LEGO Adaptation Game


/wiki/LEGO Adaptation Gamework
So a Jedi, an archaeologist, a superhero, a rocker, a wizard, and a pirate walk into a toy store...
"Once you accept LEGO Star Wars, where does it end? Playmobil Battlestar Galactica? Duplo Firefly? Meccano Dune? Yeah, I'm done milking that joke. I guess I- wait! I've got another one! Stickle bricks Babylon 5? Sorry."
—Yahtzee Croshaw, Zero Punctuation

"LEGO Adaptation Game" is a catch-all term for a loosely-connected series of Multi Platform Video Games made by Traveller's Tales, based on combining the license for LEGO with that of another work, generally a film, as tie-ins to licenced toy lines based on the same films LEGO is producing and selling around the same time. With few exceptions, the games are action platforming games with the characters and stages all consisting of LEGO interpretations of the licensed work in question, with tongue-in-cheek, often parodical Cutscenes poking fun at both those works and the fact that they are made out of LEGO bricks.

In these games, death is just the character falling apart and, if it's a Player Character, reforming with just the loss of a few small round LEGO bricks referred to as studs, which are the currency in these games.

The games also involve using multiple characters, using their different abilities. Replays allow you to use a pool of characters you've gained and switch them on the fly. And the games are loaded with bonuses, which can be bought with LEGO studs or by other methods.

Games in the series:


The games are rife with numerous shout outs, much as you'd expect from a franchise affectionately parodying popular films, to the point where they have their own Shout Out page.

Traveller's Tales also made the LEGO games Bionicle Heroes (which adapts the general mechanics and style of the games to a Third-Person Shooter) and is working on LEGO City Stories, which looks to be the same for a Wide Open Sandbox.

Tropes used in LEGO Adaptation Game include:
  • Actor Allusion:
    • LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga and LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures - Harrison Ford's respective characters from each game appears as a Guest Fighter in the other.
    • The German pilot who fights Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark is played by the same guy who plays the guy who operates the gong in Temple of Doom (the late Pat Roach). In the LEGO version, the German pilot is the guy who operates the gong.
    • In LEGO Indy 2, the title character is distracted while driving through the warehouse by the sight of you-know-who frozen in carbonite.
    • The "Shoot First" achievement for killing Greedo can be done with either Han or Indy.
  • Adaptation Expansion/Artistic License:
    • LEGO Star Wars II: Who would ever think that when destroying the first Death Star, the player first has to destroy turbolaser guns connected to the exhaust port's ray shield? And in the GBA version, one of the turbolaser guns is mounted on and blocking the exhaust port itself. That defeats the purpose of it being an exhaust port!
    • LEGO Indiana Jones: When Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood escape the burning bar, they have to go across some other areas in Nepal, get rid of an enemy truck full of Respawning Enemies and drive off in one of their cars.
      • And the sequel gives us three new battles, Belloq obtaining power from the ark, seemingly becoming a new boss (the puzzle is probably to destroy the enemies the electricity is connecting to, though), the Assassin actually becoming competent enough to block Indy's bullets, and Mola Ram commanding a huge rock monster, none of this was in the original adaptation, but hell it if they don't look cool!
      • Also, Donovan turning into a monster when he drinks from the wrong cup, as opposed to rapidly aging, dying, and turning to dust. He chose poorly, indeed.
  • Affectionate Parody: Any serious moment from the series they were taken on are changed to light-hearted comedy.
  • Another Side, Another Story: After playing through an episode as Batman and Robin in LEGO Batman, you unlock another episode where you can play as the villains.
  • Badass Adorable: LEGO Darth Vader, LEGO Indiana Jones, LEGO Batman... the list goes on.
  • Bad Boss: Mad Hatter pushes a Mook into Toxic Waste because he can. Not because he was in the way or because he had failed him, just because.
  • Bag of Holding: Just like in the book, Hermione gets one in Harry Potter Years 5-7. She can use it on pink pads to pull out whatever will help with the obstacle in front of her.
  • Bag of Spilling: Used in Harry Potter Years 5-7, as Umbridge bans most of the spells learned in the previous game.
  • Bald of Evil: Penguin and Mad Hatter, under their Nice Hats.
  • Beam-O-War: A staple of wizard duels in Harry Potter; unlike in the books where it was a specific quirk of Harry's and Voldemort's wands.
  • The Big Dang Kiss: Cho Chang gives one to Harry in the middle of Order of the Phoenix; and it's ridiculously exaggerated with visual props like curtains, flowers, and a giant pair of lips coming out of nowhere.
