Lego Racers

"Tinkering with racing games are never so fun!"

Lego Racers. When someone mentioned the word, 'Lego', instantly, their mind will say, ''Ah, it's only for kids.'' Yes, it's almost true what they had said but even some of the interactive games created don't even appeal most users much, like one of the game Lego Loco. But fortunately, Lego Racers is not one of the games that will die easily. As the name suggests, Lego Racers is a racing game but a totally different matter that makes this game interesting and fun to play.

Graphics - 9
The whole scenes are created with nice and detailed 3D graphics that pushes out the 3D card capabilities. The tracks in the game are quite nice with great backgrounds that you can see. The various colours scattered out to each and every single thing makes the game look bright and attractive. That also includes the lighting system which are used correctly that sometimes give an eerie feel when the car you play enters dark places.

Furthermore, the car models are rendered nicely enough and every single car give its own personalities feel to it. As how the intense graphics are built, you'll know that the great graphics that are shown on your computer are also based on how fast your computer is, whether you have a good 3D card or not and other points that may lower down the graphics quality.

Music - 9
The internal music that comes together is really pleasant to here. I don't know how I'm going to describe the music in this game but they're just really cool. What makes me feel that the game is good enough is the sound effects. The funny talks by the Lego characters are really comical and other real-to-life sound effects are like the boost sound when you use it, leave a trap behind, and almost every single thing that should give out some are not left out.

Gameplay - 9
You'll be happy to know that the game has lots of features that will last Lego Racers for quite a long time. The best mode of all is the build mode which you can create your own license (put your name on it), put your picture by selecting various Lego characters and change their looks and emotions and lastly, how many trophies that you successfully get by winning all the tracks (get first, obviously).

There are usual modes that you might find in other racing games similar to this. The main one-player mode allows you to unlock other tracks together with winning your track's enemy's car set (cool!) and collect your rightful trophies if you get first. The incredibly fun two-player mode allows you to race against your friends and your friends can also create their own license and build their own car (there is the automatic option if you're too lazy to build one yourself).

Then, the time-attack mode allows you to race against Veronica Voltage, some sort of 'ghost' (not real ghost, mind you) that will race together with you and you must try to win against her. There are also shortcuts for you to find so that you can actually get ahead past your enemies. Not only good control as well as good speed allows you to win, but good shortcuts will make you triumph through. These shortcuts are all very well hidden and sometimes, you need to shoot your weapon in order to access through.

One unique kind of thing in this race is that you can collect five kind of different coloured bricks that can help you together in the race. The first one, red brick allows you to shoot your opponent, the yellow brick will let you leave a trap behind so that opponents behind you will get a good taste of it. The blue brick will activate a blue force shield that will protect you against enemies' red brick attack and the traps left by your opponents. The green brick will give you a boost of speed for a short time so you can get ahead of your enemies (if you succeed). Lastly, the white bricks are used to 'upgrade' your other coloured bricks and the maximum of white bricks that your coloured bricks can be upgraded are three.

Example, if you have a red brick and you collect three white bricks later on, instead of having a normal shoot power-up, you'll have two guided-missiles that will target and shoot enemies ahead of you. This is an extreme collection of items but while collecting white bricks, if you accidentally take other coloured bricks like green, your red brick will be 'kicked out' immediately.

There are also lots of hidden shortcuts which allows you to get past one point quickly. Every characters that you fight against have their own personalities and favourite. Example, King Kahuka (a tribesman) may use red-brick always to shoot the opponents (you!) and if you're bright enough, you'll spot their weakness and abilities. Always keep a strategy running in your mind and you'll find yourselves getting past one hard track!

Replay Value - 8
Racing games don't fancy me really, as I don't like racing games at all. But this one is really fun to play with and will give you excitement running down for months! Heed my warning: After you had unlocked all tracks, you'll find this game a real bore to you because it will be the same always but use the multi-player mode and it'll hooked you up the screen with your friends!

Overall - 9
Lego Racers is simply a unique racing game and a totally different matter than boring games like Sega Rally Championship and a couple of others as you, as the player, will have to race through boring tracks with nothing to do except to win the whole championship level. Boring, isn't it? So take Lego Racers as a new change to your life, once and for all.

Racers
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- Unique with the coloured bricks system!
- You can build your own car!
- Lots of tracks to race in!

Lego
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- Boring to play if you don't use the multi-player mode.
- Play too much and this game is a bore.
- Some tracks are too hard!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/24/00, Updated 08/24/00