If there is one thing I took away from watching The LEGO Movie, it is that strictly adhering to the “rules” of what to construct with everyone’s favorite building block is not what the toys are all about. You should instead let your imagination run free and make whatever wild plastic chimera of creativity you can come up with.
Maybe that’s a pretty commercial takeaway. Maybe I took away the wrong message. Regardless, such a lesson was not bestowed upon the developers of LEGO Technic Racing, as they are the only ones who will be doing any creating here.
You Are So Disappointing on So Many Levels.
LEGO Technic is LEGO’s line of more sophisticated building components, moving beyond mere studded bricks and utilizing plastic gears, rods, and other parts to create more mechanically-inclined constructs, such as cars. Being a racing title, it’s cars that we’re dealing with in LEGO Technic Racing.
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to be said about variety here. You have a single backdrop and a whopping three cars to choose from here, one of which must be unlocked, which is a simple enough task: Just earn a star with the first two cars, and you’ll be able to “combine” them into the third vehicle. It’s not as satisfying as it sounds, as the combination is just there and unlocked, ready to go once you meet the criteria. Sadly, there is no actual construction or customization, which would have been most welcome– especially as all models of a given type of vehicle on the track look the same anyway.
“Racing,” such as it stands, is a simple enough affair. Just swipe down on the touchscreen at the starting line to simulate pulling the car back, let it go, and swipe left or right to switch lanes so that you can move around other vehicles and obstacles. The turns combined with things like splitting lanes can make it a little tricky to figure out which lane an oncoming obstacle or bonus item is in, though.
Beyond that, there’s not really any “winning” involved. You can earn bronze, silver, or gold stars with each vehicle, and it all comes down to how far you’re able to travel. You have a time limit, and so long as you can coast past a checkpoint when time runs out, you can keep going. It’s not even too difficult to manage, for the most part; the screens here were taken without me actually doing anything in the game after starting the car, and I got a bronze for each one, which means you almost literally don’t have to do anything to unlock the game’s sole unlockable.
Business, Business, Business, Business, Numbers! Is This Working?
There really isn’t much more to say about LEGO Technic Racing, because there really isn’t much to the game. It’s a free to play title made to advertise a line of toys, and it does the bare minimum necessary to achieve that goal. It’s not bad, strictly speaking; it just sets a very low bar for itself, accomplishes what it set out to do, and nothing more.
It’s decent enough to kill a little time, and perhaps some children could find enjoyment in it for a slightly longer term. But with so little going on here, even that is debatable.
