LEGO Racers on the N64 is a nostalgic blast of blocky goodness! Building your own custom cars is way more fun than you might remember, and the tracks based on classic LEGO themes are charming. Sure, the AI can be brutal, and the controls are kinda wonky, but it captures that childhood joy of racing your LEGO creations. It won't blow you away now, but if you have fond memories of this one, it's worth revisiting.
To this day, I will claim that LEGO Racers was my idea whenever it comes up. It was 1997, Mario Kart 64 had just come out and I was obsessed with LEGO. So I conceptualized a LEGO racing game. I drew the karts, the characters, everything. Back in the day, you could call the Nintendo Power Hotline and talk to a person for like tips, or just any random nonsense. So what did I do? I called them. I called them and spoke to a Nintendo Power Hotline agent for like 20 minutes about my game idea. Bless that woman for entertaining the ravings of a 7-year-old. 2 years later, LEGO Racers comes out. Coincidence??? Yeah probably but whatever. This game was my idea.
I remember my mum came to pick me up from nursery and when she showed me she bought me a copy of Lego racers I was so happy I hugged her really tight and that is one of my most cherished memories from my childhood. Game fun.
the AI is good enough to feel interesting without feeling cruel. tier 3 boost is still op. Otherwise an adorable racing game that really goes all the way with its theming.
Janky game amazing music fun.
Im not sure I understand why a Lego game that lets you build the various gameplay components is such a rare concept because it unironically elevates Lego Racers way above just the sum of its racing parts.
The powerups in this game are buckwild. Everything else about the game is acceptable and doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth. I really wish there was more character/kart customization, but it's still more than we got for Lego Island, and the stage designs look really nice.
All that being said, the items in this kart game warp the experience even on a causal playthrough to the point where it's worth checking the game out to see it. We're talking "you can skip 3/4ths of a lap on most courses" devastating. It feels awful to get hit by and items aren't used as a comeback mechanic in the same way they were in something like Mario Kart. Obviously, it doesn't really matter because it's a 25~ year old racing game for children (that can get pretty tough, I needed those powerups), but it does help it stand out from a game design standpoint from its peers.
All that being said, the items in this kart game warp the experience even on a causal playthrough to the point where it's worth checking the game out to see it. We're talking "you can skip 3/4ths of a lap on most courses" devastating. It feels awful to get hit by and items aren't used as a comeback mechanic in the same way they were in something like Mario Kart. Obviously, it doesn't really matter because it's a 25~ year old racing game for children (that can get pretty tough, I needed those powerups), but it does help it stand out from a game design standpoint from its peers.
Dude, fire.
A solid Mario Kart clone
this is a very nice racing game not my favorite but still
best game, ive built a pentium 200 mmx machine just to play this. (it also works on windows 10, but hey)
This was the game of my childhood - I can still hear the menu music! Originally played on PC, I've since bought this on N64, PS1, GBC as well.
Building your own cars and racing them around inventive tracks with a range of zany characters, good graphics for the time and catchy music - what more could you want from a kart game? The handling of the cars is good, and there is a drift mechanic similar to Mario Kart. Unlike Mario Kart however, the powerups are not fixed depending on the position you find yourself in during the race. You can see which type of powerup is on the track, and then collect white bricks to upgrade them.
In my opinion, the game still holds up reasonable well today and would be a lot of fun for children to play. I have very fond memories of playing this with my dad and brother. I still fire it up on the N64 occasionally for a blast.
Building your own cars and racing them around inventive tracks with a range of zany characters, good graphics for the time and catchy music - what more could you want from a kart game? The handling of the cars is good, and there is a drift mechanic similar to Mario Kart. Unlike Mario Kart however, the powerups are not fixed depending on the position you find yourself in during the race. You can see which type of powerup is on the track, and then collect white bricks to upgrade them.
In my opinion, the game still holds up reasonable well today and would be a lot of fun for children to play. I have very fond memories of playing this with my dad and brother. I still fire it up on the N64 occasionally for a blast.
This is the best lego game, better than all the TT games COMBINED yeah I said it. Making cars and characters is goofy, the tracks are memorable and have fun shortcuts, the item system rewards finding a proper path that gets a green brick and 3 white bricks while also staying competitive. I wanna marry rocket racer
not balanced, not smooth to play. still enjoyable. one of the first games i played with any kind of customization - the car building was very very fun as a kid. 100% worth checking out if you like legos and racing.
Played a lot of this as a kid before I ever had a console. It was fun, and had some nice elements like building your own car, upgradeable power ups. A decent kart racer.
Another kart racer that I nearly forgot existed. It has some cool ideas, but again just doesn't match the big names on the system.
