LEGO Dimensions will be your next obsession

Imagine a dimension in which characters from your favorite universes collide in one world — or game, rather. I’m talking Batman walking the Yellow Brick Road in Oz, Marty McFly hoverboarding through Middle-earth. This is what Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games and The LEGO Group have envisioned and created with LEGO Dimensions, a new “entertainment experience that breaks the rules of traditional gaming,” merging physical LEGO brick building with interactive video games.

Okay, so it’s essentially the same concept as Activision’s Skylanders franchise which has become a huge success, spawning a number of similarly designed experiences like Disney Infinity and Nintendo’s amiibo.

LEGO Dimensions works in similar fashion as the games mentioned above; you buy a Starter Pack that includes a LEGO Toy Pad, which allows you to “transport special LEGO minifigures and other LEGO objects into the game.” Priced at $99.99, the LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack includes the base video game, the Toy Pad, the Gateway building blocks, three LEGO minifigures (Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle), and the LEGO Batmobile vehicle. I presume you’ll be able to play as all three characters in the base game.

From there, you can purchase individual expansion packs — Level Packs, Team Packs, and Fun Packs that will offer new buildable characters, vehicles, tools, and gadgets, as well as “compelling game content” with new mission-based levels and unique in-game abilities. According to LEGO, all expansion packs will feature “well-known properties and provide gamers the opportunity to use everything interchangeably, anywhere throughout the game – with no limitations.”

Already confirmed expansion packs for 2015 include the Back to the Future Level Pack with a LEGO Marty McFly minifigure, a LEGO Ninjago Team Pack with Kai and Cole minifigures, three Ninjago Fun Packs with Jay, Nya, and Zane minifigures, two DC Comics Fun Packs with Wonder Woman and Cyborg minifigures, three The Lord of the Rings Fun Packs with LEGO Gollum, LEGO Gimli and LEGO Legolas minifigures, four The LEGO Movie Fun packs with Emmet, Bad Cop, Benny and Unikitty characters, and a The Wizard of Oz Fun Pack with a LEGO Wicked Witch of the West minifigure.  Additional packs for 2015 will be announced in the months leading up to LEGO Dimensions release on September 27, 2015. Beyond launch, LEGO has plans to continue supporting the game into 2016. According to product details, you’ll be allowed to bring up to 7 characters, vehicles, and weapons into the game all at once by dropping them on to the LEGO Gateway.

LEGO Dimensions will be available for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U. The Starter Pack is priced at $99.99 with Expansion Packs seemingly priced around $29.99.