Video Game / LEGO City Undercover

Join the chase!

LEGO City Undercover is a Wide-Open Sandbox game developed by Traveller's Tales, released for the Wii U in March 2013 and the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows (via Steam) in April 2017. Utilizing the same engine as the LEGO Adaptation Games but, rather than being an adaptation of a famous franchise, is based on LEGO's own original theme, LEGO City with a healthy side helping of Cop Show parody. The game follows the adventures of Chase McCain in his various undercover missions for the LEGO City P.D. and his attempts to track down his archrival Rex Fury, who has recently broken out of prison.

The game made use of the Wii U GamePad to mimic using Chase's Police Communicator. The GamePad would function as the game's map and when using the Communicator's scanning function, the player would hold the GamePad up to the TV and physically move it around. This feature was removed from the subsequent re-release since they all lacked a GamePad and all of the features were moved on-screen.

A prequel game, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, was released for the Nintendo 3DS a month after the first game's original release.

Like most LEGO games, there is a great deal of tongue-in-cheek humor, along with a Hurricane of Puns, a lot of Shout-Outs, some Mythology Gags and... car theft?

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LEGO City Undercover contains the following tropes:

• 100% Completion: Being a LEGO game, there is a lot to collect on the road to 100% completion, including 305 character disguises ^*290 in the Wii U version, 120 vehicles^*110 in the Wii U version, and 39 Red Bricks ^*40 in the Wii U version. There are also 450 Gold Bricks awarded for completing various in-game challenges & milestones:
  • Completing the fifteen Special Assignments, as well as earning each of their Police Shields & "LEGO City Hero" commendations.
  • Completing LEGO City's 379 Challenges, divided into 248 Character Challenges^*arresting 16 gangs & 12 vehicle robbers as a Policeman, smashing 18 ATMs & stealing 13 vehicles as a Robber, destroying 22 precious boulders & 17 silver statues as a Miner, catching 17 aliens & conquering 20 districts as an Astronaut, watering 20 flowers & returning 22 pigs to Farmer Hayes as a Farmer, rescuing 17 cats & extinguishing 17 BBQ fires as a Fireman, taking 20 coffee breaks & completing 17 Drill Thrills as a Construction Worker & 131 City Challenges^*Constructing 65 Super Builds, activating 14 ticket machines, completing 19 Free Runs & 16 Vehicle Time Trials, activating 17 Disguise Booths.
  • Finding the 10 Gold Bricks hidden in the Police Station, as well purchasing 16 additional bricks from the basement's Gold Brick store.
• Ability Required to Proceed: Chase requires several disguises to solve puzzles. Of particular note are the Rex Fury disguises, which enable Chase to destroy orange handle obstacles.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: A few of the game's disguises received notable changes in the 2017 rerelease.
  • The most notable change is the appearance of Chase McCain's default Policeman disguise, which changes his light blue torso & black pants into a full dark-blue uniform with grey hands, mirroring his minifig's appearance in the LEGO City Police set 60138: High-speed Chase. The disguise's torso features a new decal with different equipment & an updated police badge design; this decal is also applied to his LEGO Dimensions minifig, which has been included as Player 2's default Policeman disguise. Players can still use Chase McCain's original Policeman outfit as it appeared in the Wii U release since its parts are still used in the default appearance for the custom Policeman disguise (Custom B).
  • Chase's default Fireman disguise has been changed to a black uniform with reflective stripes & a white fire helmet, which now matches the uniforms used by all other members of the LEGO City Fire Department featured in the game. The old disguise's appearance, the bright orange uniform & red helmet, is now used as Player 2's default Fireman disguise.
• Adaptation Expansion: The 2017 rerelease makes several additions to the original 2013 Wii U release.
  • The most notable new feature added is dedicated splitscreen co-op, which the 2013 release lacked due to a portion of the game's features being tied to the Wii U GamePad. Player 2 can drop in at any time to take control of a second Chase McCain, sharing all the same disguises, abilities, Police Communicator features & activated Red Brick cheats as Player 1.
  • Fifteen new disguises are added, bringing the total from 290 to 305. Ten of these are alternate appearances for Chase McCain's default disguises, including the Undercover & Suit variants of his Policeman disguise, all of which are assigned as Player 2's default disguises. Another three are of Grace Makepiece, Chase's Distaff Counterpart included as an alternate player character (albeit one with no effect on the story), and comprises Civilian, Policeman & Undercover Policeman variants.
  • Ten new vehicles are added, bringing the total from 110 to 120.
• Adapted Out: Obviously, all major Nintendo references were removed in the non-Nintendo ports of the game, with only a few subtle and stray ones left such as Chase's quip about a giant ape being on top of a familiar structure. The one Nintendo-related Easter Egg which didn't even return for the Switch re-release was the Mario Hat Red Brick.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Bucky Butler.
  • Chan Chuang.
  • Pete Peterson, the fake name that Chase comes up with to join the fire department.
  • Numerous minor characters that double as costumes, i.e. Pat Patterson, Grubby Grubster and more.
  • Rex's Riot, a heavy vehicle.
  • Two districts: Blackwell Bridge and King's Court.
  • Scrapyard Scrap, the special assignment set in Chan's salvage yard.
  • The Herbert and Honey Hotels.
  • The Gang Arrest mission in the Fresco district is referred to as the "Fresco Felon Fracas".
• Alien Abduction: Farmer Jethro claims to be the victim of one.
• Always Close: No matter how fast you deliver and set up the phased polarity shield prototypes around Blackwell Tower^*which was revealed previously to be a rocket about to launch and incinerate the city with its exhaust, when Chase asks Natalia's dad how much time they have left, it will always be T-minus three seconds. Good thing the prototypes work!
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: A great deal of the unlockables are new costumes for Chase, with only one of them being vital to buy while the rest are just cosmetic. The costume in question, which grants the Super-Strength necessary for orange handles, is Rex Fury, found near the end of the space dive portion of the final level, in one of the stud rings close to the finish.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • As usual for LEGO games, the Red Brick Extras that aren't silly Easter Eggs exist to make things a whole lot simpler and easier for getting collectibles and completing sidequests.
    • Five of the Red Bricks are Data Scan Upgrades, which allow the Police Communicator to find & tag City/Character Challenges, Clues, Tokens & additional Red Bricks. As a bonus, these upgrades are activated by default in the Extras menu.
    • The series-staple Stud Multipliers allow the player to more quickly bank studs for expensive character and vehicle purchases, as well as more easily complete the "LEGO City Hero" stud collection challenge in Special Assignments.
    • "Attract Studs" & "Attract Bricks" increase the player's collection radius for both currencies, allowing the easier gathering of both.
