The One and Only LEGO Sports Videogame

[Hapori Tohu]

It's Wednesday, which means that for a few more weeks, at least, we get a new episode of the Bits N' Bricks podcast. Hosts Ethan Vincent and Brian Crecente cover LEGO Football Mania (or Soccer Mania as it was known in the US), the 2002 game from Silicon Dreams, the same developer that made LEGO Island 2. Head over to YouTube or your favorite podcast platform to listen to Season 4, Episode 42 - How a Soccer Net Almost Killed Football Mania and hear from former Silicon Dreams employees David Whitehead and Mark James, the lead artist and lead engineer, respectively, about their time developing the game. It was interesting to hear about some of the discussions about how many liberties they could take with the LEGO minifigure to make them work in a sports game, and the foundation that put in place for future titles. Go give it a listen!

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[Chronicler06]

I somehow never heard of this game, but now that this episode provided me with an idea of what it would've been like to play it, I must admit that I do have some interest in considering trying it out, if possible. The concept of various themes at the time being featured in the gameplay (the teams you play against and the fields you played in) kind of reminds me of the different locations and competitors featured in Lego Racers, and one of the reasons I had liked that game was because of that concept. Not to mention, the Brickster from Lego Island being the main opponent only makes this game even more interesting to me. I don't know if I'll ever have such an opportunity to try such an old game, but what I found especially notable from this episode was the mention that this was one of the last Lego games to be released before Lego Star Wars in 2005 changed everything, so in some way, this game really did mark the end of the first era of Lego video games.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Chronicler06

[Bambi]

I remember this game. Never played it though, but Lego Island 2 is one of my favorite Lego games, so maybe I'll give it a shot one day.

1 hour ago, Chronicler06 said:

this was one of the last Lego games to be released before Lego Star Wars in 2005 changed everything, so in some way, this game really did mark the end of the first era of Lego video games.

Ah yes, back when Lego games didn't have the same copy and paste gameplay every game. Miss those days.

[Chronicler06]

Once again, no topic for this week's episode, so I have to post my comment in the previous episode's topic, which is a shame because this week's episode covered Lego Creator from 1998, one of the few early Lego games I was able to play. I remember playing that game quite a lot as a child and had quite a lot of fun with it (especially with destroying models with those "destructa-bricks"). Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked, due to a weird issue that made the game incapable of playing on any computer newer than Windows 98, so for the last few years I was able to play this game, my only option was to visit my grandparents house six hours away where they still used such an older computer in those days. Anyway, this was an interesting episode to listen to, such as how through the evolution from the Creator games to the Digital Designer software tool, the whole concept was completely scrapped and rebuilt twice. Although the Creator games were really discussed in only the first half of this episode, it's still one that I enjoyed listening to.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Chronicler06

[Black Six]

On 12/8/2021 at 8:55 PM, Chronicler06 said:

Once again, no topic for this week's episode, so I have to post my comment in the previous episode's topic, which is a shame because this week's episode covered Lego Creator from 1998, one of the few early Lego games I was able to play.

Have some patience! Sometimes life (or the front page) gets busy. We do try to get them all posted eventually.