Let's discuss: LEGO Games

knokelmaat@beehaw.org to Gaming@beehaw.org – 106 points –
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The format of these posts is simple: let's discuss a specific game or series!

Let’s discuss all games that are LEGO themed. This is quite a broad topic, with some amazing recent entries as well as several nostalgic masterpieces. What is your favorite one? Which one allowed you to be most creative? What are areas that could be improved or don't work for you? Feel free to share any thoughts that come up, or react to other peoples comments. Let's get the conversation going!

If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).

Previous entries: DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire

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The LEGO Skywalker Saga did a better job of telling the story than the movies. One of the few games I 100% completed. Just a fun, chill way to unwind.

I played this open world Lego game where you had to deliver pizzas on a skateboard or something, but I was too young and couldn't figure out how to complete the game, or it kept bugging. I can't remember what it was called.

Edit: ah of course it was Lego island 2, the image was familiar

I also played a sort of Bionicle mmo in the browser that i thought was cool. I wonder if any of the old flash games are archived somewhere? There were so many.

For your last question: BioMedia Project, they have almost everything!

Wow that's amazing, thank you. It was the voa nui game I was thinking of. Is there something like this for the other Lego web games?

I loved Lego Island but will never forgive Lego Island 2 for the bad disk that would crash after 3/4 of the game. I never got to finish it.

Rock Raiders & Lego Loco were great (if a little inadvisable in terms of the Lego Loco letters).

I'm currently playing Lego City Undercover on my steam deck, which is only as crashy as the switch version, and it's great because my 10 year old is also playing it on the switch, as is my 4 year old. Obviously we all play it differently but it's been a fun couple of weeks all playing the same game.

Lego Island was one of my first PC games, and I spent absolute ages in it. Still have my CD. As an adult I find it a little too zany and wacky for an in-depth revisit, but as a young imaginative ADHD boy it was an amazing little sandbox to run around in. So many different ways to interact with things, ways to customize your island through different characters changing stuff when you clicked on it, and just enough mysterious things to keep the imagination going.

I'm looking forward to the decomp that MattKC is working on for it.

Outside of that, I played a TON of the old flash and shockwave games on the Lego website. I felt so cool knowing extra lore around the mask of light movie because I had been playing the Bionicle flash game. They also had a lot of neat puzzle games.

The concept of the programmable Spybots, and the K'Nex programmable kit really jump started my interest in programming as a kid too.

I’ll always have a soft spot for Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga, and the Lego Marvel games. So many hours were spent playing with my brothers.

Same I played so much Lego Star wars on the Wii with my brother. Good times

I've really enjoyed many of the IP based games over the years, Star Wars, Marvel, Indiana Jones and even Lego GTA. Oh sorry, Lego City: Undercover.

The one that really disappointed me was Lego: Worlds. I thought it would be fun to build with unlimited bricks virtually but it's just not for me.

I like to have physical bricks in front of me which give me ideas as I build. Finding different bricks in the pile gives me new ideas as I build. That's not something than happens with the game.

On the flip side, playing with the 80s Space sets was a huge nostalgia kick for me.

I think my favorite was Lego Island Xtreme Stunts when I was a kid. I know there's a PS2 version and I am wondering how different it is compared to the PC version.

I also played Lego Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge on my GBA. It was really restricted on what you could do. Its big focus was on mini games if I remember correctly.

For those interested MattKC has been decompiling the original Lego Island which could lead to an open source engine recreation being developed in the future.

Oh man these games. I started with Lego chess I think, then graduated to Lego island 2, then finally hit my stride with Lego Star wars onwards (Batman, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, LOTR, etc). I loved every minute of them. I still haven't finished the Skywalker saga but I'll have to get around to it sooner or later.

I also spent a good bit of time as a kid playing the games Lego kept on their website, like the bionicle flash game, Lego backlot studio (or something like that, it was 3d and you'd hunt down props for people), and whatnot.

Lots of fond memories for a kid with a rough home situation. Thanks for the walk down memory lane OP

Rock raiders and Lego racers was my jam!

