LEGO Island

The Good
The greatest thing about this game is how open-ended it is. In addition to being able to choose among multiple characters, there's so much to do on LEGO Island! You can go around delivering pizzas, design your own helicopter to fly around the island, participate in races, or just admire the scenery.

Did I mention the voice acting? A common fault among games these days, and one of very few games back in the 90s to incorporate voice acting, all the characters are believable, that is, until you start to realize the repetition in their lines...

For what appears to be a childish kid's game at first, it's far more than that. This game is full of quirky humor and miscellaneous touches that really "put the icing on the cake". There's jokes abound, from giving the heimlich maneuver to a shark to having to jetski race around the Bermuda Triangle(s). The residents of the island talk to you, they sometimes talk about others, you can change the foliage, what people wear, the time of day, EVERYTHING! In keeping with the belief that the only limit to LEGO sets is your imagination, the same principle has been carried over to this game.

There is a rich background to this game - biography videos about the characters, a history of the island and its founders (which draws many parallels to our own world). A fantastic musical score constantly plays as you adventure throughout the island, and there's a bunch of interesting vocalized songs on the jukebox as well.

This game is so simple, and yet, there's so much to it. You need to play it to experience the feeling.

The Bad
My memory is clouded by nostalgia, but the game had a few oddities. The game is open-ended and does have its own "storyline" for those who wish to "win" the game, but once that's done the game's charm begins to wear off. There is little incentive to replay the game, although it does provide a fair bit of potential for "goofing off". I'm not going to bash graphics as the game is a commendable effort by LEGO and Mindscape, but the island was rather...flat in some areas. The game doesn't run perfectly on modern machines, so be sure to take some time off to sort that out.

The Bottom Line
To many, LEGO was the very foundation of our childhood and fuelled our creative talent in the years to come. Back in a time called 1997, LEGO set out to bring their universally acclaimed world to computers. For a first attempt, everything is flawless and well-executed. The game has a great deal of polish, from the nostalgic soundtrack to the humorous edits of famous historical figures to resemble LEGO minifigures. I hope everybody enjoys this game as much as I did. It's a true gem.