  • Big Eater: LEGO Ron Weasley is often seen stuffing himself, whether it's at the beginning of the year feast, while his house burns, whenever.
  • Bloodless Carnage:
    • Good thing, since some of the stuff that the characters are put through are pretty brutal. It's even lampshaded in one of the cutscenes where Killer Croc beheads Robin with a thrown manhole cover... only for the Boy Wonder to put his head back on seconds later, completely okay.
    • On the cover of LEGO Star Wars: The Original Trilogy, Chewbacca is holding up the arms he just ripped out of a stormtrooper's sockets. Which he actually does in the game. The whole point of these games is that the characters are LEGO so this trope comes with the territory.
    • Bane's back-breaking move does come with a 'crunch' effect. Wincy.
    • There's a cutscene in LEGO Harry Potter in Borgin & Burke's where Harry loses his hand because of that one hand thing from the movie that grabs onto him, and then Hagrid finds it and sticks it back into his arm.
    • LEGO Pirates has Bootstrap Bill rip Norrington in half at the waist. This is then followed up by Davy Jones cutting off his head, sticking a live fish inside of his skull, and throwing it into the ocean, where the fish carries the head all the way to the protagonists fleeing ship.
    • The final cutscene in LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 has Amos Diggory grieving over his son Cedric. Dumbledore comforts him by pulling out that character's LEGO instruction pamphlet, so he can be brought back.
    • A commercial for the second LEGO Star Wars game has the duel between Luke and Darth Vader in Cloud City, where after the latter cuts off the former's hand he simply pops it back in. Vader then gets angry and tries to pull it back out, then when he does Luke falls off the platform.
    • AGAIN lampshaded on Lego Star Wars III when Lieutenant Thires to have his arm fall off, only for him to connect it again.
    • ALSO in the game, Blue Shadow Virus has a clone trooper fatally shot near his shoulder, only for Obi-Wan to peel off the wound, revealing it as a decal.
    • Parodied in lego SW The Original Trilogy (also in Complete Saga), When Obi-Wan gives Luke his saber in EPIV, he gets carried away and slices C 3 P 0's head right off...only for it to be put back in place.
  • Boss Subtitles
  • Bowdlerize/Disneyfication:
    • Well, in LEGO Indiana Jones, you've got the Nazis getting turned into a group of "Enemies". Really though, it's a very sensitive topic.
    • In the very first LEGO Star Wars, they changed a few of Revenge Of The Sith's scenes, Anakin doesn't murder children, but a Jedi, and doesn't force choke Padme.
    • Pirates replaces hanging with Produce Pelting.
    • Harry Potter: Years 1-4 has Voldemort take Harry's glasses instead of having Pettigrew cut Harry's arm with a knife for his blood as happens in the books and when Voldemort is in full form, Harry gets his glasses back anyway.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Everyone that fights with a gun follows this, with the sole exception of non-default weapons in Indiana Jones.
  • Bowel-Breaking Bricks: In a commercial for LEGO Star Wars III on the website.
    • Also aired on TV, though possibly only during late-night blocks like Adult Swim.
  • Built With Lego
  • Butt Monkey: TX-20 in Clone Wars; chances are, if a level includes him, you're gonna have to chop his head off in some way or another to access a panel.
  • The Cameo: Darth Vader's helmet makes a brief appearance in Clone Wars, when Palpatine is playing golf in his office.
    • The UFO from LEGO Indiana Jones 2 appears in Clone Wars as a ground vehicle.
  • Captain Obvious: You'd think that in a series where everyone is a Heroic Mime, this would be averted. However, check out this jewel from LEGO Batman:

Game tutorial tip: Toxic waste is poisonous.

    • In LEGO Batman 2, Supes gets off a good snark off Batman.

Batman: We have to stop them.
Superman: You think?

  • Character Customization: Beginning in Star Wars: The Original Trilogy, you can mix-and-match pieces from any unlocked character to make your own creation.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: Batman features bat-suit powerups with different abilites (one set for Batman and Batgirl; another for Robin and Nightwing).
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: The games use a bunch of visual shorthand so you know what you can do. Silver objects have to be blown up with explosives, red and black ones can only be manipulated by evil characters, and so on.
  • Comedic Sociopathy
  • Continuity Lock Out:
    • The cutscenes are only occasional, pantomimed, and Played for Laughs. So good luck understanding what's going on without watching the movies first (or alternately for Harry Potter, reading the books first). Does not apply to LEGO Batman, as it's not based on a preexisting story and provides text bites that help explain who these people are and what they're doing.
