I remember really struggling with the final race on my first playthrough as a child. It wasn't until I realized that the ramps actually slow you down with fall time so once I changed my strategy to AVOIDING THE SINGLE INTERESTING GIMMICK THE TRACK HAD TO OFFER was I able to beat rocket. Man was that a depressing hollow victory.
I'll never forget when I called my grandpa to watch me beat the last level, but I found myself shocked that it was so difficult. It was him that told me that the ramps look like they slow me down. I proudly said that there's no way that could be the case, it makes no sense from a design perspective. Sure enough, I won first try when I humored his advice. It's one of my dearest memories.
Lego Racers: The more bosses I beat, the more pieces I get to add to my car and the more I can customize my character. Lego Racers 2: Once you build your guy (with a VERY limited number of pieces) and your car for each world, you cannot change either without restarting the campaign. Lego Racers 2 is only fun if you are in the story mode, your car is slow as crap in single race mode so I never do it. Lego Racers unfortunately just reused the same 12 tracks (reversing them for the second set of 3 bosses and rearranging the powerup bricks for the Time challenges. Lego Racers 2 makes you suffer through unskippable cutscenes I did like that in Lego Racers 2 your vehicle could be damaged and I liked that the pieces were more detailed (could use flat pieces) however, the 20 piece limit was VERY easy to hit and I always felt restricted. Lego Racers limited where you could place pieces on your much smaller chassis, but there was no piece limit (even though it would be impossible to place more than 20 pieces). I hated that I could not race as the boss or with the boss vehicles in Lego Racers 2 (maybe you could build Sam Sinister's car but you cannot be Sam Sinister). Each race track in Lego Racers was iconic and jam packed with character. Lego Racers 2 just takes the same open world and rearranges the checkpoints a little. Lego Racers had the amazing game mechanic of collecting red, green, blue, red, and white bricks for powerups; there was a strategy for saving your powerup until you got a white brick and/or memorizing brick placement made winning easier (was essential for winning at time trials). Lego Racers 2 was just random powerups and I always hated getting the stupid invisibility one, also none of the powerups gave you a speed boost (except for riding the bomb, but once you upgrade your speed a bit, riding the bomb stops being helpful).
Ok, one comment about Sparky's comment regarding the bridge, it's actually due to the fact that the bridge is a bit of an environmental hazard. If you cross it at over 90MPH, you might get knocked around a bit, losing bricks and possibly control.
@@ExpertContrarian Even without engine upgrades some chassis can reach that. I know for a fact that the police car and the Dino Island chassis with the blue inverted slopes in the middle can. I can't remember if the Life On Mars winged hovercar can or not.
Lego Racers 2 is still my favourite Lego game to this day! It was also one of the first videogames I remember playing as a kid so maybe that's why I remember it so fondly, despite its shortcomings that are noticeable when I play it every now and then. For me, there is a certain charm to it that the modern licensed Lego games(outside the original Lego Star Wars games) lack in my opinion.
One thing you forgot to mention is the fact that the items had multiple uses. The drill for example could just be used as a projectile, but you could also hold the button and cling on to it, giving you a nice little boost. The explosion cloud could be charged and detached from your car, which was especially useful to stop other racers behind you. The ninja was basically just a boo, but you had to crash into another car to steal an item. The dog missile could target any racer on the track, not just the first place. And the whirlwind could be used as a shield. Also you could change the direction of all projectile items if you looked behind you. That also meant that you could use the drill backwards, which sometimes actually came in handy when you took a wrong turn.
I did have a few paragraphs in the original script that touched on a lot of the secondary uses, but in the final video it felt a bit too mean-spirited the way I’d written it, so I cut it.
I personally really liked the final race track of the game. After all the gimmicky, wacky tracks with crazy skips, there was a sense of mastery and grandeur when faced 1 versus 1 with Rocket Racer. There were no gimmicks, no tricks, just you and the best racer in the galaxy on a simple track where the skill was the most important factor.
LEGO Racers 2 open world was hard but revolutionary and time consuming for me back in the day. As an adult, I admire the simplicity of the first game, but the second game is still so nostalgic I can't decide which I like more.
Personally I found Lego Racers 1 much more enjoyable than the second one and in fact I still enjoy playing it to this day! I agree with a number of the bad topics you’ve touched on, including the slippery physics and the useless power ups. On the subject of power ups the ones in LR2 are so ineffective unless used in a precise way. Whereas compared to LR1 you have a choice of 4 different items with the addition of white power plus brick that make your power ups more potent! Thus these were so much more effective. Another couple of things I’d like to add is the lack of creativity in the construction/build section where sure you’ve got more car chassis to build on, but your limited to only 16 bricks per car, WHAT THE HELL! Plus there’s no banter between the racers, which is another thing I enjoyed about LR1, it just makes the racing incredibly dull. I was also disappointed by the lack of work that was put into the ramas. I was looking forward to racing these guys but their animations I felt weren't given enough attention to detail. They appeared too basic and their feet looked well over sized behind the wheel. finally I actually like the old storyline better with the circuit races or championship in LR1, where you play one circuit after another. Sometimes I wish they could to a remake or a reboot of the original Lego Racers like they did with Crash Team Racing Nitro Fuelled, but with more characters and more tracks. Plus what would be good is if they could incorporate some characters from Lego Stunt Rally into the game, like Barney, Wrench, Chip, Lucky and have the Stunt Rally World champion Mr.X as one of the circuit champions in place of the Baron. Plus feature some other SR characters like Snake, Glacia, Brad Speedo, Sid Vacant, and on a separate note Sam Sinister from LR2 as a racer on the Basil the Bat Lord and Gypsy Moth circuits. Thus with the same story format as the original where you race each circuit one by one to progress, an unlimited construction set and unlock original characters and their cars as you progress through the game. Personally I’d love to see something like this happen so we can relive those good old memories to the full!
I remember when I was young I was disappointed when I found out that instead of being able to race Rocket racer outside the Xalax dome, where the intro cutscene showed much cooler tracks, you just raced him on the boring circle indoor track.