I was in love with this game when I was young, every time I went home from school to have lunch I played it even if it was only for half an hour, as I had to return to school on the afternoon. Being able to customise my own kart and racer and play with it was WILD to me! The item system was also super original and a lot of fun, with different block colours indicating different types of power-up (red=attack, blue=defense, yellow=backwards trap and green=speed boost), and white tiles used to level up each item to get a more powerful or longer lasting effect. The track design was also amazing, even though they were very short there was at least one shortcut in every single racetrack (except for one), and the shortcuts were different from each other too! Some were in plain sight, others well hidden, some required a red attack item to open the entrance, others a blue defensive item and one of them even required going through a series of gates to enter a colour coded code and open a door! The only issue would be that there's only 13 tracks, so the game ends up being very short, but that was not an impediment for me to spend hours and hours playing it!
All time classic
peak
It's the game that got me into gaming. A simple and charming racer with thematic tracks and buildable cars.
Nostalgia goggles.
But seriously, this game has so much charm, an incredibly intricate power-up system, fun tracks, music that ranges from banger to goofy, sometimes both at the same time, and you can do some (granted, very basic) Kart customization.
This game, along with many other LEGO games like it, defined my childhood, and it would not be a stretch to say this was my first ever proper video game.
But seriously, this game has so much charm, an incredibly intricate power-up system, fun tracks, music that ranges from banger to goofy, sometimes both at the same time, and you can do some (granted, very basic) Kart customization.
This game, along with many other LEGO games like it, defined my childhood, and it would not be a stretch to say this was my first ever proper video game.
Played this and the sequel SOO much as a kid!
One of my favorite LEGO games of my childhood!
Best racing game in existence! They should do a remake.
i take it back, diddy kong racing is not the goat racing game - it's LEGO Racers
this game is busted (good way)
the turbo power-up in this game feels fantastic as it improves your not only your speed with each level-up, but your handling as well. thats the item you'll want to be going for most of the time. this is very much a contest of getting ahead of the pack, which is demonstrated by the rival cpu, who zips past everyone else on the first lap. oftentimes, the start of the race is the most important part, so you'd better aim for those green bricks and not mess things up. its a bummer, because a lot of the items are powerful and fun to use!! its just, with the discrepancy in ai difficulty, a lack of rubber-banding, and no real catch-up mechanics, i feel like the game doesn't reach its full potential. would an option to randomize item placement lessen these issues? maybe! idk!
part of that potential, however, still shines through, and a prime example is the grappling hook item, which when shot at an opponent, slows them down and pulls you towards them with a tremendous amount of speed. if you don't bump into their rear end, you can sling yourself past them to keep that boost of speed awhile longer. its incredibly satisfying to use, and when you're given the opportunity to pull it off, its evident that this item fills a bit of a balance gap.
tangentially, you have to be pretty precise to win some of the time trials, which is odd considering 2/3rds of them feel like crapshoots in comparison. in some cases, i've felt like the item boxes should have been bigger, or collision on parts of the environment smaller.
now i haven't played like, every kart racer, and maybe there are some games out there that have more consistent highs, but the majority of lego racers was a blast for me. this game fucks. and i don't say that about a lot of games.
the turbo power-up in this game feels fantastic as it improves your not only your speed with each level-up, but your handling as well. thats the item you'll want to be going for most of the time. this is very much a contest of getting ahead of the pack, which is demonstrated by the rival cpu, who zips past everyone else on the first lap. oftentimes, the start of the race is the most important part, so you'd better aim for those green bricks and not mess things up. its a bummer, because a lot of the items are powerful and fun to use!! its just, with the discrepancy in ai difficulty, a lack of rubber-banding, and no real catch-up mechanics, i feel like the game doesn't reach its full potential. would an option to randomize item placement lessen these issues? maybe! idk!
part of that potential, however, still shines through, and a prime example is the grappling hook item, which when shot at an opponent, slows them down and pulls you towards them with a tremendous amount of speed. if you don't bump into their rear end, you can sling yourself past them to keep that boost of speed awhile longer. its incredibly satisfying to use, and when you're given the opportunity to pull it off, its evident that this item fills a bit of a balance gap.
tangentially, you have to be pretty precise to win some of the time trials, which is odd considering 2/3rds of them feel like crapshoots in comparison. in some cases, i've felt like the item boxes should have been bigger, or collision on parts of the environment smaller.
now i haven't played like, every kart racer, and maybe there are some games out there that have more consistent highs, but the majority of lego racers was a blast for me. this game fucks. and i don't say that about a lot of games.
