LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins

People are going to buy it, and they're going to enjoy it.

All in all, this still remains a far better effort for the LEGO titles than what we’ve seen on 3DS, or any handheld before. Clearly building the game from the ground up with a unique scenario is the way to go.

There are some technical issues, but the game manages to be fun and entertaining, and offers loads of content to keep us playing for a long while.

Quotation forthcoming.

It's basically a smaller version of the Wii U game, and that's about it. You're going to love it if it's your first time around LEGO City, but you might end up with a whole lot of deja-vu if you already played the previous adventure of Chase McCain.

At the end of the day the game is not a bad one, it is just one that has notable weaknesses and although the story is a prequel, the technical differences makes it less then the bigger console version whose release it follows.

There's plenty to do in LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, but a lot of it feels like padding for a somewhat disappointing story that will really only appeal to kids.

The Chase Begins is a technically impressive game that shares the Wii U game's pros and cons. The humor, the simple but entertaining gameplay and the overall charm are definite strong points while long load times and weak open world elements drags the experience down somewhat.

Although far from the version released for the Wii U, this is undoubtedly the best Lego game released for a portable console.

The Chase Begins might have too many imperfections to be the standout masterwork its console big brother was, and given the choice, you should play that one rather than this one. But it’s still worth picking up and playing, especially if you love Lego, have younger children who need something to keep them busy in the car, or generally lean towards cute rather than blood-soaked.

The repetition turns tedious when the goon fights take place almost every step of the way. These fights are not challenging in the least – even to kids – with McCain merely tossing the bad guys around for a while before cuffing them. I won some of the fights without even looking at the screen.

Lego City arrives Nintendo 3DS with a prequel based on the same open world showed in Wii U. The title has a new story and missions not seen before. Although, it isn't so inspired, resulting a title specially recommended for fans and youngest gamers.

Those yearning for another Lego adventure would do well to invest in Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins.

An interesting game by itself, but loses some points when compared with its Wii U version. This version fits in Nintendo 3DS and can offer you some fun hours of LEGO platforming, fighting and collecting extras.

While the story lacks the humor and extensive narrative of the Wii U sequel, Chase and the rest of the cast are still an endearing bunch.

While its position as a sandbox game for all ages should certainly benefit it as much as the LEGO brand, The Chase Begins is comparatively limited when viewed alongside its Wii U counterpart. Having said that, it holds the scope, the humor, and the basic premise well intact, so if you can look past its technical inadequacies, it’s at least a worthwhile romp through LEGO City that can be enjoyed on the go.

Just like the Wii U game, The Chase Begins has big ambitions - but it suffers for being crammed into a smaller footprint. Compared to its partner, it's undeniably compromised. Taken on its own merits, however, there's still enough charm and fun to be found in this smaller toybox to make it a worthy second best choice.

The Chase Begins doesn’t introduce any substantial change to the LEGO City Undercover universe we've seen on Wii U. Still it's a good title, with an enjoyable campaign and lots of loading screens you’re not going to love.

A good technical effort and a decent game but it's not as entertaining as its Wii U predecessor. [June 2013, p.73]

Contrary to other Lego-games, the emphasis isn’t put on collecting Lego-nobs and building and wrecking Lego-constructions, but more on fighting, driving and completing missions. Too bad that the game looks just a little bit too good. Now, frame drops and long load-times disrupt this ultimate kids-dream.

While technically impressive that so much can be done on the 3DS, Chase Begins covers familiar territory far too soon, the missing touches from the Wii U glaringly obvious.

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is an overly ambitious game that isn't as good as the home console edition.

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins for the 3DS has its pros, but they all fade away compared to the recently released Wii U game. The Chase Begins offers a stripped down version of LEGO City resulting in a lesser game experience.

It's technically impressive(ish), but not as fun or funny as the Wii U game. Younger gamers who haven't played GTA will still enjoy it, though.

Just be prepared for a lot of fog, a lot of loading, no voice acting and a jarring framerate.

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.

While I appreciate the effort to put the open world of Lego City on the handheld, the technical and above all the gameplay reductions make me doubt that there is space for open worlds on mobile systems.

Suitable for younger gamers but a bleak copy of the Wii U version.

The Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins experience is like asking for a complex Lego set for your birthday and finding a box of Duplo under the wrapping paper instead. It’s technically similar, but the differences are critically important.

With LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, the 3DS was not far from getting its "GTA for children", with humor and a ton of things to collect. But the city is a bit small, and the graphics are limited... The game is quite easy but the formula is still really cool for the kids.

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is an enjoyable game that features many of the hallmarks of a quality LEGO title – there's tons of content, a decently crafted campaign and some fun uses of the 3DS hardware. However, it's burdened by several technical issues that sap away at some of its appeal and prevent it from being the handheld blockbuster it could have, and should have, been.

If you're a diehard LEGO fan, odds are you'll get some form of enjoyment out of The Chase Begins. For everyone else, you're better off skipping it entirely, or picking up the superior Wii U version of the game. It's one thing to pare down an experience on a portable: it's another to sacrifice its integrity in the process.

If you imagined the Wii U’s excellent Lego City Undercover and the Nintendo 3DS’s Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins as actor siblings, the former would be Alec Baldwin to the latter’s Daniel...Not Stephen, and not even William...Daniel.

Overall, the game isn't a complete travesty, despite all of its issues. It controls well enough, and is generally fun to play in short spurts, but I can't really recommend it to anyone that's not a child, as it's just a bit too basic.

The Chase Begins makes an effort of being like the Lego City game for the Wii U. Sadly it is quite obvious that the 3DS can’t realise the LEGO universe as well. The city is in itself nice but empty and desolate. Discovering secrets is still as fun as always but the lack of personality and humour halts the Lego games otherwise great sense of immersion.

It's the epitome of an average game and one of the most disappointing 3DS releases of recent times. [Issue#135, p.121]

Charm from the original title is gone. There is not enough humour, technical issues are ruining its gameplay, and even though its developers are trying to mask it, the game's content is not a big thing here. Do not think of it as a prequel to the excellent game, its outcome is mediocre at best.

Compared to the Wii U version, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins feels more like the product of an advertising campaign than an attempt to offer more value to the players. The game suffers from excessive fog, low frame rate and long loading times. The irrelevant combat and repetitive missions only serve to discourage exploration on a city that feels plain and boring. Even if it's aimed at a younger audience, The Chase Begins fails to deliver a memorable game experience.

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a game with more ambition than its platform of choice can handle. Extremely long loading times hamper its portability, and instead of bustling LEGO metropolis, you’ll spend 8 hours or more in a LEGO ghost town. If you’re looking for a game with 70s cop movie sensibilities, you’re better served by picking up the Wii U version.

With so many great games available on the 3DS, there's no reason for gamers to subject themselves to this under baked, disjointed, and sometimes tedious experience.

The Chase Begins has high ambitions. It wants to deliver the same huge sandbox as the excellent Wii U version. But what it ends up with is a big world bereft of a lot of what made the Wii U game so enjoyable. The dialogue and story are boring, the draw distance is poor with lots of pop up, and the loading times are too long - especially for a handheld. It’s still a decent LEGO game as we know it, and there is a lot to collect. It just never feels like more as a shadow of its inspiration.

Disappointingly, what they've been allotted is a tattered set of hand-me-down LEGO blocks, mismatched and marked with the fingerpaint smudges of those who've grown up and moved on to Minecraft.