    • For an example of how these games look to someone unfamiliar with the source material: LEGO Harry Potter as Explained by Someone Who Has Never Read Harry Potter.
  • Continuity Nod: When Ron looks in the Mirror of Erised, he sees himself kissing Hermione.
    • In Pirates, the Curse of the Black Pearl levels include a few elements that weren't introduced until the next movie: Jack's compass pointing to what he's looking for (Curse only established it didn't point north), Barbossa's body being retrieved in The Stinger, and as a nice touch a flash of green at sunset.
  • Conspicuously Light Patch: Being made of Lego bricks is a sign that it can be destroyed or interacted with.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: In LEGO Pirates, any scenes involving hanging is changed to...being put into paddocks and pelted with fruit. And pigs.
  • Cowardly Boss: The Emperor and the Imperial Spy in LEGO Star Wars: The Original Trilogy.
  • Darker and Edgier: LEGO Batman to some of the movies.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist:
    • You just lose LEGO studs. These are not meant to be Nintendo Hard games unless you're trying to get 100% Completion on the DS versions. In those games' vehicle levels, in order to get a minikit piece, you must not die.
    • One of the achievements for the Xbox 360 version of LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is achieved by completing a level without dying.
    • Cedric Diggory falls apart when Voldemort uses Avada Kedavra. Dumbledore gives Amos Diggory a do-it-yourself minifig repair manual.
  • Degraded Boss: In the bonus level of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, "The Ride", Barbossa, Davy Jones, and Blackbeard all don't have their boss abilities when you fight them.
  • Dem Bones: Dancing skeletons are a Running Gag in Harry Potter.
  • Disc One Nuke: Lego Harry Potter contains a nice little gem. After the second level in the whole game (the first one at Hogwarts) you have the ability to get to the "Collect Ghost Studs" Red Brick powerup, before the plot takes you there. It only costs 50,000 studs, which can easily be obtained by this point, but it allows you to collect the "Ghost Studs" dropped by Nearly Headless Nick as he leads you to the next level/lesson/cutscene you can easily get the 4 million needed to get Accio (which makes a lot of the puzzles moot by just giving you potion items) as well as other spells in just an hour or so of grinding. Makes One Hundred Percent Completion extremely easy. Add to this a glitch that sometimes allows you to collect ghost studs after you finish year 4 (when you shouldn't be able to) and this really edges into the territory of Game Breaker.
  • Dude in Distress/Damsel in Distress: Harry Potter is filled with "Students in Peril" that the player can help out of trouble for gold bricks.
  • Dual-Wielding: Clone Wars has a Red Brick that, when activated, gives player controlled Jedi two lightsabers.
  • Drop-In Drop-Out Multiplayer
  • Easter Egg: The character creator in LEGO Batman has the parts for four characters that exist in the comics, but aren't mentioned anywhere in the game. These four are: Huntress, Azrael, Black Mask, and Spoiler.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Indy appears as a secret character in LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, which is the next game in the series.
  • Electric Joy Buzzer: The Joker's secondary weapon in LEGO Batman. Which is apparently strong enough to power the electrical engine of a mini Ferris Wheel. Probably justified by the fact that it kills people.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: In Lego Pirates, Philip's singing makes hearts appear over guy's and girl's heads alike as they swoon. Often taken to hilarious levels with characters like Blackbeard and Davy Jones.
  • Everything Fades
  • Face Heel Turn: In LEGO Indiana Jones, it turns out Satipo was working for the Nazis "Enemies" the whole time. Then again, he was always a bad person.
  • Fandom Nod: In the Raiders of The Lost Ark hub in Lego Indiana Jones 2, we see a pig being roasted. It's not the official Lego pig, but rather one made by BrickForge.
  • Fighting Your Friend: Due to requiring two playable characters on the screen at all times, after Obi-Wan and Anakin make their way through the final Episode III level, they have to fight each other. However, there's only one way it will turn out.
  • Fixed Camera
  • Flanderization: Pretty much the point of the games. Many character traits are emphasized for comedy, the games don't take their worlds very seriously.
  • Fly At the Camera Ending: The ending of the "Prisoner of Azkaban" part of Lego Harry Potter brilliantly parodies the movie's ending by having Harry fly out into orbit on his Firebolt.
