Lego Loco

• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: 1998
• Genre: Simulation
• Style: Train Sim
• Similar Games: LEGO Creator (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

Inspired by LEGOs, the perennially popular plastic building blocks, LEGO Loco for the PC is all about building and running a virtual train set. You can design your own railway layouts, culling from an unlimited number of train tracks you retrieve from a Toybox. The Toybox is filled with other items you can use to build environments and towns such as train depots, streets, stores, tunnels, train switches, office buildings, trees, grass, houses and, of course, train engines and carriages. At any time you can erase specific elements of your design or you can drop a bomb and start from scratch.

When the Toybox is open, you have access to everything you need to design your creation. After you close the Toybox, the massive train set world you have created will come to life. This is when you can interact with your world by running the trains, maneuvering the townspeople and playing with the fountains, dinosaurs and other animated objects.

In addition to playing trains and building elaborate train sets, LEGO Loco enables you to send and receive postcards to your friends via the Internet, providing the friend in question also has a copy of the game and Internet access. Also, you can build a massive multi-user train set.

Roots & Influences

Technology has made a huge impact on the playing patterns and expectations of children. The challenge for LEGO Media International is to fire their imagination in new ways, expanding their sense of discovery and challenging their powers of creativity.

This title makes the LEGO pieces come alive on the computer screen.

Review: Overall

Whenever I sit down to review a children's computer game that is a virtual version of the real thing, my mind immediately goes into the "if it ain't real, it ain't worth a darn" frame of mind. Therefore, I had to make a conscious effort to set aside my prejudice when playing LEGO Loco.

Imagining myself to be a young, nimble-minded child, I instantly became entranced by the vastness and infinite possibilities inherent in LEGO Loco. From a toolbox not unlike Felix the Cat's Magic Bag of Tricks, I chose from hundreds of different items in which to build my vast animated train set. After an hour or so of setting everything up just like I wanted, I set the thing in motion. Boom! The city came alive right before my very eyes. My trains twisted and turned along intricately designed tracks, cruising at speeds determined by me, the creator of this magnificent world.

While playing LEGO Loco, I came to the harsh realization that my prejudice against virtual worlds was actually jealousy. Given the small budget Santa Claus operated on at my house, my electric train set was limited, to say the least. Not long after unwrapping the large blue package, oh so many years ago, I grew tired of watching my train go round and round a single oval track. If I had somehow traveled through time to 1998 and had the opportunity to play LEGO Loco, you couldn't have pulled me away from the computer with a thousand electric trains.

One of the coolest things about LEGO Loco is that you can actually make the trains crash into each other. Kudos to the designers for not doing the politically correct thing by having the trains simply stop. Another thing I really like about the game is the eraser. It is so easy to go in and take out something that you don't want. You can even play the game in auto delete mode, which enables you to eliminate an object by placing another on top of it.

LEGO Loco is extremely easy to play. Younger children will need some help with the manual but anyone from four years old and up will have little trouble with the game. Sending postcards is more complicated than playing with the train set but it is a fun and interesting addition to an already memory-intensive game.

The opening video sequence is extremely well animated but the graphics in the game are mundane. The objects are designed to resemble toys and in this they get the job done but are simplistic nonetheless. The music and sound effects are adequate for the most part but there is one annoying aspect to the supposed voice effects: the Station Master speaks pure gibberish. Only by reading the onscreen words can you understand what he is saying.

Having an entire room filled wall to wall with LEGO train sets would ultimately prove more fun than playing LEGO Loco, but, obviously, only the richest of the rich could afford such a thing, making this software package an excellent value. The "Loco" in LEGO Loco is short for locomotive; it is not Spanish for crazy. Children will, however, be "loco" for LEGO Loco.

Review: Enjoyment

If you are a child and you enjoy creating worlds and then putting them into action, you'll like LEGO Loco. If you also have a fondness for trains, you'll love the game.

Review: Graphics

The graphics are nothing elaborate, but the various objects do resemble toys.

Review: Sound

Other than the incomprehensible voices, this game has adequate sound.

Review: Replay Value

With so many possibilities, {*LEGO Loco} can be played forever.

Review: Documentation

The manual and onscreen help offer all the information you need. However, younger children will need some assistance.

Production Credits

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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