    • "Super Break and Enter" and "Super Axe Smash" speed up the process of opening doors with the Crowbar and Axe respectively.
    • "Super Safe Crack" & "Super Astro Crate" bypass the minigames associated with each container, opening them as soon as they're interacted with.
    • "Super Color Gun" makes uncolored objects shot with Color Gun have the correct color applied to them, eliminating the tedium of having to find/build/interact with color swappers, especially for puzzles that require applying multiple different colors to complete.
    • "Unlimited Dynamite" allows for the immediate planting of dynamite on silver LEGO objects without needing to seek out dynamite vendors, though it can only be used in LEGO City, being disabled within building interiors or Special Assignments.
    • "Nitrous for All" greatly expands the number of vehicles capable of using the Nitro Boost feature, while "Longer Vehicle Boost" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, doubling the length of time that the Nitro Boost can be used. Having both allows nearly any vehicle to exhibit speeds otherwise exclusive to "Performance"-category vehicles.
    • "Super Drill Ride" increases the speed of riding a Pneumatic Drill to be roughly between walking and running speed, allowing it to wreak havoc and complete Drill Thrills more efficiently.
    • "Super Fast Travel" & "Instant Vehicles" can greatly reduce the hassle of navigating the city: the former allows the player to travel to activated train stations from the map screen, affording the player a more traditional fast travel that doesn't require interacting with a ticket machine; the latter enables a unique button that allows the player to call in any vehicle on the spot, instead of being restricted to doing so from constructed Vehicle Call-In Points only.
  • Completing the main story grants a permanent 2x brick multiplier, which doubles all brick pickups (including Super Bricks) and allows the player to easily complete any remaining Super Builds.
  • When doing an Audio Scan, all the comedic Red Herring conversations can be Permanently Missable Content. As such, mission-critical conversations will always be scrambled, allowing you to check and replay all the other ones at your leisure first.
  • After enough players experienced Guide Dang It! towards the dollar-denoted second Robber challenge on the Wii U, the remastered version for all systems added a loading screen explanation that states how it involves interacting with ATMs to break them.
  • In the remastered version, Red Bricks don't require purchasing anymore, and you can use them as soon as you find them.
• The Artifact: In the Wii U version, the Red Brick computer in the police station allowed you to purchase and unlock the Red Bricks you found. In the remastered version, Red Bricks are automatically unlocked when found, so the computer becomes useless.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: Played for Laughs in "Special Assignment 8 - The Colossal Fossil Hustle", where all the exhibits have the audio tour guide give explanations that are massively incorrect.
  Audio tour guide One of the best-known facts about pterodactyls is that they have a silent "P", which they use to blind their prey before attacking.
• Ass Shove:
  • Implied in one conversation when Chase and Frank are riding horses and Chase has to tell Frank that he's riding backwards.
  Frank: Oh! That explains why it didn't like that apple I tried to feed it.
  • Also implied to have happened to Frank when he mentions trying to imitate Studski and Clutch's signature move of sliding across their car's hood on a loading screen. When he tried it, his car lost its hood ornament and now he sets off the metal detectors at airports.
  • One Red Herring conversation has a patron at the Library ask an employee to help them get a book unstuck from his butt after he accidentally sat on it.
• Astral Finale: The game's final level takes place on Blackwell's Moon base.
• Axe Before Entering: Due to lethal combat being disallowed since Chase is a cop upholding the law, the sole purpose of the firefighter disguise's axe is breaking through boarded-up doors to get past them.
• Bad Guy Bar: Vinnie Pappalardo's ice cream parlour is portrayed as a kid-friendly version of this trope in one cutscene.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: During a section of the game when characters are in space, no one seems to have trouble breathing. Chase even has the visor up on his helmet. Then again, LEGO people don't have noses in the first place...
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Almost all of the Red Herring conversations heard using the communicator's Audio Scanner run on this.
  • Just about every other thing Vinnie Pappalardo says is some kind of stereotypical gangster Deadly Euphemism - except that everything Vinnie says he means literally.
  • At the end, Chase's team are waiting for the command module he's in to land at the park lake, with Frank bringing an umbrella in clear anticipation for it to dramatically crash in the water. It instead lands in the oversized cafe teacup behind them without any mess.
• Balloonacy: One Albatross Island prisoner is seen escaping by using a bunch of balloons, and in a Brick Joke towards the end of the game he ended up floating to the moon.
• Bilingual Bonus: Vinnie Pappalardo's motto is "Glace Lactis", the Latin for "ice cream".
• Blatant Burglar: The regular Robber disguise for Chase has him wearing a black beanie, a Domino Mask, a black-and-grey-and-black striped shirt (white-and-black for Player 2), two chains across his torso, black gloves, a Utility Belt, and a crowbar, all of which combined to make it extra blatant how that is the primary "robber" disguise.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Upon collecting all 450 Gold Bricks, a commemorative gold statue of Chase McCain is erected upon an empty fountain out the front of City Hall in Kings Court. This fountain from henceforth, sprays an endless shower of blue studs around itself; it's a pretty display, though it'd be a miracle for the player to not have enough studs to buy out every disguise, vehicle and red brick by this point, even with avoiding the stud multipliers.
• Border Patrol: Swimming out past the seaweed borders in the ocean is liable to get you eaten by a shark. Riding a boat is fair game for avoiding this.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: After helping out a gas-stop owner, he asks Chase if he wants ice cream, a hot dog, or an ice-cream hot dog, particularly since he has a lot of that combo to spare.
• Brick Joke^note No pun intended:
  • In one of the cutscenes on Albatross Island (LEGO City's Alcatraz stand-in), a prisoner is seen trying to escape the prison by floating on balloons. By the end of the game the man has reached the moon.
  • Also on Albatross Island, Chase begins playing opera loudly in the Warden's office, causing its speakers to explode. Later, Chase needs to repair a DJ's broken system, and the DJ laments that he should never have played opera on it.
  • In "Special Assignment 7 - Scrapyard Scrap", Chase teams up with Studski and Clutch to rescue Natalia from Chan. When Chase says that he could be doing anything to get info out of her, Studski first assumes he's force-feeding her ice cream, which Clutch dismisses. Sure enough, that is exactly what Chan did to Natalia.
  Natalia: Ugh... He made me eat ice cream!
  Studski: Called it!
  • Also later on, Chase and Vinnie interrogate one of Rex's men by force-feeding him ice cream to learn of his boss's whereabouts.
  • The end cutscene of "Special Assignment 10 - Smash 'n' Grab" has Chase escape a Sentinel ambush on a Vor motorcycle. Sentinel 2 is ordered to go after Chase, though his choice of vehicle - a Sweetie bicycle - makes for slow progress. During the epilogue cutscene, he's finally almost reached him at Crescent Park... only to get caught in the Iris Out and fall into a black void.