  • Gatling Good: The Clone Wars game has the Heavy Clone Trooper, who has a Gatling Blaster. It's quite good for combat, especially since this game finally introduced strafing. It's also the only weapon that can destroy certain objects. It would be the best weapon in the game, but...
    • If used correctly, you can overpower a normal Jedi with it, though.
  • Glass-Shattering Sound: The special ability of Willie Scott, the Sonic Batsuit, mandrakes, mermaids, and bad singers.
  • Global Currency: LEGO studs.
  • Groin Attack: Part of a Rule of Three joke in Lego Pirates: Anamaria slaps Jack, Cotton slaps Jack, Marty aims lower.
    • R2-D2 gets one in Star Wars III, despite a lack of a groin.
  • Get Back Here Boss: Harley Quinn in LEGO Batman, Darth Maul in LEGO Star Wars.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Slave-girl Leia able to do a provocative dance, and the Joker putting a gun to his head (a non-lethal "BANG!" Flag Gun, but we don't know that until he pulls the trigger).
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: As the LEGO means not all of the story is covered, some of the bosses have this effect, notably Darth Maul in the first Lego Star Wars.
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: In LEGO Star Wars.
    • And in LEGO Pirates during the Curse of the Black Pearl section when Barbossa backs Jack and Elizabeth off the plank and they don't notice until it's too late.
  • Guest Fighter: See Actor Allusion above.
  • Guide Dang It: While the levels themselves are pretty easy to beat, finding all of the minikits and hidden bricks can get to this point.
  • Gun Twirling: Han Solo, whenever he puts his gun away.
  • Guns Akimbo: Joker, Two-Face, and Hush in LEGO Batman. Also Jango Fett in LEGO Star Wars.
  • Hammerspace: Characters have weapons that grow into its size when taken out, and shrink when put away. When walking when either button is pressed, the weapon grows to size or shrinks away in the character's hand.
    • Harley Quinn's secondary attack is an actual Hyperspace Mallet that pops out when you press the command. It is taller than she is. And makes a kind of squeaky rubber duck noise when you kill someone with it.
  • Harmless Freezing: Mr. Freeze's ice cannon encases opponents in blocks of ice, which they can break out of by moving around really quickly. While frozen, however, they can be killed with a single hit.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Cloud City Trap in Star Wars. Luke wins the boss fight against Darth Vader, but loses anyway.
  • Hub Level: Each series has its own:
    • Star Wars: both Original Trilogy and Complete Saga have the Mos Eisley Cantina, while the prequel-based original game uses Dex's Diner and Clone Wars has the Star Destroyer Resolute and its opponent, the Invisible Hand.
    • Indiana Jones is based around Barnett College. LEGO Indy 2, on the other hand, has a much larger hub that the player needs to explore and actively seek out new levels.
    • Batman actually has two Hubs; the Batcave for the heroes and Arkham Asylum for the villains.
    • Harry Potter uses Diagon Alley as the traditional Hub, while story mode sends you to Hogwarts between levels making it a Hub in its own right. Years 5-7 adds a wilderness Hub for the parts in Deathly Hallows when the protagonists are in hiding.
    • Pirates has Port Royal.
  • 100% Completion:
    • The main games are short, but getting this can take days.
    • Unwinnable in the DS versions because apparently, some minikits are missing.
  • Hyperspace Mallet: Harley Quinn has one. Press the proper button when fighting an enemy to clobber them.
  • I Will Tear Your Arms Off: "Wookiees are known to do that." Given that it is LEGO, it is more humorous than horrific.
  • Joke Character:
    • Characters without any kind of special ability, or even some of the basic abilities, including Chancellor Palpatine, the PK droid, and carbonite-frozen Han Solo. They cant even attack.
    • The Gonk droid is close, unable to do anything but walk around, but it's invincible; the right combination of unlockable cheats can make the Gonk a Lethal Joke Character. Respectively, Super Gonk (the gonk can now move faster and jump) and self destruct (Droids can self destruct.) Aww, wook at da cute widdle Gonk droi- BOOOM!
  • Kiss of Death:
    • Poison Ivy's signature close-range move.
    • Possibly as a Shout-Out to her taser-kiss to Max Shreck in Batman Returns, Catwoman can pull this off as well if she catches a Mook from afar with her whip.
  • Kiss of Distraction: In LEGO Batman, Catwoman kisses Batman to distract him from what her cat is doing.
  • Knight of Cerebus:
    • Very few cutscenes with the Emperor in LEGO Star Wars are funny.
    • Strangely averted for Lord Voldemort, who seems to be nothing more than of an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain that only looks threatening.
