Lego City Undercover:
The Chase Begins
Developer(s)TT Fusion
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Nick Elms
Producer(s)Azusa Tajima
Masakazu Miyazaki
Rob Shepherd
Designer(s)Mike Bareham
Nolan Worthington
Programmer(s)Patrick Senior
Writer(s)Graham Goring
Mike Bareham
Composer(s)Simon Withenshaw
Suddi Raval
Paul Weir
Platform(s)Nintendo 3DS
Release
  • NA: April 21, 2013
  • EU: April 26, 2013
  • AU: April 27, 2013
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is an action-adventure video game developed by TT Fusion and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in April 2013.[1] The game is based on the Lego City brand. It serves as a prequel to Lego City Undercover.

Plot

Two years before the events of Lego City Undercover, Chase McCain, a rookie cop working for the Lego City Police Department, has one objective in mind: to put the most wanted man, Rex Fury, in jail. To do that, he has to go to every region of the city to find the wanted man in question.

As far as story connections go, it was Chase who accidentally revealed that Natalia Kowalski, his girlfriend who previously worked as a news reporter turned out to be the secret witness in the Rex trial, which forced her to go under witness protection. As a result, Chase was eventually exiled from Lego City, but not before he attempted to fix his mistakes by pursuing Rex and the criminals that work for him. It also outlines how Chase managed to arrest Rex Fury. Furthermore, the game reveals that Mayor Gleeson, a character also featured in Lego City Undercover, was formerly the chief of police, and how Chief Dunby was just a deputy officer.

Development

The game was announced during Nintendo's press conference at E3 2011 on June 7, 2011, with the tentative name Lego City Stories. On January 17, 2013, the game was revealed to be Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, and that it would be a prequel to the Wii U game.

Reception

The game received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[2] IGN called it a "decent" game that is marred by "a lot of fog, a lot of loading, no voice acting and a jarring framerate".[9] In Japan, where the game was ported for release on 5 March 2015, Famitsu gave it a score of 32 out of 40.[5]

Chris Scullion of Official Nintendo Magazine commented on the amount of cutbacks from the Wii U sequel (Undercover), stating that "The Chase Begins has far less funnier bones than Undercover. The silly jokes, clever spoofs and brilliant dialogue between the characters have been replaced with a handful of average cutscenes and loads of text-heavy dialogue which, while functional, are rarely amusing and never hilarious. Loading times were frustrating enough in LEGO City: Undercover but are even more infuriating here considering the game's running off a cartridge and is designed for handheld play. It's lacking visually, too. Thick fog (to hide having to render distant buildings) smothers the city and roads and pavements are far less crowded, making it feel like you're wandering around a post-apocalyptic LEGO City. The characters' faces don't move, making in-game cutscenes feel awkward and the frame rate is clunky if you're playing in 3D. It's technically impressive(ish), but not as fun or funny as the Wii U game."[12]

Chris Vandergaag of Toronto Sun gave the game three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that it "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."[16] Peter Nowak of The Globe and Mail gave it a similar score of seven out of ten, saying, "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."[17] Liam Martin of Digital Spy gave it 3 out of 5 stars, commenting on the game's lack of appeal but praising the game's visuals and stating that, "Unfortunately, where LEGO City Undercover referenced movies and used voice acting to great effect, hardware limitations have forced TT Fusion to keep spoken cutscenes to a minimum, something which ultimately detracts from the hilarity. 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."[14] Chad Sapieha of National Post gave it a score of 5.5 out of 10, saying, "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."[18] However, Mike LeChevallier of Slant Magazine gave it two stars out of five, saying, "With a full-bodied hike in attention to detail, The Chase Begins could have been a satisfying alternative for Lego fans who haven't yet obtained a Wii U, or simply gamers who've been bellowing for a well-made 3DS addition to the franchise. 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."[19] David Jenkins of Metro gave it a score of three out of ten, saying, "The Wii U game was just a few flaws short of a minor classic, but this joyless companion piece is only a couple more problems shy of a complete disaster."[15]

On 12 September 2013, Nintendo announced that the game has sold 264,000 units in North America.[20] As of December 31, 2020, worldwide sales reached 2.04 million copies,[21] making it the 32nd best-selling game for the Nintendo 3DS.

References

  1. ↑ East, Thomas (March 19, 2013). "LEGO City Undercover 3DS release date confirmed". Official Nintendo Magazine. Future plc. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins for 3DS Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  3. ↑ Carter, Chris (April 23, 2013). "Review: LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  4. ↑ Whitehead, Dan (April 19, 2013). "Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins review". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on September 17, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  5. 1 2 "レゴシティ アンダーカバー チェイス ビギンズ". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  6. ↑ Cork, Jeff (April 21, 2013). "Lego City Undercover [The Chase Begins] Review". Game Informer. GameStop. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  7. ↑ Schaller, Kevin (April 20, 2013). "LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins Review". GameRevolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on August 26, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  8. ↑ Workman, Robert (May 4, 2013). "Review: Lego City Undercover Serves Up Adequate Justice On the Nintendo 3DS". GameZone. Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  9. 1 2 George, Richard (April 24, 2013). "LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins Review". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  10. ↑ Mason, Mike (April 18, 2013). "LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins Review". Nintendo Life. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  11. ↑ Bonds, Curtis (April 20, 2013). "LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  12. 1 2 Scullion, Chris (April 29, 2013). "LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins review". Official Nintendo Magazine. Future plc. Archived from the original on June 6, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  13. ↑ Rose, Mike (April 22, 2013). "Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins". Pocket Gamer. Steel Media Ltd. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  14. 1 2 Martin, Liam (May 5, 2013). "LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins review: An inferior 3DS edition". Digital Spy. Hearst Communications. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  15. 1 2 Jenkins, David (April 25, 2013). "Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins review – bricking it". Metro. DMG Media. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  16. ↑ Vandergaag, Chris (May 1, 2013). "'Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins' packs sizable fun into small package". Toronto Sun. Postmedia Network. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  17. ↑ Nowak, Peter (April 22, 2013). "Lego City Undercover laugh lines missing in action on 3DS". The Globe and Mail. The Woodbridge Company. Archived from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  18. ↑ Sapieha, Chad (April 23, 2013). "Why does Lego City Undercover for 3DS remind us of Daniel Baldwin?". National Post. Postmedia Network. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  19. ↑ LeChavallier, Mike (April 29, 2013). "Review: Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins". Slant Magazine. Slant Magazine LLC. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  20. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (September 12, 2013). "Pikmin 3 US sales reach 115,000 units". GameSpot. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  21. ↑ 2021CESAゲーム白書 (2021 CESA Games White Papers). Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association. 2021. ISBN 978-4-902346-43-5.
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