Played as part of CONQUERING MY CHILDHOOD
A bite-sized masterpiece, Lego Racers presents some of the most chaotic, high-energy racing I've seen in any game. Aside from the fact that you're unable to spin out, the driving itself is fairly straightforward - until you hit the powerslide button, which immediately snaps your car hard to the side and lets you aggressively tear down the sharpest of corners without even thinking. It's responsive to an extreme and opens up its own set of crazy, tight maneuvers, and add an element to the driving that isn't that hard to get used to, but affords a lot of room for mastery.
The power-up system is fairly sophisticated and elevates the dynamic of the entire race beyond the simple act of just using them. You have four types of powerups - red (offensive), blue (shield), yellow (defensive) and green (boost), each acquired by grabbing the respective colour brick; on top of this, they all have four 'levels' increased by grabbing white bricks. The highest level green powerup - a wormhole teleportation device, of course! - is clearly leagues above all the others, so your racing line has to accommodate grabbing as many green and white bricks as possible more than just barrelling straight through to the end. But if you get hit by an opponent's powerup you lose some of your white bricks, so it's not always feasible to hold onto all your pieces until you get the wormhole - it might be better to make the snap decision to drop a bomb or chuck a grappling hook to get a bit of space or distance in a pinch. It's not just a cool powerup system, but it creates room for split-second tactical decisions and warps the way you interact with the race in a way that makes it as compelling as it is fresh.
The main problem with this game, really, is just that there isn't enough of it! There's only 6 circuits, each consisting of four tracks, as well as a single 'final boss' track at the end. The latter half of the circuits consist only of reversed tracks from the first three which is like, better than if they didn't exist at all? But then again it's probably even more telling that you can knock this game out in an hour or two despite them reusing all but one of their tracks. It's such a shame, because it's a really fun game - I just wish there was more of it to play!
A bite-sized masterpiece, Lego Racers presents some of the most chaotic, high-energy racing I've seen in any game. Aside from the fact that you're unable to spin out, the driving itself is fairly straightforward - until you hit the powerslide button, which immediately snaps your car hard to the side and lets you aggressively tear down the sharpest of corners without even thinking. It's responsive to an extreme and opens up its own set of crazy, tight maneuvers, and add an element to the driving that isn't that hard to get used to, but affords a lot of room for mastery.
The power-up system is fairly sophisticated and elevates the dynamic of the entire race beyond the simple act of just using them. You have four types of powerups - red (offensive), blue (shield), yellow (defensive) and green (boost), each acquired by grabbing the respective colour brick; on top of this, they all have four 'levels' increased by grabbing white bricks. The highest level green powerup - a wormhole teleportation device, of course! - is clearly leagues above all the others, so your racing line has to accommodate grabbing as many green and white bricks as possible more than just barrelling straight through to the end. But if you get hit by an opponent's powerup you lose some of your white bricks, so it's not always feasible to hold onto all your pieces until you get the wormhole - it might be better to make the snap decision to drop a bomb or chuck a grappling hook to get a bit of space or distance in a pinch. It's not just a cool powerup system, but it creates room for split-second tactical decisions and warps the way you interact with the race in a way that makes it as compelling as it is fresh.
The main problem with this game, really, is just that there isn't enough of it! There's only 6 circuits, each consisting of four tracks, as well as a single 'final boss' track at the end. The latter half of the circuits consist only of reversed tracks from the first three which is like, better than if they didn't exist at all? But then again it's probably even more telling that you can knock this game out in an hour or two despite them reusing all but one of their tracks. It's such a shame, because it's a really fun game - I just wish there was more of it to play!
Despite having far fewer tracks than I remember, and resorting to mirroring tracks pretty early on, Lego Racers somehow remains exactly as fun as I remember it being.
The brick system for powering up your power ups is great, and it's still a blast to break things by using the full-power green brick warp power up over and over.
Later circuits also remain a challenge, probably because the CPU cheats to higher degree, and there's likely a ton of rubberbanding going on there, but it doesn't feel impossible.
After finally finishing the game and defeating all of its host racers 22 years after first playing it on my family's eMachines PC, I can confirm this game still rules.
The brick system for powering up your power ups is great, and it's still a blast to break things by using the full-power green brick warp power up over and over.
Later circuits also remain a challenge, probably because the CPU cheats to higher degree, and there's likely a ton of rubberbanding going on there, but it doesn't feel impossible.
After finally finishing the game and defeating all of its host racers 22 years after first playing it on my family's eMachines PC, I can confirm this game still rules.
Lego Racers, is the Best fucking racing game of all time.
Played every port of this game grew up with the PC version ♥
The driving controls might turn off new players but its not necessarily bad controls as many people falsely claim.
