LEGO Creator: Knight’s Kingdom
© 2000 LEGO Software
This latest addition to the LEGO Creator series is set in medieval times, deep in the woods of the Dark Forrest. The story opens as King Leo and his knights begin a celebration at the castle in praise of the village's recent prosperity. Little do they know that Cedric the Bull, leader of a local gang of robbers, has plans to storm the castle during the festivities. With the help of Richard the Strong you must use your wits, creativity, and LEGO pieces to stop Cedric and save the kingdom. The program starts out with several tutorial challenges designed to familiarize you with the controls and menus. Animations and spoken instructions help in the learning process, although Richard the Strong is, at times, long winded and bothersome. Once we got through these, we found the rest of the game to be similarly frustrating. Despite realistic graphics and plenty of content, game play as a whole was sluggish and unresponsive. In addition to the vast library of LEGO elements, an Olde World Workshop lets you create your own structures. While this helped maintain the creativity of the LEGO system, it too was difficult to use. Unfortunately, it looks as though a potentially excellent product is once again being held back by poor game play and complex controls. Chances are any child in the age group for which it is designed (6-10) will become quickly frustrated. Our advice— stick to the real LEGOs.
$29.95, Win
Teaches: creativity, logic, programming, spatial relations