The Evolution of the LEGO Video Games
My history of LEGO video games
It was 1997, and LEGO released LEGO Island on PC. I probably did not play it at this time as I would only have been 2. LEGO Island was a nonlinear first-person game where you mainly play as Pepper Roni, a pizza delivery boy, and you had to stop the evil Brickster from destroying the town. To this day it still one of my fondest memories.
Jump ahead a year to 1998, with the release of LEGO Creator, a sandbox game with no limitations. BUILD TO YOUR HEART’S DESIRE. My abilities of creating wonderful LEGO creations has not improved, both in real world and virtual.
1 year later we dive deeply and greedily into LEGO Rock Raiders, which to date is the only RTS game I have actually enjoyed, and would gladly jump into again if it was remastered.
A new millennia and a new bunch of LEGO games. Its 2001 and I am playing the ‘much anticipated’ sequel to LEGO Island. LEGO Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge, puts us back into Pepper Roni’s shoes as we have to battle across LEGO worlds to rescue the pages of the Constructopedia, which the Brickster has ripped apart. This game takes you to different worlds based upon various LEGO sets, such as: LEGO Castle, LEGO Adventurer’s, and LEGO Space. Each of these worlds has its own unique challenges and environments. This game was not as memorable for me as its predecessor.
2003 brought me to Bionicles which was just something else…
2005–2007 is where the real fun begins. LEGO creates the ultimate couch co-op games. TT games releases LEGO Star Wars! While Star Wars is one of, if not my favourite franchise, LEGO Star Wars in comparison to today’s LEGO games, a bit clunky and disappointing. While it indeed captures the essence and story of the Star Wars movies, and introduces the innovative drop in/out ability, the game itself is very restricted with its co-op movement. Player’s are trapped together within the same section and there is not much freedom.
2008–2011 LEGO introduced more IPs into the fray, including DC Comics, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter. These games introduced original stories (DC Comics), and stories from the movies into LEGO form and spoofed scenes to be more family friendly. The little oo’s, ah’s and grunts from the minifigs made the scenes that much funnier but were still limited in some capacity. LEGO Harry Potter, although was following the magic of the books/movies, you could only change characters using the Polyjuice potion, which made progressing through the game tiresome. Indiana Jones did fix my problem with Star Wars by introducing dynamic split-screen, which allowed players to move freely around the map without being confined to the same area.
2012 dived into LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, and LEGO Lord of the Rings. Expanding into the wider world of DC Comics, allowed for more variability with completing missions and collecting minikits and character tokens, but like LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Batman 2 was limited in character swapping by having to go to certain “spawn points” to change into a particular Batman or Robin suit, which again made progressing tedious. LEGO LOTR on the other hand, was the first game in the LEGO series to include audio from the movie. This inclusion made the games more immersive and allowed me to flex my LOTR movie quotes. LEGO LOTR allowed you to change to any character that was available which made game progression easier and more enjoyable.
2013–2014 brought Marvel comics into the fold, as well as the LEGO movie, The Hobbit, and LEGO Batman 3. The LEGO Marvel and Hobbit games continued on from LOTR by allowing you to change characters at will, without the hassle of finding specific suits. They also included made up dialogue and audio from the movies. LEGO Hobbit like LOTR follows the movie, but in my disappointment they only completed An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, completely ignoring the Battle of the Five Armies. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, was an improvement from its predecessors in several ways. You can change characters at any point in the open world, and you had the ability to explore different locations in the DC universe, such as Gotham, Metropolis, and the different Lantern planets. In my opinion, this is where the LEGO video games really started hitting their stride.
2015 introduced Jurassic Park, which allowed you to play as both the humans and the dinosaurs, which allowed for some interesting levels but fun jam packed adventure. 2015 also introduced LEGO Dimensions, which I admit I never played, due to the toys-to-life format, which ended up being quite costly.
2016–2020 continued with Marvel Comics with Marvel Avengers, reintroduced LEGO Ninjago back into the video games, and started fresh the Star Wars sequels….The Force Awakens….and only The Force Awakens. 5 years have since gone past and no other sequel was made. Until now….
The year is 2021. It has been 16 years since LEGO Star Wars first graced our screens, and now we are getting LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga! Delays have currently plagued the release of this game but with E3 just around the corner, hopefully a light will start to shine at the end of the tunnel. All 9 Skywalker movies, maybe some side missions from the Mandalorian/Rogue One/Solo. The excitement is palpa(tine)ble.
