I’d like to take a quick break from the spooks & fog, and decide to delve into our childhood. A time where we didn’t have a screwed-up world, entertainment still had some amount of intelligence, and video games weren’t tainted by social politics. The game series I’m looking at today is, in my opinion, pure childhood innocence. Taking a classic toy & putting it into virtual reality, it somehow became an immediate classic. So open your toychest, take out some of your favorite pieces, and enjoy my look at the iconic Lego Island series. Let’s begin!
Lego Island (1997)
“In 1996, Lego invested nearly $2 million in the development of video games featuring their famous brick-based models. Toy manufacturers like Lego were increasingly threatened by the video game market, motivating Lego to get a foothold in that market.
Lego Island was developed by Mindscape, using Microsoft's DirectX software to design 3D environments.
The SW developers on the project when the product was shipped were Jim Brown, Randy Chou (3D algorithms, general programming), Alex Goldobin (path algorithm) and Eric Ellis joined the project late. Gary Clayton provided the sound design, voice recording and score. Post-production was done at Russian Hill Recording in San Francisco.
Originally, the game was to be part of a series, with five other games planned, including Beneath the Phanta Sea (this was the sea where Lego Island was located) and an archaeological game called Dig. Jenkins later worked on a pilot for a Lego TV series which included some Lego Island characters.”
Reception for Lego Island was pretty immense back in the late 90s. It was the 11th best selling game in 97, with 323,085 units sold. A year later, it climbed up all the way to the 7th best selling spot, with an additional 404,858 unit sales, and it’s revenue in 1998 alone was over $10.2 million. The game also won numerous awards, with the Interactive Achievement Awards in 1997 with the "Family Game of the Year" award, the "Best Kid Title of the Year" award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Family PC gave the game it’s “Top-Rated Virtual Toy” award, Family Life bestowed it’s "Critic's Choice" award upon the game, and Home PC gave Lego Island it’s kid testers' "Reviewer's Choice" stamp of approval.
As for the story.....well, there really isn’t one. Actually, that’s not completely true. If you happen to pick Pepper (More on characters below), you gain a special quest. You’re tasked with delivering a pizza to the Island’s only bad guy, the Brickster. After breaking the lock to his cell from the fumes of the pizza (Irony moment: there’s a “No Pizza” sign right by the jail), he gets out & steals the police helicopter (Irony moment 2: the helicopter is parked right by the cell), and for all intensive purposes causes havoc all over the island. I would go on, but I would be spoiling perhaps the silliest manhunt in video game history.
Best Aspect? Ease of learning is Lego Island’s biggest strength. If you put a kid in front of the screen, they will learn how things work almost instantly. They’ll learn each of the character’s nuances (There are 5 lego people you can pick & play as, and you can switch between each anytime you want) immediately, they’ll catch onto each of the minigames’s rules, and they’ll get the flow of things at the drop of a hat. It’s this easiness that probably endeared the gameplay to children that had the game back in 1997.
Next positive is the humor & atmosphere, and this is perhaps my favorite component of Lego Island. This game isn’t dark or grimy at all: everything is sunny, colorful, bright, and incredibly cheery. The lego people & buildings coming to life can only be something from a child’s innocent imagination (Or an adult that still had some innocence to them), and the humor is cute & silly, with a surprising amount of unpredictability as to when something goofy happens. This unpredictability doles out the humor really well, as you’re not assaulted with a horde of jokes, but instead they’re given out at an even pace. Lots of kids games constantly do silly things, but to see a game with even some restraint is impressive.
Last positive of Lego Island is the soundtrack. I know, the soundtrack for a kids game a positive? In fact, yes! Lego Island has surprisingly good music going on in the background. Though the audio quality hasn’t completely aged well, there’s still an incredible amount of charm to it. Instrumental tracks make up a majority of the music, but there are a small few with vocals. The tracks with vocals also lend to the humor of the game, as they’re pretty silly in their own right. In a weird way, the music is also pretty peaceful, and would probably help you relax or get some light work done. Brick by brick, tock by tick!
Lego Island Soundtrack
Worst Aspect? Age. Good lord has this game aged horribly! Though it was something impressive back in 1997, by today’s standards it’s exceedingly basic. Dating game design, equally dated graphics, and it’s all-around basic nature really get in it’s way when compared to games in 2017 (Including other Lego games). It’s a shame, as it’s really easy to learn how everything works in Lego Island. For kids, and especially for adults.
The only other fault with Lego Island is how it runs. Due to it’s odd design, the game will run faster outside of 10 frames per minute (Check out the link I put way below) if there’s any technology in the computer that pushes things beyond. I really can’t explain it, as I’m honestly not the best with computers. To make it a little easy, check out both playthroughs below to see what I mean.
Lego Island Walkthrough (Slow/Normal)
Lego Island Walkthrough (Fast/Modern)
Lego Island. Maybe on the dated side, but it’s simplicity & charm are truly endearing. Definitely something to try if you can find it. Next game!
Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge (2001)
This time around....we have more of a story weirdly enough. Instead of picking from 5 lego people, we’re just in the shoes of Pepper from beginning to end. Things seem to be restored after the Brickster’s crime spree from the first game, but almost immediately things go south when Pepper, once again, delivers a pizza to his cell. The Brickster escapes once again, and steals the Constructopedia (A tome for constructing on Lego Island) to destroy it. After scattering the pages, it’s up to Pepper to get them back to restore stability. It wasn’t just the island that these pages were scattered on, but other lego worlds, and with bad guys that have managed to side with the Brickster to cause even more havoc. Needless to say, it’s pretty silly.