  Sentinel 2: Sentinel out!
  • On the title screen, after the clowns bust out of the police transport, one of them drives off in a blue car. After the credits, in the scene where the "Traveler's Tales Fusion" logo builds itself in the middle of the street, the same clown in the same car can be seen driving around.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Chase remarks on this after taking a skydive down a mineshaft in "Special Assignment 3 - Miner Altercation":
  Chase: Am I glad I remembered to pack my parachute today! Although... some spare pants would've been handy, too.
• Broken Bridge: There are three bridges in Lego City, all of which are blocked off at the start of the game for various reasons. Auburn Bay Bridge to the northwestern districts opens up partway through Chapter 2, while Heritage & Blackwell Bridges to the entire eastern portion of the city open up at the start of Chapter 5.
• Bubblegum Popping: One type of interactable objects are gumball machines, from which Chase purchases a gumball & blows a big gum bubble before loudly popping it.
• Built with LEGO: Just about everything that isn't part of the set-in landscape, architecture or the water is this. You can even break apart certain objects and then use their pieces to build other LEGO objects.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Sheriff Huckleberry is an eccentric who writes dramatic plays for squirrels, but seems to be a competent policeman nonetheless.
• Call-Back:
  • In a possible call back to LEGO Island, the game uses almost the exact same Literal-Minded joke as the first LEGO Island game.
  • Another possible callback to Lego Island 2 is that: both games culminate in the protagonist going into space to confront the villain, resulting in said villain being trapped in space due to a mishap. During both space sequences, a portion of gameplay is dedicated to skydiving through rings, and both sequences contain a Shout-Out to 2001: A Space Odyssey (The Monolith in Lego Island 2, and a man drifting through space as classical music plays in Lego City Undercover).
• The Caper: Several of the levels that have you stealing things for the various gangs are classic examples of this.
• Captain Crash: While not on the level of terrible driving skills like Chase and Frank, Captain Bluffbeard seems almost incapable of docking ships without crashing them into port and, depending on how sturdy they are, sinking them.
• Cat Up a Tree: One of the Fireman Missions involves Chase rescuing cats up trees. And billboards. And anywhere, really, as long as it's very high up.
• Chekhov's Gag: The red squirrel that's always hanging out with Ellie's uncle Sheriff Philips seems like just another silly gag, only for us to learn that it's part of a rare species whose discovery prevented Forrest Blackwell from creating a major building project in its habitat.
• City of Adventure: LEGO City features many crazy things to do. From relatively mundane races to the more fantastical hunting of aliens and everything in between.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • Interactable objects in the world are indicated by spinning icons on the ground bordered by a coloured ring, with each ring colour corresponding with a respective disguise: Blue - Policeman, Purple - Robber, Orange - Miner, White - Astronaut, Green - Farmer, Red - Fireman & Yellow - Construction Worker. Objects that any disguise can interact with have a Brown ring, shared with the Civilian disguise.
  • Objects that constitute part of a Free Run course are near-universally coloured white & blue.
• Comically Missing the Point: During the end cutscene, when Chase says that there are more important things than your job (clearly referring to pursuing a romantic relationship), Frank Honey asks him if he means playing video games.
• Company Cameo: In "Special Assignment 12: High Steal", one of the Police Shield pieces is earned by building three builds in one of the areas. One of the builds is the current Traveller's Tales logo.
• Compressed Adaptation: Due to the lack of a dual handheld screen peripheral for the Playstation 4, XBox, PC, and Switch ports of the game, all of the GamePad features (Map, Scanner, Camera & Videocalls) were moved to the main screen.
• Console Cameo: The police communicator tablets are very obviously patterned after the Wii U's GamePad since the communicator's scanning function was used by holding up the GamePad to the TV screen. These were recoloured black in the non-Nintendo ports, but it still doesn't help that the Wii U Console (and by extension, the GamePad) was also released in a black colouration & to a lesser extent, resembles the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • During Chase's pursuit of one of the Clown Robbers early in the game, for no apparent reason, a gardener just so happens to come along and water some plants that are in front of a fence too high for Chase to surmount. These plants grow large enough that Chase is able to climb them and get over the fence. The gardener lampshades this himself, stating that he came a long way just to water some stranger's plants.
  • Upon performing an Audio Scan as part of the Gang Arrest Policeman Missions, Chase will always hear the perpetrators at the beginning of the conversation about the crime they're about to commit, as well as their destination.
• Conveniently Close Planet: Invoked for laughs. Chase has an incredibly short trip to the Moon, which Professor Kowalski explains as the Moon actually being really small and very close to Earth. Apparently, this is a secret that only scientists know.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Studski and Clutch discuss the ways Chuang could torture Natalia. Such methods include force-feeding the victim a lot of ice cream to bring on an ice cream headache and making them drink a lot of soda because ladies can't burp in public. Chase initially dismisses these ideas as absurd, but sure enough Chase and Vinnie resort to the ice cream technique to gather information on the whereabouts of Rex.
• Culture Chop Suey: LEGO City regions borrow a lot from real life landmarks: for example, Crescent Park is based on New York's Central Park, the Statue of Liberty is self-explanatory, Auburn Bay Bridge is pretty much a copy of San Francisco's Golden Gate, and the Fusileani Tower is a direct homage to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• Cutscene Boss: Forrest Blackwell, despite being a major villain, is defeated in a non-interactive cutscene. He appears in a small craft, ready to take on Chase... and then a cow inexplicably flies in from nowhere and knocks him away. To be fair, you just fought Rex Fury in two consecutive fights immediately beforehand, so you are given a proper climactic boss fight for the level.
• Da Chief:
  • LEGO City PD's Chief Marion Dunby is this to a T, whether it be his constant berating of the staff around him, his near-obsessive hatred of Chase McCain in particular, or his repeated attempts to glean all the credit for Chase's hard work on the Rex Fury case for himself.
  • Fire Chief Cornelius Burns is practically a spitting image of Dunby if he were instead a firefighter. He's aggressive, easy to anger and takes out said anger on the rest of the staff, as shown when Chase meets him in a foul mood from his crew messing up on a few things for his birthday party like the cake flavor.
• Deadly Euphemism: Parodied by much of Vinnie Pappalardo's dialogue via Bait-and-Switch. Like the guy who disappointed him who "sleeps with the fishes" (he works as a night watchman at the aquarium) or the other who "bought the farm" (even after Vinnie told him it was a bad investment.)
• Deep South: The Fort Meadows district. Its most distinctive feature is a large farm, and everyone there has a Dixie accent.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Just like in all of Traveller's Tales Lego games, players restart right at the point they die minus some studs.
