Unlike many people, I am not a huge fan of the first LEGO Island game. While it was a big leap for TLC, it holds more nostalgia for me than it does fun.

When you start up LEGO Island, a little screen with Infomaniacs leapfrogging pops up. Interesting, but not great.

The intro is awesome. More awesome than most. You get to see essentially everything you can do on LEGO Island. (Intro)

Once you're done watching that, you are introduced to the Infomaniac, the colorful character who built LEGO Island. He can be a little tedious, but otherwise no issues with him.

Now that you've created an account, you have a few options. On this screen you can click a character to view a

You can explore the Infocenter by clicking the left and right arrows. In one room, there is a cube with the scores for each character on the five, count-em, five, mini-games you can play on LEGO Island. There are also three boxes, which, when clicked, open up and the set they contain is built digitally. Interesting little play feature.

The other thing you can do in the Infocenter is board the elevator. This elevator has three floors. The first is the one on the same level as the rest of the Infocenter. The second floor, on the other hand, is underwater. It's pretty plain and could have been spruced up a lot more by TLC, but it's kind of funny nonetheless. The third floor is the top of the Infocenter. There's a surprisingly large number of things to do here. You can shoot a paper airplane by pulling a lever, turn on LEGO Radio, and change the color of the sky. There's also a cabinet with a monkey in it.

To leave the Infocenter, exit through that door. You also have the option of clicking and dragging a character's face onto any of the buildings on the main screen.

Outside of the Infocenter, there are five locations with activities.

Enough with the pictures, it's taking more effort than it's worth.

There are three vehicles to build - a police helicopter, a race car, and a jet ski. You need to build the helicopter for the Brickster to escape, and you need to build the other vehicles to race in them. Building them is a cinch - it's nothing more than placing groups of parts together by clicking and dragging them into the highlighted area. You can change the color scheme of the vehicles as well.

Once built, you have the option of piloting the jet ski and police helicopter. Unfortunately, the movement in vehicles is as poor as it is for figures - it's a third person movement which is too far rapid and uncontrolled.

After building the jet ski and race car, you have the option of racing in them. These races are not at all challenging, at least not for someone like myself. They do have a lot of interesting features and little shoutouts to themes. If you win, you get a red brick. If you get second, you get a blue brick. If you lose, you get a yellow brick. These are recorded on the cube.

What else can you do on LEGO Island?

The next minigame is the hospital one. You have to drive the van to two locations - the police station and the pizzeria. At the pizzeria, a man is choking. By clicking him, either Enter or Return does the Heimlich maneuver and he barfs out a choking shark. This shark barfs out a dog, which has eaten a cat, which ate a parrot who says something I can't remember. At the police station, a parrot is bothering a man who can't get down. You have to click the pole thing which prevents people from driving into or out of the place and then put the stretcher beneath. The whole thing has funny lines from Enter and Return, the lovable assistants.

The other activity is delivering pizzas. Each character delivers a pizza to a different location. For the most part, these deliveries are routine, except for Pepper's - he has to deliver to the jail. Once you do that, the Brickster blows open the cage and gets into the helicopter you've built. He proceeds to fly to the Infocenter, take the power brick, and take apart the island. He also drops parts of the helicopter. You have to find parts of the helicopter using a radar which beeps more frequently the closer you are to a part. While you do this, the Brickster hides in the cave beneath the island.

Once you have constructed the helicopter, you have to defeat the Brickster once and for all. Fly around the island with those jerky controls, firing a limited supply of pizza and donuts. The Brickster will eat pizzas, slowing him down. He will also go out of the way to eat them. Nick and Laura Brick ride around blindly, following Donuts. They go quite slowly and Donuts speed them up. The Brickster can't get past donuts, so at times you can get him stuck going back and forth and the police will catch him.

During this, the Brickster is driving around, sucking up buildings into a megaphone. Once he reaches the pizzeria (there's something akin to a time limit, although this can be extended by drawing the Brickster away with pizzas), you lose.

If you lose, you are shown a scene where the Brickster stands laughing atop a pile of bricks, but then realizes that the whole island is gone and that he's screwed up. You're teleported to the Infocenter and told that it's not an issue, as you can just start over!

If you win, you are shown a cool video with a bunch of stuff happening.

You can do any of these activities a second time.

So that's it for activities. But what else is there?

Loads of stuff! LEGO Island is packed chock-full of cool activities.

There are many characters who, when you walk near them, will talk to you. You can see conga lines and the Legondos practicing. There's a cave with a coffin out of which "spooky" characters emerge. You can drive around on a skateboard or bike (although it really isn't that fun). You can also chance trees, signs, and flowers into other things!

Now for the pros and cons. What really matters.

What's good:

• LEGO Island is chock-full of interactive fun
  
• There is enough variety in the minigames
  
• There are numerous people to talk with
  
• The racing games have many cool details
  
• The characters are pretty recognizable and have little personalities
  
• Some of the music tracks are exceptional, especially Interplanetary and Lucky You (both by The Torpedoes)
  

What's bad:

• The models are not particularly good. Most of them aren't bad either, but they're more or less standard for their time.
  
• The game is first person and the movement is strange. When people walk around, they're hunched over and they glide. In a vehicle, you glide forward and the turning isn't very good.
  
• You can't stray off the paths. This isn't as big as it would be in Island Xtreme Stunts, but it's still kind of annoying.
  
• The games aren't too challenging, except for catching the Brickster, which is quite annoying as Nick and Laura's AI sucks and because the helicopter's movement is too fast.
  
• LEGO Island could have used another activity or two.
  

Overall? I don't think I could give a good numerical rating, but I'd say it ranks a bit below the LEGO Racers series. It's far better than, say, LEGO Stunt Rally, but in terms of "quantity of fun", I would put it below LEGO Island 2 (a game which I did like) and LEGO Racers.

Is this game worth playing? Definitely. It's a classic LEGO game with many things to do. Does it have much replay value? If you're reviewing it or you really really like it, then yes. For me, it's a game that I might play every few years just to remind myself of one of the reasons why I like this toy so much. The game has a high nostalgic value for me. Otherwise, it's not something I would play more than a few times.