I always loved the weird lego speak in LR2. Everything the characters said sounded like insults or threat. I'll never be able to unhear it, especially these ones; "I'm gonna catch you *gibberish*" "*gibberish* fanny hole" "*gibberish* You mums a hungry maggot" Please tell me I'm not the only one who heard theae
I remember trying to guess what they were saying when I was a kid, this is as far as I got back then: "I will meet you by the tommy" "Comrade over verticle" "Better Center the soda"
omg, you just unlocked one of my core memories. Hearing the npcs say those things and making some english out of it. I remember their dialogue now. Might have to install the game again !!
I liked both games, and frankly, Im glad they're distinct from eachother. Gives you a reason to play and replay both of them. If a sequel is just a general improvement of the original, then it ends up killing the original game altogether
I guess it's kinda more of a perspective thing depending on skill level and experience, but I've personally never had issues with cars spinning out and bad controls once I mastered the controls. And you can beat Rocket Racer without upgrades, but you just have to race perfect, extremely tactically, and abuse power ups.
It was fun, but my main gripe with LR2 was the lacking car customization; there weren't as many sets, you were limited to only that world's set(s), you couldn't make complex builds or build too far away from the base, and your builds didn't really affect car handling like they did in the first in the first game. The options were so limited I would **always** make the same car every playthrough. The power-up system was also a huge downgrade from the first game; "building" your power-up was so cool, and it meant you had to plan them around the state of the race. The modding scene never took off with this game, which could have solved a lot of these issues. They diffidently cut content, but how much we don't know; I distinctively remember seeing promo pics for the PS2 version in Lego Magazine as a kid. There was a screen where you could rent pre-built, themed cars from specific characters, one of whom was "Professor Voltage" if memory serves. Sparky's icon and dialog was also different; NPCs, cars, pieces, sets were all slightly different, but the UI looked close to the final release. The graphics also looked way better. I have my old magazines somewhere, I should find those pages.... I hope eventually we get a leak of the development versions, like we did with the cancelled Bionicle game.
I game in here ready to debunk everything you said, because I thought/still think lego racers 2 is fantastic. However, I was shocked to discover that everything you said was 110% correct. LEGO Racers 2 could have been absolutely insanely good with just some of those improvements like pickups and no spinning out. BY FAR the most disappointing thing was seeing that awesome final race cinematic opener - and then being on a circle track at the end. I was horrified then - i'm horrified now. I really wish they had made a 500% more epic final track.
Not sure what this says about me but the fact that you couldn't NOT give your character a hat despite Sparky saying "You can give your character a hat IF YOU LIKE" really bugged me when I was younger, and ngl still a bit now 16+ years later lol
Two years before (1999) EA made a similar feature to these Action Replays on the game Sports Car GT. Those camera angles and effects were quite astonishing to me back then.
I used to play this game religiously growing up as a kid and teen and I know for a fact you can definitely beat Rocket Racer as well as the rest of the bosses with no upgrades. I never really liked racing with the upgrades because they made the bosses too easy imo and even more so, the other raves. I mostly played Arcade I think
I only ever played Lego Racers 2, but maaaaaaaaan did I love this game. This was a great video, and perfectly captures my experiences as a child. The open world aspect was brand new to me at the time, I don't think I had anything other than an NES in 2001 (I know.) and this was really the first exposure I ever had to open world. I have so much nostalgia for these early Lego PC games. Lego Island is another favorite of mine, which I only played after Racer 2. Rock Raiders is up there too, as my first RTS, and man that game did NOT age well. I think I finally just found the motivation to crawl through the river of shit that is making Windows 2000 era games work on a modern PC! Edit: A few more titles stirring in my subconscious: Lego Chess, Lego Creator (and Lego Creator Harry Potter and Knight's Kingdom), and most importantly Legoland! My first ever park builder game, so glad I unlocked all these memories :D
Glad you enjoyed the video! We actually have another one on our channel that covers a bunch of those classic LEGO games - including LEGO Rock Raiders and a lost LEGO Island sequel!
As a result of the reduced part count for both character and car building, as well as the limited Chassis option and no unlocks, LR2 is in no way larger than its predecessor. I've come to recognize that just about every pitch on the box is a case of false advertising. It's kind of funny that "More character customization" means 8 parts per category with no unlocks to the LEGO group. EDIT: An additional note on this: There's a wider variety of bricks that just can't be placed due to programming oversights are bugs. It's a little annoying EDIT: Ok, I've played both games again recently. Maybe on PC it's different, but tapping brake does allow you to sort of intentionally spin out like a handbrake turn... It's selectively useful at best. The items are definitely less interesting, but when you can make use of them they feel pretty good. The only upgrades worth getting are grip and power. Do I like it more than LR 1? No. Do I like it less? No. It's a different type of game, it feels different, it plays different. It may be objectively worse from a gameplay and customization perspective (Again, 8 pieces for your character and only a handful of chassis to choose from) but it's still fun for me in its own way to the point where I've been going out of my way to collect and display every LEGO Racers Xalax "set" (if you can call these things sets). I do agree though that Rocket's track is a major downgrade from... literally everything else... but as far as a test of driving acumen? The Grand Finale does leave a bit open for run optimization. I enjoyed it in its simplicity. After a series of convoluted tracks with strange gimmicks and annoyingly slick controls, it was refreshing to have something that felt like a fair test of my abilities in the context of the game itself... wish the ramps weren't actively a mistake to drive over though
If we ever get a 3rd Lego Racers game I'd like to see it combine some of the aspects of both 1 and 2. The powerup system of 1 is way more enjoyable than 2's Mario Kart styled random pickups, but 2's exploration system and the way the bricks you added worked as a sort of health bar were cool in their own right.
