Lego City Undercover

Elements from New York City, San Francisco and London (from top to bottom) were incorporated into the Lego City overworld.

While designing the setting, the team used elements from multiple locations, including New York City, San Francisco and London. The game makes reference to various real-world locations and structures, such as Times Square, the Statue Of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.[11] As the game was being developed for a Nintendo console, the team included multiple Nintendo-themed Easter eggs for players to find.[12] The team had to create a new game engine as previous ones were not able to cope with the scale of the environments.[9] The newly made engine was created from scratch, and was made to handle memory, object and vehicle physics, and traffic systems. Executive producer Loz Doyle considered this to be the most difficult part of the development process, as they continuously kept hitting the memory limit of the console.[8]

They wanted the main character to have depth as they knew both children and adults would play the game. Undercover features full voice acting, which at the time development started was a first for the series, although due to development time, others featuring voice acting were developed and released ahead of it. The team collaborated with voice casting and recording company Side UK. A large voice casting session was held, and several established comedians were requested to come in as the team wanted good delivery for the funny sections of the script.[9] By the time the script writer, former stand-up comedian Graham Goring, was brought on board, a rough outline of the story had been created. His main role was to fill in the gaps and put in as much humor as possible. Goring was given a lot of freedom when it came to the parodies, although the team were regularly consulted on the suitability of the material and a script editor was assigned to check his work.[7] Drawing on his former profession, Goring included a large amount of one-liners and humor intended for both children and adults. Following the template of The Simpsons, the game contains a high number of family-friendly parodies, referencing movies such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Matrix, and TV series such as Starsky & Hutch. The game's story took a while to write, as the team wanted to give it depth.[9][13]

Lego City Undercover was announced during Nintendo's press conference at E3 2011 on 7 June 2011 under the tentative title Lego City Stories. At Nintendo's press conference at E3 2012 on 5 June, the game was revealed to have had a name change to Lego City Undercover.[14] The game's debut trailer was shown during that event, revealing game footage. During the Nintendo Direct held on 13 September 2012, some new trailers detailing the story were shown, along with the announcement that a Chase McCain minifigure would come with the game as a pre-order bonus on North America and Australia while stocks last, and be included in the first copies of the game on Europe.[15] A police high speed chase toy was also released and includes a code for additional in-game content.[16] Nintendo also published the game in Japan on 25 July 2013.[17] At the time of the game's release the Wii U was lacking in major releases, making Lego City Undercover the first major release from Nintendo in 2013; Doyle was very proud of the final product, and declared it to be the best Lego video game as well as the best Wii U game at the time of its release.[8]

On 22 November 2016, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that a remaster would be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in April 2017, which introduced split-screen cooperative support.[18]

The Wii U version of the game received a score of 80/100 on review aggregator website Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". When rereleased to other consoles and PC, all new versions received a score ranging from 77 to 80 on the site.[19]

Many critics compare the game and its mechanics positively to that of the Grand Theft Auto series,[22] albeit in a more family-friendly and playful manner.[23][25][27] Another common positive was the use of popular culture references that also helped broaden the appeal to a larger audience, including references to The Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas, and the Mario franchise among others.[23][3][2] In a negative review by Edge, the staff believed that Lego City Undercover lacked originality with its repetitive urban and city environments with disassociated references to popular culture, although they felt it was slightly justified without its use of pre-existing source material.[22]

Gameplay generally received mixed opinions. Many critics found the combat mechanics to be lackluster, but positively received its physical wit.[20][2][28] Critics enjoyed the implication of disguises as a gameplay mechanic,[3][2] with George noting how it helped give variety to the Lego series' repetitive formula,[2] but some negatively received how the game often required constantly swapping between them with minimal variance.[25][28] Carsillo called the Wii U GamePad and its use in the game "an ingenious little plot device",[23] and Cork admitted he "completely fell for the gimmick".[25] However, Edge and Oertel felt that the GamePad was used too minimally and therefore not meaningful,[20][22] with Bischoff calling its use "forced."[26] Carsillo cited several technical issues as the main fault of the game, such as slow loading times, frame rate, and bad camera control.[23] Destructoid believed the general gameplay of Lego City Undercover was disappointing as it retained a similar format found in other Lego games, but did not consider the gameplay itself to be a negative.[21] George and Polygon's Justin McElroy expressed similar negative feelings about the game's loading time and frame rate.[2][28]Vehicles were received positively, but some cited poor handling.[4][23]

