LEGO Friends Video Game

[jamesster]

Hellbent Games, the developers of LEGO Battles and LEGO Battles: Ninjago, are doing a third LEGO game based on Friends. The LEGO site says it's for 3DS, other sites say it's for both DS and 3DS. Anyway, it comes out this autumn.

http://videogames.lego.com/en-us/lego-friends/about/screenshots/

http://videogames.lego.com/en-us/lego-friends/about/features/

http://www.nintendo-insider.com/2013/05/14/lego-friends-announced-as-nintendo-exclusive/

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a481468/lego-friends-announced-for-nintendo-handhelds-this-autumn.html

Game overview

Welcome to amazing Heartlake City where summer fun awaits! Meet your new LEGO® Friends and join them on exciting adventures that build friendships with the girls and allow you to express your individual style and personality as you explore the city.

Shop for the latest outfits and accessories, select the perfect hairstyle, decorate your bedroom and even pick out a pet. Choose how to spend your summer vacation; whether you’d rather attend horse riding camp, perfect a dance routine, play soccer, practice karate, or care for an animal at the rescue center, you can do these things and more as you express your creativity, and build fun memories with your five new friends!

Game features

Express Yourself: Pick out your clothing, hairstyle and accessories, decorate your bedroom the way you want, choose your favorite animal as a pet and even pick out accessories for your pet!

Meet New LEGO Friends: Join your new friends on unique adventures. Help Andrea decide what to sing at her concert, or take photos for Emma’s newspaper article. Enjoy different activities with each girl as you learn about her unique personality, interests and personal style.

Enjoy Total Freedom: Explore Heartlake City and decide how you want to spend your time. Hang out with your friends at the cafe, play soccer, attend dance rehearsal, or master skills at the karate dojo.

Build Your Friendships: Help your Friends on special adventures like winning a trophy in a horse riding competition or delivering cupcakes, and your friendship levels with the girls will grow closer to “True Friend” status. On some adventures you’ll even unlock in-game money that you can use for shopping!

Care for Your Pet: Train your pet to do tricks, groom her, feed her treats, and enter her in a pet show. Each pet has a special skill that they can use to help you on your adventures. You can even trade places with your fun-loving pet so you can play the game from her perspective.

Scrapbook Your Adventures: Use your in-game camera for photo-ops and create a beautiful scrapbook of fun memories, so you’ll never forget your summer adventures in Heartlake City.

Personally, I don't really give a darn about it, Friends isn't exactly my thing. ;P But eh, there's not a topic for it yet as far as I can see, so why not.

Edited May 15, 2013 by jamesster

[Ham17]

My sister will LOVE this. =D

[Kristel]

As will my daughter. I might just have a go myself, too.

[CM4Sci]

Ah, here it is. I remember seeing this when we first heard about the theme.

Looks exciting - won't get it - but still exciting.

-Sci

[SoupOrFishOil]

Yes!

Can't be worse than the original Friends game, right? I am excited. :P

Edited May 15, 2013 by Superficial Username

[Bighappysmiles]

I doubt it will be for DS, DS is practically dead.....Now that 3DSs are so cheap, they just might as well make it for that.

[jamesster]

I doubt it will be for DS, DS is practically dead.....Now that 3DSs are so cheap, they just might as well make it for that.

LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval's Journey is being released for DS, 3DS, and PS Vita, so I don't see why this game couldn't be released for DS if that one is.

Edit: Press release confirms DS version.

BURBANK, Calif. – May 14, 2013 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced LEGO® Friends, currently being developed for the Nintendo 3DS™ and Nintendo DS™ handheld systems. Scheduled for release this fall, LEGO Friends will offer creative gameplay based on the fun and excitement found in the already-popular LEGO Friends collection of building sets, which launched in 2012 and introduces new adventures in 2013.

“We are very proud to welcome even more girls into the world of LEGO videogames with a title based on the best-selling LEGO Friends line,” said Tom Stone, Managing Director, TT Games. “LEGO Friends allows players to build personal fun adventure while expressing their individual style and personality along the way.”

LEGO Friends welcomes players to Heartlake City, where summer fun awaits! Players have complete freedom to express their unique style, explore areas and activities that interest them most, such as perfecting a dance routine in the studio, taking a few shots on goal at soccer practice, or visiting the store to get cool items to customize their character, as they build friendships with their five new friends.

Building friendships is the heart of the game. As players meet new friends and join them on special adventures, such as helping Emma take pictures for her next newspaper article or reviewing song choices for Andrea’s next performance, they grow their friendship levels with each character. Once players reach “true friend” status with all of the characters, they are able to build a Heartlake Celebration for them.

Additionally, players can care for a variety of different pets by training and grooming them, in order to enter them in a pet show. Each pet has a special skill that players can use to help them in their adventures. Plus, players can trade places with the fun-loving pets to play the game from the animal’s perspective.

To capture their exciting adventures in Heartlake City, players can use the in-game camera for fun photo ops to create a scrapbook of friendship memories.

LEGO Friends is being developed by TT Games, in partnership with Hellbent Games. For more information, please visit: www.LEGO.com/videogames.

Edited May 16, 2013 by jamesster

[Lyichir]

This game sounds so much like what I've been wanting from a My Little Pony game, actually. :P With friendship being the name of the game, a la Animal Crossing, and various minigames you use to bond with characters. Of course, that doesn't make it a guaranteed purchase by me by any means; there's a lot of opportunity for that sort of game to fail in its execution. I'll want to wait on reviews, which hopefully can judge the game on its own merits instead of dwelling on the fact that "these don't look like Minifigures!"

[Aanchir]

This game sounds so much like what I've been wanting from a My Little Pony game, actually. :P With friendship being the name of the game, a la Animal Crossing, and various minigames you use to bond with characters. Of course, that doesn't make it a guaranteed purchase by me by any means; there's a lot of opportunity for that sort of game to fail in its execution. I'll want to wait on reviews, which hopefully can judge the game on its own merits instead of dwelling on the fact that "these don't look like Minifigures!"

Agreed on this. Hopefully it will be very good and will become a template for similar franchises to follow as far as video game licensing is concerned.

The screenshots look pretty good, though graphically they're not the most impressive and I have to wonder which platform they're from. I'm fairly certain the 3DS should be able to handle better graphics than this. At least it's not just pixelly 2D like the LEGO Battles games. While that was undoubtedly useful for allowing lots of characters and lots of action on a single screen without eating up processing power, it detracted from the games' overall presentation.

I'm sure a number of reviews might deduct from its score if it turns out there's no building component, as with the other LEGO games. One tagline for LEGO Friends is "The Beauty of Building" and it'd be great if this game incorporated some building. However, I will understand if there isn't one, as LEGO video games have done well without a realistic building engine and those that have had one like LEGO Universe have sometimes been criticized for being unintuitive. It's simply much more difficult than some people imagine to incorporate realistic LEGO building into a video game.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Aanchir

[BlueberryWaffles]

No hearts, no studs, weird characters......hmpf.

[Aanchir]

No hearts, no studs, weird characters......hmpf.

Oh, I assure you, there WILL be hearts. The setting is called HEARTlake City for crying out loud.

Seriously, I know what you mean, but personally I'm always happy to see LEGO stepping outside the action–adventure genre.

[SheepEater]

First screenshots (there are 17 of them)

http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/49665/lego-friends-game-first-3ds-screenshots/

[jamesster]

First trailer:

[just2good]

First trailer:

{vid}

LOL, Hellbent Games. They also did the LEGO Battles games.

I'm interested to see how the game play is, like what is the objects of the game.