Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Cover art for Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Developer(s)	TT Fusion
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	Lego City Undercover
Platforms	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	NA 21 April 2013 EU 26 April 2013 AUS 27 April 2013
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a prequel sandbox-style action-adventure video game developed by TT Fusion, that was released on the Nintendo 3DS in April 2013. Unlike previous Lego titles developed by Traveller's Tales, which have been based on various licenses, the game is based on the Lego City brand and was published by Nintendo.

Plot

Set about 2 years before the events of Lego City Undercover, Chase McCain, a rookie cop working for the Lego City Police Department, has one objective in his mind: to put the most wanted man, Rex Fury, into jail. It also explains how Chase got sent away, and how he accidentally revealed the secret witness who came forward to help arrest the criminal.

Development

The game was first announced during Nintendo's press conference at E3 2011 on 7 June 2011 with the tentative name Lego City Stories. On 17 January 2013, the game was revealed to be Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, and that it would be a prequel to the Wii U game.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 64% Metacritic 65/100 Review scores Publication Score Eurogamer 7/10 Game Informer 6/10 GamesRadar IGN 6.3/10 Nintendo Life Nintendo Insider 60%

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins received mixed reviews with aggregate scores of 64% from GameRankings and 65/100 from Metacritic. IGN gave it 6.3/10, calling it a "decent" game that is marred by "a lot of fog, a lot of loading, no voice acting and a jarring framerate".

Liam Martin of Digital Spy gave the game 3 out of 5 stars, commenting on the games lack of appeal but praising the game's visuals and stating that "Unfortunately, where LEGO City Undercover referenced movies and used voice acting to great effect, hardware limitations have forced TT Fusion to keep spoken cutscenes to a minimum, something which ultimately detracts from the hilarity. Despite its flaws, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a charming release, packed with diverse missions, mostly impressive visuals and a great cast of characters."

Chris Scullion of Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game 64% out of 100, commenting on the amount of cutbacks from the Wii U sequel (Undercover), stating that "The Chase Begins has far less funnier bones than Undercover. The silly jokes, clever spoofs and brilliant dialogue between the characters have been replaced with a handful of average cutscenes and loads of text-heavy dialogue which, while functional, are rarely amusing and never hilarious. Loading times were frustrating enough in LEGO City: Undercover but are even more infuriating here considering the game's running off a cartridge and is designed for handheld play. It's lacking visually, too. Thick fog (to hide having to render distant buildings) smothers the city and roads and pavements are far less crowded, making it feel like you're wandering around a post-apocalyptic LEGO City. The characters' faces don't move, making in-game cutscenes feel awkward and the frame rate is clunky if you're playing in 3D. It's technically impressive(ish), but not as fun or funny as the Wii U game."

On 12 September 2013 Nintendo announced that the game has sold 264,000 units in North America.

External links

• Official website