Platform fighters hold a unique place in the fighting game genre. It's not enough to simply pummel an opponent into submission in an orderly, 1v1 fight. The player has to cope with over-the-top stages, powers, and characters, often fending off multiple opponents at once. There's a reason the platforming fighter is one of the most frantic and intense fighting game subgenres around.
In LEGO Brawls, everyone's favorite connectable blocks are alive and at war. This platform fighter puts massive emphasis on customization, making sure the cartoony action is different every single time, whether players are battling in a castle or old western town. It might be based on a toy, but there's a lot to learn. Here are some great tips for players new to Lego Brawls.
6 Embrace The Madness
It takes only a few minutes of playing LEGO Brawls to understand just how similar it is to platform fighting games like Super Smash Bros. and MultiVersus. With its hectic, side-scrolling, beat 'em up antics, one could be forgiven for mistaking it for just another Smash Bros. knockoff. Playing it, however, reveals that there's more to this game than meets the eye.
Even by the standards of platform fighting games, the wild antics of LEGO Brawls combat is pretty over the top. With fish cannons, rocket cars, healing pizzas, and a ton of other items and objects to get used to, it can all feel a little overwhelming and random in the beginning before the player understands the different powers. Rather than trying than shooting for the perfect build right away, it's better to just dive in and experiment. The more familiar the player becomes with the various weapons and power-ups, the easier and more fun things will be.
5 Enjoy Customization
One of the main draws for crossover games is the chance to play as and against one's favorite video game characters. Since a huge part of the appeal is the characters, their cosmetics and customization are often limited so as not to deviate too much from their classic looks. LEGO, by contrast, is a franchise that's all about customization.
From the smallest figure to the largest and most elaborate LEGO castle, being able to change things until they're exactly right is part of what makes the toy (and the games based upon it) so fun. LEGO Brawls gives players the opportunity to build their own mini-fig fighters, customizing everything from their appearance and weapons to their power-ups. Whether one's choices help one in battle is arguably less important than how much fun they are, so take some time to enjoy the character creator's great versatility while building the perfect fighter.
4 Participate In Community Events
LEGO is a toy brand built around customization, imagination, and possibility. A box of bricks can keep a player busy by themselves for years, and while having other players can be great, they're by no means essential to have fun. Sometimes it's nice just to build an elaborate pirate ship by oneself.
That said, many feel that one of the best parts of LEGO is its community of enthusiastic fans. Unsurprisingly, LEGO Brawls includes many such fans who are eager to share a laugh as a battle and will jump at the opportunity to check out new LEGO content. As an online multiplayer game, LEGO Brawls includes frequent updates and community events, both of which give players something fresh to sink their teeth into.
3 Learn The Stages
Stages in LEGO Brawls are separated by more than just their appearances: each stage has its own modes, win conditions, unique items, challenges, and other features that make a huge difference in what the player needs to do to win. Learning how to fight outside an old western saloon is all well and good, but it doesn't necessarily prepare the player for a T-Rex rampaging through the middle of the battlefield in Jurassic World.
At the beginning of each match, players vote to determine which stage they will play on. The player therefore always has a chance to send themselves to their favorite stage or the one they feel best on, though they can always be outvoted by others. Even if one has a favorite stage, it's a good idea to gain experience playing on all of them. That way, no matter how the vote goes, the player will have a decent chance at clobbering their competition.
2 Know The Modes
While some fighting games can get away with having only one or two modes if they are particularly well done, most games try to spice things up with a greater variety, giving players multiple ways of challenging themselves and keeping them invested longer. The same is true in LEGO Brawls.
Control Point is a 4v4 mode in which the player must control a specific area of the level, defending it from enemies who wish to capture it. Collect Mode tasks the players with hunting down a variety of collectibles that differ by stage, navigating the stages as quickly and efficiently as possible to gather these collectibles before their rivals do.
Brawl Royale is a more traditional platform battling experience, throwing players against one another in combat and seeing who emerges victorious. Free for Brawl is a last-person-standing mode in which defeating enemies refills a portion of the character's life, allowing more lethal players to stay in the fight longer. Whether playing with family or strangers, the game has plenty of variety.
1 Unlocking Through Themes
LEGO Brawls has a ton of content, and much like real LEGOs are organized in sets based on different themes, so is the content in LEGO Brawls. Players work their way through this content, earning more Studs based on their performance, and using those Studs to unlock new power-ups, mini-figures, and other content. Though the player usually knows the kind of reward they will receive based on the theme they are working on unlocking, RNG means the game will sometimes spit out an unexpected surprise.
The player is not locked into a single theme, so just because the player likes sci-fi content and decides right away to unlock as much space stuff as possible, they aren't punished or held back in they suddenly decide that westerns are more their thing. Being able to jump around at will means the player can dabble in one theme long enough to get the cowboy hat they've always wanted and then immediately hop to another theme to work on getting the dream sword.
LEGO Brawls is available now for iOS, Mac, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.