Remembering LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval's Journey

Andrew looks back at a game from the DS, 3DS and Vita

-  Andrew Duncan

Back in 2013 the LEGO brand was on the top of the world. They had the LEGO Friends and Minecraft toy lines going strong, and would do for years to come, and it was launching the Galaxy Squad, Castle III, The Lone Ranger, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Legends of Chima lines, too. There would be multiple animated projects with both TV shows and directto-DVDmovies, with an eye on The LEGOMovie the following year. It also had several videogames launching throughout the year: LEGO City Undercover, LEGO Friends, LEGOMarvel Super Heroes and multiple games based on LEGO Legends of Chima.

By now, even if you didn’t notice the title of this piece, you’ll have noticed that the brand was leaning heavily into Legends of Chima. While LEGO Friends did have a cartoon due out that November (coinciding with a 3DS game), Legends of Chima led the way by having a cartoon airing in January.

Of course, we can’t forget that LEGO City Undercover was the first LEGO game out that year. It launched in March 2013 for Wii U, becoming the first game using the “LEGO Star Wars” action-adventure formula that wasn’t based on a licensed property. It would be re-released on Eighth Generation consoles in 2017, but the main topic of this piece has had no such luck.

Now, there could be many reasons why LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval's Journey, the second LEGO game of 2013, has been forgotten. Well, along with the other games based on the playset; Legends of Chima Online, and the browser-based Legends of Chima: Speedorz, both of which also released in 2013. It can’t be age, as I still hear people talking about Bionicle which hasn’t had a game since 2006! Laval's Journey only has four speedruns logged at Speedrun.com to date!