• Detectives Follow Footprints: Chase can use the blacklight feature on his communicator to find and follow hidden footprint trails that lead to hidden items.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In some places, doing certain things will make Chase say something. The earliest seems to be in Warden Stonewall's office. Paraphrased is the following.
  Chase (After destroying every possible thing in Warden Stonewall's office): Wow, I can't believe all that noise I just made didn't get his attention.
  • Chase will correctly comment on the state of the slide if you destroy it before he finishes his comment on the fact that Forrest Blackwell has a private playground.
  • After you steal a vehicle on Chan's orders from his rivals in Paradise Sands, he will comment on the state of the vehicle. If you damage it even slightly^*as in one heart of vehicle damage, he'll still consider your performance better than that of his usual guy... who he promptly fires.
  • If you manage to flip your vehicle completely, Chase will ask why the world is upside-down.
• Don't Try This at Home: After Chase almost gets hit by a falling car in "Scrapyard Scrap", he reminds the audience that scrapyards are dangerous places that one shouldn't play in.
• Double Unlock: New disguises and vehicles are obtained by finding and collecting them or accomplishing certain tasks. To use them, you need to buy them in the basement of the police station. In the original version, this also applied to red bricks, but the remastered version changed this.
• Early-Bird Cameo: If you poke around early around in the story at Auburn, you can see the workplace of Henrik Kowalski, although all you can see is his face and initials as the logo.
• Eerily Out-of-Place Object: Certain disguise challenges can be found in very peculiar locations. Expect to see Coffee Break tables in cave alcoves, crystal-encrusted rocks in developed tunnels and pigs at the top of skyscrapers. There's even an ATM in the prison yard.
• Energy Weapon: Astronaut disguises are equipped with a Ray Gun that shoots non-lethal energy bolts.
• Evil Brit: Barry Smith seems like one, being a Cockney Kung Fu master... but it's subverted as he's a friendly plumber who teaches Chase martial arts. Played straight with Forrest Blackwell.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  • At one point, Natalia calls to chew Chase out over having the police keep an eye on her, which he knows nothing about. She describes them as smartly dressed for cops, with a black van and an unmarked limo, and... they aren't cops, are they?
  • Done again when halfway through explaining how Forrest Blackwell is petting a cat, Ellie realizes he has to be evil based on that fact.
  • When Chase and Henrik Kowalski find Blackwell's moonbase model in his mansion, Chase wonders how Blackwell can pull this off since the shuttle on Apollo Island isn't big enough for his cronies. He then looks at the uniquely-shaped rocket in the model and wonders where Blackwell could've hidden it. This kicks in when he remembers that there's a countdown at Blackwell Tower, realising that the tower is the rocket.
• The Family for the Whole Family:
  • The two Mafias in the game aren't as incompetent as some instances of the trope, but they don't pose any kind of threat to anyone's life.
  • Also applies to the local hoodlums at Vinnie Pappalardo's ice-cream parlour: Tony One-Time, who only says anything once; Paulie Blindfolds, who wears a blindfold and says he "can't see someone today"; Lucky Pete, who initially appears to have an Ironic Name, because he falls down a staircase, but then finds a penny on the floor; the Crayfish Twins (possibly named after the Kray twins), two sapient crustaceans who are horrified when one of Vinnie's waitresses serves them a lobster dinner; and Mikey Spoilers, who tells Chase about a secret item he can unlock at the space centre.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Despite ballistic firearms being completely absent from the game, most of Chase's disguises get a projectile weapon of some kind.
  • The Policeman disguise utilises a Grapple Gun, which can tangle and ensnare opponents for easy arrests.
  • The Robber disguise eventually unlocks the Colour Gun, a utility tool for recolouring LEGO objects as opposed to a true offensive weapon.
  • The Astronaut disguise utilises a ray gun whose projectiles can temporarily stun assailants, akin to a taser.
  • The Farmer disguise has Chase pull out... a chicken that can rapid-fire eggs at objects & assailants.
• Fantasy Landmark Equivalent: LEGO City has several real-life landmark equivalents. For example, Mount Cashmore is similar to Mount Rushmore but it features the heads of a pirate, his parrot, a knight, and a cowboy, Auburn Bay Bridge is modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge, and Lady Liberty Island features its own Statue of Liberty.
• Flashed-Badge Hijack: Chase can do this since he's a police officer. He can even do this to other police officers.
• Fluorescent Footprints: These show up when Chase uses his Communicator on certain spots. Following them will lead to a clue or reward of some sort.
• Foreshadowing: Rex Fury's cell on Albatross Island has a jukebox that plays a recording of "Sull'Aria" from The Marriage of Figaro. Most people would simply pass this off as a Shout-Out to The Shawshank Redemption (which it is), but the same opera piece showing up in Forrest Blackwell's penthouse is a subtle hint that Rex is working for Blackwell.
• Friendly Local Chinatown: The Pagoda district. It features tightly-pack high-rises & tranquil parks with clear East-Asian influences. Ironically not where Kung-Fu Dojo is located.
• Funny Background Event: Several happen during the various cutscenes.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: When you start out the game, most of the challenges and other game mechanics have their related objects visibly present long before you get the ability to use them, but the blue-and-white Free Running objects are completely absent until you complete the first Special Assignment. While part of this is to prevent Sequence Breaking, there's actually a story-relevant reason: since Chase has the ability to become an Instant Expert every time he experiences New Powers as the Plot Demands, until he first gains the ability to free run he can't use them because he can't see the gaps, ledges, and grippable spots present in the walls for climbing and Wall Running or the footholds for walking securely on precarious ledges and beams, so after gaining the ability to see those free-run spots they become visibly represented by blatant LEGO pieces.
• Global Currency Exception: In every other Traveler's Tales LEGO game, everything that can be purchased always used studs, whether it's characters, special bricks, or even buildings. While most things still use studs, this game has a unique "brick" currency, which broken objects produce instead of studs in this game, which is used exclusively for constructing Super Builds.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Rex Fury has the "evil scars" variety.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: There are tons of activities to do in this game, ranging from putting out barbecue fires, taking coffee breaks, growing flowers, launching pigs out of cannons, etc. By doing this, you gain Gold Bricks and getting all 450 snags you the ability to grow twenty times your size!
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: The Grapple Gun, which can be used to ascend, pull things towards you or tie up enemies. They were originally police-issue-ordered in the past until enough instances of cops falling off buildings saw them banned.
• The Greys: Can be seen walking around the city. May just be partygoers in costume.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: After successfully grabbing an enemy, you can then throw him in a chosen direction. While the main purpose of this is to try knocking over at least one other enemy for easier arresting, it can instead be turned into a One-Hit Kill for the grabbed enemy by throwing him into a Bottomless Pit or water-source due to enemies having Super Drowning Skills, the latter being much easier to perform with the "Super Throw" extra active.
