10 Darkest Moments In Lego Games

Summary

• Lego games often adapt films, and some of those films have some frightening and grim scenes.
• Sometimes, a particularly haunting monster or creature is present, sometimes that monster is Man.
• Lego Dimensions has Weeping Angels, need we say more?

For two decades, the Lego video games have reliably cranked out a winning formula accessible to all ages. Name a major movie or media franchise, and odds are good it'll have received the ol' TT Games treatment: Star Wars, DC, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Sonic the Hedgehog, Jurassic World, the list goes on.

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Most of the time, these titles behave themselves and fit snugly into the definition of 'kid-appropriate,' what with their lurid colors, simple difficulty, and knockabout slapstick. Every so often, however, moments of jarring darkness are surreptitiously slipped in, with the candy-coated exterior making them stick out all the more. After all, you can't have light without the dark – so here are the grimmest bits in the Lego saga.

This article will feature plot spoilers for a variety of Lego titles and the films they represent. If you've not seen any of the movies in question, we advise caution!

10 The Dementors Attack - Lego Harry Potter

You'll Lose Your Soul Over It

Arguably one of the spookiest creatures to come out of the Wizarding World are the Dementors: faceless, emotionless ghouls who feast on the happiness found in human souls. Let one get near you, and you'll feel rather traumatized. Let one 'kiss' you (i.e. extract your joy), and you'll be left a hollow husk for the rest of your days.

That terror is ably reflected in the opening chapter of the Order of the Phoenix segment in Lego Harry Potter. Harry and his cousin encounter the beasts in a subway tunnel, and the way the greyscale visuals combine with the screeching music as the attackers approach is spine-chilling.

9 Venom's Lab - Lego Marvel Superheroes

I'm Sorry, Did I Put On Outlast By Mistake?

Lego Marvel Superheroes is generally a whimsical romp with all our favorite leotard-clad crimefighters from the MCU. One stage in particular, though, 'Exploratory Laboratory,' sees Spider-Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye being sent into the Oscorp building to deal with a rampaging Venom.

Out of nowhere, the tone shifts to that of a survival horror. Oscorp employees, infected with Venom's symbiote, encroach on you in a zombified state, forcing you to punch them to pieces. It all crescendoes in an honest-to-God jumpscare when the lights turn off, and Venom leaps, roaring, directly into the camera. Bring a change of pants.

8 Qui-Gon's Noble End - Lego Star Wars

Even Mavericks Meet Their Fate

The Phantom Menace is, to put it mildly, one of the more divisive entries in the Star Wars canon. Regardless, it absolutely nailed the relationship between young Obi-Wan Kenobi and his master Qui-Gon Jinn, as well as that awesome lightsaber duel with Darth Maul. Sure, it ends with Jinn meeting the business end of the Sith's weapon, but what can you do?

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The Lego adaptation of this battle is notable for featuring one of the few onscreen deaths in the series. Typically, TT Games will sanitize or sugarcoat a character's demise for the younger demographic, but not so for poor Qui-Gon. He turns into a skeletal corpse right there in Obi-Wan's arms.

7 Fighting The Scarecrow - Lego Batman 2

Seeing Is Believing

Batman and Robin engage the Scarecrow deep in Arkham Asylum's cell block, and he's primed for revenge after his humiliating defeat in the first Lego Batman game. This time, he's brought along several canisters' worth of fear gas, which causes terrifying hallucinations, and pumps it into the air conditioning vents.

As the battle progresses, the arena, as well as the entire gameplay screen itself, begins to warp in some unsettling ways. The floors and walls undulate; the prison wardens and inmates morph into attacking skeletons, and the cackling Scarecrow himself grows to a gargantuan size. Not to mention the surreal green filter, which makes the action harder and harder to see.

6 Doc Brown Kicks The Bucket - Lego Dimensions

Great Scott!

In the movie Back to the Future, eccentric inventor Doc Brown gets in way over his head when he strikes a bargain with a Libyan nationalist group to obtain the plutonium he needs for his DeLorean time machine. When the group finds he's swindled them, they track him down and kill him where he stands, right in front of Marty McFly.

