Summary
- Lego video games based on famous IPs like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings have been hugely successful, but there are also forgotten Lego games in a variety of genres.
- Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game failed to catch on like its counterparts, with critics unimpressed by its run-of-the-mill gameplay.
- Lego Racers 2, a sequel to the popular racing game, couldn't live up to its predecessor and remains largely forgotten.
After the release of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game in 2005, it has been clear that the plastic construction toy Lego and video games based on famous IPs go together like Lego bricks. By creating expansive games retelling tales from the likes of franchises like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, Lego has cornered the market on the humorous puzzle platformer/collectathon that appeals to individuals of all ages.
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LEGO has released a plethora of licensed games over the years, with some of them still regarded as being the best family-friendly games around.
With this kind of success behind it, one could scarcely imagine the existence of Lego video games that have been forgotten by the wider gaming zeitgeist, doomed to decay in the shadows of obscurity. There do, however, exist such video games and they comprise both licensed and original IPs across a plethora of genres. When delving into the world of forgotten Lego games, one can uncover some intriguing finds.
10 Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Video Game
Based on the first four films of the widely successful Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game was developed by Traveller's Tales and hit shelves in 2011. Like many other games of its ilk, its gameplay involved platforming, puzzling, and collecting one's way through events from the movies with the signature Lego makeover.
Despite the success of this formula in prior instances, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game did not catch on in the same way that its Star Wars and Lord of the Rings counterparts did, especially considering the popularity of its source material. In the end, the swashbuckling adventure fell into obscurity with critics unimpressed with its run-of-the-mill gameplay, proving that the pirate's life just was not for them.
9 Lego Rock Raiders
Spun off from the Lego theme of the same name, Lego Rock Raiders released in 1999 and 2000. If the two release dates are confusing, then one should not worry as many will not know that this game had two versions that were completely separate experiences.
The two versions were released for Windows in 1999 and then for PlayStation in 2000, the former being the RTS genre and the latter being an action-strategy hybrid genre. Both did share the Rock Raiders aesthetic and involved players mining for rare Energy Crystals controlling either a squad or a single character. The confusing version differences and a host of mixed reviews saw Lego Rock Raiders relegated to the shadowy realm of forgotten video games.
8 Bionicle
Launched in 2001, Bionicle is the gritter and edgier version of Lego where elemental warriors battle minions of darkness to protect their island. With the toy line inevitably came various video game efforts, including 2003's action-platformer Bionicle from Argonaut Games.
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Predominantly a platformer with a spattering of boarding sections over snow and lava, players control elementally powered warriors through six distinct biomes, battling enemies and siphoning energy from the environment. The game reviewed poorly and, even if this was not the case, the entire Bionicle toy line was discontinued twice, so there was really no hope for this forgettable platformer.
7 Lego Racers 2
If asked, many players will fondly remember 1999's Lego Racers, a racing game developed by High Voltage Studios. What they will remember less fondly is its sequel Lego Racers 2, which kept and built upon the original but could not keep its spark.
Developer Attention to Detail attempted to open up the game, allowing the player to freely drive around the open world and converse with NPCs as well as more typical racing gameplay. The video game reviewed well also, but still found itself eclipsed by its prequel. It seems that the gaming gods always intended for Lego Racers 2 to remain in obscurity.
6 Lego Chess
In Lego Chess, Krisalis Software created a video game that does exactly what it says on the tin, being a chess simulator with a Lego skin. Like many of the Lego video games released in the late 1990s, this effort based the majority of its action on a simple yet engaging gameplay loop for players to enjoy at their own pace.
In fairness to Lego Chess, the game contains a fair few features, including three AI difficulties, various modes for players to advance through, and 72 unique clips of chess pieces taking one another. Still, this early Lego video game effort was a victim of its own simplicity, with the vast majority of modern gamers unaware of its existence.
5 Lego The Hobbit
How a Lego video game based on the master of fantasy J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit book could go on to be largely forgotten is hard to believe, yet this is arguably how it has transpired for Lego The Hobbit. Developed by Traveller's Tales and released in 2014, the game covers the events of the first two films in director Peter Jackson's movie adaptation trilogy.
Plans to adapt the third film The Battle of the Five Armies into DLC for the game were quietly scrapped and, in 2019, the game was unceremoniously taken off digital sale for over a year. Never recovering from these setbacks, it seems that gamers just were not all that interested in a Lego version of Bilbo's adventure to the Lonely Mountain.
4 Lego Battles
It is an unfortunate fact that video games made for handheld consoles tend to be overshadowed by those made for home consoles. Even without this bias, it is unlikely that 2009's Lego Battles from developer Hellbent Games would have ever stuck with the wider gaming community.
Made exclusively for the Nintendo DS, Lego Battles saw players controlling factions from various Lego themes in strategy gameplay with the goal of engaging and outmaneuvering one's opponent's army. Despite admittedly being packed with content and playable factions, the game never caught the attention of either Lego or strategy game fans, its only legacy being a pseudo-sequel based on the Lego Ninjago line.
3 Football Mania
The year is 2002 and gamers were foaming at the mouth for a Lego version of football for consoles, or at least this is assumedly what developers Silicon Dreams thought as it is exactly what they released in the form of Football Mania, or Soccer Mania if one lived outside of Europe.
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Silicon Dreams did have experience in creating Lego games, having been the brains behind Lego Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge and Island Xtreme Stunts. This did not translate into success for Football Mania, however, with the simplified six-aside version of the sport receiving mixed reviews from critics. Nowadays, one would be hard-pressed to find a version of the game that was not hidden at the bottom of a bargain bin.
2 Lego Island
Just because a video game could be considered forgotten by the world of gaming does not mean it was not beloved, as 1997's Lego Island proves. Developed by Mindscape, the game was one of the very first Lego video games available on the market and provided players with an open island in which they could explore at their own pace.
With a non-linear story and multiple characters to play as, Lego Island was received positively by critics, selling over one million copies in two years and developing a cult following. Lost to time and memory as it may be, this early Lego game may well see a resurgence in modern times with a fan-made sequel Project Island in active development as of 2020.
1 Lego Creator
Developer Superscape's Lego Creator was conceived to be an evergreen method of virtually representing the physical Lego toy line, intended to follow along with new releases via content updates. Released in 1998, this sandbox game, while pulling back slightly on its original intentions, provides players with a platform to build Lego worlds of their own design.
Over the next few years after its release, Lego Creator also received three sequels: one based on the Lego Knight's Kingdom theme and the others based on the first two movies in the Harry Potter franchise, and the base game also won multiple video game journalism awards. While largely forgotten in today's age, Lego Creator is an ambitious effort to realize the wonder of building Lego in a virtual space.