Lego Battles Review - DS

6

Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 5
Audio: 3
Innovation: 3

Ah, Lego. It holds a rather dear place in my heart, given the amount of hours I wiled away constructing crazy robots, cities and large, impossible vehicles. Now that those times have passed, the only way I can relive such childhood pleasures is through the recent release of Lego branded video games. Oh who am I kidding, there's a Lego X-Wing on my desk. And it's new.

The Lego games feel like the block of chocolate you shouldn't have, or that deliciously extended period of procrastination. You know you shouldn't indulge in such activities and could probably rattle off a handful of reasons why you shouldn't. The Lego games represent that charming, innocent digression to times past; mixing them with pop culture blockbuster hits simply seal the deal. But what happens once the safe and reliable shores of parody and familiarity are discarded in exchange for original IP? Lego Battles is exactly that: a Lego game based on their own property, given a further twist with a complete change in genre. From the admittedly repetitive platforming roots to real-time strategy, it's a rather risky departure from an established and successful formula.

Lego Battles is essentially a watered down version of Command and Conquer, Age of Empires or every other RTS you've ever played. It's set in three different themes: Castle, Pirates and Space. Each theme is split into good and evil scenarios, the latter played out after finishing the former. Each theme has a hero unit, which more often than not become the focus of the offensive strategy. For the most part, the missions maintain an of simplicity: attack and defeat the enemy, or locate an object. As a result, sending an armada of troops at the enemy is enough to overwhelm them, particularly in conjunction with a hero unit. 

However, there are some additions that break up the mix a bit. An assortment of vehicles is available to budding Lego tacticians, as well as the usual bout of resource gathering and construction. The usual collectable items are scattered throughout every level as well, granted the player rewards such as extra characters for multiplayer and other trinkets.

If all that's on hand in this game is a sugared up version of Command and Conquer, what is the point? The same question could be said for the preceding Lego games: none of them added much to the platforming experience. The games are sold on their respective licenses. The Lego license lends entertainment, that much is certain: seeing minifigures running around on Lego-infused landscapes that resemble films of yesteryear is incredibly satisfying. Unfortunately, that thrill is somewhat lost in Lego Battles, owning not only to the top-down, zoomed out nature of the game, but the limitations of the hardware as well. While the traditional pre-rendered cutscenes that introduce each act are as entertaining as ever, once the game begins, you're faced with a very lifeless assortment of units and buildings, none of which have a distinct enough feel ...