• Groin Attack: Barry Smith uses one against Chase when testing his kung-fu skills.
• Guide Dang It!: While most of the suit abilities get an explanation or at least some hint about how they work, nowhere in the game does it directly explain that the Robber challenge on the map screen denoted by dollar bills involves breaking ATMs, with the player most likely finding out after collecting the "Data Scan Upgrade - Character Challenges" Red Brick extra and scouring everwhere for hidden challenges. This was such a common problem that one Anti-Frustration Feature for the remastered version was a loading screen that explicitly mentions this.
• "Here's Johnny!" Homage: When using the fire axe for the first time in "Hot Property", Chase says "Here's Petey!" upon breaking through the boarded-up door.
• Herr Doktor: Professor Kowalski, Natalia's father, speaks with a German accent (that his daughter doesn't have) and has Einstein Hair, just to drive the point home.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Forrest Blackwell's moon rocket is camouflaged as Blackwell Tower right up until it's about to launch.
• Hide Your Children: Aside from certain NPCs who may or may not be teenagers, minors aren't to be seen anywhere in LEGO City, though two can be heard talking in a conversation that the player can overhear.
• Holler Button: Players can activate a Police Whistle that immediately stops all road vehicles in a radius around Chase, allowing him to more easily commandeer one. The Wonder Whistle Red Brick Cheat replaces the whistle's traditional trill with a variety of humourous gag sounds, including a clown nose honk, a train horn & a small dog's bark.
• Human Cannonball: How Chase gets the pigs scattered across LEGO City back to Jethro's farm. They're shot out of pig cannons, which only farmers can operate. This is because a chicken is used as a handle to control the cannon.^note Also, smelly overalls are required.
• Humongous Mecha: The Megafig is a large mech resembling a cross between an Aliens power loader and Peter Reid's Classic LEGO Space Exo-Suit.Chase uses it on the Moon to battle Rex Fury's mechanical T-Rex.
• Hurricane of Puns: In classic LEGO game style, especially from Traveller's Tales, most of the humor is based on puns. But unlike the LEGO Adaptation Game franchise, the story is completely original, so the puns are even more prominent, including theme puns, situational puns, Lawyer-Friendly Cameo characters that Speak In Shoutouts, and more.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: After talking to Duke Huckleberry about his past mistake on the Rex case that got him Reassigned to Antarctica, Chase states he won't do anything that stupid again. Cue him immediately falling into the river because he was too focused on talking to notice his surroundings.
• Jet Pack: One can be found late in the game as an upgrade for the astronaut disguise. As it only works in short bursts, it mostly just functions as a Double Jump that also allows Chase to hover momentarily.
• Lampshade Hanging: In "The Colossal Fossil Hussle" after using Rex Fury to build a Dry Bones Fossil, Chase says “I'm not sure that's even a real dinosaur...” This is because Dry Bones are skeletal Koopa Troopas.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
  • Several minor characters are this as seen in the shout-outs section below; "Blue" being a stand-in for Red from The Shawshank Redemption, "Studski and Clutch", a character named "Harry" who looks exactly like Dirty Harry and DaMumbo who looks just like Columbo. Vinnie Pappalardo is basically Tommy DeVito, including being introduced with a "do you think I'm funny" exchange.
    Heywood: Uh, are you free, man?
    Blue: (surprised) No! No, I am not Freeman. (looks around) His lawyers might be watchin'.
  • Various cops skins include "Cacey and Lagney", "Bricket", and "Horace Cone".
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Near the end of the game, Chase asks Natalia's father how to describe his force field generator so that "little kids" could understand it.
  • The Wii U GamePad is the Police Communicator.
• Le Parkour: Chase is a practitioner and uses several of the same moves as Faith does in Mirror's Edge, although he can only do them in designated areas built out of blue-and-white bricks.
• Literal-Minded: Several characters at points, but the game's shining example of the trope is Frank Honey.
  Chase: Frank, I'm getting closer to Rex.
  Frank: Oh, that's sweet, do you liiiike Rex?invoked
  Chase: No, I meant that I'm getting closer to arresting Rex.
• Little Green Men: Space Aliens can be called down using the astronaut boxes. One of the open-world missions is to find and arrest all of them.
• Loads and Loads of Loading:
  • While the game doesn't load super-frequently, whenever it does it takes quite a while to finish.
  • This happens In-Universe as well since Chase at the beginning of the game has to wait for a few minutes for his Police tracker to update, complaining about progress bars.
• Logic Bomb: One of the Red Herring conversations overheard on the audio scanner involves two guys trying out a lie detector. One of them breaks it by saying "This is a lie." to it.
• Low-Speed Chase: Rex Fury's most recent arrest before the game starting was ridiculously easy because he had the "bright idea" to use a lawn mower as an escape vehicle.
• Luxury Prison Suite: Rex Fury's cell is hidden in a secret chamber that can only be accessed by a concealed elevator in the warden's office and is full of high-class amenities as well as being the size of a small apartment.
  Chase: Wow, this place is nicer than my apartment!
• The Mafia: Vinnie Pappalardo is in charge of an Italian-style crime syndicate that dabbles in genuine ice cream production.
• Making a Splash: As a firefighter, Chase's main tool of choice is a fire extinguisher. Not only is it a projectile, but it can be used to douse fires and fill empty pools with water.
• Maybe Ever After: The ending cutscene of the game suggests that Chase plans to spend more time with Natalia but does not outright confirm it.
• Mission Control: Various characters, depending on the level, will provide commentary on your actions and direct you to where you need to go and what to do.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Whenever Frank Honey is the mission controller, very little of what he says is helpful, usually talking about his personal life before capping off with obliviously giving Chase useful info on accident.
• Mob War: Between the Italian and Chinese gangs.
• Mocking Sing-Song: The criminals on Albatross Island taunt the guard with "nya nya nya nya nya nya" when they escape from their cells.
• Mood Whiplash: The game gets considerably darker when it is revealed that Blackwell Tower is a rocket ship and that if it launches, the heat and exhaust fumes would incinerate everyone in ten blocks..
• Mustache Vandalism: Committed by Rex Fury's gang to Vinnie Pappalardo's family paintings when they raid his base. Vinnie reacts with horror at the painting of his mother with a moustache, considering how much he had to pay the artist to leave off the moustache in the first place.
• Mythology Gag: The game that Frank Honey plays very early in the game causes him to comment that "they talked more in the movie", referencing the pre-LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes LEGO Game adaptations by Traveller's Tales before proper voice-acting was implemented, which replaced dialogue with sighing and grunts (with a few exceptions though).
• Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Vinnie Pappalardo and Chan Chuang provide a zig-zagged dynamic for this. Both are mobsters with a friendly front, but while Vinnie is genuinely Affably Evil, Chan tries to put on a Faux Affably Evil persona while failing miserably due to his Hair-Trigger Temper.
• Never Say "Die": Zigzagged. Death is mentioned occasionally in non-lethal contexts but when dealing with possible actual deaths, such as the ramifications of Forrest Blackwell's plan, they'll use lines like "This is a matter of life or... um... the other thing", although the game does directly state that the emissions from Blackwell's construction project would be lethal to the nearby animals.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Chase gets various costumes that grant him new equipment and abilities capable of bypassing barriers to new areas as the player progresses through the story mode. In order of appearance: Civilian (Default), Police, Robber, Miner, Astronaut, Farmer, Firefighter, Construction Worker. He also unlocks several abilities as the story goes on such as free running, advanced combat, boat driving, helipads and upgrades to previous powers. Chase lampshades his sudden mastery of Free Running in particular in "Special Assignment 1 - Some Assaults":
  Chase: Wow! I didn't even realise I was a gymnast.!
• Nitro Boost: Certain ground vehicles are equipped with this, particularly most Emergency- and all Performance-category vehicles, providing a continuous speed boost when the Nitro button is held down. A full boost charge lasts for roughly 5 seconds (10 seconds with the Longer Vehicle Boost Red Brick activated), which either recharges slowly when not boosting or quickly when the boost is fully depleted.
  • Exaggerated with the Nitrous For All Red Brick activated, which enables nitro for all ground vehicles and some boats. This even applies to certain vehicles that lack engines completely, like the Grounddog (a skateboard) and the Revolver (a wheelchair).
• No Communities Were Harmed: LEGO City is a mishmash of various areas and landmarks from real-life cities, such as San Francisco, New York and Miami.
• Nonchalant Dodge: One of Chase's counters is simply stepping out of the way of an enemy's attack while sarcastically "welcoming" them to fall face-first onto the ground.
• Non-Ironic Clown: In contrast to the criminal clown gang Chase takes down, several normal party clowns are seen walking about the city.
• Non-Indicative Name: The "Nitrous for All" Red Brick cheat doesn't actually apply Nitro Boost functionality to every vehicle; all aircraft, all but three boats^*Arowana, Chan's Arowana, Surger and the Wash Wagon are excluded.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: Unlike most LEGO games where beating up an enemy results in death by Literally Shattered Lives, this game starring a cop who isn't allowed to directly deal with criminals means most of the time you can only subdue and handcuff enemies, with them teleporting to jail afterwards. The only way to actually kill enemies is to throw them off of Bottomless Pits or into water, which you rarely get the opportunity for, and even than canonically those criminals aren't dead, just "subdued for arrest".
• No OSHA Compliance:
  • Several fuse boxes throughout the city have gone faulty, electrocuting anyone not equipped with a hammer to repair them. These faulty boxes can be causing all types of problems, from preventing certain devices from working or electrifying whole areas. Lampshaded by Chase in while in "Special Assignment 14 - Breaking and Reentering".
  Chase: Did Forrest hire Frank to wire this place?
  • With Blackwell's rocket, the command module's parachute can only be activated via a hard-to-reach lever that's nearly touching the ceiling, with no way of reaching it without climbing through the air ducts above.
• Noodle Incident: One of Frank Honey's loading screen quips reads as follows:
  Frank Honey: That no-good Rex Fury has put up 17 statues of himself around LEGO City! It's terrible! If I was allowed to use dynamite then I'd blow them up. But I'm not. Not anymore. Not after what happened.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Played with. During "Special Assignment 3 - Miner Altercation" Chase performs a very impressive free fall for quite some time. A soft collision into wood only lightly harms him at best but he will die if he collides with something more solid. Lampshaded by Chase in-game.
  Chase: WHY WAS THAT EVEN THERE?!
• Obvious Rule Patch: "Unlimited Dynamite" is the only Extra that is disabled in special assignments, because several complex puzzles could be easily skipped and the levels blitzed through if it was usable.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Parodied in the final sequence. The music for that part has a choir that chants "LEGO, LEGO, LEGO // CI- TY, CI- TY." However, it doesn't make it any less awesome.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The fact that the game was created, or at least recorded, in Britain becomes apparent with certain phrases and pronunciations. Among others, everyone pronounces "lever" with the British "Lee-ver" instead of the American "Leh-ver", and many allusions are made to Chase having been "on holiday" instead of "on vacation".
• Overly Long Gag:
  • Most idly standing characters have absurdly long strings of idle chatter that you'll only hear by staying near them for several minutes, before they eventually repeat the string, such as Captain Bluffbeard talking about contemplating becoming a Pirate and reminiscing about his sailor past, with him lampshading the dialogue resetting part by saying he's so old he's starting to repeat himself.
  • A very notable example comes from Frank when he's playing video games before you wake up Dunby near the start of the game, where he'll make several Leaning on the Fourth Wall references to the LEGO Adaptation Game series, specifically the early ones compared to this one, including a Mythology Gag about how the older games had Speaking Simlish, contrasting the movies having actual talking, finding a "special" brick, complaining about there being "free play" when he spent money to play, being excited about unlocking a character before getting sad that he lacks studs for the Double Unlock part, messing around with the Character Customizer to create himself as closely as possible out of different parts, being surprised how they kept the games fresh despite having little innovation over the years, wondering what'll happen when they run out of movies to adapt, and stating his belief that setting the game in a Wide-Open Sandbox city would make it even better.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • To ensure that no one knows he's bringing the crane to the observatory, Chase pulls out a box and draws a smiley face in a marker pen and puts it on his head. Not only that, but he also scribbles two other faces (anger and surprise) onto the other sides of the box and it's not even commented on! However, the trope is ultimately subverted as the person he was trying to fool couldn't make out Chase's appearance anyway; he forgot to bring his glasses.
  • In The Chase Begins, Rex Fury is able to get away with committing crimes because he wears a Domino Mask that doesn't hide his face at all. The police aren't fooled by this disguise, but they believe that their photographic evidence can't convict him because he's wearing the mask. Even Natalia, when asked to identify a masked Rex, gives an unsure answer because he was not wearing a mask.
• Parental Bonus: A very large portion of the game's humor consists of references that would fly over the heads of younger players.
• Percussive Maintenance:
  • After the Police Station's main computer is hacked, Frank Honey attempts to fix it by... repeatedly bashing its main console with a hammer.
  Ted Baxter Are you sure that's safe, Frank?
  Frank: Of course it's -.[the computer violently explodes]
  • Disguises equipped with a hammer, namely those in the Construction Worker category, allow Chase to fix fuse boxes by hitting them a few times with it. Unlike Frank's shenanigans as mentioned above, this actually works.
