LEGO Dimensions Year 2’s New Modes and Franchises Detailed

In a small theater-sized room at E3 2016, WB Games took attendees on a journey through the “balance between the cool, the bizarre, and the completely unexpected.” In LEGO Dimensions year two, WB and TT Games are looking to “simply go bigger,” bringing in franchises like Harry Potter, The A-Team, Adventure Time, and, as a representative joked, “worth the price of admission alone: a LEGO David Hasselhoff” courtesy of Knight Rider‘s inclusion.

A big question in Toys To Life video games, the new genre of games where physical toys are manifested in the digital world through the use of a “portal” peripheral is “what toys work in what parts and what games?” The answer in LEGO Dimensions, including all of the new characters, is what makes it truly stand out apart from the pack: “Everything works everywhere. Every character, every vehicle, every level all works together.”

That means if you want to play through the original story mode again, using Lumpy Space Princess, Voldemort, Michael Knight, Bubbles from Power Puff Girls, and Mission Impossible‘s Ethan Hunt, you can do that. If you want to use The Doctor from Doctor Who, your original Batman, Harley Quinn, and the Wicked Witch in the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them story level, you can do that, too.

“Dimensions has always been about choice: it’s your choice on how to play this game,” the representative said.

The closed-door demo showed off a Mission Impossible level next, and the inclusion of the facemaker, the elaborate mask system used in the films starring Tom Cruise. With it, you can scan a character like a museum curator, and become them with a simple stop on the device. When it comes to Ghostbusters, the entire plot of the new movie is playable in their new game pack type, a Story Pack. These new packs include six full levels, a complete story, plus new ways to play the adventure worlds, and even something very cool in the physical realm: a new portal overlay to build out of LEGO bricks and place on your portal, representing that world.

LEGO Dimensions Year 2 also introduces the all-new Battle mode, which WB Games provided as both a hands-off and hands-on demo. The new mode is most easily compared to Mario Kart‘s battle modes, though you’re not (always) bound to a vehicle. In a capture the flag mode, with up to four players, you can run around the level – we saw Harry Potter’s Quidditch field and a wide-open section of Adventure Time’s Land of Ooo – trying to capture flags and return them to your base, and attacking your enemies. There are power-ups, many of which alter the entire playfield, like reversing controls or slowing other players, and if your character has special abilities, you can use those to a certain affect as well, making each character play uniquely. It’s all very hectic, but a lot of fun. And helps answer that long-standing question “am I better at this than my friends?”

The best part about all of this? All the new content will be downloaded online, and to unlock it, all you have to do is place the new figure on the base. “No new discs, no new hardware, just the figures,” get you your new levels, new modes, and naturally, new characters.

LEGO Dimensions year two kicks off September 27, 2016 with the following packs:

A-Team Fun Pack: B.A. Baracus, B.A.’s Van.

Adventure Time Team Pack: Jake the Dog, Lumpy Space Princess, BMO, Lumpy Car

Harry Potter Team Pack: Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort, Enchanted Car, Hogwarts Express

Adventure Time Level Pack: Finn the Human, Jakemobile, Ancient War Elephant, Battle Evil in the Land of Ooo! Story Mission

Mission: Impossible Level Pack: Ethan Hunt, IMF Scrambler, IMF Sport Car, Your mission, should you choose to accept it… Story Mission

Ghostbusters Story Pack: Abby Yates, Ecto-1, Zhu’s Chinese Restaurant, Six Ghostbusters levels containing the full story of the new film (note: while only Abby comes as a figure, all four main characters are playable in the story levels)

Other characters and franchises like Newt Scamander, Michael Knight, the Power Puff Girls, the Teen Titans, and more are expected in subsequent waves; if they follow last year’s model, we should see at least one more wave before the Holiday season in 2016, then others in early 2017.