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You might reasonably assume that subject matter would be too dark or complex for a Lego game – but you'd be wrong. In the Back to the Future campaign of Lego Dimensions, not only do the Libyans still appear to kill Doc, but they take their sweet time in doing so, cycling through a host of weapons, including a grenade launcher, before finally doing him in.

5 Nazgûl On The Hunt - Lego Lord Of The Rings

Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe

When Bilbo Baggins uses the One Ring as part of an invisibility party trick, he unwittingly paints a target on the back of his nephew, Frodo, to whom the Ring is bequeathed. This is because the Nazgûl, spirits of nine fallen kings of Middle-Earth, can zero in on the Ring's location when it's worn, and it isn't long before these ghastly riders arrive at the Shire.

Lego Lord of the Rings gets the feel of this sequence just right. Rather than the usual running, jumping, and punching action, these games serve up, here you're reduced to crawling timidly through the underbrush of a dark forest. Yep, it's a stealth section. Any noise you make tips off the Nazgûl Black Rider, leading to some genuine and unexpected suspense.

Lego Lord of the Rings features a runner-up spooky sequence when Gollum escorts Frodo and Sam across The Dead Marshes. Fall into the murky waters at any point, and you'll be clawed at by the desperate hands of phantasms that lurk in the deep. Scary in the movie, abjectly petrifying in plastic form.

4 Geonosian Zombies - Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Shoot Them, Or Something

By far the darkest arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars' first three seasons is the Brain Worm story. In it, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka stumble across a subterranean cult of reanimated Geonosian corpses, led by an insectoid hivemind that soon infects many of the clone troopers. It's claustrophobic, tense, and nauseating.

So, of course, TT Games opted to include this story in the twee Lego version, against conventional wisdom. The sheer bodily horror of worms that zombify you by crawling up your nasal passage is not shied away from as you platform your way through pitch-black caverns inhabited by the cult. Our kingdom for Jar Jar Binks.

3 Restoring Power - Lego Jurassic World

Clever Girl...

The Jurassic Park and World movies come pre-packaged with a host of legendary scary moments, so it was perhaps inevitable that even the lighter and softer building-block incarnation would bundle a few in. In an iconic scene from the original Spielberg classic, Ellie Sattler is tasked with heading into a darkened bunker to restore the park's power. Only trouble is, it's infested with velociraptors.

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This level delivers a one-two punch. First, you guide Ellie through the bowels of the facility, with raptors lurking around every corner, poised to pounce. Then, once outside, you're hunted by the pack, complete with a string of jumpscares courtesy of the hungry dinos.

2 Forrest Blackwell's Rocket - Lego City Undercover

Not Your Everyday Nuke

Lego City Undercover is unique for having an original story not derived from any pre-existing IP. You control cop Chase McCain as he infiltrates progressively more dangerous criminal gangs to blow the lid off a conspiracy. Ultimately, it transpires the kingpin is one Forrest Blackwell; a vengeful billionaire who schemes to wipe Lego City off the map and colonize the moon after his development plans were scorned.

At the center of Blackwell's plan is the huge rocket he intends to carry his new civilization to the moon with. Disguised in plain sight as his office tower, it's made very clear that when it takes off, it'll "fry every building and person within a five-mile radius." Were it not for Chase, the death toll would have been catastrophic.

1 Weeping Angel Assault - Lego Dimensions

Don't Even Blink

Any Whovian will tell you that the Weeping Angels are among the Doctor's deadliest foes. They're living statues that freeze when they're being observed, but which are free to move at lightspeed when you're not looking – even if you so much as blink. The only way to survive an encounter with one is to keep your eyes riveted on it at all times.

The Doctor Who portion of Lego Dimensions, then, employs this mechanic for maximum terror. Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle find themselves trapped in a space station teeming with Angels, which soon close in. You've got to solve all the puzzles in the area while under constant attack by these nasties, as the lights switch on and off ad nauseam. If you get caught? Enjoy a death screen from your nightmares.

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