Sony takes games seriously. This is reflected in tentpole releases like Horizon, God of War, and The Last of Us, which are pretty hard on adults. Surprisingly, its Summer Game Fest demo area replaced grieving fathers and apocalypses with adorable Astro Bot figurines and Lego. Lots of Legos.
Lego Horizon Adventures may not have made Summer Game Fest headlines the way the new Doom and Assassin’s Creed games did, but in many ways its legacy may be more interesting. Co-developed by Guerilla Games (known for the Horizon and Killzone series) and AAA support team Studio Gobo, this game aims to bring the world of Horizon games to a new generation and a new platform, the Nintendo Switch.
Horizon Adventures Not the first Sony game on Switch. MLB: The Show regularly comes to both the Nintendo console and the Xbox, but it’s a licensed sports game and Horizon is a major PlayStation franchise. It has a VR spin-off, a live-action adaptation confirmed for Netflix, and a much-rumored MMO in the future. Bringing the latest iteration of a series to the Switch on day one is unusual.
“We’re trying to appeal to as broad an audience as possible,” Guerilla Games narrative director James Windeler told Engadget. “Partnering with Switch, it’s an incredibly unique opportunity … it’s really going to help us attract a family-friendly audience.”
It’s also just a bigger audience. The Nintendo console has been available since 2017, and the market for Switch games is over 140 million. (For context, there are roughly 58 million PlayStation 5s in the wild.) Lego titles are also in a small minority of non-Nintendo games to lead the Switch retail charts.
From the 30 minute demo I played, the game itself looks delicious. The world of Horizon translates well to Lego, especially with the robodinos in focus. There is already one Forbidden West Long neck Lego set and it would be very surprising if we don’t see Thunderjaws and Scrappers in Lego stores soon. The combat is surprisingly faithful to the original games, with Aloy running through tall grass to get a good angle on the enemy and using her Focus to spot weak spots. Also true to the original games, stealth can very quickly fall by the wayside in favor of frantic escapes. Less Loyalty: I got through one tough battle, repeatedly summoning a hot dog vendor to throw exploding franks everywhere. It’s a Lego game I think.
Tonally, it’s firing for Guerilla It’s like the Lego movie Intergenerational irreverent humor, not my jam, but I appreciate it. Windeler said that Guerilla tries to capture the core elements of the first game without directly changing it: “It’s not necessarily a one-to-one rehash, but it’s also not a parody in the sense that you don’t need to be a Horizon fan. to really respond to humor. In this respect, it is wider.” Voices from the original games return, including Ashly Burch as Aloy and JB Blanc as Rost. Horizon Adventures and seems to be having a lot of fun. Burch’s performance in particular is very wide-eyed and excited, more akin to her work as Tiny Tina in the Borderlands series or as one of her many animated characters. It’s a fun twist on the traditional stoic character.
It is a great feature for co-op Horizon Adventures. Local co-op, like most Lego games, is a drop-in, drop-out affair that allows an adult to help a child through a difficult area. But if you’re both into a particular franchise, Lego games are fun to play among consenting adults – I know plenty of adults who live for Lego Star Wars. Away from the couch, there’s online multiplayer that’s more for adults.
I’m not a huge Horizon fan. Of all the open world collections, it’s one of my favorites, but not my genre. My partner is a fan, though, and we’re always on the lookout for mid-level co-op games that can bridge the gap in our tastes. Can be Horizon Adventures maybe and I’ll be a real Horizon boss because of it?
Finding new audiences is something Sony and Microsoft have struggled with over the past few years. This Xbox-PlayStation generation hasn’t seen as strong growth as the last, and the AAA experiences they typically draw on are expensive to produce.
Microsoft seems to be committed to multiplatform releases for several of its established franchises, such as Call of Duty, Diablo, and Doom. It also carried four previously exclusive titles – Hi-Fi Rush, Earthy, Pentiment and Sea of Thieves — to competitors’ cars earlier this year.
Sony’s approach, until recently, was to sue PC gamers with ports of older titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War. It was also released this year Helldivers 2 First day of PC, it went very well until it isn’t. The company’s president is Hiroki Totoki told investors in February he “would like to be aggressive in improving our margin performance” with a greater focus on multi-platform releases (what a player!). The speculation at the time was that it was only referring to PCs, but the Switch release Horizon Adventures ostensibly opens up this effort to more platforms.
It’s unlikely that Sony will bring their huge AAA games to a rival console when they launch. But it could be that Sony is starting to treat the Switch the way Nintendo used to treat mobile devices. The mid-1990s saw an influx of Nintendo games, including on the iPhone and Android Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Mario Kart Tour. The strategy was pretty clear: Introduce Nintendo characters to a more casual audience and make a few of them into a “full” experience. If Horizon Adventures going well – and why not? — It’s easy to see Sony opening the floodgates and sending a bunch of franchises onto Nintendo’s mass-market console.
Lego Horizon Adventures Presents Holiday 2024 on PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch.
Find out all the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 here!
