Lego Racers Can't Be Made Today 

Just wanted to say thanks for such a thoughtful in depth analysis focused on the design elements of Lego Racers. It was the 7th released game I worked on, but the first one I was given pretty much complete freedom to design whatever and however I wanted. It feels good to hear positive nostalgic memories highlighting and reaffirming those creative choices, even a quarter century later. The video was a pleasure to watch and made me smile, Thank you. 👍

I've never realized how unique Lego Racers was when I was a kid. As of today, I have yet to see a kart racing game that can top the warp boost. Also, literally no other racing has shortcuts similar to the ones on Magma Moon Marathon.

I think what you're saying is that we just need a "LEGO Racers Remastered." 😊

"Lego 1K Drive" would've definitely been a more appropriate name for the sequel

It is sad that the single player aspect of racing games have disappeared over time. Back in the day there was Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing with their adventure modes, and Mario Kart DS' mission mode (kinda). LEGO Racers doesn't really have an adventure mode, though in my opinion, playing through the circuits feels like more of an adventure than cups in Mario Kart. But when you win the circuit, you unlock the circuit champion's car set, and get more customization options for your car. You also have this in the older Mario Kart games, but to me this felt more special, there was a connection between what you got and what you did. Why do you unlock Funky Kong in Mario Kart Wii by doing some time trials? Nobody knows, but in LEGO Racers, you unlock Captain Redbeard and his pirate/imperial buddies when you win his circuit. As a kid I would replay LEGO Racers over and over again, with new cars and/or challenges, but I haven't touched the cups in Mario Kart DS or Wii in forever. Also, the car customization in this game is amazing, I've never seen something like it. 20:40 The tracks Athens Dash and Daisy Circuit also have the piranha plant plyboards. But the one in Athens is never worth it, and the one in Daisy Circuit is always worth it, so not much decision making there.

Man the nostalgia.. this was so enjoyable and doesn’t have the views it deserves. Not even close

I'm with you on Basil the Batlord - wish I could have had one of those sets too

I can honestly say that Lego Racers was the first game that ever scared me. So many things in this game caused 5 year-old me great distress. All the bosses, those Mummy things, the horror themed tracks, this game's got real jumpscares too. Can't recall playing any other game with the same sort of aesthetic as Lego Racers, and this video's the first time I'm hearing about that shield shortcut. Maybe an indie dev out there could work some of this game's ideas into their own thing

This was really insightful, great analysis of a classic. I grew up playing Racers and loved everything about it.

Great video - One underrated note is that Racers was robust and just ...worked. We had most of the 90s/2000s Lego PC games, and they were usually pretty unstable or wouldn't work at all. Racers ran perfectly on every PC I installed it on, and would run without the disc after installation. I'd put it on my friends' machines and we'd play it together - funnily enough on single player taking turns, or one friend driving and the other doing power-ups.

Great video! To add to the list at 15:20: we have DREAMZzz now too. Still not a long list but it's something. I like that you went super detailed on the shortcuts. Never really thought about how it would work in a multiplayer setting. I love the fact that people still remember this game fondly. We can only wish that they create something similar for the modern times. I've recreated the intro animations of the game but with modern graphics, to hopefully show Lego how cool this game was and maybe it sparks a move from them. But we can only dream. 😋

holy crap that was the biggest nostalgia trip ever

Sometimes I see long forgotten things from my youth and a certain part of my brain feels funny, and seeing that bat-helmet definitely did that!

Nice video. They actually had a system like you describe in Sonic R where you paid a certain amount of rings to access shortcuts. I never got the chance to play it in multiplayer, but it's possible it could have balanced things for people towards the back.

Great video! I made a lot of the sfx for this game, and that's actually me laughing as Johnny Racer. Oh the memories!

As a dedicated LEGO fan, who grew up with this game, and has many of the sets that were in the game, this really was an amazing video. It spoke to my heart.

Great video Tin Sensei! As a seasoned LEGO Racers speedrunner I can tell you you did it justice. Here's some memorable things I wanted to mention: 8:49 This is what we call a "Flakes moment" (Don't come after me Flakes😂) 12:41 I applaud you for this amazing joke. 13:22 "LEGO Racers was basically the Super Smash Bros. of LEGO." I never thought of this myself this way, but truer words have not been spoken about the game. It's truly how it felt playing this as a kid. I think I will quote this many times from now. As a fellow video editor I can only praise you for putting this video together so well. Cheers and I'll stick around for the future!