• Private Eye Monologue: Chase attempts one of these, but ends up saying it out loud, resulting in Ellie pointing out the mistakes in it.
• Poke the Poodle: The gangs that Chase must arrest as part of a sidequest all seem to want to be bad, but never really do anything worse than vandalism. One group seemed horrified when their leader only paid 10% tip at a restaurant. Chase is eager to stop their crimes, but really, he's probably destroyed more random objects than all of the vandals he puts away combined.
• Powerful Pick: The Miner suit's pickaxe, besides its use for breaking boulders otherwise too tough to punch or shoot, is quite a handy weapon and brick-breaker thanks to its Shockwave Stomp function.
• A Rare Sentence: The phrase "I've got a chicken that will let me glide to the roof of the museum" is a sentence Ellie was not expecting to ever hear Chase say.
• Real Joke Name: During the ending cutscene of Special Assignment 1: Some Assaults, Chase questions gang leader Snakes Squealer about his boss' identity, with Squealer initially claiming it to be "George Far... tar... ben... son... bury?". The obviously fake-sounding name fails to convince Chase and forces Squealer to admit it's Rex Fury, though as Squealer is arrested, he overhears a conversation between two pedestrians.
  Dave Something: George? George Fartarbensonbury?
  George Fartarbensonbury: Hey! Long time no see, Dave!
  Chase: [looks to the camera, shaking his disbelief before walking off].
• Reassigned to Antarctica: After Chase makes a blunder that frustrates a big arrest, Chief Dunby reassigns him to Bluebell National Park and doesn't even pretend that it's not to get him out of his hair. Thankfully, one of Chase's criminal connections calls him with a job that draws him back into the Rex Fury case.
• Retirony: One of the guards at the courthouse takes pride in his last day of work that his thirty-six-year-long career ended without a single mistake or mishap. He immediately realizes that he let a prisoner who was to be transferred to jail get in the wrong vehicle. Then a bird poops on his head.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Takes it even further than the Lego Adaptation Games in that driving over things rewards you with bricks to build with, and driving over several consecutive things rewards you with a multiplier, encouraging you to destroy even more things with your vehicles. Maxing out the multiplier even makes you invincible for a short while. Your car starts glowing in many different colors, too. This is actually required, in that Chase has to break certain things so he can use the parts to build other things.
• Right-Hand Cat: The story has a few gags using this trope: Chan Chuang has a Right Hand Bunny that is used not to signify his villainy but to act as a stress-relief pet when his Hair-Trigger Temper goes on the fritz (it also barks like a guard dog for whatever reason), and Ellie comes to realize Forrest Blackwell really is evil like Chase told her because, during a public speech, he had a cat on his lap that he tenderly stroked while talking.
• Rough Overalls: Farm Worker Bill, one of the unlockable Farmer characters, wears only a baseball cap and pair of overalls. He can usually be seen as a background character at Jethro Hayes' farm in Bluebell National Park, suggesting that he's (as his name implies) one of the farmhands.
• Safe Cracking: As a robber, Chase can use a stethoscope to crack open any safe.
• Sequel Hook: As Chase never managed to arrest Forrest Blackwell, it seemed possible that a sequel might come. In 2017, LEGO Dimensions gained a LEGO City Adventure World, and one of its challenges provides a more conclusive rematch.
• Sequential Boss: Rex Fury is fought in two consecutive battles, the first against him piloting a T-Rex, and the second against him and his minions.
• Shockwave Stomp: The special attack for the Miner suit is slamming the ground with tremendous force and sending out strong shockwaves from the point of impact, whether from a jump-slam or swinging when not next to anything. It helps with smashing several objects quickly before you get the drill and can provide some breathing room against a group of swarming enemies.
• Shout-Out:
  • The LCPD is practically staffed with them, including Studski & Clutch, Brickett and Blubs, Lagney & Cacey, Doorlock Homes & Dr Whatsit, Shaky Harry, and DaMumbo.
  • After the introduction of the Villainous Harlequin crime gang, complete with one using an Electric Joybuzzer, Chief Dunby yells at all the officers present to "get after that joker".
  • The Sentinels, Forrest Blackwell's personal security detail, are dead ringers for The Agents from The Matrix, with Sentinel Decker particularly resembling Agent Smith. Their introductory cutscene particularly brings the viral Smith to mind, given their identical appearances and Zerg Rush tactics.
  • Chase's training session with Barry Smith during "Special Assignment 4 - Kung Fool" is a giant one to the "I Know Kung-Fu" scene from the first Matrix film. Once you complete the level that follows it, most of Chase's moves (especially his finishing moves) heavily resemble those in fight scenes from across the franchise.
  • The cutscene as mentioned above also ends with a Street Fighter style K.O. sound effect & graphic.
  • "Special Assignment 2 - Trouble in Stir" is essentially a wholesale send-up to The Shawshank Redemption, complete with the Morgan Freeman-sounding "Blue" monologuing over a cutscene where opera music from a record player is broadcasted throughout the prison.
  • Several Shoutouts to the Super Mario Bros. franchise are included as the result of Nintendo being the publisher. Look out for "?" boxes, a Starman, Bullet Bills, Bob-Ombs, Pirahna Plants and Cheep-cheeps.^note Many of these were removed in the non-Nintendo ports.
  • During the final level, Rex's T-Rex is defeated in a manner similar to Bowser in Super Mario 64, by grabbing its tail and then throwing it at the explosive energy tanks around the room. This battle also takes place in space while Chase is piloting a yellow Mini-Mecha inspired by Aliens; combined with the aforementioned Super Mario 64 reference, the end result is almost identical to the final boss of Conker's Bad Fur Day.
  • The tones used for the Space Boxes are "Daisy Daisy," from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Furthermore, one of the astronauts in The Chase Begins is named Hal Bowman.
  • One of the symbols at the space centre resembles the Super Smash Bros. logo.
  • During the Fireman tutorial, after the trampoline section, the instructor shows you two huge water cannons, used to put out building fires. After he makes them appear from the floor, he says "Say hello to my massive friends!", accent and all.
  • Albert Spindlerouter (and Werner, by extension) takes The Ahnold trope to a whole new level by incorporating the name of a Schwarzenegger movie into just about everything he says. It's even lampshaded when a nearby construction worker on the same level notes that he reminds him of someone.
  Spindlerouter: Somebody! Get him to the chopper... I mean hospital!
  You! Give him your clothes, your helmet and your hammer.
  Hey! You'll need to move that barrel! Push it over by that cone an' stuff.
  Listen! Fix that fuse box! I don't need any more... collateral damage.
