... in some ways I think that adding the Lego name, and Legoifying all involved, actually helped make the games better.

By reducing everything to a simple visual state, you can spend more time on things like the plot and gameplay. I'm not saying that games can't have stunning visuals AND good gameplay, but if you're dealing with finite resources (not just money in developing the game, but also processing power and memory when it comes to actually running it), focusing less on making things look pretty might help when it comes to allocating a little more on making the game fun to play.

Final Fantasy XIII is one of the most visually impressive games I've played; in fact, I bought my PS3 solely for the purpose of playing that game. But the story didn't grip me anywhere near as much as the stories of FF VII and FF VIII, and I've since gone back to replay both of those. The Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game was just unbelievably good fun to play, even though the visuals weren't top-of-the-line.

Personally, I'm not too bothered by what a game looks like, as long as I can tell all the characters apart etc., and with a big movie tie-in game like Lord of the Rings, I think there would be so much pressure to make the game look as good as the films, that it could easily end up loosing out on gameplay. A Lego game would nicely avoid all that hassle, although it may well bring in new complications anyway...

Whatever, if a Lego LotR game does get released, I'll certainly check it out.