Lego Racers (video game)

Lego Racers is a

Lego Racers is a racing game played from a third person perspective. Set in the fictional Legoland universe, the game depicts Rocket Racer, the "greatest racing champion" in Legoland. After becoming bored from beating everyone at racing, he decides to create a racing contest, and finds the best racers in the history of Legoland using a dimensional warp machine created by his friend, Veronica Voltage, a genius scientist and mechanic. The player takes on the hosts and co-racers in circuits of races in an attempt to reach and beat Rocket Racer and become the "Greatest Lego Racer of All Time", completing the game.[11] Each circuit is contested by the player, the host, and four randomly chosen co-racers, and has four tracks. The hosts are, in order, Captain Redbeard, King Kahuka, Basil the Batlord, Johnny Thunder, Baron Von Barron, and Gypsy Moth. In these circuits there are a total of 12 unique tracks; the later three circuits are the first three circuits reversed track-wise with each track now mirrored.

Players assume the role of either one of several pre-built or custom-built minifigures and compete against other minifigure characters in races set across different tracks in the Legoland universe, using a variety of cars built out of Lego. At the beginning of each race, the player can perform a "Turbo Start", which allows the player to start the race at full speed.^[12] Throughout races, the player can also perform power slides and "Super Slides", which allow the player's car to turn around corners more sharply.^[13]

Each of the game's tracks contain power up bricks, which can be collected by the player and used to gain an advantage over other racers. The power ups are divided into four categories: Projectile, Hazard, Shield and Turbo, with each providing a different use to the player. The player can also collect up to three "power plus" bricks, which increase the capability of any power ups collected.^[14] Most tracks contain one shortcut that players can use to get ahead of opponents, which are usually either found with careful looking, or accessed using power-ups, mainly Projectile power-ups that destroy part of the scenery.^[15] During a race, the in-game HUD displays the player's position, lap number, "lap timers", and a "Power Up Icon" if the player is carrying any power up or power plus bricks. The player can also choose between viewing the "Speedometer", the "Course Map" or the "Close-up Map".^[16]

The game contains three single-player modes: "Circuit Race", "Single Race" and "Time Race", as well as one multiplayer mode, "Versus Race". The Circuit Race mode follows the game's main plot, and allows players to race through circuits made up of multiple tracks, gaining points based on where they place, while contending with

Throughout the game, the player can unlock various brick sets and character pieces by completing certain tasks, such as coming first in a Circuit Race.[14] The game's "Build Menu" allows the player to build custom cars, minifigures and driving licenses of their own design using unlocked bricks and character parts. Minifigures can be customized with different hat, hair, head, body and leg parts, and given a name entered by the player on the minifigure's driving license. A picture of the player's minifigure is also placed on their driving license, and their facial expression can be changed by the player. The player can create a custom car using a combination of different chassis and car sets. The player can rotate, move and place bricks from these sets directly on to the chassis. Placement of the bricks changes the car's balance and weight, which affects its overall performance.^[18] The "Mix" option creates minifigures from randomly selected parts, while the "Quick Build" option creates one of 2 presets for a specific chassis.^[20]

Development

The concept for Lego Racers was initially created by

High Voltage Software spent over a year creating Lego Racers' car building mechanics. The game's lead programmer, Dwight Luetscher, created a formula that was used by the game's artists to create individual Lego elements in the game. The pieces available to the player were selected from hundreds of Lego elements by the developers, chosen first by aesthetics, and then analysed to see if they would fit into Luetscher's formula. The developers chose to affect the attributes of the player's car, such as handling, acceleration and top speed, through how many bricks are placed on the chassis, as this is simpler to understand for the game's main age demographic.[22]

Due to the high number of Lego sets and pieces in the game, a custom mesh code was created to "weld" the geometry in place and optimize the cars polygon count, creating one solid mesh for each car created by the player. Every element in the game, including bricks and character pieces, had different

The PC version of Lego Racers received favorable reviews, while the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation versions received mixed or average reviews, according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.^[25][26][27] Nintendo Power gave the N64 version an above-average review, a few months before it was released Stateside.^[42]

The game's graphics were generally praised by critics. GameSpot's Andrew Seyoon Park stated that virtually everything in the PC version "looks bright, colorful and clean" when playing in 3D-accelerated mode, but called its texturing minimal.^[38] Ben Stahl of the same website also called the N64 version's track design "innovative and cute", as well as saying the tracks and backgrounds have a "somewhat real look" that makes it easier to tell where the player should be driving.^[37] Trent C. Ward of IGN praised the PC version's background animations, stating that they not only "add to the atmosphere of the game, but also affect the way it plays".^[13] However, some reviewers criticised the game's performance, with the website's Sam Bishop stating that the PlayStation version's load times between levels are horrendous^[39] and NextGen's Chris Charla calling the N64 version's framerate "nauseatingly slow". Conversely, Winnie Imperio of IGN called the same console version's framerate "consistent, if not entirely smooth".^[18]

Lego Racers' gameplay received a mixed reaction from critics. Charla called creating and testing cars a lot of fun, especially because the way a car is built has "a major effect on how it controls",^[41] and Ward found that unlocking new bricks in the circuit mode for use in car customization is addictive.^[13] However, Stahl called the game's construction system unfriendly, stating that the player is "better off just sticking with one of the default vehicles".^[37] Imperio said that handling the cars is "surprisingly tight", calling the N64 control scheme intuitive.^[18] Conversely, Charla found that most of the cars feel top-heavy, and stated that the racing is awful.^[41] Ward praised the power up system, calling it pretty cool, as well as stating that the Power Plus bricks add "a new strategy to the game",^[13] but Stahl called the system "terribly lame".^[37] Reviewers also criticised the game's multiplayer features, with Ward calling the split screen mode simple,^[13] and Crispin Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly stating that the "lack of multiplayer options" hurts Lego Racers' replay value.^[14]

Other aspects of Lego Racers' design also received mixed opinions from critics. EGM's Dean Hager called the game's race tracks "short, unimaginative and devoid of good shortcuts."^[14] Imperio called the track design "simplistic and often not very difficult", but "still well designed and a lot of fun to race through".^[18] Park called the game's music cheery and upbeat,^[38] while Stahl called it "barely acceptable", stating that it "gets irritating rather quickly", as well as calling the game's sound effects "decidedly poor".^[37] Bishop said that the sound effects "lack crispness", citing their low sample rate as a reason, as well as calling the game's music "flat".^[39]

The game was a finalist for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' "Console Children's/Family Title of the Year" and "PC Children's Entertainment Title of the Year" at the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, both of which went to Pokémon Snap and Disney's Villains' Revenge, respectively.^[44][45]

Sequel

Following Lego Racers' success, news arose in April 2001 that Pocket Studios was working on a sequel to the Game Boy Color version of Lego Racers, titled