Forget Mario and Sonic (for now anyway) – one of the most popular gaming franchises in recent video game history is Lego.

The reason is simple – the games are easy to pick up, great fun to play, and accessible for all ages.

And with Lego Jurassic World set to be released in June, it’s high time we built a list of the top ten brick-based video games. A tough challenge indeed.


MORE: Lego Jurassic World trailer looks bricking awesome

10. Lego Island

Released on Windows in 1997, Lego Island was the very first Lego game ever made. With no plot as such, players could free roam the colourful island taking on a variety of missions, from delivering pizzas to jet-ski racing.



While it’s not dated particularly well, it remains a classic and a springboard for some truly great games.

9. Lego Racers

As a child there was something unsatisfying about building an awesome car out of Lego bricks, then not being able to watch it speed around a track, which is why Lego Racers is so brilliant.

Essentially the Lego version of Mario Kart, with one key difference – you can build your own car (which has it’s pros and cons).

It’s an old game now, but certainly deserves its place in this list.

8. The Lego Movie video game

So Lego (Picture: Lego)

A Lego video game tie-in of a Lego film – you can’t get more Lego than that!

The game closely follows the plot of The Lego Movie, using a colourful world made entirely of Lego bricks, a huge variety of playable characters and a generous smattering of good fun.

7. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

This is a superb offering that combines both the brilliant LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Star Wars II in a neat package.

Released in 2007, the Complete Saga offers higher quality graphics than the originals, as well as a classic soundtrack and a hilarious dose of unique Lego humour.

6. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean

After such success with other film-to-bricks-to-videogame adaptations, the franchise moved on to Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, merging the first four blockbuster films into one convenient game.

The complex story may be a little hard to follow as – like others in the franchise – there’s no dialogue, but they capture the pirate world perfectly and the game play is great fun.

5. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4

Magic (Picture: Lego)

As the name suggests, this title focuses on key moments from the first four Harry Potter years, resulting in a magical game that brings Hogwarts to life.

Game developer Traveller’s Tales paid close attention to both the films and books in looks and story, so genuine Potter fans will feel right at home.

4. Lego Lord of the Rings

An fun adaptation of Peter Jackson’s iconic trilogy that used genuine dialogue and music from the original films, which took the franchise to a new level.

While it condensed the story somewhat, the atmospheric title offered plenty of replay value with a vast world to explore and endless secrets to discover.



3. Lego City: Undercover

Released in 2013, the franchise ventured away from the movie adaptations and brought a huge open-world game with an original story to the Wii U.

The result was a family-friendly, action-filled sandbox game, which is the closest Lego will come to Grand Theft Auto series (without all the prostitutes, drugs and swearing). Really good fun.

2. Lego Marvel Super Heroes

So. Much. Action (Picture: Lego)

An exciting and varied open-world game with its own original storyline, using around 150 characters from the Marvel universe to tell it.

With excellent gameplay, endless collectable, witty storytelling and oodles of replay value, this is one of the best Lego games out there.

1. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

In a tough-to-call list, my number one Lego game is DC Super Heroes, released in June 2012.

The first in the Lego series to have original voice acting (up until this point the stories were mainly told via primitive grunting), which added a new dimension.

Even though it’s slightly older than Marvel Super Heroes it’s an excellent sandbox offering, in which players could plays as both Batman and Superman and unlock an array of classic DC heroes and villains.

With a fine balance of drama and humour, excellent narrative and gorgeous graphics, this is surely the best Lego game to date.