  • Law of Inverse Recoil: Averted for Marty (the midget crew member) in Pirates, who suffers knockback from his Hand Cannon. This is based on a sight gag in At World's End.
  • Lighter and Softer: Compared to the actual movies.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Actually one of the goals in the games is to get every character.
  • May the Farce Be with You
  • Merchandise-Driven: All the games have been based on pre-existing building sets. Pirates had the slight twist in that the game was announced before the sets were.
  • Messy Pig: Jokes involving pigs are the Running Gag of Pirates.
  • Mind Screw:
    • Okay, even in the context of a LEGO video game... basically, in the hub level of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Part 1", if you put out a fire after the A-Bomb level, the mannequins in the area come to life, and act like zombies. Oh, and they're playable characters, as well.
    • Heck, look at any of the games with all the visual cheats turned on!
  • Missing Secret: Eventually subverted for LEGO Star Wars II. In December 2006, a code was given on an old StarWars.com page (that if not for the help of Wayback Machine, would be Lost Forever) for Disguise 3. But there's no Disguise 2! ...Until March 2007, when Disguise 2's code was finally revealed. However, at the time, players had to donate to Comic Relief for Red Nose Day in order to find out.
  • Mission Pack Sequel: One of the major complaints is the similarity of the games aside from the license.
  • Money Multiplier: And can stack in some of the games.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: Averted (mostly). For the most part, the puzzles can be solved by exploring and smashing everything.
  • Multi Platform
  • Mythology Gag:
    • A couple of Star Wars characters appear in LEGO Indiana Jones directly or indirectly.
    • Some random Jedi in the "Jedi Battle" level in the first Lego Star Wars game have yellow skin. Long story short, minifigs in licensed sets like Star Wars used to have yellow skin just like normal minifigs but around 2004-2005 they were replaced with realistic skintones.
    • In the first main-game cutscene to LEGO's interpretation of The Last Crusade, some people from Raiders and Temple are briefly seen in the background. 2:35 here.
    • Many of the data files in Batman's Bat-Computer (which have to be bought) give tidbits of information about the general Bat-Mythos, such as The Joker's previous identity as the Red Hood, Talia Al-Ghul's romance with Batman, and the fact that Bruce Wayne keeps around suits of armor in the Batcave.
    • One of the Raiders levels includes a hidden gag concerning the movie's production - the movie had the locals take down their TV antennas so they could get an outdoor shot, so in the Cairo game level you can find a room filled with the removed satellite dishes.
    • The final levels of each section of LEGO Batman are each references to the endings of the first three of the original Batman movies. Even Batman and Robin might have gotten a Shout-Out with Mr. Freeze's ice cream factory hideout earlier in the game.
    • One of Bane's "throw" moves is pretty much this [dead link] cast into LEGO form. It's only slightly less painful-seeming. As a further Shout-Out to Knightfall, it's one of the few throw moves that can be performed on a non-Mook character, though only on Batman.
    • The final, bonus mission of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean is a replication of the original Disney Theme Parks ride itself, but with enemies.
  • Nice Hat: The Mad Hatter in LEGO Batman has one. Even his description, at the beginning of the level "Joker's Home Turf", mentions his "large and fantastic hat".
  • Nightmare Retardant:
    • In-universe example, the "riddikulus" spell in Harry Potter is obviously used for defeating any chests with boggarts in them. So, if the LEGO games play things for laughs, what happens? Well, the characters which had their fears described in the book happen as usual (Spider with rollerskates, the moon flying as a deflating balloon, receiving failing grades, etc.). And then you have ones which didn't appear in the book:
      • Most minor wizarding characters have Voldemort. Casting riddikulus on him makes him fly onto his back and start sucking a dummy.
      • Voldemort has Harry Potter. He Just Shoots Him.
    • Getting terrified of the Dementors in LEGO Harry Potter? No worries, just turn on the appropriate cheat command and pop a huge pair of glasses, giant nose, and handlebar moustache on them! And the book says it's impossible to make a dementor seem funny...Pah!
      • For some, even the undisguised Dementors fail to actually be scary and are actually cute.
    • The disguises cheat is made even funnier when you realise that it even happens with vehicles, and even in cutscenes. Nothing says "intimidation" like an AT-AT with a moustache!
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Such a combination for a video game was so new that many thought it was a joke when first announced, both for the first Star Wars game and then the Rock Band game.
  • No Problem With Licensed Games
  • No Swastikas: LEGO Indiana Jones.