I just want to say, thank you you for mentioning Lego Racers game here and what makes the game great. When I first played Lego Racers, I noticed that the power-ups they had are different from the traditional Mario Kart formula, before figuring out the meaning of this. It is interesting in how its developer High Voltage Software was able to make the game an excellent home run even with some flaws. If there is any new true sequel to Lego Racers, not counting Lego Racers 2 and Lego 2K Drive and even Drom Racers, hope it will hit a grand slam

This is probably my favorite game of all time and even I hadn’t considered some of the gameplay elements the way you’ve shown them here. Incredible analysis (and a lot here that I might cite in the 2K Drive review I’m working on).

I miss that the older Lego models where very simple. Like they didn't have to make a whole set of specialty parts. Most of the sets were made out of parts that are common and could be found in other sets. Like rocket racer's car for instance, it was made out of common bricks. Unless you count the jet engines, they didn't have to make a whole new piece to make it look cool. 2k fills some nostalgia void but not fully. It has the spirit of making something out of nothing but it feels sullied by the fact it has so many more parts available to use.

One of the best videos ive watched by far!! you got a great format, very informative, and very enjoyable watch :) Im surprised you dont have even more subs!! Keep up the work, I can see you being very big very soon 💙

Banger video, glad to have gotten this randomly recommended

inb4 this blows up, amazing vid! Great quality content

I thought it was gonna talk about how insane the kart-building tech was but this is fine too. I remember my friend abusing the warp in the demo and still losing.

I agree with you about the living nostalgia that those early games had because of the crossover-ness of physical LEGO play. That's why I'm making my LEGO game concept so I can relive the old themes the way I imagined them to be. One of my back burner tasks was to make a simple racing mage so I might have to take some tips from LEGO Racers that you pointed out.

7:38 WHAAAT I never knew about that one! 8:31 How did I never discover that one either?? I traced up and down that track all the time as a kid looking for a shortcut

I loved this game as a kid. Thanks for all the analysis. I totally agree, excellent single player experience

Outstanding video. It did my head in having the clip of the warp transition to the mountain biking. I also loved the "hey!" from Voltage when Basil stile the green brick. Fun fact at 14:30 in the cinematic the colour of Rocky Racer's arms are reversed. Ingame his left arm is blue and the right is red. It's been a 2 and a half decade long debate about whether RR is Ausie or not and I guess we now have confirmation. I partially agree with your conclusions about why the LR powerup system won't (and hasn't) been created in a modern game. I think that a brand new IP called Rego Lacers could made and be everything Lego Racers was and more... It could be a truely amazing game... That no one would buy. It's not marketable at all in 2023. A single-player cartoon racer just won't sell. It may have a niche audience, i.e. just me, but LR was made when multiplayer racers were still being popularised and a single player cartoon racer was acceptance. Well done on the video and thanks for covering such an underrated game!

Beautiful video 👏, I never realized what made Lego racers fun was they let you have the overpowered warps, but still included challenges like rocket racers and Veronica voltage

Never knew the tracks and characters were based on old sets. That's amazing

To me the biggest appeal was the character and kart creation. I spent many hours building the silliest driver-racecar combos and testing them out on the testtrack as a kid. Imagine this level of customization, but on multiplayer. Just showing each other your creations would make the online experience worthwhile, much more so than skins, specialists or emotes could ever achieve

Watching Lego Racers footage with Celeste music is awesome. Thanks for giving this gem more attention. Why is this game not on N64 Switch online yet?

18:38 For Diddy Kong Racing, not counting its re-release remake on DS, it is supposed to get sequel treatments. However, because its developer Rare was purchased by Microsoft, all of its sequel plans were canceled

This game is my entire Childhood and i fully forgot it, thank you so much for giving me a run back to it

Nice video greetings from Germany! Always loved the old LEGO games

W video

to be fair, I think it's good that they bounced around, like a young person doing different jobs to figure out what they like, they also did original things each time. we got new stuff., which is one of the biggest issues in games nowadays. Why not lego racers 2? I loved 2. Was 1 better? in its own way... but I think it was good that they branched out every time.

i like racing games like this without rubber banding

Oh, wow. Lego Island 1. I played this so much as a kid. I still quote the game so often! :D Another racer I played way back when was from the moorhen games. It also included shortcuts but when playing with friends, using them felt dirty. Winning wasn't fun, because it felt... I don't know... like cheating? But thanks for this cool video. I've never heard of LEGO Racers before. Have a great day!