Haven't touched this game for a long while. Thoroughly enjoyed it as a kid on pc, funny enough, the low graphics install version of it disabled the traffic, so I didn't encounter it until later when doing a full install of the game. The car building was limited, but it didn't stop me from getting creative with builds as I could, and it got a good few hours from me at the time. Now, it is clear that the game had a lot of rough edges. Even recall my "gamer sense" telling me to lay off the gas when steering and keep steering to a minimum to prevent spin outs, and it did fairly well to avoid that issue altogether. Not that it still happened time to time. Good review. Would certainly like to see a new LEGO racers someday that could really flesh out all these interesting ideas. The brand has certainly had a dramatic improvement in quality for their games from what i can tell. About time LEGO racers got some development again.
I know this video is very old, but something else about the items. some of them had like hidden features. like the lightning blast one (also known as the 'lightning fart bubble' by younger me) you could drop down and leave it to blast racers behind you. I think you could ride the drill. but none of these features where obvious/taught. also some of the icons make no sense, me and by brother would call the tracking missile the 'doggy missile' and we thought the icon made sense because dogs run after cars??? still had a ton of fun though. We loved the split screen battle mode.
interesting review. i found the bricks/powerups system in lego racers 2 a real let down. the first one had a lot of tactics you could employ. you could make decisions about what you would pick up. lego racers 2 was just random & meh
guess we will see how Lego 2kdrive goes then huh? last Lego racers game I played was Lego racers on the N64 I got the pc version of lego racers 2 but no pc curently able to play it yet maybe in the future.
I liked LEGO Racers 2 more than the first game because i liked the open world, story with bosses and it was much harder. The first game got so easy when you learned the items and shortcuts.
My favorite part of Lego Racers was building the minifigure and vehicle. I never played the sequel but definitely quite enjoyed the original (on PC). One of my favorite things to do in Bomberman 64 was dress up Bombermen in customized outfits from the collectibles gathered in the main game, so I guess fiddling with minor details of a character's appearance is just something I like doing.
I'm afraid modern game industry practices would ruin it, but really, they need to take what was great about the first and second and fuse it into the best of both worlds
I wonder if the line about the rope bridge represents a mechanic they planned to include, but was cut late into the development cycle, and they just forgot that Sparky referenced the mechanic in one line.
Oh my lord i had so much fun with LR 1 and 2 in my childhood. 2 was definitely my favourite when i played it with my brother. The amount of time we wasted blasting eachother out of our cars and just running round the freeroam world as the characters. Also, does anyone else remember that myth from back in the days of unlocking the martian boss as a racable car? Edit: If i remember correctly, you could also drop the explosion shield from your car at any point during its windup to make the explosion stationary. And that drill carrot you where able to ride if you held down the launch key. Edit 2: Ah nevermind you already responded to a similar message
I remember hating those minigames so much that I never actually tried to complete a single one. So how did I beat Rocket Racer without them? Simple: Just get him stuck. The AI for Rocket Racer is not very good.
This is a great video and one I often come back to. Your analysis of the game is thoughtful and a joy to listen to. Will you ever review Lego Racers 1, though? I'd love to see a video where you talk about it in detail like you did here.
In NO way was the car and player customization in lego racers 2 better than the 1st game lol, there was such a limited amount of options and restrictions based on the world the car was made in... Great vid either way :)
I remember not being able to beat any single boss in the game, probably because I could not figure out how to upgrade my car as a kid. Still, the game was incredibly fun and being able to battle your friends is a great addition.
Loge racers and lego racers 2 I still play both games I love them both they were the first lego games I played as a kid on Windows xp laptop I will always remember the games because they were the best loge games I every played I wish they would remake the games in 4k in HD I spent hours building cars and then I made the cars put real lego and I all the loge racers games on the n64 the ps1 and the ps2 and the pc and great video you make good point keep up the good work
Ok, I know I criticized LR2's items, but they're not as bad as you're making them out to be. Well, most of them aren't, anyway. - Throwbot Disk: This is basically the game's green shell, except SUPER fast and with less predictable bounce mechanics. Middling, but it's something. Due to the high projectile speed they're easy to aim, and you can also launch them backwards. - Drill Missile: Slower moving projectile that just keeps going and can hit multiple opponents. These have a unique use - if you hold the item button you can ride it for a speed boost, though you take damage if it hits a terrain feature. Great to have on straight sections. - Homing Missile: The controls are wonky for it but you can actually pick your target. By default it selects whoever's just ahead of you, or whoever's in last if you're in first. They'll home for quite a distance as well. - Tornado: This absolutely fucks over the AI. If you hold the item button you can drag it behind you but then it fucks you over instead. Not particularly useful outside of that, though. - Thunderclap: Like you said, it's good if you're in a pack of traffic. - Ninja: Invincibility, invisibility, and if you pass through an opponent you can steal their item. Honestly, though, I actually found this item to be annoying to get. - Destructa Burst (I can't remember the official name): Two of these in a row will brick every opponent on the track. Broken.
I played both Racers games religiously growing up, but 2 will always be my favorite. It just felt so much grander and more ambitious. I think the open-world/ exploration aspects were a big improvement. A third game could have improved on these things even more.
I actually had more fun with Lego Racers 2 than the first one. Later on I'd come to make mods for the game and even use cheat engine to add npcs to my split screen races which was a lot more fun for the two that were playing the game. It got more intense adding 50 laps to the figured 8 shaped Xalax track with npc multiplayer but hey it was worth it in my opinion. Not saying mods or cheats make the game better by the way
The Grip car bonus helps with the spinning out part a little bit.. unless you upgrade the car's speed as well. :D Playing this game causes a ton of nostalgia but still have to agree with your review!
You’re right that it should more properly be called a duology, though - fun fact - Drome Racers was known as Lego Racers 3 for part of its development.
I dont remember lego racers 1 taking that long to finish tbh, but i do remember lego racers 2 gameboy taking a while. That was my first experience with the game and i love it, personally i kinda prefer a lot the gameboy had
I loved Lego Racers 2. Quick race mode and watching your own replays of the race was mad fun. Story mode was meh because the power ups made all the races too easy and boring
Incredible how plastic our brains were back then. I still remember being wowed by the environment in this game, and simply looking at certain parts of the race tracks in this video is still giving me that feel.
