When the trailer for Lego City Undercover was first shown for the Wii U, it seemed to hit all the right notes: the playful air of the Lego series, poking fun at the crime genre and great voice acting. Its release proves that developer Travellers Tales has struck the right balance with the Wii U title.

Chase McCain is your typical cheesy cop with a heart. He is on the hunt for the recently escaped Rex Fury, who is the suspect behind the cause of a crime wave sweeping Lego City. It is up to Chase to track down Fury and recapture him.

The game is built around missions scattered through a huge, open world. You can choose when to take on objectives that further the story, or you can pick up one of the many side quests available along the way. Either way you’ll need to build up Chase’s skills as you go.

Luckily, in Lego’s world, simply putting on a disguise can result in some new abilities, and Chase is a master of disguise. Open locked doors, destroy obstacles to uncover areas of the city, and even glide around via chicken with one of the many disguises that you can unlock for Chase.

Although the open-world nature of the game is a huge part of its appeal, of equal note are the brilliantly written interactions between characters that will have you chuckling.

The GamePad is used to good effect here; it not only serves as a map of the massive open world game but can be used to scan for enemies.

One downside is the lack of co-op play. While the story mode has the potential to run for hours, a two player co-op mode would have added something more.