excellent framework you’ve created: familiar heroes and villains, fun vehicles and stories, multiple adaptations, and a city-based environment.
LEGO Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters has been a tough nut to crack over the last four decades. Ghostbusters 2018 messily rebooted the franchise with mixed results. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was a worthy sequel/reboot in 2021 starring a new generation, but things got a little too bloated with its Frozen Empire sequel.
Still, Ghostbusters has the perfect setup for a city-based open world video game. Ghosts are rampaging loose in the streets of New York City, and only our proton-pack wielding heroes can stop them!
We can go through the main films, and cleverly include the well-written Ghostbusters Video Game from 2009 (the true Ghostbusters III we never got), with maybe a sprinkling of Spirits Unleashed. And certainly draw from The Real Ghostbusters animated series, too!
It would be a little harder to differentiate between the ‘busters, but lots of different ghost types (hello, Spirits Unleashed!) and different ghost traps and tools could help add some variety. Or heck, let us play as ghosts, too!
And, come on, who doesn’t want to drive a LEGO-fied version of ECTO-1 through the city streets?
LEGO Spider-Man
The obvious choice to tackle another urban-based superhero is arguably the most popular superhero of all, Spider-Man!
Sure, we’ve had lots of Avengers games in the past, and they’re pretty good, but a Spidey-centric game using Legacy of the Dark Knight’s more involved combo system and open-world traversal would absolutely print money.
Spidey also has the perfect smaller cast of cool super-powered allies, each with slightly different strengths and powers, including Miles Morales, Ghost Spider, Silk, SP//DR, Spider-Noir, Spider-Man 20XX — well, you get the idea. To say nothing of Spider-Man’s awesome and huge variety of villains, which the Insomniac Spider-Man games do a fantastic job of utilizing.
Somehow we’ll have to incorporate all the Spidey films of the 2000s and beyond, as well as the animated Spiderverse movies to contend for our multiversal buddies. Dare we even include some awesome way to transport across the multiverse and access other versions of NYC? I think so!
Even if we go light on the multiverse stuff (cowards!) LEGO Spider-Man is the perfect choice to continue the legacy of Legacy of the Dark Knight.
LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
What’s the go-to property for kid-friendly, NYC-based heroics? Okay, it’s probably Spider-Man, but the Turtles have remained remarkably resilient over their nearly 40-year run, reinventing themselves for each new generation. They don’t exactly have as many high quality live-action adaptations as the others, but there’s plenty of animated shows, video games, and comic stories to draw from.
The Turtles fit the perfect mold of similar, but different gameplay thanks to their signature weapons and fighting styles. We can also include Master Splinter, Casey Jones, April O’Neal, Karai, etc.
Heck, can we just steal and expand the entire plot of Shredder’s Revenge for an epic TMNT storyline involving tons of allies and enemies. Radical!
The biggest hurdle to a LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is the opposite problem of LEGO Batman. Whereas the Dark Knight often goes it alone (and the game makes great strides to ensuring that’s never actually the case in Legacy of the Dark Knight), the Turtles are almost always together as a foursome. Unless TT Games expands to four player co-op, the story would have to keep finding excuses to separate them.
Or, don’t bother, and just have the others appear in cutscenes, and let us swap at will during campaign missions. Driving (or flying!) around LEGO NYC with the classic Turtles van or chopper would be a dream come true for adults and kids alike.
What other franchises would make great open world LEGO games? Let us know via our social media channels, and sign up for our weekly newsletter!
