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Radioactive IT Review: LEGO Battles - throwing bricks at each other
Radioactive IT Review: LEGO Battles - throwing bricks at each other | Review: LEGO Battles - throwing bricks at each other |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Wednesday, 24 June 2009 | |
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This is a G rated game, and as such the difficulty level is accordingly undemanding. And the interest levels are kept up by varying missions between search, protect and destroy functions primarily. To do this LEGO Battles makes use of the DS in the following way, the top screen shows unit or group info as well as the minimap, when a unit is selected or building options when a structure is selected. On the lower map, units/buildings can be selected with the touch of a stylus, a single group of up to nine units that can be recalled with a touch of the right button. RTS veterans will be familiar with the rest of the core game elements. There is a home base/castle/skeleton tower/fortress (etc.) that acts as the focal point of any base building. Builders and heroes are spawned here. Builders/peons build other structures (from a single resource that they mine), such as barracks, bridges, farms, quarries and other RTS structure staples. Some of these buildings can be upgraded at a later time. Heroes have expanded abilities/magical attacks add to this, special vehicles including transport craft and there are enough options to give the game adequate depth. The maps are not overly huge, but this is in keeping with the simpler approach and an emphasis on searching, some expand dynamically with objectives, and the presentation is clear enough to detail where land, sea and air units can traverse. But there are some interface issues; unit selection is a little haphazard, especially when trying to select a fast moving builder and instead sending a previously selected unit to the spot ‘very near’ where you tried to tap the builder. Also, unit and structure build queues as well as hero special abilities are selected from slide out brick icons, positioned high on the left hand side of the screen, why the left side TT Games? This results in right hander’s having to obscure most of the action screen with their hand whilst making their selection. Luckily the game is relatively slow paced, and your selections will become much faster (though still one at a time), so the interference becomes less of a problem Collecting LEGO studs, Minikits and red bricks will allow players to purchase or unlock new units (55 characters and 30 vehicles in the game) or abilities. This becomes a mini-game within the game. Whilst the trademark LEGO based cut-scenes abound between Acts, and whilst these are fun, apart from a marketing tie-in with the real life LEGO themed sets, there is not much LEGO happening here. Without the building aspects and other brick-based themes of games such as LEGO Indiana Jones, this game could be based on any other fiction/real world structure. LEGO Battles could easily be Wiggles Battles, or Bob The Builder Battles or even Hanna Montana Battles, there is nothing (apart from the collectibles and cut-scenes) that really distinguishes this as a building-block-based game. That is no reason to bring the score down though on a game and concept that is well suited to the DS format. A multi-game-type free play and multiplayer set-up (with 30 maps available) round out a fully specced release.  7.5 Brick Pirate’s Hold’s out of 10 |
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