It is actually just "skill based" Movement akin to rocket jumping or whatever that dodge shit is in smash melee.
Essentially you will turn like a sloth till you tap the space bar and then you make a 180 turn into a wall...
now that sounds like shit right?
WRONG you're just bad at games >;3
you see~ A PRO GAMER knows you have to rapidly tap the space bar and side strafe in this advanced technique I coined as "Drift fucking". If you're ears are bleeding from the chopped overblown sound effects that means you're doing it correctly.
once you've mastered DRIFT FUCKING next you'll need to learn about the ADVANCED POWER UP TECH
this game ain't your bitch boy's mario kart with randomized strategy-less power up boxes, there is a RTS-RPG-MMO-CHESS level power up system.
You see each color corresponds to a specific power up type
Red (guns)
Yellow (guns that shoot out of your ass)
Blue (shields (for bitches))
Green (the best choice 99% of the time)
Coloured bricks are upgraded by getting WHITE Bricks, and while normally its a simple battle of( more white = better) occasionally you'll want to quickly dispose of a yellow oil spill to grab a farther up green brick, or you'll avoid upgrading to tier 3 red so you can hook shot someone and gain some distance. I have been joking alot in this review but this system is genuinely fun and satisfyingly.
however if you have all 3 White bricks just grab green. green is rockets but tier 4 is a teleport with the sexiest VFX's in all of gaming. tier 4 green is broken and sexy~
I didn't even mention car building and feeling you get when you defeat a classic 90s Lego character in armed combat or the fact that in the GBA version of the sequel the final boss of this game is fucking suicidal because you beat him in the last game which is so meta and I love it.
Almost as good as lego islands 2 without the shitty load times.
Played every port of this game grew up with the PC version ♥
The driving controls might turn off new players but its not necessarily bad controls as many people falsely claim.
It is actually just "skill based" Movement akin to rocket jumping or whatever that dodge shit is in smash melee.
Essentially you will turn like a sloth till you tap the space bar and then you make a 180 turn into a wall...
now that sounds like shit right?
WRONG you're just bad at games >;3
you see~ A PRO GAMER knows you have to rapidly tap the space bar and side strafe in this advanced technique I coined as "Drift fucking". If you're ears are bleeding from the chopped overblown sound effects that means you're doing it correctly.
once you've mastered DRIFT FUCKING next you'll need to learn about the ADVANCED POWER UP TECH
this game ain't your bitch boy's mario kart with randomized strategy-less power up boxes, there is a RTS-RPG-MMO-CHESS level power up system.
You see each color corresponds to a specific power up type
Red (guns)
Yellow (guns that shoot out of your ass)
Blue (shields (for bitches))
Green (the best choice 99% of the time)
Coloured bricks are upgraded by getting WHITE Bricks, and while normally its a simple battle of( more white = better) occasionally you'll want to quickly dispose of a yellow oil spill to grab a farther up green brick, or you'll avoid upgrading to tier 3 red so you can hook shot someone and gain some distance. I have been joking alot in this review but this system is genuinely fun and satisfyingly.
however if you have all 3 White bricks just grab green. green is rockets but tier 4 is a teleport with the sexiest VFX's in all of gaming. tier 4 green is broken and sexy~
I didn't even mention car building and feeling you get when you defeat a classic 90s Lego character in armed combat or the fact that in the GBA version of the sequel the final boss of this game is fucking suicidal because you beat him in the last game which is so meta and I love it.
Almost as good as lego islands 2 without the shitty load times.
This review contains spoilers
This game is fine, but they could have done more with, everything. The Story is that there is a racing competition, and your character wishes to win it, yeah that's all it needed. The Graphics are bad but look appealing and colorful despite the terrible effects. The Gameplay has you customize your own racer and own car, even if you can make one that blocks the racers screen which is odd. Then you race other well-known types of Lego figures and their cars in races, where you run over colored bricks for powerups, these tracks are creative with all the Lego around as nice views, but the different amount of weight on your car doesn't change your stats, like they do when racing cars in LEGOLAND Windsor, (I haven't been to the rest so I can't judge them). The White bricks powerup the powerup you already have, red lets you shoot projectiles, yellow sets a hazard for those behind you, blue is a shield from other attacks, and green is turbo speed, all these are the perfect 4 powerups all racing games with powerups need, great choices. The difficultly level is really high for a small kid's game, but that's not a problem since it just takes learning, and the controls are a bit stiff, but easy to get used to. The Levels are mostly good, but some feel the same and can take a bit away from the race. The Music is fast faced fun for each level, so I would call them good tracks, music tracks not Lego tracks. Lego Racers shows good charm in the little it has to be good as a game.