Electronic Gaming Monthly's Ray Carsillo considered the game's original theme to be a positive, as it stood out against other Lego games and had the potential for widespread appeal,[23] and Eurogamer reviewer Tom Bramwell believed this was accomplished effectively.[24] GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd also noted postitively how the game's wit extended beyond references to other media, including its own slue of written and visual gags.[3] Richard George of IGN appreciated how the story had a "strong sense of progression throughout the game".[2] The characters and voice acting were received positively,[26][3][2] and George noted how the character's and their relationships with each other matched a police drama with family-friendly slapstick and caricatures.[2] Writing for GameRevolution, Daniel Bischoff enjoyed the comedic writing and it helped him remember the experience beyond its gameplay.[26] The Guardian positively compared the games writing style and cutscenes to the works of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, pointing out its continuous use of cliches, sketches, and gags.[27]

James Sterling of Destructoid considered the environment to be dynamic, which many other critics considered to be the reason why the overworld was fun to continuously explore and drive around.[25][4] Jeff Cork, writing for Game Informer, enjoyed the level of detail in the environment and found it enjoyable driving through it without an objective.[25] 4Players reviewer Mathias Oertel cited the worldbuilding as a reason that made Lego City Undercover "irresistible".[20] Destructoid called the overworld a "sprawling world of color and distraction".[21] Critics noted how objects in the distance would pop into view abruptly,[21][20] and Edge felt that while it was not a major flaw, they felt disappointed that the "first major exclusive in 2013" for the Wii U does not run smoothly.[22] Sterling saw the collectibles as a reason to remain invested in the game after completing the story,[21] but Oertel contrarily referred to the overworld secrets as "irrelevant".[20] Bischoff appreciated that the collectibles felt like an addition rather a necessity, unlike previous games.[26]

Critics praised the addition of cooperative multiplayer to the other versions,[1][5][6] although GameStar's Tobias Veltin cited the lack of online play as a negative.[5] IGN reviewer Tristan Oglivie derided the multiplayer for the lack of new content beyond second-player support;[29] Liam Croft of Push Square expressed similar opinions but appreciated the feature being included.[6] Oertel rated all new versions positively, but gave a lower score to the Nintendo Switch version, citing noticeable frame drops that weren't as present in the Wii U version.[1] Oglivie and Pocket Gamer's Emily Sowden also noted the frame rate decrease of the Nintendo Switch when being used as a portable,[30][29] but Oglvie praised the higher frame rate of the other versions.[29] Veltin awarded the PC version the website's "Gold Award" for having a high score, praising the game's presentation, design, and story, but criticized the lack of mouse support.[5] Reviewing the PS4 version, Sam Spyrison of Hardcore Gamer declared the game to be high quality and an improvement over past Lego titles, but believed that the game lacked gameplay that an older audience would find appealing.[31] Oglivie considered the removal of the Wii U GamePad unimpactful, noting its absence to be more convenient but overall less enjoyable.[29]

According to NPD figures, the game sold more than 100,000 units in the United States in its debut month, debuting outside the top 10 and tying with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.[32] In the UK, the game debuted at number 12 in the all-formats chart,[33] and debuted at number 8 in the individual-format chart and at number 1 in the Wii U chart.[34][35] In Japan, the game sold more than 18,000 copies during its first week, entering all the charts at number 9.[36] By December 2019, the Wii U version had sold 1.9 million units worldwide.[37]