Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Packaging artwork released for all territories.
Developer(s)	TT Fusion
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Distributor(s)	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	NA 21 April 2013 EU 26 April 2013 AUS 27 April 2013 JP 5 March 2015
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	Nintendo 3DS Game Card

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a prequel sandbox-style action-adventure video game, developed by TT Fusion, a division of TT Games, that was released on the Nintendo 3DS on 21 April 2013 in North America and in Europe on 26 April 2013.^[1] Unlike previous Lego titles developed by TT Games, which have been based on various licenses, the game is based on the Lego City brand and is published by Nintendo. It is the second Lego game to be published by Nintendo rather than an independent publisher such as WB Games or LucasArts.^[2]

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 has explains how Chase got sent away, and how he accidentally revealed the secret witness who came forward to help arrest the criminal.

Characters

Protagonists

• Chase McCain: A rookie cop and the main protagonist of the game. His main objective is to arrest Rex Fury.
• Deputy Marion Dunby: A strict police deputy who dislikes Chase before he became a chief.
• Chief Gleeson: A police chief before she becomes the mayor of LEGO City.
• Natalia Kowalski: Chase's love interest who works as a news reporter before she works in the medical field. She was forced to go under witness protection after Chase accidentally revealed her identity when she testified against Rex Fury.
• Rose Hayes: Jethro's daughter and a farmer. She was kidnapped by von Krunchman's and his men.
• Warden Fielding: A prison warden in Albatross Island who was locked-up by Burt Wellington. He retires before the events of Lego City Undercover.
• Sheriff Shepherd: A deputy sheriff who is in-charge in the Bluebell Woods Police Station.He retires before the events of Lego City Undercover.

Antagonists/Criminals

• Rex Fury: A criminal who is first assumed as the game's main antagonist. He was suspected to be responsible for LEGO City's crime wave.
• Tony "Knuckles" McGee: A first criminal that Chase encountered in Cherry Tree Hills.
• Burt "Birdman" Wellington: Albatross Island's most dangerous inmate.
• Smokey Fuentes: A crime boss who is responsible to blow up the bridge in Auburn.
• von Krunchman: A most dangerous troublemaker in Fort Meadows who kidnapped Jethro Hayes.
• Flash Johnson: An astronaut criminal who kidnapped the Kowalskis including Dr. Henrik Kowalski and his daughter Natalia.
• Carl Walnuts: A lumberjack criminal and Forrest Blackwell's earlier assistant.
• Forrest Blackwell: a minor antagonist in the game. He tries to destroy Bluebell National park.

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 3DS game was revealed to have had a name change to 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 63.77%[3] Metacritic 65/100[4] Review scores Publication Score Eurogamer 7/10[5] Game Informer 6/10[6] GamesRadar [7] IGN 6.3/10[8] Nintendo Life [9] Nintendo Insider 60%[10]

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins received mixed to positive reviews with aggregate scores of 63.77% from GameRankings and 65/100 from Metacritic.^[3][4] 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".^[8]

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."^[11]

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. ^[12]

On 12 September 2013 Nintendo announced that the game has sold 264,000 units in North America.^[13]

References

External links

• Official website