| LEGO → Video Games → Racers | 
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| LEGO Racers | |
|---|---|
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| Item №: |
5703 (N64), 5704 (PC), 5705 (PlayStation), 5719 (GBC) |
| LEGO Theme: | |
| Developer(s): |
High Voltage Software |
| Publisher(s): | |
| Date Released: |
Microsoft Windows: July 31, 1999, Nintendo 64: October 31, 1999, PlayStation: December 17, 1999, Game Boy Color: December 29, 2000 |
| Genre: |
Racing |
| Mode(s): |
Single Player, Multiplayer (2 players) |
| Rating: |
E/3+ |
| Platforms: |
Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Game Boy Color. |
| ' | |
LEGO Racers is a LEGO racing video game developed by High Voltage Software and published by LEGO Media, released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, and PlayStation in 1999 and 2000 and for Game Boy Color in 2000 and 2001. The player races various characters made of LEGO in custom-built cars based on the Racers theme to become "the greatest LEGO racing champion of all-time". The sequel to this game is LEGO Racers 2, released in 2001. This game featured many of LEGO's best sets from the 1990s.
Gameplay
Being a racing game, the gameplay is centered around racing. You can race against computer-controlled (AI) opponents or against another person. There are four types of races: circuit, single, versus (multiplayer), and time trial.
In the game, you choose from different car frames and build upon them until you have your car. You can also customize your driver and race with it. There are seven circuits, and each has a circuit champion. There are total of 26 tracks. 12 of them are mirror tracks (inverted left-to-right or right-to-left) and one of them is a test drive track, available only in Build mode and used for testing the vehicle, not racing.
The champions of the game were some of the most popular LEGO minifigures of the time. They are:
- Captain Redbeard (Pirates)
- King Kahuka (Islanders)
- Basil the Bat Lord (Fright Knights)
- Johnny Thunder (Adventurers)
- Baron von Barron (Adventurers)
- Gypsy Moth (Insectoids)
- Rocket Racer
The main antagonist, Rocket Racer, had never officially appeared in a physical set. However, in 2018, a minifigure named Race Car Guy was released in Minifigures Series 18, resembling him except he wears with a different outfit than the one appearing in the Game.
Each circuit has four race tracks and all of them are hosted by other characters:
- Governor Broadside (Pirates)
- Rob-N-Hood (Forestman)
- Ann Droid (Exploriens)
- Pharaoh's Mummy (Egypt)
- Islander (Islanders)
- Royal King (Castle)
- Commander Cold (Ice Planet 2002)
- Achu (Amazon)
- Willa the Witch (Fright Knights)
- Blackjack Hawkins (Pirates)
- Sam Sinister (Egypt)
- Alpha Draconis (UFO)
- Black Knight (Castle)
- Admiral (Pirates)
- Gail Storm (Adventurers)
- Nova Hunter (Exploriens)
These characters can be made to race with as well as the champions, as soon as you win the circuit. The tracks from circuits 4 and 5 and 6 are mirrored. Rocket Racer's circuit (7) has only one track.
The tracks are based of different lines of LEGO themes released at the time. For example, "Knightmare-Athon" is based of the Fright Knights theme.
Circuit Races
In this mode, you race AI opponents on one of seven circuits. Each circuit consists of four three-lap races on different tracks (with the exception of circuit 7, which contains only one track). Depending on how you place in each race, you get a certain number of points: 30 points for 1st place, 20 points for 2nd, 10 for 3rd, three for 4th, 5th is two points, and last is one point. The points from each track are added to determine the winner of the circuit. If you do not have certain amount of points during the circuit race except for the last race (10 points for 1st race, 20 points for 2nd race, and 30 points for 3rd race) then the circuit ends. (If you tie with an AI opponent, you will receive the higher place.)
Single Races
In this mode, you race against AI opponents around a single track. (You can only race on tracks you have unlocked.) This mode is useful if you are having trouble with a certain track and want to practice without doing an entire circuit or if you just want to race on one track only or if you just want to explore the track.