  • Oddball in the Series: LEGO Rock Band plays exactly like a regular Rock Band game, while all the rest are puzzle-platformers.
  • Old Save Bonus: Unlocked Star Wars: The Video Game characters could be transferred to The Original Trilogy.
  • Orgasmic Climbing: The most prominent examples can be found in LEGO Batman. Have any character grab onto a grabbable ledge, then jump repeatedly off the ledge, repeatedly grabbing onto it on the way down. Now, listen to the sound the character makes when it grabs the ledge.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise:
    • In both Star Wars and Indiana Jones. All you have to do is grab an enemy character's hat to pose as from that faction. Even when you're a seven foot tall Wookie with a stormtrooper helmet hanging lopsided on your head.
    • Harry Potter used this quite often so that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would still be recognizable to players
      • When Harry and Ron use Polyjuice Potion in Chamber of Secrets, they still have their same forms except with black heads of hair floating over their heads (even though when the player does it, it's a perfect transformation).
      • There's also a scene in Sorcerer's Stone where Harry and Ron must enter the girls' room to rescue Hermione, and it won't admit them because they are boys. Fortunately, an animated painting will briefly give them a disguise. Said disguise is just a wig.
      • Subverted in Deathly Hallows: Part 1 when Harry, Ron and Hermione use Polyjuice Potion to take on the forms of Ministry employees. They look noticeably different, but like older versions of themselves.
  • Percussive Maintenance:
    • In LEGO Indiana Jones, one of the random animations when using a wrench to fix something is hitting it with the wrench.
    • In LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, when fixing something with the hammer, occasionally the character will kick whatever he's repairing.
    • Following the installation of the new Hyperdrive after the Mos Espa Pod Race, Obi-wan hits it to start it up.
  • Plot Tailored to the Party: In order to achieve One Hundred Percent Completion, you have to collect different types of characters and replay the 'Free Mode' to be able to access the areas that only certain characters with certain abilities can gain access to.
  • Power-Up Magnet: The "Stud Magnet" cheat.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: Parts are sometimes changed from the original material to allow two players in what were originally one-man scenes.
    • Examples from Harry Potter include:
      • Ginny Weasley and Cedric Diggory helping out in the final battles of years 2 and 4, respectively
      • The flying car bringing along a motorcycle for the escape from Aragog.
      • Hermione coming along with Harry to help in Harry's battle against Quirreldemort in Sorcerer's Stone and later on in Goblet of Fire to help in the First Task.
    • In Star Wars, Anakin doesn't betray you until the very end of the level, in order for him to be able to help you in the level.
    • The most awesome of them? Darth Vader doing a Heel Face Turn and helping his son fight the Emperor!
  • Puzzle Boss: Every single one.
  • Puzzle Pan
  • Reckless Lightsaber Usage/Juggling Activated Lightsabers: After being handed the lightsaber, Luke turns it on and Obi-Wan ducks out of the way. Luke then swings it a few times and inadvertently beheads C3PO.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Red and black objects can't be maniuplated by most characters and are reserved only for those with evil powers.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Some of the things that happen in the games would be incredibly intense were it not for the games' tongue-in-cheek style and everything being made of LEGO.
    • For instance, in LEGO Indiana Jones 2, defeating one boss requires you to fry him with a rocket sled. Three times. A boss in the first Indy game is a snake at least five times the size of any of the characters.
    • In LEGO Star Wars, Chewbacca can rip stormtroopers' arms out of their sockets. See also Bloodless Carnage.
    • After you've gotten all of the gold bricks in Harry Potter, you unlock a level that takes place in 1981 where you play as Voldemort and a Death Eater as they go around London killing everyone. After that's done, Voldemort kills Harry's parents... comedically.
  • Respawning Enemies: The Battle of Yavin (Rebel Attack) and the Battle of Hoth, at least.
  • Rewarding Vandalism: Smashing anything plastic-y and/or in LEGO form.
  • Rule of Cool: The new boss fights in LEGO Indiana Jones 2.
  • Rule of Funny: The cutscenes in general.
    • The one right after beating Palpatine comes close to being an exception, but not quite. When Luke didn't pull him in from the ramp, just closed the ramp and the body slid in. Take into effect that the LEGO shuttle's ramp is most of the backside of the ship that flips down from the top.
  • Running Gag: In each and every LEGO game, there's always a room in the game which has a disco, and the disco theme in question is a remix of a piece of the soundtrack, LEGO Indiana Jones 2 takes this gag up a notch further, by putting it into an actual cutscene. Harry Potter Years 1-4, however, reduces it to only a cutscene, and mostly offscreen at that.