Thanks for your very clear thoughts on a game I distantly remember being very enjoyable. Kudos. There was so much replayability to Lego racers, I might go and give it a try again sometime.

11:20 Just wanted to say, that Bionicle: The Game (PC/Console) was developed by Argonaut Games. The cancelled Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui, and the GBA release Bionicle: Quest for the Toa (previously known as Tales of the Tohunga) were developed by Saffire.

Not a Lego fan, more of a RU-vid videos on games fan, and this is top quality

So, DKR did get a sort of sequel on the DS, yeah it was more of a remake, but it did have new tracks and custom track maker using the touch screen

The thing about the Short Cut system is that it's reliant on the powerup system of being able to pick up what you want instead of relying on RNG. Like off the top of my head there's a path that has 3 white bricks that basically ends in a dead end. But if you have a green, you just warp out no problem. So having short cuts that require something to use suddenly becomes much more tedious when you're having to pray to RNGesus for the item you want. And also the short cuts where they might not be as good but offer an item you'd want like white bricks or a green just aren't possible. Side note I was surprised to see some shortcuts I NEVER knew about even after all my time playing this as a kid. Then again, I think I mostly warped around the map so. While you are right about how there won't be one like Lego Racers one unless they decide to do a straight remaster of it. I'm more just curious how it took them so long to even bother trying to make another after 2, and I guess Speed Drome. And we Wound up with Lego 2k Microtransactions, err, Drive. Which is so fraught with it's own problems it's hard to focus on it being better or worse.

Sonic&sega all star racing transformed was last good skill-based kart racing, it mixed outrun, mario kart and diddy kong racing perfectly, and its very skill based and doesn't rely on item RNG like mario kart. Its shortcuts are as lame as mario kart, theres still a lot of strategy, a lot of mechanics with high skill cap like risk boosts in flying selections. And the items can be used in many ways, like you can use its equivalent of fake question mark block to block players behind you, or to throw it forward, its blue shell equivalent throws mini maze of obstacles to the player in the first so more skilled player can dodge it, but you can also "throw" it backwards to fuck everyone up. Then theres also the boost system with six tiers, it caps at three(boost pad in the floor) but if you use boost item afterwards it can go up and give huge boost, and you can hold the drift boost endlessly if you are skilled enough to get bigger boost from the boost pads. And you can also do tricks mid-air, if you do three in different directions you can get maximum boost, but you can also use the rolls to get momentum in some big drops. And I really like its time trial mode, where its just one lap that endlessly loops so you can play it over and over again. And unlike games mentioned in this video(other than mario kart), it was online too, the PC version is even active on good days these days, but nowhere as active as it used to be(its probably dead as the game has some issues on modern hardware). Too bad the sequel, sonic team racing, sucked ass and the online on PC was broken from day1 and they never bothered to patch it and it got zero support or updates.

My memories of this game were being dead chuffed on finally defeating Basil the Bat Lord, for some reason, him and Gypsy moth were just stupid hard to beat, not even rocket racer was that hard, in fact I found him pretty easy by comparison.

I miss the feeling lego racers 1 gave me.. Was great diving back into it in the form of this video tho!

i really hope lego racers gets a sequel at some point in the future, it was the best game

Great video. Loved this game as a kid.

You’re the man! Love your videos

This was my favorite game as a kid the 90s was incredible

There is a new Sonic fangame called dr robotnik's ring racers that kinda does LEGO Racers styled cutscenes where you can use any item that allow you to boost like a show or flame she'd to access shortcuts blocked off by boost gates

This video is brilliant. I had never thought of this.

LR2 had shortcuts... it's been too long since I played to recall the exact tracks, but Mars and Arctic had some very notable shortcuts that were usually shorter (well, duh) but had no powerups or avoided the repair zones (and repair zones almost always involved taking a longer path than ignoring repair.) I think LR2 is really slept on, because it had unique mechanics of its own, such as the vehicle destructibility and how that played into map design. I never played LR1, but given the gameplay I've seen of it for all these years I think I'd basically always prefer LR2's setup and maps.

