WiiU-exclusive LEGO open-world TPS, one of the franchise's best games. Sharp humor, savory film references, dense and lively city. Long and generous. GamePad is well used. A must for families and LEGO game fans.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player7+
Description
Officer Chase McCain returns to LEGO City to dismantle a gang of thieves in this open-world police game packed with humor and references. Published by Nintendo, released in 2013 in the United States and Europe. Original Wii U exclusive with a fully explorable city, over 3000 collectibles, dozens of disguises with unique abilities, and the GamePad as a communicator and interactive map.
LEGO City Undercover review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
The whole city is built from assembled bricks, but only certain elements come apart, a distinction made legible by a difference of finish: fixed scenery takes matte textures, while manipulable pieces keep the sheen of moulded plastic. The districts borrow from American urban clichés, waterfront, Chinatown, industrial zone, each with its own dominant hue.
The score openly pastiches police film music, wah-wah brass, funk bass, strings in tension during tailings, a register that accompanies the parody without ever underlining it heavily. The themes change according to the disguise worn, so switching from a fireman's outfit to a miner's also alters the scene's audio colour.
The story takes the shape of a nineteen-seventies police film, an undercover officer, an irascible chief, a prison break, but treats every situation as a gag rather than as tension, the lines openly quoting famous scenes. The device works because the plot itself stays coherent: the borrowed identities genuinely serve the investigation instead of being a pretext.
Is LEGO City Undercover still worth playing in 2026?
An open world adventure from Traveller's Tales, LEGO City Undercover casts you as cop Chase McCain in a fully explorable LEGO city, a vast nod to open world games but without violence. The omnipresent humour, the freedom of exploration and the hundreds of bricks to collect make it one of the series' peaks, originally Wii U exclusive and using the GamePad as a scanner. The sometimes sluggish pace and the loading times weigh it down. An excellent adventure game for families and fans of joyful sandboxes.