I loved Lego Racers 2, probably more than 1, even though I liked that too. Something about the open world and the customization captured me. Though, I haven't played it in probably 15+ years, and I'm not sure I'd enjoy playing through it today. I still, however, love all the car designs from every region, wish i had a couple of those models irl
We need new game Lego Racers. With characters from LR 2, also that you can custom, build your cars. And characters. With many parts to choose, from other Lego games like Star Wars.
I personally love the slippery controls. The game punishes you so fucking hard, so there's a really big risk/reward factor. Recently I've been spending countless hours trying to figure out how to play as one of the Ramas (the Xalax car guys), because something about both them and the cars they drive just absolutely enthralls me. Its been very hard though, considering the modding and hacking community has been all-but dead for quite a while now.
After watching RL2 and having played LR1 I think of needing to skip on RL2 as a blessing in disguise. 14:50 That layout! I can't... it gave me a laughing fit! lmao
Honestly, IMO LR2 didn't ruin or improve the LEGO Racers series, for a couple reasons: 1. Overall, the game was a "two steps forward, two steps back" sidegrade. The open world design and more extensive vehicle builder were a step up but the former resulted in a loss in environmental variety and the item system was a departure away from LR1's unique, non-random upgradable items and towards a "cookie cutter" random item system. 2. There had only been two games in the series, it's kinda hard to ruin a series that hasn't even been established yet.
I didn't like the feel of 2. I'm not against open world racers, I play them as well. But you can't like everything in a genre. I can't quite explain it but it has that....lighter feel to it, like LEGO Island 2 had, like it was flimsier....I dunno.
Damn your video made me relive the disappointment with Rocket Racer's track again D: I sure was an easily impressable child and even I felt let down when I was 7 :/
I didnt enjoy lego racers2 because of the open world aspect, as soon i was dropped into it i immediately lost interest. And to this day i dont enjoy open world racers. I love the arcade aspect. You choose your campaign or single racer or etc.. and Go! Let's hope the new Lego 2K is NOT an open world game..
You could not beat Rocket racer without the upgrades? Wow.. that's really surprising. that people would play the game and not get the upgrades to go faster.
I remember I good days of this game. Only thing that was annoying was the voice acting and sounds and I wish this game had real sets and possibly a remake of both 1 and 2.
LR2 is a game I always has wanted to like, but can't. You said the car building was better? Well, the building was akward, the sorting of bricks was tedious and when you have buildt a car.. You can't build a new on your save. And if you start a new save, your previous gets deleted! And your character creator is seriously lacking. There are no complete characters and you can't change the character later or get new parts. The physics are awfull, and in my most recent playthrough a couple of months back I only chose grip, to emulate LR1.. Wich only made the cars worse.. and I can't beat Rocket racer because the car is too slow, but I can't change my powerups once it is equiped. So I have to start a new save.. wich deletes my current save. Also, the worlds has many interesting aspects, but the content is spread way too thin. Sandy bay is the most obvious with a TINY town and almost only covered by the same grass texture. Hell, Lego Island 2 did a splendid job on world building, and it was released the same year and by the same company. Ugh!!! I love the feeling of Adventurers Island, but there is no way the game has any replayability after you have done the 4 races in each hub.
I have never played LR2, put from I see in this video, it doesn't look as good as the first one imo. The art direction of the first one is much better, be it the menus or the game itself. The open world and the tracks look kind of cheap and gamy. LR1 looked much more detailed and immersive
Your whole slippery control point is invalid. You are supposed to earn power bricks and upgrade the grip on the wheels as you progress through the game, especially before you reach the Artic. Great video otherwise
@@testsandrandomthingsyou don’t need all the speed. Just enough grip like one or two is enough to make it manageable. If you only get speed you’ll have to slow down on a lot of corners.
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I remember really struggling with the final race on my first playthrough as a child. It wasn't until I realized that the ramps actually slow you down with fall time so once I changed my strategy to AVOIDING THE SINGLE INTERESTING GIMMICK THE TRACK HAD TO OFFER was I able to beat rocket. Man was that a depressing hollow victory.
Truly a wild anomaly in a mostly fun game
I'll never forget when I called my grandpa to watch me beat the last level, but I found myself shocked that it was so difficult. It was him that told me that the ramps look like they slow me down. I proudly said that there's no way that could be the case, it makes no sense from a design perspective. Sure enough, I won first try when I humored his advice. It's one of my dearest memories.
Lego Racers: The more bosses I beat, the more pieces I get to add to my car and the more I can customize my character.
Lego Racers 2: Once you build your guy (with a VERY limited number of pieces) and your car for each world, you cannot change either without restarting the campaign.
Lego Racers 2 is only fun if you are in the story mode, your car is slow as crap in single race mode so I never do it.
Lego Racers unfortunately just reused the same 12 tracks (reversing them for the second set of 3 bosses and rearranging the powerup bricks for the Time challenges.
Lego Racers 2 makes you suffer through unskippable cutscenes
I did like that in Lego Racers 2 your vehicle could be damaged and I liked that the pieces were more detailed (could use flat pieces) however, the 20 piece limit was VERY easy to hit and I always felt restricted. Lego Racers limited where you could place pieces on your much smaller chassis, but there was no piece limit (even though it would be impossible to place more than 20 pieces).
I hated that I could not race as the boss or with the boss vehicles in Lego Racers 2 (maybe you could build Sam Sinister's car but you cannot be Sam Sinister).
Each race track in Lego Racers was iconic and jam packed with character. Lego Racers 2 just takes the same open world and rearranges the checkpoints a little.
Lego Racers had the amazing game mechanic of collecting red, green, blue, red, and white bricks for powerups; there was a strategy for saving your powerup until you got a white brick and/or memorizing brick placement made winning easier (was essential for winning at time trials).
Lego Racers 2 was just random powerups and I always hated getting the stupid invisibility one, also none of the powerups gave you a speed boost (except for riding the bomb, but once you upgrade your speed a bit, riding the bomb stops being helpful).