  • Rummage Fail: A favorite gag; both Indy and Hagrid have been known to do this, and it shows up a couple times in Star Wars as well.
  • Scenery Porn: Despite the simple style of the rest of the game, the backdrops for the space missions in Clone Wars are quite pretty.
  • Secret Character: In Clone Wars, the Mini-Kits are used to unlock certain characters, like Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Luke Skywalker, and many more, which also includes Starkiller.
  • Sequel Hook: The first Star Wars game ended with a bonus level aboard the Tantive IV, where the original movie kicked off; the characters in that level were then unlocked for the rest of the game. Similarly, The Complete Saga featured Indiana Jones as a hidden character, hinting that the series would expand beyond the Star Wars universe.
  • Shout-Out: In Clone Wars, a cutscene shows the clones wanting to use a very familiar mechsuit to fight a huge enemy spawning queen. Sadly, it's buried in rubble before it can be used.
    • You can build and use it in the free play version of the level! Sadly not against the boss.
  • Shown Their Work: In the Bat computer, several tidbits are really thrown in. For example, they told us that Bruce's parents died at 10:47 PM, Ra's Al Ghul doesn't remember his true name, and Penguin always carries an umbrella because his mother always told him to because his dad died of Pneumonia. When they include that particular piece of information, you know they've done the research.
  • Silliness Switch: The games are silly enough already, but some of the unlockable options deliberately take it farther.
  • Stepping Stone Sword: Spears in LEGO Indiana Jones.
  • Solve the Soup Cans/Guide Dang It:
    • The puzzles to find the hidden minikit canisters (treasure chests in LEGO Indy) and Power Bricks (parcels in LEGO Indy and Harry Potter). You won't know something in the area will make those items appear until you've already done it. A good example is constructing the dollar sign in LEGO Batman's "The Face-Off." Finding these items without a guide (or the Minikit/Power Brick detector cheat) can be difficult.
    • There's a Power Brick in LEGO Batman's "The Riddler Makes a Withdrawal" level that requires you to park a car into a trash compactor, crushing it into an object you can break to get the item to appear, though because of the ambiguous eye candy it could have been hard to tell it was a compactor at all!
    • Some have gotten very annoyed by the difficulty of finding Blackbeard (especially since he's a very important special character you need to buy in order to get 100%), the answer: You have to look near Tia Dalma's shack, where you'll find him.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: In Pirates, Anamaria appears in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End despite her conspicuous absence from those movies.
  • Spoiler: The very first Star Wars game spoiled Revenge of the Sith as it came out about a month before the movie did. The lack of dialogue and changing of a few scenes did create a few deviations. The same thing goes for Pirates, which was released a couple weeks before On Stranger Tides.
  • Stab the Sky: The cover of Star Wars: The Original Trilogy, given that the poster for A New Hope had that.
    • LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 has Neville, Hermione, Ron, and Pigwidgeon parody it, once Neville draws the Sword of Gryffindor.
  • Steve Blum: "Voices" Batman, The Joker, Two-Face, Killer Croc, and Killer Moth.
  • Stylistic Suck: When Harry, Ron, and Hermione try to get past Fluffy in LEGO Harry Potter, Ron pulls out a trumpet and plays the Harry Potter theme - quite badly.
  • Suddenly Voiced: After seven years of muteness, characters will finally speak in LEGO Batman 2.
  • Superman Stays Out of Gotham: while the first Lego Batman played this trope straight by featuring only Gotham characters, the announced sequel, the aptly titled Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes makes it quite clear it's going to avert the trope hard by having, well, the rest of the DCU joining in.
  • Teamwork Puzzle Game
  • This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman: Some characters, like Mr. Freeze will always be chosen in free play because of their abilities. They appear to be embracing this with the Trope Namer himself who will be the only one able to perform certain tasks underwater and it has been teased that he'll talk to fish.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: At least, it does for Will Turner.
  • Title: the Adaptation: For Batman and the first Star Wars
  • Took a Level in Badass: If the trailer is to be believed, the infamous assassin from that one scene in Indiana Jones wasn't shot for once. Didn't stop him from being pelted by a banana.
  • Two Lever Lock
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: When distance-tagging (the ability to tag to another character without standing next to them) was introduced, you may have thought using this to tag yourself out of falling to your death. However, if the death has already been registered by the game, you will lose your studs anyway, and you will be left at 25% health (12.5% in LEGO Batman) as a "punishment".
