Lego (Various titles)

Lego Media

PC and Mac

Review: Peter Eley

Real Lego, the actual plastic bricks, is a hard act to follow. It must be difficult growing up in the shadow of the Toy of the Century.

So how is virtual Lego going to cope? We won't know until it's a bit older, but the early signs are positive.

The four titles reviewed — Knights' Kingdom, First Steps, School Skills and Alpha Team — are top quality, value for money products.

They are true to the Lego tradition, while letting the computer add the extra dimensions of sound and movement.

And there aren't any little red bricks or plastic trees to fish out from under the settee, either.

There's something for all age groups. The two My World titles, First Steps and School Skills, are for the 3-6 bracket.

First Steps introduces youngsters to basic numeracy, literacy, music and art through Lego animations. School Skills picks up on that and complements skills learned at kindy and primary school, such as word recognition, reading, adding and subtracting and problem-solving.

The Lego influence is much stronger here than in First Steps.

Knights' Kingdom is pure Lego. You can build a medieval world and people it with heroic knights and dark villains.

And when you've built your castle, you can send your hero, Sir Cedric, out to rescue a fair damsel from the clutches of evil Cedric the Bull.

The building process is much the same as in the plastic brick version. You have to select the right block and fit it on to your construction.

Alpha Team is an adventure/puzzle game, using Lego characters and buildings. It's fiendishly clever and great fun, although there isn't much actual building with blocks.

First Steps and School Skills run on PC and Mac. A Pentium 200 or Power PC 200 are required.

Knight Creator and Alpha Team are PC-only and need a Pentium 11 and an 8mb graphics card.

peter_eley@herald.co.nz