When I was a kid, I loved the Gremlins movie.  Way more than other popular movies at the time like E.T.  I don’t know if that made me a messed-up kid or not, but I do find it strange since Gremlins really isn’t THAT great of a movie (but I still like it).  But as a kid I was pretty into it for a while.  I had a couple of Gremlins action figures, a coloring book, t-shirt, and a Gizmo plush.  So I was thrilled when LEGO Dimensions added Gremlins characters to their lineup, and even more excited to have the opportunity to review them!  LEGO Dimensions is available for nearly all current game consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.

LEGO Dimensions is essentially like Skylanders, except you build and play with LEGOs instead.  I even wrote a big article about it a year ago that you can read.  The Gremlins Team Pack includes two playable figures: Gizmo and Stripe, as well as two vehicles.  The vehicles are the R.C. car that Gizmo drives around in the toy store from the movie, as well as a camera (yes it is ridable), as Gremlins hate bright light.  The game gives you instructions on how to build the vehicles once the LEGO characters are on the pedestal.  Here’s a closer shot of the box they come in.

As a playable character, Gizmo isn’t very useful, but he’s so gosh darn cute.  His regular attack move is just rolling into a ball and falling on his butt.  He can aim and shoot with a flaming bow and arrow, though, which is something he did in the second movie.  I wonder if they got Howie Mandell to reprise his role as Gizmo?  Stripe is a bit cooler to play as.  He has a neat running animation where he gets on all fours, and he can fire at distant targets with a gun!  If Gizmo or Stripe fall into water in the game, they don’t multiply, but instead just fall to pieces like other LEGO characters.

When you first put Gizmo on the pedestal, you’ll be prompted to build the R.C. car that he drives around in the toy store from the first movie.  It’s just a car and doesn’t really have any special abilities that I could see.  When you put Stripe on the pedestal, you’ll build the camera.  What’s strange is that you actually climb on the back of the camera and ride it around.  But what’s even weirder is that the camera’s ability is firing a laser!  Like other LEGO Dimensions items, you can upgrade and rebuild the vehicles into different things if you wish.  Here is a shot of the Gremlins characters and vehicles out of the box and put together.

While playing as Gizmo or Stripe, you’ll unlock the Gremlins hub world and battle arena.  The hub world is like any other hubs in LEGO Dimensions, with missions to complete and structures to build.  The main area of the Gremlins hub world is of a snowy suburb and shopping area. Since the movie is set at Christmastime, you can do things like decorate a Christmas tree in the town square or help someone deliver trees.  Unfortunately, to complete the missions, you’ll have to use other characters.  Which is a bit annoying but I guess that’s the nature of the beast with these kinds of games.  You can also visit places like the department store, movie theater, the old lady’s house with the banister chair elevator, and even the indoor swimming pool where Stripe and his crew multiplied to terrorize the town.

At first I thought the hub world would just have settings from the first movie, which made me a little disappointed.  But then I found a side road that took me to a more urban downtown area.  You first see a Chinatown style street where you can visit the store where Billy’s dad first bought Gizmo.  But after that you can see the Clamp Tower building and take on missions and mini-games from the mutant Gremlins from the second movie, like the smart talking Gremlin and the female Gremlin.  So I was glad to see both movies represented in this game.  I love how the first movie is a spoof of horror films, but the second movie is just a spoof of itself.  The Gremlins flicks may not be very good movies, but I still think they’re fun films anyway.  But maybe I’m just weird.

Kid Factor:

LEGO Dimensions is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Cartoon Violence and Crude Humor. It’s a LEGO game, so it’s pretty safe for kids.  Anything you destroy just falls to pieces.  However, I will say that while I loved the Gremlins movie as a kid, I wouldn’t say it’s a very good kid’s movie, especially for younger viewers.  The movie itself is a bit more violent and scary than your typical kid fare, and while the violence in the LEGO game is WAY toned down, Stripe the Gremlin still wields a gun and says stuff like “Gizmo caca!”  So some parents may not like that.  While I would recommend most LEGO games to all ages, I think LEGO Dimensions is best for older kids.  One, the things you build are pretty complicated sometimes, so they would need to be experienced LEGO handlers.  And like other LEGO toys, the sets are pretty expensive so kids would need to know how to keep up with and take care of their toys, as the game is useless without them.  And plus using the pedestal is not very intuitive.  Also don’t forget the whole choking hazard thing with small LEGOs!

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children