Hey everyone, the pizza dude’s here! His name is Pepper and it’s his job to save Lego Island. Good old Lego has brought us the comic caper: Lego Island 2 The Brickster’s Revenge.
Those of you who played the original Lego Island will be familiar with the criminal mastermind that is Brickster. This time he’s tricked Pepper and escaped from his prison. So he sets about causing chaos with his band of Brickster-bots. Pepper, the pizza delivery boy, has to hop on his skateboard and stop Brickster in his tracks. It won’t be easy.
Lego Island2 is an adventure game for kids and adults alike. You play the game as Pepper the pizza delivery boy and you can explore the island by foot, or on your trusty skateboard. As you move around Lego Island you bump into certain people who you can talk to. Sometimes they help you out and move the story along, and sometimes they are just incidental folk to make your game more interesting.
The environments are, as you can imagine, made of Lego – all the pieces are represented. The game requires a lot of wandering around and there are 56 characters you can interact with. There is no map, so Pepper has to be constantly on the move, but the gameplay is pretty linear, so you can’t really go wrong.
Lego Island2 has more gaming areas than the first incarnation of the game. There are now three Islands to explore. Brickster steals a boat and Pepper has to follow him to Adventurers Island. Our intrepid hero takes his boat across the Lego sea, avoiding Lego sharks – which are very dangerous when you’re also made of Lego. The story is interspersed with puzzles and sub-games to distract you along the way.
On the first island, Pepper is skating along in hot pursuit of Brickster, and suddenly falls down a hole in the ground. He lands in a spooky dungeon, inhabited by walking skeletons. This is a little puzzle game, with locked doors and button pressing to be done, whilst avoiding those pesky skeletons.
There are canals to jump over on your skateboard, but if you don’t make it you get swept back downstream to the first room in the dungeon. This sub game concludes with a boss in the form of a Lego-hurling monster. Pepper has a special move up his sleeve, or in his pizza bag though: he can hurl pizzas to stave off enemies. In this case it works a treat if you persevere, but watch out for those Lego bricks!
Along your way you will find cards to collect. These are scattered around as Pepper’s adventure unfolds. Some are hidden pretty well and you need a sharp eye to find them. Each card has a picture of the characters you meet and once you’ve got duplicates, you can get together with fellow GBC owners and swap cards until you’ve got them all. The trade is done using infrared data transfer.
The game is littered with humorous moments. My particular favourite being the guy who runs up to you proclaiming, "I can make rude noises with my arm pit." I think someone had fun had naming the characters too. Take Bill Ding the construction worker. No pun intended? Right guys. Okay, so I’m easily amused.
The game auto saves each time you enter a new screen, which is a worthwhile feature. Who needs passwords and all that malarkey when it can all be done for you whilst you carry on playing? Good move there. It makes play a lot easier.
The action moves from island to island, as Pepper chases Brickster down. Castle Island includes a find-the-princess-moment, complete with castle maze. There are moments where stealth is required, as Pepper has to sneak out of prison and avoid guards while collecting items that help him on his way. Then it’s up into space for the final show down with Brickster.
All in all this is a light-hearted and enjoyable game. I think the racing games that were present in the original Lego Island could have been included in the sequel, for an extra element of playability. A couple of different modes of transport for Pepper wouldn’t go amiss either, as I didn’t find the collection of the trading cards much of a reward. I really was waiting for a little race against Brickster to show him what I’m made of. Alas it wasn’t to be, but Lego Island2 still gets a cool 4 GiN gems. Let’s hope the next incarnation combines the best elements of both games.