Versus Races
In this mode, you race against a human opponent around a single track. (You can only race on tracks from circuits you have unlocked.) On the PC version, you can only use this mode if you have a gamepad for your PC connected to it.
Time Races
In this mode, you race against a "ghost" of Veronica Voltage (and the ghost record of you after your first try). This means that neither of you can affect the other in any way. There are only 12 tracks that you need to race through and none of them are mirrored tracks and Rocket Racer Run track is out. They are the tracks from Circuit 1 and 2 and 3. Also unique to this mode is the placement of power-ups. They are arranged differently than they are in the other modes: the most common are green and white, red only appears when there is a shortcut that can only be accessed with it, blue only appears when there is a hazard on the course that can be avoided with it, and yellow never appears. If the player completes all of the courses for Time Races, then they receive Veronica's car set.
Powerup bricks
Each track has a number of powerups in the form of bricks placed on it. There are five different colors of bricks. Four of them (red, green, blue and yellow) allow the player to activate their respective power-up whilst the fifth one (white) increases the power of the powerup. The following table displays the properties of each brick and the affect white bricks have on it:
| Color | Type | Basic Powerup | 1 Power plus (White) Brick | 2 Power plus Bricks | 3 Power plus Bricks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Projectile | Cannon ball | Grappling Hook | Lightning Wand | 3 Guided Rockets |
| Yellow | Hazard | Oil Slick | Barrel of
Gun Powder |
Magnetic Trap | Mummy's Curse |
| Blue | Shield | 5 Second (blue) Shield | 6 Second (green) Shield | 8 Second (yellow) Shield
(Reflects Cannon Balls and Rockets. Spins Opponents (on Contact).) |
10 Second (red) Shield
(Reflects Cannon Balls and Rockets. Spins Opponents (on Contact).) |
| Green | Turbo | Turbo Boost | Extra Turbo Boost | Flying Turbo Boost | Warp Turbo Boost |
Hazards
Almost all tracks have hazards which slow down the player and other racers. They are physical obstructions (giant rolling stones, swinging axes and a falling pillar); hazards which mimic power-ups (cannon fire, falling bombs, electrical discharges, swinging boxes and ground volcanoes which make the player slip and turn, and mummy's curses); or unique hazards (a ghost which spooks the racer and a flying saucer which drags the racer backwards). All hazards can be countered using shields or by avoiding them.
Shortcuts
Every track in the Game except the Knightmare-Athon has at least one shortcut. Shortcuts can be open (e.g. a tunnel which turns from the track), hidden (e.g. a tunnel hidden by a waterfall), or can only be blasted open by projectile power-ups (e.g. a passage hidden by barrels). However, all the computer racers (with the exception of Veronica Voltage) ignore them.
Game Boy Color
This version shares very common similarities with other platforms. Other than just graphics and shortcuts, the only thing that is different from other platforms is the car building as it has limited technology. Players can choose the number of tires and the color of the car but can only put three bricks on their car.
Circuits
In the game, there are seven circuits. Placing first, second, or third on a circuit unlocks the next circuit and continues the game.
Circuit 1
Champion: Captain Redbeard (Pirates)
- Imperial Grand Prix (Pirates)
- Dark Forest Dash (Dark Forest)
- Magma Moon Marathon (Exploriens)
- Desert Adventure Dragway (Egypt)
Circuit 2
Champion: King Kahuka (Islanders)
- Tribal Island Trail (Islanders)
- Royal Knights Raceway (Royal Knights)
- Ice Planet Pathway (Ice Planet 2002)
- Amazon Adventure Alley (Jungle)
Circuit 3
Champion: Basil the Bat Lord (Fright Knights)
- Knightmare-Athon (Fright Knights)
- Pirate Skull Pass (Pirates)
- Adventure Temple Trail (Combination of Egypt, Amazon and Islanders themes)
- Alien Rally Asteroid (Combination of Insectoids and UFO themes)
Circuit 4
Note: Circuits four through six contain mirrored versions of the courses in circuits one through three.