Ok, one comment about Sparky's comment regarding the bridge, it's actually due to the fact that the bridge is a bit of an environmental hazard. If you cross it at over 90MPH, you might get knocked around a bit, losing bricks and possibly control.
Doesn’t look like this guy ever even upgraded his engine lol
@@ExpertContrarian
Even without engine upgrades some chassis can reach that. I know for a fact that the police car and the Dino Island chassis with the blue inverted slopes in the middle can. I can't remember if the Life On Mars winged hovercar can or not.
So glad these early Lego games are getting some love.
And the DC Talk reference was completely out of left field, but much loved haha
Me too!
So much more varied and interesting than "LEGO Star Wars but a different movie"
New Game coming!!! Lego 2kDrive
Lego Racers 2 is still my favourite Lego game to this day! It was also one of the first videogames I remember playing as a kid so maybe that's why I remember it so fondly, despite its shortcomings that are noticeable when I play it every now and then. For me, there is a certain charm to it that the modern licensed Lego games(outside the original Lego Star Wars games) lack in my opinion.
It was my first game I played on PS2...
Oh good memories of this game
You should try Lego Racers 1 then, it's better
One thing you forgot to mention is the fact that the items had multiple uses. The drill for example could just be used as a projectile, but you could also hold the button and cling on to it, giving you a nice little boost. The explosion cloud could be charged and detached from your car, which was especially useful to stop other racers behind you. The ninja was basically just a boo, but you had to crash into another car to steal an item. The dog missile could target any racer on the track, not just the first place. And the whirlwind could be used as a shield. Also you could change the direction of all projectile items if you looked behind you. That also meant that you could use the drill backwards, which sometimes actually came in handy when you took a wrong turn.
I did have a few paragraphs in the original script that touched on a lot of the secondary uses, but in the final video it felt a bit too mean-spirited the way I’d written it, so I cut it.
The bomb was COMPLETELY useless except that you could ride it. But once you upgrade your speed a little, it doesn't even help you go faster anymore.
I personally really liked the final race track of the game. After all the gimmicky, wacky tracks with crazy skips, there was a sense of mastery and grandeur when faced 1 versus 1 with Rocket Racer.
There were no gimmicks, no tricks, just you and the best racer in the galaxy on a simple track where the skill was the most important factor.
That’s a really good perspective I hadn’t considered!
This is also how I had felt about it
LEGO Racers 2 open world was hard but revolutionary and time consuming for me back in the day. As an adult, I admire the simplicity of the first game, but the second game is still so nostalgic I can't decide which I like more.
Personally I found Lego Racers 1 much more enjoyable than the second one and in fact I still enjoy playing it to this day! I agree with a number of the bad topics you’ve touched on, including the slippery physics and the useless power ups. On the subject of power ups the ones in LR2 are so ineffective unless used in a precise way. Whereas compared to LR1 you have a choice of 4 different items with the addition of white power plus brick that make your power ups more potent! Thus these were so much more effective. Another couple of things I’d like to add is the lack of creativity in the construction/build section where sure you’ve got more car chassis to build on, but your limited to only 16 bricks per car, WHAT THE HELL! Plus there’s no banter between the racers, which is another thing I enjoyed about LR1, it just makes the racing incredibly dull. I was also disappointed by the lack of work that was put into the ramas. I was looking forward to racing these guys but their animations I felt weren't given enough attention to detail. They appeared too basic and their feet looked well over sized behind the wheel. finally I actually like the old storyline better with the circuit races or championship in LR1, where you play one circuit after another.
Sometimes I wish they could to a remake or a reboot of the original Lego Racers like they did with Crash Team Racing Nitro Fuelled, but with more characters and more tracks. Plus what would be good is if they could incorporate some characters from Lego Stunt Rally into the game, like Barney, Wrench, Chip, Lucky and have the Stunt Rally World champion Mr.X as one of the circuit champions in place of the Baron. Plus feature some other SR characters like Snake, Glacia, Brad Speedo, Sid Vacant, and on a separate note Sam Sinister from LR2 as a racer on the Basil the Bat Lord and Gypsy Moth circuits. Thus with the same story format as the original where you race each circuit one by one to progress, an unlimited construction set and unlock original characters and their cars as you progress through the game. Personally I’d love to see something like this happen so we can relive those good old memories to the full!
Your idea is one I can get behind! Seeing the Stunt Rally people woule be hella cool
When I was a kid, I used to play the multiplayer mode with my parents, my mom once ended up upsidedown inside a building in a Sandy Bay level.
I remember when I was young I was disappointed when I found out that instead of being able to race Rocket racer outside the Xalax dome, where the intro cutscene showed much cooler tracks, you just raced him on the boring circle indoor track.
I always loved the weird lego speak in LR2.
Everything the characters said sounded like insults or threat. I'll never be able to unhear it, especially these ones;
"I'm gonna catch you *gibberish*"
"*gibberish* fanny hole"
"*gibberish* You mums a hungry maggot"
Please tell me I'm not the only one who heard theae
"Then I catch you by the tummy"
" *Gibberish* Emma Semma Soda"
I remember trying to guess what they were saying when I was a kid, this is as far as I got back then:
"I will meet you by the tommy"
"Comrade over verticle"
"Better Center the soda"
omg, you just unlocked one of my core memories. Hearing the npcs say those things and making some english out of it. I remember their dialogue now. Might have to install the game again !!
I always heard "catch you by the tummy"
@@perditusthornatus6518 I'MA CATCH YOU BY THE TUMMY!
that's what i heard even as a 4 year old. i never heard the other things though, lmao.
I liked both games, and frankly, Im glad they're distinct from eachother. Gives you a reason to play and replay both of them. If a sequel is just a general improvement of the original, then it ends up killing the original game altogether
I guess it's kinda more of a perspective thing depending on skill level and experience, but I've personally never had issues with cars spinning out and bad controls once I mastered the controls. And you can beat Rocket Racer without upgrades, but you just have to race perfect, extremely tactically, and abuse power ups.
