LEGO Bricks (video game)

LEGO Bricks
Key artwork
Developer(s)	Cobra Mobile
Publisher(s)	Hands-On Mobile
Director(s)	Rick Marazzani
Platform(s)	Mobile (Java ME)
Release	EU: 10 July 2006 NA: 27 November 2006
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

LEGO Bricks is a 2006 puzzle video game developed by Cobra Mobile and published by Hands-On Mobile for mobile phone platforms. Players manipulate falling groups of LEGO bricks with the goal of aligning three or more bricks of the same colour in a row or column, which removes them them from the screen and awards the player points. The bricks fall faster as the game progresses, ending when they stack up to the top of the screen.

LEGO Bricks was one of the first games created by Cobra Mobile, starting development as an unbranded prototype before being reworked to use the LEGO license. It was the first in a series of Java-based LEGO mobile games published as part of a deal between Hands-On Mobile and TT Games. The game was financially successful, and Cobra developed two other LEGO titles afterwards.

Gameplay

Screencast of a 6-brick combo, giving the player 240 points (240 × 320 resolution)

LEGO Bricks is a falling block tile-matching game. Groups of three LEGO bricks in a line fall from the top of the screen; each brick in the group can be coloured red, yellow, green, or blue. While falling, the brick groups can be moved to the left or right by pressing left or right, rotated by pressing up, or have their falling speed increased by pressing down. Individual bricks continue to be affected by gravity after being placed, and will drop down if there is any empty space below then. Once a brick group has been placed, any horizontal or vertical lines of three or more bricks of the same colour will disappear from the playing field; bricks that fall as a result of this can form new matches, causing a chain reaction.

In some versions the background changes with each level (176 × 208 resolution shown here)

Clearing bricks increases the player's score and fills the meter on the right side of the screen; completely filling the meter increases the player's level. Each new level reached causes bricks to fall slightly faster; in some versions of the game the background image of the playing field changes with each level. If one of the three columns under where bricks are dropped from reaches the top of the playing field, the game ends. The five highest scores achieved are saved in the high scores table.

Besides the four basic colours, there are also two types of special bricks. Groups will sometimes contain danger bricks, marked with horizontal or vertical lines over one of the four colours. When matched, danger bricks will destroy all bricks in their row or column regardless of colour any other danger bricks in their destruction path will also be set off. There are also ice bricks, which fall as only a single light blue brick. Ice bricks create a line of ice filling the row they land on, blocking all other bricks until they eventually melt.

Scoring

The scoring system in LEGO Bricks awards the player more points based on the size of each combo (how many bricks are cleared from the field between when the player lands a brick group and when they are given control of the next falling brick group). Each brick has a base value of 10 points; a basic match of three bricks gives the player 30 points. Additional bricks matched in a single combo will also increase the score multiplier for that combo by 1 for each brick. The combo score system uses the formula (b × 10) × (b - 2), where b is the number of bricks cleared during the combo. For instance, a combo of 4 bricks gives the player 80 (40×2) points, 5 bricks gives 150 (50×3) points, 6 bricks gives 240 (60×4) points, and 10 bricks gives 800 (100×8) points. Danger bricks give an additional 100 points each on top of the combo score. Ice lines will give 100 points per ice block when they melt (usually adding up to 800 unless any have been destroyed by danger bricks). Melting ice blocks do not count towards combos (even if they trigger one), though ice blocks destroyed by danger bricks do.

Development and release

Advertisement for Hands-On Mobile LEGO games from an Australian magazine

LEGO Bricks was one of the first games developed by Cobra Mobile, a mobile game developer based in based in Dundee, Scotland. The company was founded in 2005 to develop games for the J2ME platfofm; the developers spent their first six months creating internal tools and developing prototypes to test game concepts. In early 2006 Cobra started pitching their game prototypes to mobile publishers. Although their games received positive feedback, publishers were allegedly not interested in anything without an established brand name attached to it. A few of their prototypes received some attention, and Cobra was asked to rebrand one of them as a LEGO title, leading to it becoming LEGO Bricks.

The game was announced by publisher Hands-On Mobile (previously Mforma Group) at the CITA conference on 5 April 2006. It was to be the first game published under an agreement Hands-On Mobile had signed with TT Games Publishing to market mobile LEGO products in Europe, the United States, and the Asia–Pacific. At the time it was planned to release during the first half of 2006. During 5–7 April the game was demonstrated at the CITA trade show in the Las Vegas Convention Center; Hands-On Mobile was stationed at Booth 2653-V in the M-tertainment Pavilion. In May 2006 LEGO Bricks was available to play in Hands-On Mobile's booth at E3 2006.

The game was launched in Europe on 10 July 2006. In North America it was released on 27 November 2006, three months after LEGO World Soccer released.

Reception

Reception

Review score

Publication	Score
Pocket Gamer	6/10

Pocket Gamer's Chris Maddox, playing on a Nokia 6280, gave LEGO Bricks a score 6 out of 10. Maddox praised its gameplay and its "clear and colourful" visual presentation, but felt that it lacked depth and originality, concluding that the game was "best used for five to ten minute bursts of boredom busting". Pocket Gamer also frequently compared the game to Tetris (despite Tetris not being a tile-matching game), with one writer doubting it would play any differently prior to Maddox's review. French mobile service provider SFR rated the game five stars in their magazine Jeux mobiles, calling it "simple [and] addictive".

By April 2007 LEGO Bricks and Cobra Mobile's other debut title, Sensible Soccer Skillz, were both still considered best-selling mobile titles. Cobra developed two other LEGO games after Bricks: LEGO Batman: The Mobile Game and LEGO Indiana Jones: Mobile Adventure, both released in 2008.

Gallery

Promotional artwork and screenshots showing different versions of the game and different aspects of gameplay.

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  Key artwork (logo variation)
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  128 × 128 resolution version
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  128 × 160 resolution version
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  176 × 220 resolution version
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  A danger brick blasting through ice blocks
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  Main menu (176 × 220)
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  Main menu (240 × 320)
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  Online ad from Cobra's website

Prerelease screenshots

Screenshots of early builds of the game that show graphics not used in its retail version. Early development versions of the game apparently used "distinctive animated backgrounds".

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  E3 2006 screenshot
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  E3 2006 screenshot
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  E3 2006 screenshot
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  E3 2006 screenshot
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  June 2006 screenshot
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  June 2006 screenshot
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  June 2006 screenshot
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  Possible unused splash screen