  • The Other Darrin: In most games, the roles aren't done by the original actors, but Clone Wars is an exception, being one of the first games to get the cast from the source (in this case, the show) to voice for the game, they even got James Earl Jones to do some voice clips for Secret Character Darth Vader.
  • The Unintelligible/Speaking Simlish: Everyone.
  • Unnecessary Combat Roll:
    • Han Solo's "double jump" animation. Lando's too. Except in LEGO Indiana Jones.
    • Just about every character in LEGO Batman who can't double jump does this when the jump button is tapped twice. Rather hilariously, Joker and Scarecrow land on their backs/bellies when they attempt this.
    • Stormtroopers in LEGO Star Wars II also land on their bellies when attempting to double jump.
    • The muggles in LEGO Harry Potter do this. For damage.
    • Any male character in LEGO Pirates, usually unsheathing their weapon in the process.
  • Updated Rerelease/Compilation Rerelease: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga.
  • Useless Useful Spell: In LEGO Batman, Scarecrow's fear gas seems like it would be useful, since it temporarily freezes all enemy actions... except it only works on one Mook at a time, casting it on another immediately returns the first one to normal, casting it leaves him wide open to attacks, and it lasts for a ridiculously short time anyhow.
  • Useless Useful Stealth:
    • LEGO Star Wars II and Complete Saga. When going through the Death Star hallways in stormtrooper disguises in a level based on A New Hope, there is one place where the player must, from a distance, shoot stormtroopers who are in front of Ben Kenobi so that he can build a bridge, but doing so alerts nearby stormtroopers.
      • There is also one part where stormtroopers are running a call center, but all of them must be killed to move on. However, after killing the stormtroopers, new helmets can be retrieved. Once the players reach the detention cellblock, stormtroopers come in and attack anyway.
    • This is worse in the DS version of Complete Saga where it's impossible to sneak by stormtroopers while disguised.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • Killing civilians in LEGO Batman with certain weapons results in a small amount of money being discharged. Also, you can kill your own partner to restore health.
    • Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, and Riddler can mind control certain innocent civilians and force them to do things like jump into lava/toxic waste and attack their own comrades.
    • You can punch rats for health.
    • Beat. Up. Alfred. And... you know, pretty much ANYONE hanging around the bat-cave.
    • You can beat Short Round and Mutt Williams to death, repeatedly, with a shovel or wrench.
    • Pushing Jar-Jar into a pit again... and again... and again... In fact, if you kill him 20 times in the Complete Saga, it unlocks an acheivement called Crowd Pleaser.
      • Yahtzee mentions repeatedly killing Short Round for fun in his review of Indiana Jones.
    • Protocol droids lose limbs as they lose health. It's funny to watch 3PO hobble around on his single leg after a few punches, not to mention accessing the interface panels with his head.
    • In LEGO Harry Potter, levitating random NPCs into bottomless pits... without consequence.
    • Unlocking a Dark Wizard character and Avada Kedvraing, and Crucioing NPCs. Without consequence. And they don't respawn. At least, unless you restart the game.
    • Pick up an NPC with Wingardium Leviosa, then rotate the left analog stick while they're in the air. 8 times out of 10, they start spinning ridiculously fast, and by releasing the spell button, they go flying. Oh yes, and if that's not enough, zap the teachers after you've finished a lesson! For the most part, they actually fight back.
    • You can use the Cruciatus Curse on Umbridge.
    • The sandbox elements in Lego Batman 2 make it possible for Superman to steal the Batmobile and go on a bloodless killing spree. No, really.
  • Villain Team-Up: Several in LEGO Batman.
  • Visual Pun:
    • In Jabba's palace, you can set up stereos that play a Heavy Metal remix of the "Imperial March" (aka the Rage Mix). The guards with axes start playing the axes like guitars.
    • A closet in "Pankot Secrets" contains two skeletons. Revisited in LEGO Harry Potter.
  • Wide Open Sandbox: LEGO Batman 2 is promising to have a more open-world gameplay style instead of the usual linear style.
  • Wolverine Publicity: LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, as opposed to LEGO DC Super Heroes or LEGO Justice League or something. To be fair to the game, the DC Super Heroes toyline is equally focused on Batman over the other heroes.
  • You Shouldn't Know This Already: Spells in LEGO Harry Potter. You can press the buttons, but they won't have any effect until you learn them, and then directly select them.

"It'll certainly tide you over while we wait for the really hot release: Fuzzy-felt Deep Space Nine."

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