Did you know you can ride the drill as 'straight line speed boost'?
Yep! I had written about the secondary item uses in the original script, but cut some of them for time.
It was fun, but my main gripe with LR2 was the lacking car customization; there weren't as many sets, you were limited to only that world's set(s), you couldn't make complex builds or build too far away from the base, and your builds didn't really affect car handling like they did in the first in the first game. The options were so limited I would **always** make the same car every playthrough. The power-up system was also a huge downgrade from the first game; "building" your power-up was so cool, and it meant you had to plan them around the state of the race. The modding scene never took off with this game, which could have solved a lot of these issues.
They diffidently cut content, but how much we don't know; I distinctively remember seeing promo pics for the PS2 version in Lego Magazine as a kid. There was a screen where you could rent pre-built, themed cars from specific characters, one of whom was "Professor Voltage" if memory serves. Sparky's icon and dialog was also different; NPCs, cars, pieces, sets were all slightly different, but the UI looked close to the final release. The graphics also looked way better. I have my old magazines somewhere, I should find those pages.... I hope eventually we get a leak of the development versions, like we did with the cancelled Bionicle game.
If you can track down those images, I’d love to see them! Always love finding more LEGO history.
I game in here ready to debunk everything you said, because I thought/still think lego racers 2 is fantastic. However, I was shocked to discover that everything you said was 110% correct. LEGO Racers 2 could have been absolutely insanely good with just some of those improvements like pickups and no spinning out. BY FAR the most disappointing thing was seeing that awesome final race cinematic opener - and then being on a circle track at the end. I was horrified then - i'm horrified now. I really wish they had made a 500% more epic final track.
Not sure what this says about me but the fact that you couldn't NOT give your character a hat despite Sparky saying "You can give your character a hat IF YOU LIKE" really bugged me when I was younger, and ngl still a bit now 16+ years later lol
Two years before (1999) EA made a similar feature to these Action Replays on the game Sports Car GT. Those camera angles and effects were quite astonishing to me back then.
I used to play this game religiously growing up as a kid and teen and I know for a fact you can definitely beat Rocket Racer as well as the rest of the bosses with no upgrades. I never really liked racing with the upgrades because they made the bosses too easy imo and even more so, the other raves. I mostly played Arcade I think
I liked Lego Racers 2 alright but the controls were a lot less tight than Racers 1 and was overall just less visually appealing imo.
I only ever played Lego Racers 2, but maaaaaaaaan did I love this game. This was a great video, and perfectly captures my experiences as a child. The open world aspect was brand new to me at the time, I don't think I had anything other than an NES in 2001 (I know.) and this was really the first exposure I ever had to open world.
I have so much nostalgia for these early Lego PC games. Lego Island is another favorite of mine, which I only played after Racer 2. Rock Raiders is up there too, as my first RTS, and man that game did NOT age well. I think I finally just found the motivation to crawl through the river of shit that is making Windows 2000 era games work on a modern PC!
Edit: A few more titles stirring in my subconscious: Lego Chess, Lego Creator (and Lego Creator Harry Potter and Knight's Kingdom), and most importantly Legoland! My first ever park builder game, so glad I unlocked all these memories :D
Glad you enjoyed the video! We actually have another one on our channel that covers a bunch of those classic LEGO games - including LEGO Rock Raiders and a lost LEGO Island sequel!
whats the song called, that you used at 20:54? :)
As a result of the reduced part count for both character and car building, as well as the limited Chassis option and no unlocks, LR2 is in no way larger than its predecessor. I've come to recognize that just about every pitch on the box is a case of false advertising. It's kind of funny that "More character customization" means 8 parts per category with no unlocks to the LEGO group.
EDIT: An additional note on this: There's a wider variety of bricks that just can't be placed due to programming oversights are bugs. It's a little annoying
EDIT: Ok, I've played both games again recently. Maybe on PC it's different, but tapping brake does allow you to sort of intentionally spin out like a handbrake turn... It's selectively useful at best. The items are definitely less interesting, but when you can make use of them they feel pretty good. The only upgrades worth getting are grip and power. Do I like it more than LR 1? No. Do I like it less? No. It's a different type of game, it feels different, it plays different. It may be objectively worse from a gameplay and customization perspective (Again, 8 pieces for your character and only a handful of chassis to choose from) but it's still fun for me in its own way to the point where I've been going out of my way to collect and display every LEGO Racers Xalax "set" (if you can call these things sets). I do agree though that Rocket's track is a major downgrade from... literally everything else... but as far as a test of driving acumen? The Grand Finale does leave a bit open for run optimization. I enjoyed it in its simplicity. After a series of convoluted tracks with strange gimmicks and annoyingly slick controls, it was refreshing to have something that felt like a fair test of my abilities in the context of the game itself... wish the ramps weren't actively a mistake to drive over though
If we ever get a 3rd Lego Racers game I'd like to see it combine some of the aspects of both 1 and 2. The powerup system of 1 is way more enjoyable than 2's Mario Kart styled random pickups, but 2's exploration system and the way the bricks you added worked as a sort of health bar were cool in their own right.
*Lego 2k Drive On May 19th*
Haven't touched this game for a long while. Thoroughly enjoyed it as a kid on pc, funny enough, the low graphics install version of it disabled the traffic, so I didn't encounter it until later when doing a full install of the game.
The car building was limited, but it didn't stop me from getting creative with builds as I could, and it got a good few hours from me at the time. Now, it is clear that the game had a lot of rough edges. Even recall my "gamer sense" telling me to lay off the gas when steering and keep steering to a minimum to prevent spin outs, and it did fairly well to avoid that issue altogether. Not that it still happened time to time.
Good review. Would certainly like to see a new LEGO racers someday that could really flesh out all these interesting ideas. The brand has certainly had a dramatic improvement in quality for their games from what i can tell. About time LEGO racers got some development again.