Lego racers was amazing, but the last box just cheated straight up lol

Lego racers 2 was shit on a lot, but it was my first open world game and I played the shit out of it lol. Being able to drive to different biomes was very cool.

I used to love Lego Racers. I knew all the tracks and shortcuts, and I knew exactly how to make my favorite racing car. I remember playing the game at home as well as at my friends' houses, and I always made the same car design, as I was convinced it was the fastest. What a great game!

They released a new one ... It's good but it's also still not great. Like Lego could easily have a really cool Mario Kart competitor if they put the effort into it that Nintendo does ... but they don't.

It's 100% nostalgia, and I hard refuse to ever touch that game again. I'm sure it's terrible compared to my standards for games now. But the memories remain, and that's fine.

I think if you look back at the old Mario Karts and look at the success Lego has had with their Lego movies ... Lego could come out swinging with a pretty cool cart racer if they really put the effort into it.

Lego Indiana Jones as an example could be an updated spin on/foundation for the dinosaur isle.

I have a soft Spot for Lego Land (A game where you build a amusement Park for Lego people). But the mission where aliens steal your buildings I still hate.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga was the first game I played. So great that I even bought it on disk, to buy it again on Steam.

In general LEGO games are fun and through collaboration with other IP's, there's so many different awesome games. Many of them quite cheap in sales.

Anyone here remember the old flash game Junkbot?

Oh god yes, I played the crap out of that as a kid ... Maybe an early inspiration to become a programmer in ways lol

I adore anything LEGO related. As a kid I spent hours playing LEGO Rock Raiders and LEGO Football Mania. Later on I played countless of afternoons with a friend in LEGO Star Wars.

Recently I played LEGO Builder's Journey and it blew me away. It is the most realistic rendition in games of how it actually feels to play with LEGO bricks. It looks gorgeous and I really liked the chill vibe and cute story.

I've recently been enjoying LEGO Fortnite with my friends. Again, my inner child just becomes insanely happy once I can start building stuff and hear the clicks of the LEGO bricks joining together.

You know someone remade the rock raiders game? It's called Manic Miners.

And it's free. It's crazy that something like this exists and LEGO is fine with it.

Link to the game.

They're more than fine with it, the Bits N' Bricks podcast (part of LEGO Gaming) actually had Baraklava (the Manic Miners dev) on for an episode about the history of Rock Raiders which included a section on remakes, including Manic Miners, so they outright drew attention to it. Very cool people over there at the LEGO Group.

I played so much Lego Racers 2 when I was a kid. That game was incredible, with fully destructible cars and several open world areas with collectibles and (I think) hidden races/missions.

I still occasionally fire up Lego City Undercover for the fun of it. I find the mechanic of being able to switch between all the roles a little bit more enjoyable than only having access to one or two sets of skills, but it's a minor quibble when all of the games are so much fun.

I enjoyed the original songs on the jukebox in Lego Island 1. Ran at 1fps on the old family computer back in the day. Good times

LEGO Star Wars II was my gateway drug to stronger things, like star wars and LEGO. Played the shit out of that when was a kid, first game I 100%'ed.

Replayed LEGO Batman I recently when it was free on Epic and it still as amazing as I remember.

Still look for irl places to find hidden minikits.

Mata Nui Online Game is a classic in the Bionicle community. I also remember playing Bionicle Heroes for GBA. Liked it when I was young; not so much today

As for other games, I have discovered LEGO Island relatively recently; Brick by Brick is a certified banger

I started my PC gaming experience with LEGO Universe, an MMO with a free to play section but most of the content was behind monthly passes. I could never convince my parents to buy me the passes, and they shut down the servers relatively soon after I started playing. But I have great memories of it and still yearn to explore those worlds behind the pay wall to this day.

My partner and I are playing Lego Fortnite of all things. We're having a good time. Played a lot of Lego Star Wars when it was new. Lego Lord of the Rings had a couple frustrating bugs that we got fed up with and kept us from finishing it.

In general with Lego LOTR and Lego Star Wars I recall being disappointed that a lot of the building was scripted - "hold to build". Lego Fortnite has a nice mix of full-building blueprints and freeform piece placement, although it's not quite block-by-block pieces.