Great video, I'd love to see your ideas taken by a developer. I'd like there to be just as much focus on the singleplayer as the multiplayer though, there's more than enough game IP's that have ditched singleplayer (semi)completely. My favorite race/car games all had an actual story or advanced singleplayer mechanics, some of the Burnout games come to mind, as well as NFS Underground and Most Wanted. Being able to craft your own kart is a must for a Lego game, the fact Racers 2 almost completely removed this option was the biggest reason for it to be a downgrade to me, it's not a Lego game without building. To me that's the biggest reason for Lego games today to feel different: There's no building anymore, IN A LEGO GAME. This is why Rock Raiders and Racers 1 will ALWAYS be my favorite Lego games, they combined building with actual gameplay. Instead of one or the other, like Creator (Kingdoms) being build only vs Lego Island 2 being gameplay only with (almost) no building elements.

I am in disbelief that despite playing the crap out of this game on N64, I've never discovered the shield shortcut on Magma Moon Marathon. I thought I found it all :((((((

I'm not much for a lego but this seems like a good game to play with GF. :) Your thumbnail obviously works. I wish you all the best on your quest. Now you make me feel like a dummy for not having the ballz to post the vids like you have.

I wish somebody remastered the lego racers 1 or doing a sequel really based into the 1 mechanics, not the lego racers 2.

i'm fond of this game, as well as the ero of lego having loads of their own themes before they had lots of licensed IPs. I want 2k drive, despite the 2k bs. It looks fun and I want to build and race lego cars in that game. I do wish devs didn't shy away from making single player focused games, let alone single player focused racing games. That's a recipe for an extra niche game. Modnation Racers does copy the power up upgrading mechanic, even the LV3 boost is a warp. However, the rest of the powerups just turn into bullet bills once you get them to LV3. Blur is my favorite skill-based "kart" racer. It doesn't have the randomness that most kart racers have.

Not too long ago I downloaded both lego racers out of nostalgia, along with some other old-school racing games, questioning myself "why did I hate the second game so much as a kid??"... well, those stupid new power-ups quickly reminded me why. First lego games where just something else, such a shame those days are long gone...

i miss this game so much :'(

yoooo what was that one Lego puzzle game you show multiple times where you put down the directional blocks to make your guy traverse various obstacle courses?

Any chance of a video like this, but on Lego Rock Raiders?

Mario Kart is great but Lego racers was my all time fave racing game

Lego Racers and Episode 1 Podracing were the 2 best

Love both games. You should go back and play 2 if you think its copying Mario Kart. Both racers games are so good at what they do. Great video tho!

Lego Island mentioned🫡

Bro idk if you're gonna read this but Rocket Racer got a physical figure!!! He's from the future!

Honestly, i was too poor for the lego sets. I don't think it as vital as i played the crap out of this. But totally agree you need newer mechanics but think it not that hard tbh but modern gaming lol

@tin_sensei Got the license to use FTL music at 18:05?

It seems to me, companies like Lego just had better ideas back in the day. Pirate sets, adventurer sets, space explorer sets. Generic enough to appeal to anyone. Now it HAS to be tied to an existing IP or no one will buy it. StarWars, Harry Potter, Mario, Minecraft, Barbie. Wheres the generic cowboys fighting space aliens and the pirate ship cruises by with rocket packs and skeletons from the knights & dragons set? The creativity and possibilities for weirdness was endless. Now its just, build the thing from the thing you already know (and pay $100+ for the set)

no

>> aspect ratio

I hate that system though of last place getin op pickups. it basicly means i can be in first place for the entire race and because last place got lucky and got a blue shell it can steal the win from me right at the end. its a awful system and y iv never cared for mario kart. its good to help players who fall behind have a chance to catch up but its soo bad that it opens them up to possably get a unearned win.

daddy tuber 3445

Lego Racers 2 was lowkey 10 times better lets be honest

Yea cuz Lego Racers already got made silly goose

If you don’t consider this game an underrated classic, consider yourself an opp

It's unfortunate that they gave all the characters Ritalin in Lego Island 2, just like in the later seasons of Dexter's Laboratory...

rock raiders, alfa team, island 1, racers 1 were amazing also legoland, legoland is a great alternative to RollerCoaster Tycoon