I know this video is very old, but something else about the items. some of them had like hidden features. like the lightning blast one (also known as the 'lightning fart bubble' by younger me) you could drop down and leave it to blast racers behind you. I think you could ride the drill. but none of these features where obvious/taught. also some of the icons make no sense, me and by brother would call the tracking missile the 'doggy missile' and we thought the icon made sense because dogs run after cars??? still had a ton of fun though. We loved the split screen battle mode.
Bruh the infra gave me nostalgia overload
interesting review. i found the bricks/powerups system in lego racers 2 a real let down. the first one had a lot of tactics you could employ. you could make decisions about what you would pick up. lego racers 2 was just random & meh
the first one was the best and it still has so much potential
guess we will see how Lego 2kdrive goes then huh?
last Lego racers game I played was Lego racers on the N64 I got the pc version of lego racers 2 but no pc curently able to play it yet maybe in the future.
For me it was all about exploration and that's why I loved Lego Racers 2.
I liked LEGO Racers 2 more than the first game because i liked the open world, story with bosses and it was much harder. The first game got so easy when you learned the items and shortcuts.
My favorite part of Lego Racers was building the minifigure and vehicle. I never played the sequel but definitely quite enjoyed the original (on PC).
One of my favorite things to do in Bomberman 64 was dress up Bombermen in customized outfits from the collectibles gathered in the main game, so I guess fiddling with minor details of a character's appearance is just something I like doing.
I'm afraid modern game industry practices would ruin it, but really, they need to take what was great about the first and second and fuse it into the best of both worlds
I wonder if the line about the rope bridge represents a mechanic they planned to include, but was cut late into the development cycle, and they just forgot that Sparky referenced the mechanic in one line.
Does there exist an unofficial patch for the slippery car handling in this game? Because that's the biggest deal breaker for me!
Oh my lord i had so much fun with LR 1 and 2 in my childhood. 2 was definitely my favourite when i played it with my brother. The amount of time we wasted blasting eachother out of our cars and just running round the freeroam world as the characters. Also, does anyone else remember that myth from back in the days of unlocking the martian boss as a racable car?
Edit: If i remember correctly, you could also drop the explosion shield from your car at any point during its windup to make the explosion stationary. And that drill carrot you where able to ride if you held down the launch key.
Edit 2: Ah nevermind you already responded to a similar message
I remember hating those minigames so much that I never actually tried to complete a single one. So how did I beat Rocket Racer without them? Simple: Just get him stuck. The AI for Rocket Racer is not very good.
This is a great video and one I often come back to. Your analysis of the game is thoughtful and a joy to listen to. Will you ever review Lego Racers 1, though? I'd love to see a video where you talk about it in detail like you did here.
I’d love to! Just have to sit down and start writing the script! Thanks for the kind words!
In NO way was the car and player customization in lego racers 2 better than the 1st game lol, there was such a limited amount of options and restrictions based on the world the car was made in...
Great vid either way :)
Lego racers 2 was the jam
I remember not being able to beat any single boss in the game, probably because I could not figure out how to upgrade my car as a kid. Still, the game was incredibly fun and being able to battle your friends is a great addition.
I learned how to deal with the slippery controls and lego racers 2 by tapping the turn keys at the right speed.
i've been trying to find lego racers 2 for the GC for awhiiile
I don't think it came out on the GameCube unfortunetly.
As far as I know it was only on PC and PS2, with a tangential port for the Gameboy Advance.
ATD’s follow up title, Drome Racers, was released for GameCube.
Loge racers and lego racers 2 I still play both games I love them both they were the first lego games I played as a kid on Windows xp laptop I will always remember the games because they were the best loge games I every played I wish they would remake the games in 4k in HD I spent hours building cars and then I made the cars put real lego and I all the loge racers games on the n64 the ps1 and the ps2 and the pc and great video you make good point keep up the good work
Ok, I know I criticized LR2's items, but they're not as bad as you're making them out to be. Well, most of them aren't, anyway.
- Throwbot Disk: This is basically the game's green shell, except SUPER fast and with less predictable bounce mechanics. Middling, but it's something. Due to the high projectile speed they're easy to aim, and you can also launch them backwards.
- Drill Missile: Slower moving projectile that just keeps going and can hit multiple opponents. These have a unique use - if you hold the item button you can ride it for a speed boost, though you take damage if it hits a terrain feature. Great to have on straight sections.
- Homing Missile: The controls are wonky for it but you can actually pick your target. By default it selects whoever's just ahead of you, or whoever's in last if you're in first. They'll home for quite a distance as well.
- Tornado: This absolutely fucks over the AI. If you hold the item button you can drag it behind you but then it fucks you over instead. Not particularly useful outside of that, though.
- Thunderclap: Like you said, it's good if you're in a pack of traffic.
- Ninja: Invincibility, invisibility, and if you pass through an opponent you can steal their item. Honestly, though, I actually found this item to be annoying to get.
- Destructa Burst (I can't remember the official name): Two of these in a row will brick every opponent on the track. Broken.
I played both Racers games religiously growing up, but 2 will always be my favorite. It just felt so much grander and more ambitious. I think the open-world/ exploration aspects were a big improvement. A third game could have improved on these things even more.
I actually had more fun with Lego Racers 2 than the first one. Later on I'd come to make mods for the game and even use cheat engine to add npcs to my split screen races which was a lot more fun for the two that were playing the game. It got more intense adding 50 laps to the figured 8 shaped Xalax track with npc multiplayer but hey it was worth it in my opinion. Not saying mods or cheats make the game better by the way
The Grip car bonus helps with the spinning out part a little bit.. unless you upgrade the car's speed as well. :D
Playing this game causes a ton of nostalgia but still have to agree with your review!
Can you really call it a "franchise" if it's still just a duology, or are you counting _Stunt Rally_ and other spinoffs too?
You’re right that it should more properly be called a duology, though - fun fact - Drome Racers was known as Lego Racers 3 for part of its development.
I dont remember lego racers 1 taking that long to finish tbh, but i do remember lego racers 2 gameboy taking a while. That was my first experience with the game and i love it, personally i kinda prefer a lot the gameboy had
I loved Lego Racers 2. Quick race mode and watching your own replays of the race was mad fun. Story mode was meh because the power ups made all the races too easy and boring
Incredible how plastic our brains were back then. I still remember being wowed by the environment in this game, and simply looking at certain parts of the race tracks in this video is still giving me that feel.