Champion: Johnny Thunder (Adventurers)
- Desert Adventure Dragway (mirror)
- Magma Moon Marathon (mirror)
- Dark Forest Dash (mirror)
- Imperial Grand Prix (mirror)
Circuit 5
Champion: Baron von Barron (Adventurers)
- Amazon Adventure Alley (mirror)
- Ice Planet Pathway (mirror)
- Royal Knights Raceway (mirror)
- Tribal Island Trail (mirror)
Circuit 6
Champion: Gypsy Moth (Insectoids)
- Alien Rally Asteroid (mirror)
- Adventure Temple Trail (mirror)
- Pirate Skull Pass (mirror)
- Knightmare-Athon (mirror)
Circuit 7
Champion: Rocket Racer
- Rocket Racer Run
Racers
Featured cars
Opponents
- Circuits 1 and 4
- Captain Redbeard (circuit 1 only) (Pirates)
- Johnny Thunder (circuit 4 only) (Adventurers)
- Governor Broadside (Note: It actually isn't Governor Broadside, only an Imperial Governor minifigure with his name) (Pirates)
- Rob-N-Hood (Dark Forest)
- Ann Droid (Exploriens)
- Pharaoh's Mummy (Egypt)
- Circuits 2 and 5
- King Kahuka (circuit 2 only) (Islanders)
- Baron von Barron (circuit 5 only) (Adventurers)
- Islander (Islanders)
- Royal King (Royal Knights)
- Commander Cold (Ice Planet 2002)
- Achu (Amazon)
- Circuits 3 and 6
- Basil the Bat Lord (circuit 3 only) (Fright Knights)
- Gypsy Moth (circuit 6 only) (Insectoids)
- Willa the Witch (Fright Knights)
- Blackjack Hawkins (Pirates)
- Sam Sinister (Egypt)
- Alpha Dragonis (UFO)
- Circuit 7
- Rocket Racer (World Champion)
- Black Knight (Black Knights)
- Admiral (Pirates)
- Gail Storm (Adventurers)
- Nova Hunter (Exploriens)
- Time Trials
Gallery
Trivia
- The original PC version was re-released on 2001, featuring bug fixes and compatibility with Windows NT-based operating systems.
- The Knightmare-Athon track had at least two shortcuts in the beta-version of the game, however they were removed in the final version, but the bricks that were inside the shortcuts can still be seen behind the walls.
- Rocket Racer is the only circuit leader without any relationship with another. The Islanders are part of the Pirates theme so Redbeard and Kahuka met each other. Baron von Barron is the arch-enemy of Johnny Thunder. Also according to this video the Insectoids invaded Castle Planet, which is where Basil's castle is. [1]
- Out of all Nintendo 64 games, this is the only LEGO game released for it.
- During the Single/Circuit Races, the voice files are set for the wrong hosts, usually for the ones that are the opposite:
- Captain Redbeard has Johnny Thunder's voice, while Johnny Thunder has Captain Redbeard's.
- King Kahuka has Baron von Barron's voice, while Baron von Barron has King Kahuka's.
- Basil the Bat Lord has Gypsy Moth's voice, while Gypsy Moth has Basil the Bat Lord's.
- This is the only LEGO game to be developed by High Voltage Software, except for the Game Boy Color.
- In the PlayStation version, the music tracks for "Dark Forest Dash" and "Royal Knights Raceway" are switched with each other, compared to the Microsoft Windows PC and Nintendo 64 versions.
- The soundtrack when the player does not finish in 1st place on the console versions plays a different theme compared to the Microsoft Windows PC version.
- The Nintendo 64 version had a different introduction scene, even though it was developed by the same company (High Voltage Software).
- Eric Nofsinger, composer/Lead Sound Engineer of Paperboy (Nintendo 64), is a Lead Sound Engineer for this game.
