Virtual Kingdoms

I tried out a few lighthearted action games a little while ago. And I enjoyed them immensely.

So I recently heard about a new Lego game in development. Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 is scheduled to be released sometime next year. So I figured I should check out the Lego games they have already released to see if they are as good as I have heard. I found the demos up on Download.com. You can also check Amazon’s pages on Lego PC Games for more information such as screenshots and video. I was able to try the demos for Star Wars II(which are episodes 4-6). Batman and Indiana Jones. The demo for Lego Star Wars I won’t install on XP 64 or Vista, or Windows 7. You have to install it on XP or older and copy it over to the newer OS’s. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones Demos each have a level to play and then the option to free play that level again. Which means you can go through getting all the secrets you missed before with whatever characters you have won up to that point. You can change your character anytime in free play.

The Batman game lets you play as either the heroes or the villains. You also periodically find different suits that give Batman or Robin special powers like demolition suit or magnet shoes. Its good to see a tie with all those old action figures. I always thought they were strange when the tv show never had all those power suits.

In each of the games you can play single player and switch between characters or instead play two player cooperative. Each character has specific moves or powers they can use. To beat a level, one has to switch between these characters in order to play through to end. And there are a lot of secrets to find. Which for me at least are really hard to find. Sometimes you can see a secret area but you have to figure out how to get past the obstacles in front of it.

These games are quite enjoyable. I don’t know why its so funny to watch Chewbacca rip a Lego Storm Trooper’s arms off but it is. The characters have some entertaining moves which allow you to blast your enemies back to bricks. The Star Wars games are older and have some strange bugs and a slight weirdness to the camera views but other than that they run pretty smooth. The graphics look great especially in the batman game. I wonder what it would be like to have a photo realistic Lego game, because they are getting closer to it. Each of the games have similar mechanics but the puzzles are quite different making each enjoyable in its light.