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As a huge fan of LEGO in my youth, my long held belief is that LEGO should start making games out of their own franchises (aside from Bionicle!). Sure, LEGO Star Wars was great for it’s time, but then there were LEGO versions of Indiana Jones and Batman, with Rock Band and Harry Potter on the horizon… I say enough of this blatant cashing-in! LEGO’s back catalogue is a goldmine of gaming opportunities, and I’d much rather sail the high seas as Captain Roger, take over the universe as one of the various alien races, or conquer the middle ages as one of those great LEGO kings then play one more LEGO-ified version of whatever franchise is popular that week. Fortunately, it seems that someone within the LEGO hierarchy feels the same way, and the end result is LEGO Battles for the Nintendo DS.

LEGO Battles is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game which allows you to play as one of three factions, all based off real LEGO franchises. There’s Castle, represented by the latest Castle line which is still available in stores, Pirates, represented by the latest Pirates line plus a few classic pirate sets and some Islanders thrown in for good measure, and Space, represented by the Mars Mission franchise and the latest Space Police sets. Each faction has a good and evil campaign, and each campaign contains those hilarious 3D cutscenes that are synonymous with LEGO games. As usual, they contain various noises and grunts in place of real words (it’s quite hilarious seeing a pirate who’s only dialogue is ‘Arrr’. In fact, you wonder why it didn’t happened sooner), but the characters are so expressive that they tell the story better than words could. That’s all well and good, but great presentation will only go so far. So how does it play?

The best way to describe the gameplay system is ‘Starcraft for beginners’, and it really is amazing how similar the games are. You start off with a command center which builds drones that can build structures and gather resources (the only resource in this game being LEGO bricks, of course). You need to build certain structures to increase the number of units you can build. You build mines over openings in the ground to gather resources from there. You can set rally points for your barracks (but to be fair, most RTS games have that option). And finally, there is a limit to the amount of units you can select at a time, but unlike Starcraft this game only lets you select 9 at a time instead of 12.

LEGO Battles does have a few features that differentiate it from Starcraft though. In this game, you can use spare drones to assist with the construction of a building or unit, which is a handy ability to have. Another handy addition is that you can build resource drop-off points, so if you don’t have a Command Center (or the Command Center is too far away and you want to get the resources in quicker), you only need to build one of these structures to start harvesting resources. The other major addition to the gameplay is Hero units. Built from your Command Center (but you can only have one at a time), these powerful units recharge the health of nearby units and can activate magic spells, which can boost the abilities of nearby units or simply act as powerful attacks. Either way, the Hero units add an extra dimension to battle and are often the difference between victory and defeat.

It all seems pretty solid, but the main oversight of LEGO Battles is that it only lets you create one squad at a time. Whereas most PC games allow you to assign nine or ten squads to the number keys for extra strategic flexibility, LEGO Battles only gives you the one. This will be frustrating for hardcore RTS veterans, but it’s not hard to work around if you’re committed to the game. This is mainly because the units are surprisingly smart and quite capable of fending for themselves, and it is possible to leave groups of units alone while you pay attention to your main squad, which cuts out a lot of possible frustration. Another plus is that the pathfinding is surprisingly good. Sure, units will usually stop moving completely if they run into a wall or another unit twice, but if you watch them as they move you’ll notice that they navigate narrow paths and obstacles really well. Just remember to regularly give move orders when navigating narrow paths and you should be fine.

There are a few other flaws that prevent this game from being a classic. For a start, there are some quirks with the controls, like having to touch an enemy or structure in the bottom left corner to attack it, that take a bit of getting used to but don’t ruin the game completely. The game is also prone to slowdown during big battles, which is pretty frustrating, and the lack of online play is really disappointing. But the biggest flaw of the game is the difficulty because, just like all the other LEGO games, if you play this with the aim of merely completing the stages it’s really short and easy. Fortunately, there are studs and minikits to collect and extra stuff to unlock, so if you’re a completist it seems much longer and deeper.

While the campaigns are solid, if a little too easy, the real fun comes from Free Play mode where you can mix and match various units to create your own super duper army. Just like every other LEGO game, you have to use the studs and minikits collected during the campaign to unlock the units in Free Play mode, and this adds some replay value because unlocking the units is totally worth it. Sending out a fleet of starships to destroy a fleet of battleships is loads of fun, and while you may think that space units would have an unfair advantage, think again. The units are surprisingly balanced, and it’s not uncommon to send in spaceships and watch them get destroyed by a group of battleships or ballistas. It’s nice to know that the game is balanced enough so that any army can win, provided they use the right strategy.

The game is full of easter eggs and little touches that will appeal to any LEGO fan. Aside from the obvious fact that all of the units are based on real LEGO sets that are/were available to buy, it’s a real thrill seeing mounted knights riding those classic LEGO horses, or pirate ships firing LEGO cannonballs instead of real ones, and so on. Also, during the first space cutscene, the camera panned across the Mars landscape and I spotted the corpse of a BlackTron minifigure. Its little touches like this that adds greatly to the appeal, and it’s clear that Traveller’s Tales have as much love and respect for this franchise as they did for all the other franchises that got the LEGO treatment.

The thing about LEGO Battles is that most of the fun comes from playing as those great LEGO units, and it’s a shame that the game doesn’t play to that strength and really delve deeper into LEGO’s back catalogue. In my opinion, they should make a sequel for PC (or even DSi) where you can download unit packs from older LEGO sets. Imagine what it would be like to roll across the land with giant Spyrius robots, or torpedo battleships with AquaShark submarines. The potential for crazy match-ups is staggering, and I hope LEGO takes advantage of it in future.

Overall, much like all of the other LEGO games developed by Traveller’s Tales, LEGO Battles is a fundamentally solid, well-presented game that is really easy, almost to a fault, in order to appeal to kids and casual gamers. Hardcore RTS veterans will beat this game in their sleep, but younger players or RTS beginners will find a lot to like. It’s not perfect, but it’s a fun, solid game and a great foundation for a possible new franchise. UFOs in the next game please!

By Mr_M

Graphics: B+

Colourful art style and great 3D cutscenes.

Sound: B-

Not much variety, but the sound is clear, the music is decent, and each unit makes a distinctive sound.

Gameplay: C+

The difficulty is aimed squarely at kids and casual gamers, but the core game is solid and could appeal to anyone. Just like all the other LEGO games.

Overall: C+

A fun game with great presentation that suffers from a lack of challenge. Still, seeing a LEGO game about a LEGO franchise that isn’t Bionicle is very encouraging.