Building A Better Game

The humble LEGO brick. We all had them growing up. Some of us had castle sets, some of us had a random box of blocks, but at the end of the day, whatever you built started with this humble brick. I may be all grown up now, but I still relish the thought of playing with LEGO. When I was a kid you’d lose bricks, painfully step on them and be forced to put them away all the time. Now, I choose the digital variety. Far tidier and still just as awesome.

I am a complete addict when it comes to LEGO games, and with LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean now out I thought this was something I should come clean about. It’s not all plain sailing (no pun intended) between me and the LEGO franchise. I swore after LEGO Indiana Jones 2 that the hub system broke the game and the next game would have to be considered before playing. I swore after glitches in LEGO Harry Potter that that was that, I was never playing another LEGO game and that I was to be reminded of this when the time came. Now that time has come… and yep, you guessed it: I’m sitting here impatiently waiting for Lovefilm to send me LEGO Star Wars III and LEGO Pirates. I max them too quickly to warrant buying them so it’s a form of torture waiting for the discs to arrive. Luckily, this makes it seem even sweeter when I get my grubby little gaming mitts on them.

LEGO Pirates is going to be a different experience for me than the bulk of the franchise’s previous titles, however. The key difference is that I have seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. From what I hear, this is considered an advantage and means I can fully bask in the humorous changes, rather than claiming I don’t need to watch the movie as I learnt the plot from the LEGO game. I tried to watch Star Wars once, but it just didn’t seem right seeing them as people rather than LEGO characters, so I gave up shortly into the first film. Plus, let’s be honest, once you’ve played a full LEGO game you’re pretty much an expert on the subject anyway. I now know that I never have to sit through a Harry Potter book or film, as I am somewhat of an aficionado on the topic. Whether it’s Hermione and Harry fighting the dragon in the Triwizard Tournament or the secret routes around Hogwarts, LEGO Harry Potter has taught me all.

The LEGO franchise makes one thing crystal clear. From this humble block came many, many hours of play-time in my childhood, and many more as an adult. With so many film series begging to be immortalised in LEGO, I can only hope they keep ’em coming. The Mummy? Terminator? Twilight? We’ll just have to wait and see what’s next.