Yeah, I picked it up. It's alright. It's kind of a mashup of the Wii U game and something like Lego Star Wars on the 3DS. If it had come out before the Wii U version, I'd probably be happier with it, but playing them side by side... eh. It's hard to recommend it to anyone that has the potential to play both of them.

I'm enjoying the game so far. I find it easier to stay focused on the missions than in the Wii U game since there seems to be little reason to explore much in this one, at least so far. It's not as good as the Wii U game, but it's still pretty good.

And the missions are short, quick to complete. The driving handles better but the loading of the city districts really sucks.

The reviews scared me away. If the humor and personality aren't there, and if there are load times between districts, then I really don't see the point.

Well, I like what I've played so far. I enjoy going through the missions. Not really sure how much I can find just wandering the city because I've been entirely following the main mission path. No, most of the referential I read about in the Wii U game isn't there, but I still find the game charming enough. I look forward to eventually upgrading to the fog-free console version.

@Guillaume
Yeah, I'd say you got your money's worth with the superior Wii U game. I understand that the characters and such grew on you, and you won't find nearly the same charm here.

Also, I doubt the final mission is going to be as amazing. This remains to be seen of course.

@Koovaps
They are actually two different games. Aside from the Wii U game being fog-free, you also get a much more charming story and a bigger sense of scope concerning the city.

@ploot
Yeah, I dig that. I knew they were different, but wasn't really aware of what the similarities/differences were. At 30 bucks, it was basically an impulse purchase since I do look forward to playing the WiiU version. And since I really do like this game so far, I imagine I'll REALLY like the upgrade!

@Koovaps

I'd recommend finishing Chase Begins before starting up U. I'm finding Chase Begins a fun diversion when I have a couple minutes to spare, but not much more than that. Again, it's not BAD. But it tries to do too much. Something like Lego Star Wars III (or whatever version came out near the 3DS launch) feels tighter; it didn't bite off more than it can chew.

Chase Begins feels like some PS2/Xbox era open world games, where the tech wasn't really capable of matching what devs wanted to do with their games.

As someone who doesn't have a Wii U I plan on picking this up, and besides I'm not the kind of gamer who worries about handhelds not having the same graphics or presentation value as console, if I was I'd never play a handheld game because consoles will always be better at that kind of thing. I just want a fun open-world game on the go, the only thing that bums me out are the load times, that's one of my biggest annoyances in any kind of game.

@deathly_hallows

That's part of the issue with the game; it doesn't do the "open world" aspect very well at all. It's foggy as shit, to the point that it discourages exploration since you won't have any idea where you're going. NPCs aren't super important in the Wii U version, but here they'll pop up a few steps in front of you, like you're in some kind of ghost world. Because you can't see where you're going, the only way you can find stuff is to scan for it and follow the map indicator, or just wander around aimlessly. And I don't mean "aimlessly" in that you see something in the distance and go to check it out... because you can't really see all that far in front of you. I mean aimless in the most literal sense.

This may seem like it clashes with saying it's an alright game, and I get that. In-mission it's still fun, but there's little to no "open world" appeal to the game like there is in the U version, unless you're REALLY starved for that kind of content.

@Kal-El814
Yeah I get that it's foggy because they chose to sacrifice draw distance for fidelity, but I don't see it as being that drastic. Anyway I just got the game so I'll have to decide for myself if it's fun or not, you could be totally right. But I'm primarily a handheld gamer and I preferred GTA Chinatown Wars to GTA IV, despite it having similar drawbacks (you can't see things in the distance in that game at all because you're looking straight down at your character), and there have been about a million other times where the console version is supposed to be better, but I still like the handheld version better.

@deathly_hallows
I preferred Chinatown Wars to GTA4 as well. Chinatown Wars was an excellent game. This game is sort of a buggy version of its bigger brother.

Of course, you don't have the experience with the Wii U game so that'll help for sure.

I am not saying this is a bad game, just disappointing.

@deathly_hallows

I don't know what else to tell you. Chase Begins is a fun game, and the missions are neat. But the ability to explore, the personality, the humor, and the presentation of the world are severely gimped compared to the U version. It is a fun game, but a bland open world game.

The Chinatown Wars / GTAIV comparison you're making is fundamentally flawed. Those games took entirely different approaches. Chinatown Wars is absolutely not a gimped GTAIV. Chase Begins absolutely IS a gimped version of the Wii U game.

Again though, if you're ONLY going to play Chase Begins, the differences are not as stark. As someone that's played both this week, the differences are obvious.

EDIT - meant to type bland, not bad :|

@Kal-El814
The CTW comparison isn't flawed at all, because the argument I'm refuting is that if the draw distance isn't super far you don't want to explore, well in CTW there is no draw distance at all because the camera is pointed down and you can't see what's in the distance, yet in that game it's still really fun to explore Liberty City. Also, Liberty City is the same basic layout as GTA IV, just scaled down and simplified to fit on the DS (some would say "gimped", but I say scaled down).

Anyway, I've played The Chase Begins up until you go to Alcatraz, I mean err... Albatross, and I think it's pretty good. The entire look and feel of the city is colorful, charming and awesome, even the way the vehicles look like toys is really cool, one of the first things I did is steal a Tonka-style dump truck from the construction site and went marauding around knocking over trees and traffic signals with people yelling and diving out the way, ahahaha. The fog absolutely doesn't bother me or make me not want to explore, in fact since Lego City is based on San Francisco the fog seems totally appropriate.

Not to say that the game is perfect, the camera is irksome, there is no CPP support (thanks Nintendo ) so you can only rotate the camera left or right (forget about seeing what's above you), and on top of that the camera rotates super slowly, and there is no setting to speed it up, lame. Also, I get what you guys mean by no voice acting, in the CG cutscenes the voices are hilarious and charming, but then in the normal game everything just seems silent and empty. But this game is far from the first game that has suffered due to lack of VA, especially on a handheld where the budgets are lower, in fact many people complained about the exact same issue with CTW! So yeah, as much as I'd prefer VA to reading text, I still think it's a pretty fun game.

@deathly_hallows
I agree, it's a pretty fun game.

@ploot
I'm past the prison section and back in the main city and I have to admit I've LOLed at a few of the jokes so far. Seems like maybe I'm lucky to have started with this game because there is nothing to compare it and it doesn't seem like a downgrade, and everything seems to new to me, I'm not a huge fan of the series but this is by far the most fun I've had with a lego game. I will definitely get the Wii U game!

The long load times are super unfortunate though, it's like back to the early days of the PSP!

@deathly_hallows
The long load times are present in the Wii U game as well. Fortunately, it doesn't have to load between boroughs though.

I'm a little further into The Chase Begins and I'm having a pretty good time overall. OH OH OH, I do hate the combat though. In the Wii U game, once you have a guy down for the first time you can cuff him and you don't have to deal with the slow-mo so often! Why did they make the combat take so long in this one? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!

The game is growing on me though. Now that I'm past the "this isn't like the Wii U game" disappointment, I am even looking around for secrets a bit.