  Don't worry about smashing that crate, it's expendable.
  Ergch! That gate needs repairing, did you not hear it Jingle All the Way?
  Oh, I'm sorry if this seems like a raw deal.
  C'mon! C'mon! Don't you understand a simple command? Oh? No reply? Good!
  Stop walking, man! Start running, man!
  Alright! C'mon, what are you doing? Get through there! And hurry up! It's almost the end of day!
  I'm not Albert. I'm Werner, his twin.
  Don't make mistakes. You can't use an eraser.
  Don't worry. I'll be back.
  Construction Worker The Foreman reminds me of somebody...
  • Two major side characters are cousins Moe de Luca and Vinnie Pappalardo. Naturally, the former occasionally refers to the latter as "my cousin Vinnie".
  • The name "Chase McCain" is a clear reference to John McClane, and both characters are loose cannons.
  • The centrepiece of Blackwell's vault is a jewel cut into the shape of a falcon.
• Silence Is Golden: In stark contrast to the rest of the game, the space freefall segment of the final mission has almost no dialogue.
• "Simon Says" Mini-Game: Many Astro Boxes are scattered around the city. All feature four colored lights that flash in a certain order, and require a special device that accompanies Astronaut disguises to repeat the pattern, beaming down objects and aliens when successful. Averted when enabling the "Super Astro Crate" Red Brick, which skips the minigame and immediately opens the box when interacted with.
• Sting: Every time Rex Fury is mentioned a brief bit of ominous music plays.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • When Chase teams up with Studski and Clutch to rescue Natalia, the two speculate on how she might be getting tortured, with ridiculous ideas like giving her brain freeze from ice cream and using Tickle Torture. When Natalia's rescued, she's in pain and says they fed her ice cream. Later, Chase and Vinnie interrogate one of Rex's crooks by force-feeding ice cream to him, and Rex Fury tortures Professor Kowalski by using a giant machine that tickles him.
  • Only two characters refer to computers as "compupers". One is The Ditz Frank. The other is the highly-sophisticated Forrest Blackwell.
• Talking Animal: The punchline of one of the Red Herring Audio Scanner conversations reveals that the "people" Chase was listening to were, in fact, farm animals the entire time.
• Teleportation: The Astronaut disguise allows Chase to utilize teleporters to travel between two points, although they're usually never that far apart.
• Tempting Fate:
  Chase: (looking down after using the grappling hook to climb a building) Good thing I don't have vertigo or some kind of ridiculous phobia.
  (cue a cute little parrot landing next to him)
  Parrot: Brawk! Bonjour!
  Chase: AHHH! FRENCH PARROTS! (faints)
• This Is a Drill: As a construction worker, Chase can use a drill to break through certain areas on the ground. The drill can also be used to break surrounding objects and stun nearby enemies.
• Threatening Shark: There are a few shark signs on some of the beaches that seem entirely forgettable. Get out in open water though, and there's a chance you end up dying very quickly.
• Timed Mission: Certain missions on the main overworld are timed. Can be quite jarring considering none of the story mode levels or missions in the previous LEGO Adaptation Games were under a time limit.
• Toilet Humor:
  • You will explode some outhouses in a certain part of this game. With people still inside them too.
  • At the end of the game, Rex Fury crashes through the roof of a house, and lands headfirst into a toilet bowl. It's still stuck in his head during his arrest.
• The Triads and the Tongs: Chan's gang is basically the Chinese mafia.
• Training Montage:
  • Spoofed. When Chase gets the fire extinguisher, he starts squirting it everywhere where there are fires. Cut to the head firefighter chastising him for using it without proper training or even orders.
  • Also spoofed during the "Plumb-fu" training montage, where grandmaster Barry kicks the crap out of Chase, and then concludes he should practice on a few of his Mooks first.
• Troperiffic: The developers actively tried to invoke as many Cop Show tropes as possible... and a lot of other tropes aside.
• The Unreveal: Dunby's advice for the cops is muted by a cleaner vacuuming in front of his podium while he speaks.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Blackwell's Moonbase, the primary location for the first half of the game's final mission "Special Assignment 15 - Fly Me to the Moon".
• Video Call Fail: Late in the game, Chase spies on Rex Fury talking with his boss. The image of the boss only shows his torso and lower jaw and his voice is distorted. At first, it seems like he's trying to obscure his identity, but Rex tells him that he has his camera set at the wrong angle and the system is making his voice sound weird. The boss complains about working with the device and manages to correct it, revealing himself to be Forrest Blackwell.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Destroying city property is encouraged as a way to build up your block count. You can also very easily mow down the civilians nearby. They'll just pop back up and continue walking a second later. They dive out of the way like most sandbox games, with the addition of having an animation for when they dive into the wall. Ouch.
• Villainous Harlequin: The first gang Chase takes down is a group of bank-robbing clowns, complete with throwing pies, Squirting Flower Gag, and an Electric Joybuzzer.
• Walking Spoiler: Played for laughs with Mikey Spoilers. True to his name, he walks up to the camera and tells you how to get a secret item in an upcoming level.
• Wall Crawl: Farmer Jethro's pigs can do this. And, apparently, use lockpicking tools. They're rare mountain pigs, which explains why Chase so often finds them on top of buildings.
• Warp Whistle: Chase can quickly make his way around 14 of the city's major districts via the metro. Each district's station has to have its ticket machine constructed first before it can be activated, barring three exceptions; Cherry Tree Hills and Bluebell National Park Stations are automatically activated halfway through Chapter 3 of the game's story, while Fort Meadows Station is a Super Build whose ticket machine is constructed alongside the rest of the build, immediately activating it upon completion.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Clarence "Stinky" Fletcher, who supposedly had information on the theft in Bluebell Mine, is kidnapped by Rex's men. After McCain gets a newer lead in the form of Chan Chuang, Stinky is never mentioned again, making both his whereabouts and status a complete mystery.
  • Chan himself is said to have gone missing after his disappearance following the elimination of his gang's key members and the rescue of Natalia, and is likewise never mentioned again.
• Whole-Plot Reference: As mentioned in the Shout-Out section, an entire level is dedicated to spoofing The Shawshank Redemption.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Quite a few of Chase's costumes are of women. He will even adopt their more feminine poses while undercover.
• Witness Protection: A big part of the backstory is that Natalia Kowalski was in witness protection until Chase blew her cover, which is why Chase was kicked out of LEGO City. She's back in witness protection when he returns, albeit as a paramedic rather than a journalist.
• World of Weirdness: A lot of the LEGO City world falls under this. There are rare Mountain pigs that are intelligent enough to pick locks and scale buildings and, according to the Red Herring conversations, animals can secretly talk and mermaids exist, as well as you being able to legally marry one.

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