12. All Your Bricks Are Belong to Us

Escape the Gauntlet video game maze

Race the Blue Thief in Super Sprint

Fight off swarms of enemies in Robotron

This chapter provides details on solving puzzles and defeating Blue Thief in the Midway Arcade Story Mode adventure.

The heroes are standing in front of a building, and they can only run left or right. At the top of the screen is a counter for the five astronaut characters that must be rescued. To the right is a Batarang target. If you hit the target with Batman’s Batarang (LJ and X), a door opens, revealing objects that should be destroyed. Use the bouncing parts that are left over to build a keystone device. Activate the Scale keystone and place a minifig on the orange pad to shrink that character down. Enter the small doors on the left side of the building and look for a handle. Move the shrunken character’s minifig to the white (round) pad to return to normal size and pull the handle (B). The front door of the building opens, releasing one of the captured astronaut characters.

Next, activate the Elemental keystone device and get in the Batmobile. You can drive left or right, and if you drive far enough, you return to your starting point, in front of the building.

Drive the Batmobile to the left. Don’t skip the boost pads; if you drive on them, you can jump and grab valuable blue studs. Watch for the grow pad and stop when you find it (Figure 12.1). Move a minifig to the green (round) pad to give that character the Earth element. Press and hold X while using LJ to direct a stream of leaves at the grow pad. When you do this, a large hand grows and rescues another captured astronaut from the attackers in the sky.

FIGURE 12.1 Use the grow pad to save another captured astronaut.

Continue moving to the left and find another keystone device. Activate it and select the Location keystone. Find the white diamond to the left of the relic device (Figure 12.2), just beyond the structure with the orange light on top. Activate the white diamond (by repeatedly pressing B) to open a vortex and reveal Doc Brown’s DeLorean, which flies in and destroys the structure, freeing another captured astronaut.

FIGURE 12.2 Find the white diamond to rescue another astronaut.

Continue moving left until you discover a new building. Inside the building, find another captured minifig and an object surrounded by stars. Change to Gandalf and use his Magic (B) to destroy the object and free another minifig.

Continue left. Along the way, you encounter a couple special areas that you can access using Hire-a-Hero to purchase a character temporarily with studs that you can use for 30 seconds or more, or additional minifigs with special abilities (but ignoring these won’t prevent you from finishing the level). The Defender ship is destroyed. It crashes and starts a fire, trapping a minifig inside the flames. When the keystone device appears to the left of the flames, activate it and choose the Elemental keystone. Move a minifig to the blue pad to give that character Water element. Walk over the flames and rescue the fifth (and final) minifig.

The Defender ship appears and destroys the enemy ship holding the arcade coin; the coin falls to the ground. Before the heroes can grab the coin, however, the sneaky Blue Thief jumps out of a vortex, grabs the coin, and then goes back into a vortex. The heroes follow him in and find themselves in a dangerous-looking maze—they’re in a classic video game called Gauntlet!

FIGURE 12.3 Destroy bones and generators to reduce enemy numbers.

Playing Gauntlet is a little different from working through the other worlds the heroes have encountered. Here are some play tips to keep in mind as the heroes attempt to locate Blue Thief and escape the maze in this part of the game:

The heroes lose hearts if they get hit by the various monsters in this maze, but they can restore hearts by destroying food objects. The food object is a stack consisting of a chicken leg, a banana, and a loaf of bread stacked in a pile.

The heroes need to collect keys that allow them to get through the metal doors that occasionally block their path. Try your best to grab any keys you spot.

Destroy chests to collect studs—but be careful with this because chests are often used to block a horde of monsters from rushing at you. After you destroy a chest, run back to give yourself room to use your weapons. If you run far enough back, the enemies don’t attack the other two characters, and you have a chance to plan your attack.

Batman’s Batarang and Gandalf’s Magic can fire at monsters from a distance, destroying multiple monsters with one shot! It’s fun to play Wyldstyle, but she can only fight up close and takes a lot of damage during fights, so watch for food objects to restore hearts.

You often need to just rush into a room and fight as fast as possible, trying to destroy the generators and bones that spawn enemies. Keep an eye on your hearts and fight from a distance whenever possible.

One particularly nasty enemy is immune to damage. It’s Death, a black hooded figure. When you see Death, run and hide!

Monsters often cannot run around corners, and you can take advantage of this and pull a few down at a time to destroy and then run back behind a wall to plan your next attack.

Be on the lookout for the word EXIT on the ground; there’s a vortex beneath it that allows you to escape the current maze.

Blue Thief typically hides near the EXIT for a quick escape (Figure 12.4).

FIGURE 12.4 Blue Thief hides near the EXIT, holding the arcade coin.

When you reach the EXIT, Blue Thief jumps in and escapes with the coin. Follow him into the vortex.

Whenever possible, explore the surrounding areas and get a look at what’s beyond doors and at what’s being blocked by chests and generators. Often you’ll discover both a fast path to the EXIT and a longer path.

The Batmobile can sometimes be used, but it is also occasionally blocked from entering certain areas. If you’ve upgraded the Batmobile (see the section “Upgrading Vehicles” in Appendix B, “Vehicles and Upgrades”), you can use its weapons to fire from a distance or even lay down mines. But don’t depend on the Batmobile to get you through the entire level.

Be careful around corners. Some enemies can fire through the narrow gap between wall blocks.

Batman’s Batarang and Gandalf’s Magic cannot fire around corners, but you can sometimes fire at an angle without triggering a rush of enemies.

Always target bones and generators first when entering a room. If you don’t, enemies continue to spawn, and you take much more damage than usual.

When you finally track down Blue Thief, he once again manages to jump into a vortex to escape. Follow him and get ready for a different type of arcade game: Super Sprint!

Super Sprint’s rules are fairly easy:

To win a race, you must be the first to finish three laps and cross the finish line before the other racers.

Use the LJ to steer your vehicle.

Watch out for hazards such as water, oil, and even a small tornado. These hazards cause your vehicle to spin and make you lose control momentarily.

Collect blue studs whenever possible; they’re worth 1,000 points each!

There are often shortcuts (small gaps in the walls) that let you bypass corners and shave off a few seconds of your race time.

Before each race, you get a quick look at the entire course. In case you miss it, Figure 12.5 shows the course for Super Sprint Track 1.

FIGURE 12.5 Super Sprint Track 1 is a simple track to follow.

Win the race, and you discover that you must race—and win—three more times.

FIGURE 12.6 Super Sprint Track 2 overhead view.

FIGURE 12.7 Super Sprint Track 3 overhead view.

FIGURE 12.8 Super Sprint Track 4 overhead view.

After winning the final race, the heroes win the trophy—the arcade token! But before they can return to Vorton with their prize, Blue Thief races his own car in their direction, grabs the token, and enters a new vortex. Have the heroes jump in to follow him.

FIGURE 12.9 The heroes need to fight enemies that rush toward them.

The rules to Robotron are simple: Survive an endless wave of enemies who rush toward the heroes. Here are some tips on surviving Robotron:

Never stop moving!

Batman and Gandalf have advantages in this game: Batman can fling his Batarang at enemies from far away, and Gandalf can do the same with his Magic. Wyldstyle, on the other hand, must fight up close.

After one wave of enemies is beaten, you have a few seconds to catch your breath before another wave appears.

Be on the lookout for Blue Thief. When he appears, hit him three times with Batman’s Batarang or Gandalf’s Magic to defeat him and end the game.

When the heroes defeat Blue Thief and recover the arcade token, a vortex opens. Have them jump in and return to Vorton.