I loved Lego Racers 2, probably more than 1, even though I liked that too. Something about the open world and the customization captured me. Though, I haven't played it in probably 15+ years, and I'm not sure I'd enjoy playing through it today.
I still, however, love all the car designs from every region, wish i had a couple of those models irl
We need new game Lego Racers. With characters from LR 2, also that you can custom, build your cars. And characters. With many parts to choose, from other Lego games like Star Wars.
My childhood was LEGO Racers 2 and LEGO Soccer Mania
I personally love the slippery controls. The game punishes you so fucking hard, so there's a really big risk/reward factor. Recently I've been spending countless hours trying to figure out how to play as one of the Ramas (the Xalax car guys), because something about both them and the cars they drive just absolutely enthralls me. Its been very hard though, considering the modding and hacking community has been all-but dead for quite a while now.
After watching RL2 and having played LR1 I think of needing to skip on RL2 as a blessing in disguise.
14:50 That layout! I can't... it gave me a laughing fit! lmao
Breaking the boss' cars and watching them run for dear life was the funniest shit.
Honestly, IMO LR2 didn't ruin or improve the LEGO Racers series, for a couple reasons:
1. Overall, the game was a "two steps forward, two steps back" sidegrade. The open world design and more extensive vehicle builder were a step up but the former resulted in a loss in environmental variety and the item system was a departure away from LR1's unique, non-random upgradable items and towards a "cookie cutter" random item system.
2. There had only been two games in the series, it's kinda hard to ruin a series that hasn't even been established yet.
This game is so special to me...
One of the early's games I've played in my life
It did. They should have just done the original with new tracks and new characters
I beat Rocket Racer by destroying his car and making him run a lap because he'd rather lose on his feet than go in reverse to get his car fixed.
Gotta respect his tenacity.
Great game. I would take any oppitunity to play this again
I didn't like the feel of 2. I'm not against open world racers, I play them as well. But you can't like everything in a genre. I can't quite explain it but it has that....lighter feel to it, like LEGO Island 2 had, like it was flimsier....I dunno.
Now Come Back Taking About Lego 2k Drive 😂
Damn your video made me relive the disappointment with Rocket Racer's track again D: I sure was an easily impressable child and even I felt let down when I was 7 :/
Both games have their problems, but I still love them both. I’m sad that we never did get a third one.
I seem to remember the power bricks in 2 being worse. EDIT: Now that I watched the video all the way though I see that you agree.
Ah, I see what the true lesson of this video is!
Don't ever trust critics.
or, find critics that *you* trust!
I didnt enjoy lego racers2 because of the open world aspect, as soon i was dropped into it i immediately lost interest. And to this day i dont enjoy open world racers. I love the arcade aspect. You choose your campaign or single racer or etc.. and Go! Let's hope the new Lego 2K is NOT an open world game..
You could not beat Rocket racer without the upgrades? Wow.. that's really surprising. that people would play the game and not get the upgrades to go faster.
Nope.
Having that free roam thing was kinda great.
But looking at lego racers where you could not start a new game when finished, drove me nutts...
Its very easy to beat rocket racer without any car improvements from the mini games. Just dont take the ramps and you will still win easy
The driving in LR was great. LR2 driving was garbage. For that LR1 is my favorite. I threw LR2 in the trash
I can’t lie I love the final boss race
I remember I good days of this game. Only thing that was annoying was the voice acting and sounds and I wish this game had real sets and possibly a remake of both 1 and 2.
LR2 is a game I always has wanted to like, but can't. You said the car building was better? Well, the building was akward, the sorting of bricks was tedious and when you have buildt a car.. You can't build a new on your save. And if you start a new save, your previous gets deleted! And your character creator is seriously lacking. There are no complete characters and you can't change the character later or get new parts. The physics are awfull, and in my most recent playthrough a couple of months back I only chose grip, to emulate LR1.. Wich only made the cars worse.. and I can't beat Rocket racer because the car is too slow, but I can't change my powerups once it is equiped. So I have to start a new save.. wich deletes my current save. Also, the worlds has many interesting aspects, but the content is spread way too thin. Sandy bay is the most obvious with a TINY town and almost only covered by the same grass texture. Hell, Lego Island 2 did a splendid job on world building, and it was released the same year and by the same company. Ugh!!! I love the feeling of Adventurers Island, but there is no way the game has any replayability after you have done the 4 races in each hub.
I never liked the xalax kart nor Rocket Racer's ugly redesign.
The first one had a better and much more unique power-up system too.
LR1's power-up system came from Diddy Kong Racing
There was a 2!?! and a 3!!!!
I did not know Lego Racers 2 was on PS2 and computer, I had as a gameboy advance game and it was meh.
I have never played LR2, put from I see in this video, it doesn't look as good as the first one imo. The art direction of the first one is much better, be it the menus or the game itself. The open world and the tracks look kind of cheap and gamy. LR1 looked much more detailed and immersive
This game was better than the original! I always liked how your car could get destroyed and leave you running across the finish line.
The martian set series was the real deal.
I've always thought that Lego Racers 2 was just as popular if not more than the original.
Just send some money ❤
Yes, yes it did. 🤷
Your whole slippery control point is invalid. You are supposed to earn power bricks and upgrade the grip on the wheels as you progress through the game, especially before you reach the Artic.
Great video otherwise
While true in a way, any other upgrade than speed was pretty much pointless. Getting more grip was basically hitting yourself as you had less speed.
@@testsandrandomthingsyou don’t need all the speed. Just enough grip like one or two is enough to make it manageable. If you only get speed you’ll have to slow down on a lot of corners.
Lego Racers>Rock Raiders>>>>>>>>>>>> Lego Racers 2
LR2 just looks so much more washed out and aged way worse than the first one
Yeah it ruined the series. Such a shitty game