LEGO Dimensions: Sonic the Hedgehog Level Pack (Wii U) Review

The story mode of the game sees Sonic and friends racing to stop Eggman from collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds, with them revisiting classic locales from the series' history, including Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Metropolis Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and even areas from Sonic Adventure. Each of these stages plays very differently, but the first is most different of all.

Green Hill Zone plays something like the iconic first stage of the 16-bit era. It has Sonic sprinting from left to right across the familiar landscape, dodging LEGO versions of Eggman's robotic piranhas and bees. Upon starting this stage, it seems to look like exactly what fans would hope for - a fairly loyal approximation of the original zone with a LEGO twist - but the problem is this 2D side-scroller isn't actually 2D; it's somewhere between 2D and 3D, which often results in Sonic being a little too close to or far from the centre of the stage, resulting in him regularly falling off the stage or getting stuck on annoying pieces of scenery.

The original Sonic games on the Mega Drive were amazing thanks to their speed and fluidity - something that is completely lacking here. The following stages don't suffer as much, due to not trying to force the strange 2.5D setting on the stages, and instead embracing the LEGO Dimensions style, albeit with a Sonic filter over every aspect in the environment. The studs are replaced with rings, lives are replaced with the Sonic TVs, and the series music plays throughout.

The open Adventure World is where the fun really comes in. It's just like all of the other Adventure Worlds that have come before; a decent sized environment filled with puzzles, minigames and quest givers that reward the usual Gold Bricks (there are 28 here to track down), along with hundreds of thousands of studs, and a Red Brick that replaces studs with Sonic rings permanently.

What makes the Adventure World special is the crazy mashup of elements from throughout the considerable history of the blue blazer. This mashup of Sonic history sees the tall stacks of the Chemical Plant casting shadows over Sandopolis, and just across from there is the bright lights of Carnival Night. This is the real reason for fans of the series to pick this title up - the Adventure World is filled with all manner of fan service and Easter eggs.

For the physical models in this pack, there is a mini version of Tails' plane the Tornado, made of generic parts with no unique brick. Then there's the Sonic Speedster, Sonic's totally unnecessary car taken from Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing - again a generic model with no special bricks. Finally, there is the Sonic minifig, entirely unique and probably the selling point for many players. There is such a missed opportunity here to not include two minifigs. With series favourites like Tails, Knuckles, Amy and, of course, Eggman all getting LEGO-ised in game, it would have been great to get more of them as physical toys. There isn't even a "fun pack" with other characters on the cards at the moment.