Topic: LEGO City Undercover (Switch) AKA Not-secret best LEGO game - April 4th

[Phil]

Perhaps that was as not-secret as LEGO City Undercover being the not-secret best LEGO game.
Maybe if the game was a major downgrade, yeah, but it'll be nice to be able to play the game while watching/listening to TV.

[lolmonade]

If they can improve load times with some patches down the line, I'm definitely curious about this as a co-op game with my wife.  Seems up her alley.

[Phil]

Load times were a bit of a hassle in the Wii U version. I'm hoping the performance in handheld mode isn't too shabby (I'm not usually bothered by frame-rate issues, though), so when loading happens, I can just watch TV for the 50 seconds or so it now takes. With the Wii U version, you had to use the GamePad for scanning and the map, so there was no Off-TV option available.

[Phil]

A NeoGAF user compared the Wii U version with the Switch version.

[Lemonade]

It looks much more different than I was expecting. Even the car has changed.

[Stratos]

So I got a good deal of time in with the game last night. Played co-op with my wife. First, she had a blast with it, way more than either of us thought she would have. Co-op was the one thing this game was missing and it makes it go from great to phenomenal.


Graphics are nice, no slowdown that I saw. I also never notices slowdown in BotW (other than the random freeze glitch) so take that for what you will. Loading times are very infrequent, and really not that long. It actually gave us enough time to read the little blurbs from Officer Honey, which were quirky, funny, and entertaining.


There do seem to be a few odd quirks with the navigation aid. My wife could not get the navigation studs to appear on her screen, so that might be a P1 thing only, but either player can initiate story sequences and other marker points.


My wife was an awful driver in-game, and coupled with her inability to get the nav guide up she just started riding on my cars. That was funny, but we also discovered that there are some vehicles like buses where the second player can hop on as a passenger.


So I highly recommend this game, even if you already owned it on Wii U. The only people I would caution against this game are Wii U game owners who will never use the co-op mode and people not fond of Lego games (though if you play one, this should be it).

[Phil]

Coming off Stratos' recommendation, Best Buy is selling LCU for a discount, $50 (even less with Gamers' Club Unlocked).

[nickmitch]

Ended up ordering this game with a $20 giftcard I got from walmart.  I thought $40 felt like the right price.  Looking forward to it.

[Agent-X-]

Even at $60, I'm feeling pretty good about my purchase. The co-op mode has been the most pleasant surprise as my wife has really gotten into playing this game with me.

[Phil]

Big frame-rate issues in handheld mode, but not enough to make me not want to play it while watching The Golden Girls. Really enjoying this game for the second time. I'm just smarter this go around and not exploring the city until I have most of the costumes, if not all of them.

[Agent-X-]

Big frame-rate issues in handheld mode, but not enough to make me not want to play it while watching The Golden Girls. Really enjoying this game for the second time. I'm just smarter this go around and not exploring the city until I have most of the costumes, if not all of them.

Yeah, I'm hoping for some updates as it really hasn't been optimized.

[ShyGuy]

Big frame-rate issues in handheld mode, but not enough to make me not want to play it while watching The Golden Girls. Really enjoying this game for the second time. I'm just smarter this go around and not exploring the city until I have most of the costumes, if not all of them.

Golden Girls was such a good show. Top 25 sitcom easily.

[Stratos]

I've been playing it in handheld mode more since I have to share the TV with my wife, and I'm still not seeing any slow-down. But I've only been in the area surrounding the precinct and Albatross Island. Might be more when I head out to those far-off and open locations.

[Mop it up]

How far away from each other can players go in the city? Are they independent?

[Stratos]

They are independent on vertical split screens. So pretty far. I've been on completely different parts of the map from my wife. I'll have to run some tests and see how the game performs while on opposite ends of the map.


This might explain the reason for the load times. If the game has to pre-load nearly the entire map it would take a bit, and due to the drop-in drop-out nature of the co-op the game may just be designed with the intention of being prepared for co-op at any given moment. In programming you build things with the worst-case scenario in mind.

[Phil]

The game definitely loads the whole city. Was that way with the Wii U version as well. *nods*

[Phil]

It looks like whoever said there were Nintendo references in the Switch version of LEGO City was wrong. Got to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa-like structure and got a LEGO City police badge instead of a Star.

https://twitter.com/SP_Central/status/852439708428677120/photo/1

[Stratos]

But the legalese on the game's opening splash page makes mention of Nintendo imagery being owned by Nintendo, unless that was merely in reference to the Switch and Nintendo logos.

[Phil]

I only took Spanish in high school, and that was because I was forced. I don't remember anything, though. 

[Stratos]

No hablo espanol?

[Phil]

So apparently the 479 MB patch that folks downloaded patched in the Nintendo references. I had been playing without the patch and without the Nintendo references (for instance, the Power Star/Super Star atop the Leaning Tower in Fresco gave me a LEGO City police badge instead).

[Stratos]

Glad they patched it back in, hope I didn't miss any of it in my play through. I just finished the photo/surveillance mission against the Chen gang.

[Phil]

There's a Bob-Omb in north Pagoda that you lead to a cage. You don't need any special disguises for it. There should also be an item box along the coast of Pagoda (under a dock, I believe) that also doesn't require a disguise. Otherwise, I recommend exploring LEGO City for objectives to unlock Gold Bricks and find the Nintendo stuff after you beat the game. That way you won't reach a thing like a circuit box or planter that can only be interacted with with a certain disguise and perhaps forget about where it is later.

So yeah, the day one patch was for the Nintendo references.

[Phil]

LEGO City Undercover is on sale on Amazon. Yippie-skippy!

[Stratos]

Wow, did not expect it to drop that fast. Happy for those who can take advantage of this deal.