Lego Lord of the Rings hits Tuesday

The happiest of all days comes Tuesday.

I know. That could mean practically anything for me.

Halloween, so I could watch 20 horror movies in a row without guilt.

New shoe day, so I could show off my new Thundercats Converse and listen to my boss complain about my unprofessional footwear.

Even midnight showing Thursday – for whatever movie I’m most geeked for at that present moment.

But, no, right now I’m talking about ‘Lego: Lord of the Rings’ – which will be released on Tuesday.

When it comes to video games, I jump all over the place. I gravitate towards horror and movie tie-ins the most, though.

Still, the Lego video games have a special place in my heart.

My favorite thus far are the ‘Harry Potter’ games. While I love the original ‘Star Wars’ – game developers seemed to learn a lot from that first surprise hit and they’ve made subsequent games that much better thanks to what they learned from the original.

As far as the ‘Star Wars’ Lego games go, ‘The Clone Wars’ would be my favorite. I’m also a big fan of ‘Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes’ and ‘Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean.’

My least favorite titles are the original ‘Lego: Batman’ and the two ‘Lego: Indiana Jones’ titles.

Still, I’ve been hoping for ‘Lego: Lord of the Rings’ for as long as I can remember. Not only is the novel my favorite book of all time – but the three movies are my favorite adaptations of all times. This game has a lot of my high expectations riding on it.

As it stands now, ‘Lego: Lord of the Rings’ covers the three movies in the first trilogy. I’m guessing, in the next two years, we’ll get ‘Lego: The Hobbit’ to cover the current three movies.

Like the last Lego release, ‘Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes,’ the characters will be able to talk. From what I understand, they lifted dialogue right from the movies. I can’t wait to see little Lego Boromir warn everyone that “one cannot simply walk into Mordor.”

People should realize that any sense of realism goes out the window when you’re playing Lego games. There is not one iota of realism in these games – and that’s why I like them.

When you die in a Lego video game, you don’t lose a life. You shatter into a million little Lego pieces and then immediately return to your game play.

There is no sense of urgency. There’s no sense of drama. There’s no sense of imminent danger.

These are fun little games that are all about completing tasks and laughing at how the little Lego characters are cute – more than anything else. One caveat, the little Lego Molly Weasley from ‘Harry Potter’ does look a lot like the real life character. It’s eerie.

While I’m hoping that ‘Lego: Lord of the Rings’ is similar to ‘Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes’ in some respects, I also hope it’s different in others.

‘Lego Batman 2’ had the biggest “hub” area in any Lego game to date. In fact, more than half of the game was conducted in the “hub” area.

That’s actually not different than other titles – but the game only had 15 levels (not counting hidden levels or bonuses). So, in reality, the game was more about cleanup that anything else.

As far as Batman is concerned, I was fine with that – but that’s because I don’t care about the actual Batman story. I do care about the ‘Lord of the Rings’ story.

I’m expecting more game play – like ‘Harry Potter.’ I’m thinking that each movie will have six levels and then a lot of cleanup.

I’d expect that the hub will probably be in the Shire – but who knows, they may come up with something completely unexpected.

I do think that the character token situation will be similar to ‘Lego Batman 2,’ though. I much prefer the hundreds of characters available for purchase in Harry Potter – but that is a bigger world of “name” characters.

‘Lord of the Rings’ has a lot of characters – but how many random Orcs can you care about?

Either way, I’ll be waiting in my pajamas by the door Tuesday for my always timely deliveryman. I will immediately pop the game in – and I won’t be available for play dates, conversation or anything else for that matter until I get the game up to 100 percent.

So, in other words, see you in two weeks.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to ‘Lego: Lord of the Rings’?