Join the city’s finest to save people in need, catch criminals and race around the city. This new app game from Lego brings the world of Lego city to mobile and gives a taste of what can be found in full pc and console Lego City games. Having played other great Lego games in the past like Alpha Team and the Lego Batman games I had high hopes for a mobile game. A couple of years ago I installed Lego Creating game on android and was pleased with its simple and easy gameplay. Happily this game is easy to play too but in some cases leaves the player wanting more, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Acquisition – The game was quick to download and it immediately puts the player into the city without a tutorial or explanation of that to do. Without this it makes the game slightly harder to understand in terms of what buttons do what and what the aim of the game is. However once the player learns how to open one mini game the game is easily understood, thus making the entry barrier low. The player’s presented with an overview of the city with each of the 7 mini games based in different areas of the map.
Level system
What is it? – This game is series of mini games each based around one of the city departments: Police, Fire department, coast guard, postal service, roadside recovery. And just for fun they’ve added in a racing circuit too. The game is well suited for its target market of kids and bright and colourful graphics. The mini games have 3 levels and reaching the next level requires repeat play of the game of several different levels (see image right) Each mini game starts with a mini movie to put the player into a little story where they have to catch the robber, put out the fire or rescue the people in boats.
These mini movies are comedic, fun and have excellent graphics. It would have been nice to see a different storyline each time the player levels up on a mini game as the mini movies just repeated which can get boring after seeing it 9 times. The level ends with a fanfare which helps give a form of reward to the player for their play and encourages them to try again.
Level system – The level system gives the game some longevity and each new level is increasingly difficult, therefore this game requires some concentration but quick burst gameplay. This quick burst gameplay means that this game is easily picked up and put down.
Gameplay – The controls are simple to understand and involved either a touch or tilt control system which can be
altered on pausing a level. Pausing the level also gives shot pictographic explanations of the controls. These simple controls also help give the game a low entry barrier making it perfect for kids. With levels getting increasingly difficult it makes the player have to use some skill to traverse the road or catch the robber before time runs out or the fire gets out of control. The controls are very sensitive so precision and careful movements are vital to completing the harder levels.
Issues – Some levels did not work on my mobile phone and did not render some of the graphics which will hopefully be fixed soon or may be just an issue with my device.
Monetisation – Happily this game has no micro-transactions and no consumables meaning that the player can play
the mini games to their hearts content. Playing levels does earn Lego studs (coins) but after playing the game and searching online there seems to be no function to these apart from being a reward for gameplay. This game also doesn’t have any social media aspect to it which again is appropriate for the age group.
Progression – The player does receive a sense of progression in going up star levels and gaining more coins but it doesn’t seem fully developed. Further developments to the story would help with players sense of progression and would help improve retention as currently there is not much drawing the player back to the app apart from the games
This game has a lot of potential, but not all of this has been realised yet. This app is just mini games and playing one over and over can get a bit tedious after a while. But for kids I’m sure this will be a hit, and with this being an app it may just be a vehicle to get them interested in other Lego City game. As a kind of demo for these other games it works perfectly. Additions we would like to see are more mini games which could be easily added to the map and some way that the player can build. What you expect from a mobile app game based around a construction toy is the ability to build.
The Verdict
This is a fun, bright and well made app, perfectly suited for children and parents seem to love this app too. It has potential for expansion in many way but as a starter game for kids looking to expand into other Lego games it is perfect. It suits this role of taster for other Lego titles perfectly and does it in a great way. Although it doesn’t have this gamer returning, but I’m sure it has many children continually press play, start, select on this great app.
But what do you think?
Play, Start, Select 