LEGO Island 2

Boasting a whopping 18 subgames scattered throughout an intricate realm of islands, undersea worlds, deserts, and space, LEGO Island 2 focuses more on adventure and less on construction than previous LEGO titles. Players assume the identity of renaissance dude Pepper: pizza delivery, deep sea diving, astronaut training, and jousting are just a handful of the well-rendered experiences that await adventurers. The arrow keys get quite a workout as the game progresses, as they control everything from speedboats to parachutes to tyrannosaurs as Pepper changes modes of transport. Pepper churns through this world fending off the Brickster's henchmen robots, collecting pages of a "Constructopedia," and mastering various challenges in order to progress. Subgames must be completed in a sequence, and can then be re-accessed from Pepper's house. Players must work to build Pepper's pad, find the subgames, and chat with other characters for clues about how to move through this LEGO landscape. Players who want it all handed to them on one clickable screen will be frustrated: LEGO wants you to work for your pleasure, and get some calluses on those fingertips.

The charm of this impressive Windows-only program lies in the attention paid to detail, dialogue, and creative fun. The undersea game doesn't just have fish--it has narwhals and rowdy pirate skeletons growling curses. A knight straight out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail intones "Nay, nay, nay, one-who's-name-is-a-spice" when Pepper asks for help. Creators put a skateboard park on the island just for the heck of it. LEGO Island 2 provides both great game play and ample opportunity to freestyle. Also, the fluid detail of this program belies the chunky origins of LEGO life as we know it.

That detail comes with a price: it takes some time to load the subgames and scene changes even if your system meets the game's requirements. If LEGO Island 2 were one of Pepper's pizzas, it'd be an ultra mega deluxe, piled high with mummies, pterodactyls, and renegade robots. It'd also take a longer time to bake than your plain cheese, but the wait would be worth it. (Ages 6 to 99) --Anne Erickson

Amazon.com Product Description
The mischievous Brickster has broken out of the town jail and turned loose his army of Brickster Bots to take apart LEGO Island brick by little plastic brick. Players become Pepper, the skateboarding pizza delivery boy, to battle Brickster through 18 levels based on popular LEGO play themes, such as Adventurers, Castle, and LEGO City. Players ride a variety of conveyances around the island from a first-person perspective, including a space shuttle and a pterodactyl. Objectives within the levels include deep-sea diving for bricks, jousting with the Dark Knight, snake shooting, matching mummies in ancient Egypt, and target parachuting. Friendly LEGO figures are always close by and willing to offer pithy observations.