Be a hero in your Lego City!
Capture criminals, put out fires, and even tow cars in this arcade variety game for iOS.
Sort out your city
Lego City is not one set game, but instead seven different mini games spread out over your city. The games include rescuing stranded fishermen in shark-infested waters, putting out fires in residential buildings, and racing formula cars. It’s a nice touch that Lego City offers so many different game types and it’s especially impressive that it’s in a free game.
Throughout these levels you collect gold coins but their purpose isn’t clearly explained which is apart of a larger issue: the game is lacking clear instructions regarding game goals. For example, I assume that the gold coins unlock higher difficulty settings, but the game doesn’t make it explicitly clear. No where does it say the number of coins that are needed to unlock the levels or even if that’s what the coins go towards. Stuff like that doesn’t take away from the gaming experience itself, but it certainly detracts from replay value.
Unfortunately the game has a considerable amount of glitches: on two different levels my character or vehicle fell out of the map and the round needed to be quit.
Running, driving, and flying!
Before each game, a small picture located at the bottom of the screen indicates the controls. Some of the controls are far too simplistic, such as the racing game which only requires you to press your finger on the screen. Others are very difficult and not particularly responsive, like the cops and robbers game type which requires you to use an on screen joystick and tap a handcuff button at the correct time to catch the criminal.
Overall, about half of the games have clumsy controls which also include driving scenarios where you must tilt your phone to control your vehicle. Unfortunately, the controls in Lego City My City get in the way of enjoying the game.
The game’s saving grace
The graphics for Lego City are the game’s strongest points. Character models look sharp and not blocky (ha!) or pixelated. Like the popular Lego console games, the block men and women have comical facial expressions that regularly change. The sound for the game features brass-backed music, vehicle sound effects, and a gibberish language for the Lego characters. The sound effects for the vehicles are realistic that feature tires screeching and helicopters humming.
Quantity over quality
Lego City My City has excellent graphics but levels are too short and it has inexcusable glitches for a game about such a popular brand as Lego. However kids are likely to look over these errors and still enjoy the game.
