From building with them, playing with them and even swallowing them, we have all played with LEGO as a child, but it most probably sits in a tub hidden in the loft or cupboard. Well…its time to dust off them old LEGO kits you have or get down to your nearest LEGO store as it’s now considered to be cool to play with LEGOs as an adult!
Yes, that’s right, it’s now actually OK to play with LEGOs as an adult so you don’t have to pretend you are only playing with them as your child is playing with them, but in reality you’re having more fun than them. And you thought other people didn’t know.
With LEGO shops almost everywhere these days I knew it wouldn’t be long until these nostalgic pieces of plastic came to the foreground again. After all, games such as LOTRs, Batman and Harry Potter all have game recreations made initially of LEGO. So wake up the big kid inside yourself and start recreating one of these top ten retro game scenes below…
10 – LEGO Donkey Kong Scene (Arcade)
Even though Donkey Kong looks rather happy it’s still a sweet LEGO interpretation. The arcade game’s character was called Jumpman and was renamed to Mario when it was released on the NES. Even though Donkey Kong was a simplistic game it caused hours of frustration due to the amount of barrels you would get in the face.
9 – Super Mario LEGO (NES)
This guy Michael Hickox has taken the time to animate the Super Mario game for the whole first level for the NES – It’s quite epic actually. It must have taken hours and hours, but it made me smile. Although more work was involved so this should be number one, I believe the detail in the following entries out-trumped this. But Mario has got to be one of the best games of all time doesn’t it?
8 – Streets of Rage (Mega Drive)
OK, we are throwing this out there: Streets of Rage is my all-time favourite retro game, followed by Golden Axe. You have to love the side-scrolling beat ‘em ups. It’s amazing how you can tell the LEGO characters are Axel and Blaze. The only thing that could have made this scene better is a LEGO version of the cop car that appears when you press A. Maybe even a boss too. Or would that have been asking too much?
7 – LEGO Excitebike Scene (NES)
I’ve never been a huge fan of sport and racing games, but there was something about Excitebike that used to entertain me. The motocross racing video game was launched in 1985 for the NES and it even had a design mode! I can still remember the title song for the game.
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6 – LEGO Zelda Scene (GameCube)
The Wind Waker is the Zelda that utilised cartoon-like graphics if you are wondering which one it is. The only downfall was the amount of sailing you had to do…we hated it. But the cartoon-like graphics worked extremely well due to the capability of the little purple cube.
5 – LEGO Contra Scene (NES)
Run and gun action games! The idea of running and shooting everything in sight involved not too much thinking and was the perfect carnage for a kid. Did you always wonder where all the bullets were coming from? You were oblivious to every other logic in the game, but the unlimited bullets were usually puzzling. Also, with 10 levels the game kept you entertained for hours.
4 – LEGO Metal Gear Scene (NES)
Although many people know of Metal Gear Solid for the PS1, fewer of you know Metal Gear for the NES. Usually games back then – and even today – are about super glueing your finger to that fire button and killing everything that moves on the screen; The Metal Gear games however were about stealth and getting by undetected. And because of it, Snake became a household name.
3 – LEGO Castlevania Scene (NES)
These 8-bit games look awesome in LEGO! This is probably due to the square characteristics of retro games. While I am not a huge fan of Castlevania I just think of it as a souped-up Super Mario Bros. That being said: Controlling Simon Belmont through the 6 linear levels was still fun and brings back the memories of two button video games!
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2 – LEGO Mortal Kombat Scene (Arcade)
Finish Him! Brutality! You know it was a good day when you got to perform one of your gory finishing moves and decapitated your opponents head. Thinking about it…the game was pretty violent for how young you were at the time. But, this just added to the experience and was the perfect game for a small boy. The 1992 game utilised one-on-one matches, five-button controls and if you have seen the movie you will know the game follows the same storyline of monk Liu Kang trying to save Earth from the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung. The only downfall to the game was lack of characters (only 8 in total). Sub-Zero was my favourite. Who was yours?
1 – LEGO Duck Hunt Scene (NES)
Duck Hunt, a game that came out in 1984 and in my eyes the game is still just as fun now as it was back then. If you were lucky enough to own a copy of the game along with an NES console and an NES Zapper then you were probably a very popular kid in school. There was just something amazing about aiming at ducks with your own gun and having three shots to successfully kill them. To play the game now you need to have an old-fashioned TV; these modern TV stop the NES Zapper from working. Also, you know a game like this today would cause so much stir with animal rights groups. Does anyone know the name of the Duck Hunt Dog?
Someone needs to totally create more of these and frame them. They would look awesome as pieces of art on the wall. So…is anyone up for the challenge?
