Lego Racers

This was the moment when plastic bricks first properly shifted into high gear. Lego Racers is an arcade racer in which everything, from the track to your car and the driver themselves, is built from Lego pieces, and the player can construct their racer and its machine exactly according to their imagination.

In terms of gameplay it is brisk kart racing with power-ups, clearly drawing on the genre made popular by Mario Kart. Along the tracks you collect bonus bricks, use weapons and shields against opponents, and try to stay at the front of the pack. The game is arcadey and family-friendly, easily accessible but with a healthy dose of competitiveness. Draw number one is the editor, where you build your own vehicle and driver out of bricks.

The game was developed by High Voltage Software and published by Lego Media in the late nineties for several platforms including the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and PC. It was among the most successful early Lego games and showed that the construction-toy brand could also work as the foundation of an entertaining racing title for the whole family.

Culturally, Lego Racers is one of the pillars on which Lego's early video game identity stood, long before the famous action-adventures based on movie licenses came along. The combination of familiar kart racing with creative building from bricks gave the game a distinctive character and won it a steady base of nostalgic fans.

On the Nintendo 64 the game benefited from colorful graphics and accessible controls. It is not a simulator but an honest arcade racer whose greatest charm lies in the fact that you beat your rivals in a car you assembled yourself. It is precisely this combination of racing and building that made it a small classic of its time.

Why play: For the joy of a colorful kart arcade racer where you build your own racer and its machine out of Lego bricks.