Today we are going to talk about Flash games on the Lego Website back in the day. I spent a lot of time as a kid on the Lego website, playing their Flash games of various genres. I don't know if you can chalk this up to my autism or transness but I will say that Lego as a cultural element is firmly planted into the center of that venn diagram. So for the past Lego kids: this is for you! Let's swim through a sea of memories and explore some of my favourite Lego games!
If you wanna play these games again, worry not, you might still find them. The BioMedia Project has done great work archiving Lego games across all franchises and you can currently download them here. I doubt that this link will stay up forever, but it has been there for years. The technology required to play these games is also old dusty and frankly insecure. So by playing these games you are putting your computer at a certain risk. But let me tell you, these games were good! So I do not blame you for being curious :D
Junkbot & Junkbot Undercover
Junkbot was a fun puzzle platformer. The titular Junkbot would move automatically across the level. You place and move Lego bricks to help Junkbot overcome obstacles, avoid enemies, and collect trashcans. Junkbot also got a sequel in Junkbot Undercover!
Eventually Junkbot made his crossover into the real world, but not officially. For example in the image above, we have two of the trash cans and the titular Junkbot as a minifig, released by the BrickGuild as seen as in this Instagram post. Several people have made little decorative Lego Junkbot arcade machines. Several efforts were made to crowdsource a real Junkbot Lego set, but they unfortunately failed.
In a different world we could have received an official Junkbot Lego set. Or maybe we just have to try again! But it fills me with joy to see such a simple game so deeply beloved by its fans!
Spybotics: the Nightfall Incident
Spybotics was Legos hacking themed franchise back in the day. It was something of a brainchild between Mindstorms, Lego Technic, and cyber aesthetics. They released vehicles that were equipped with spy and hacking gadgets and what not. The game The Nightfall Incident incorporates these vehicles but they are ultimately irrelevant to the game; the sets just appear in small visual film sequences of no consequence. You can imagine that you are using these vehicles to play the game but ultimately the vehicles don't matter.
It is a sick game though! It is a hacking themed turn based tactical strategy rpg, much like Fire Emblem or chess. Instead of soldier or mercenary units, you control programs. Instead of health points, these programs are defined by the amount of space they take up, which is an analogy to data sizes. Some of these programs represent something like antivirus software that is after YOUR ass for breaking into troubling corporate secrets. And may I just add that the music and the audio design in this game SLAPS!! In the game you get to meet various characters of different archetypes. Overall, this game has surprisingly deep lore for a flash game!
The Nightfall Incident is among the games in the BioMedia archive, but it will require installing the Flash Player yada yada. BUT people have made remakes! One is available on Android, one on itch.io!
World Builder 1 & 2
World Builder and its sequel are, as opposed to the prior two games, more niche and underground I suppose, but they are great too! They are 2d isometric puzzle games similar to sokoban, the old puzzle game where a human has to shove a bunch of boxes around! You have a bunch of Lego bricks lying around in the world. Your object is constructung a character out of them and placing it on a goal spot in the world while avoiding enemies.
I will soon be making a part two of this blog post, where we talk about Bionicles and Lego Drome Racers among other things!