LEGO Island
by admin on Mar.09, 2010, under News & reviews
Face it– playing with LEGO bricks is an adventure! Enter LEGO Island, a CD-ROM aimed at 6-12 year olds who have access to Win95/Pentium. This software is loaded with 3D-rendered LEGO action, fantasy and brick-buildin’ fun. Kids can literally build themselves out of trouble by playing this game! Hmmm, just in time for Christmas, how can you pass this one up?
I’m still getting tons of mail about this software–Mac users want in on the fun! I’d like to see a Mac version of this CD-ROM, too! One option for Mac owners is to get a PC compatibility card (or PC emulating software)to play Windows software. Unfortunately, it’s not always a sure-fix, especially when it comes to playing this particular game. The CD-ROM seemed to crash more often than not on the PowerMac 7300/180 PC-compatible (with PC card) I used!
You’ll be blown away by the incredible full-motion animation (over 3 hours worth!) on this CD-ROM. If you use an MMX system, you’ll optimize the experience–gaining speed, smoother graphics and higher-quality images. Then again, it’s pretty easy to get sucked into the fantasy of LEGO world–there are missions to make, races to run and a whole lot of fun to be had!
All 35 LEGO characters walk and talk. Each has an unusual personality trait. Seven main characters start off the CD-ROM including The Infomaniac, The Brickster, Pepper, Mama and Papa Brickolini and Nick and Laura Brick. Here’s the fun part: kids click on one of them and do some role-playing, becoming one of the characters.
Build some LEGO vehicles, deliver pizza on a skateboard (yeah, right!), drive the cars, ride bikes, race jet skis, and bop on down to the pizzeria, the racetrack, or the gas station. The choice is yours–aah, idyllic island life!
Multi-level game play is self-leveling–while young players are satisfied by exploring the characters and the Island, older gamers will settle for nothing less than races and tough missions. The choice is theirs!
A LEGO mission? Can’t imagine it? How about this one– kids accidentally spring the resident bad-guy, the Brickster,from jail. What happens next is ultimate chaos as the bad dude disassembles the Island’s only chopper and attempts to destroy the Island–brick by brick! Kids help foil this devious mission by finding the missing bricks to piece the chopper together, locate the bad guy and participate in a hell-bent chase with flying doughnuts and spinning pizzas!
Hmmm..now you’re thinking …sounds like entertainment for the kids, but what are they learning? How about imaginative play, problem solving and map reading? Settle for them but know that nothing replaces 3-D manipulatives (just ask your kid’s teacher and they’ll tell you the same!). It would be nice to find some real LEGO characters or blocks thrown in with this software. Maybe, next time (you know, in the Macintosh version). Or, you could make a LEGO run to the store! Nah, not after plunking down nearly $40 to buy this one. Let the kids save their allowances to buy more LEGO bricks!
The action game is nonlinear, which means there are alot of different game possibilities. Of course, this means the CD-ROM gets played over and over again due to its random variability.
One of the most creative, comic book-style instruction manuals for kids is also included with the software.
Gotta go–it’s time to catch that skateboarding pizza delivery dude or else, I’ve got to cook dinner. Whoa–reality check!