Best Aspect? The lego island we get in this game is far larger than before. In the original game it definitely was an island, but it may have been a bit on the small side for some kids. With this one, it’s much more expanded, and as such there’s more places to explore. In addition to the island, there’s a medieval world, an Egyptian world, and finally a space setting to conclude the game. All of these places aren’t available at first, as you have to complete various tasks & minigames in order to get to these zones. Speaking of which.....
The Brickster’s Revenge has a lot more for the player to do than in the original Lego Island. You have the activities to do on the mail island, but you’ve got jousting & repairing a bridge in the medieval world, helping an archaeological dig in the Egyptian setting, and making pizzas in space. These are just a small selection of the minigames that the player is given, and there’s plenty to do to progress through the main story. Heck, the first thing you do when you get in the game is to deliver pizzas to various inhabitants of the island, and they give you pieces to create your house. The house acts as a storehouse for the various minigames to replay at anytime, and shows off your various accomplishments. The first game shows your wins from the various minigames, but this one seems to make it feel a little more like you’ve done something this time around.
Finally, an improvement over the original Lego Island would be the graphics. While I wouldn’t call them a massive improvement, it’s obvious that things look much better in The Brickster’s Revenge. The whole lego ascetic is still apparent in this game, but there’s better texture work in this game’s engine. Really don’t have much more to say strangely enough.
Worst Aspect? Couple of things that kind of weigh down the positives, and the first is the gameplay. Despite having more things to do, at the same time the expansion almost removes the simplicity from the first game. There’s a lot of stuff to do, but it’s strangely tedious as the same time. I should be enjoying how much more the development team expanded Lego Island in this game, but I’m not for some reason.
My second complaint comes with the graphics. In the original game everything looked liked legos. Maybe not the land, but pretty much everything else looks like it was made from legos. When it comes to the lego people....for the most part they still look like such. It’s really their faces that irks me. Something about them seems off & less cartoonish, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but they might have added a hint of realism. Let me repeat.....a hint.
My last complaint deals with the subject of bugs. Though I don’t recall any with my original playthrough from way back, upon further research there were some problems. Graphic & audio clipping, stuttering, long load times, etc. More than the other two points, it’s really the bugs that get in the way of this game’s success.....although to be perfectly honest, it’s the bugs & everything else that damage this game’s potential.
Almost forgot. Here’s a playthrough of Lego Island 2 if you’re interested.
Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge
Lego Island 2. Simultaneously fun yet unnecessary, it might appeal to some people, but it didn’t quite do so with me. Recommended nowhere near as much as the original title. Next game!
Island Extreme Stunts (2002)
Once again, we’ve got a story strangely enough. As Wikipedia states:
“Pepper Roni has been cast as the lead in an action movie being filmed on Lego Island (appropriately titled "Xtreme Stunts") and the Brickster (who had somehow made it back to Lego Island) has been released from jail after he claimed to have reformed and is now playing a part of the film. After performing a motorbike jump through a large poster as a publicity stunt, he is then taken to the first scene where he performs a high-speed freeway car chase after the Brickster, who has been ironically cast as the main villain of the film. Upon completion, Pepper is given free roam of Lego Island, allowing him to explore and complete side missions as he continues the film in other locations throughout the island. As the player makes more progress in missions, it becomes more and more apparent that the Brickster has plans of his own, and later he kidnaps the Infomaniac and reveals his tower that his Brickster-Bots have built and has made a supercomputer that will disassemble the entire world. Pepper naturally comes to the rescue while the host tries to shut down the supercomputer. He once again outwits and imprisons the Brickster while the supercomputer was instead reprogrammed to disassemble the tower, allowing the film to be completed and released on schedule (which the player is able to view upon completion of the game). In the end Pepper has access to all areas of the island, allowing him to redo scenes of the movie and different tasks.”
Best Aspect? Depending on how you look at it, one aspect that’s positive is the gameplay. Apart from a small few things (More on this in a sec), the gameplay within Extreme Stunts remains largely the same as that of Lego Island 2. You wander the island, play minigames, and progress the story to unlock more activities. What is different is the vibe & pacing of the game: as one person on Youtube put it, Extreme Stunts is GTA for kids, and I can see why he’d say that. There’s a variety of vehicle for you to use, you got a radio that plays various songs (Legocentric songs, of course), and there’s little Easter eggs & goodies all over to collect. This does change how the game feels, and I gotta admit it’s a welcome one (Far more than Lego Island 2's gameplay expansion).
The other positive that Extreme Stunts has is it’s graphics. Despite being released a year later, Extreme Stunts looks far better than the game from a year before. There are some parts where the textures seem to come across as LG2's, it’s obvious that things look much better. The animation of everything looks better as well, and even the ocean surrounding the island looks better thank’s to the ripple effect & the more realistic design.
Worst Aspect? Pretty much all of the issues I had with Lego Island 2 seem to have returned here. Strangely unnecessary expanded gameplay, odd graphics changes, and bugs all seem to come back here. Maybe not as bad as TBR, but they’re there. If I had one other complaint to add here, it would be the lack of voice for Pepper. Unlike the previous two games, in Extreme Stunts he really doesn’t say a thing, apart from a few noises he makes. It’s really weird, and comes across as lazy.
Also, here’s a playthrough for those that want to see it.
Island Extreme Stunts
Island Extreme Stunts. Redundant? Maybe, but if you liked Lego Island 2, you might enjoy Extreme Stunts. Recommended, but really only for fans of The Brickster’s Revenge.
And that concludes my look at Lego Island & it’s subsequent titles. A timeless classic in children’s video games, I only hope that the Lego Company realizes that it still has fans, and maybe gives it the modern re-release it rightfully deserves. With that ray of sunshine out of the way, it’s time to continue with the spooky fun of October. See you next week!
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If you want a great review on Lego Island (And the specifics in regards to how the tech runs), check out the link below:
Lego Island (Lazy Game Reviews)
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