LEGO Rock Raiders (PlayStation video game)

LEGO Rock Raiders is a 1999 action and strategy game developed by Data Design Interactive and published by LEGO Media International for PlayStation. The game is based on and was developed alongside the LEGO theme of the same name. Like the Windows version of LEGO Rock Raiders, it features a team of space explorers mining for energy crystals on a hostile alien planet. Rather than managing a team of Rock Raiders, the player controls one character, travelling through levels using their chosen character's skills and any vehicles they find.

Initially conceived as a strategy game akin to its Windows counterpart, the PlayStation version of Rock Raiders eventually became more Blast Corps-esque after a period of troubled development, releasing in Europe in late 1999 alongside the Windows version. The North American release of the game went through a further period of development, receiving many adjustments and a new set of levels by GameWorld 7, before eventually releasing in mid-2000.

Gameplay

Characters

• Docs
• Sparks
• Axle
• Jet
• Bandit

Vehicles

• Chrome Crusher
• Hover Scout
• Large Mobile Laser Cutter
• Loader Dozer
• Rapid Rider
• Small Digger
• Small Mobile Laser Cutter
• Tunnel Scout
• Tunnel Transport

Alien lifeforms

• Spider
• Scorpion
• Slimy Slug
• Rock Monster
• Rock Whale

Missions

Missions are divided into different screens (or "levels"), with each screen having five open missions and one locked "boss" mission. Completing missions will give the player a bronze, silver, or gold medal, depending on how many objectives they completed. When the player has earned enough points (a minimum of five bronze, four silver, or three gold medals) the boss mission opens, which will unlock the next screen when completed.

One-player mode has eighteen missions divided between three screens. The missions are completely different between the European and North American versions. The European version also has three bonus missions, each one unlocked by getting gold medals in all missions in one of the three previous screens. The European missions were designed by Data Design Interactive and David Upchurch, while the North American missions were designed by Gameworld 7.

Two-player mode in the European version also has eighteen missions, five original ones and thirteen modified one-player missions. The North American version only has one level of six original missions. Boss missions start off unlocked in two-player mode.

In total, the two versions of the game have fifty unique missions between them, and sixty-three total missions, listed below:

	Europe (PAL)		North America (NTSC-U/C)
Level	One-player	Two-player	One-player	Two-player
1	Easy Pickings Water Ways Rescue Mission Ore-some! Blown Away Crystal Crazy (boss)	Easy Pickings Air Racing Team work! Lava Jumps Rescue Mission Whale World	Jet's Mission Axle's Mission Docs' Mission Bandit's Mission Sparks' Mission Trapped (boss)	There and Back Again Departure Web of Fire Building Bridges Crystal Isles Heavy Weights
2	Hot Scoop! High Flyer Slug Lake Into The Spiders' Nest Rapid Rush Trapped! (boss)	Blown Away Into The Spiders' Nest Crystal Crazy High Flyer Water Ways Trapped!	Supply Base River Run Thawed Out Web Space Move On Up Hot Rocks (boss)	–
3	Express Delivery Dozer Daze Smoke On The Water Ring Of Fire The Maze The Last Stand (boss)	Formula 20,000 Hot Scoop! Hop To It! Ring Of Fire Ore-some! The Last Stand	Fire Canyon Fire Down Below The Lair of the Rockwhale Trouble Down the Mine Scarce Resources Last Man Out (boss)	–
4	Transport Crisis Whale Song Hop To It!	–	–	–

Development

Development on the PlayStation version of LEGO Rock Raiders began in July 1998. Like the Windows version, it was developed by the Halesowen-based video game company Data Design Interactive.

In early 1999, six months before the PlayStation version of LEGO Rock Raiders was supposed to be submitted to Sony, the head of LEGO Media International decided that a real-time strategy game would not sell on the PlayStation. Data Design was ordered to change the game to be an action game. As senior producer Tomas Gillo did not have time to rework the PlayStation game while finishing the Windows version, David Upchurch was made the producer for the PlayStation version in March 1999. Upchurch had previously worked for LEGO Media as a producer for LEGO Chess and early versions of what would later become LEGO Island 2, and had visited Data Design to playtest LEGO Rock Raiders several times. He later described his assignment as being handed "the poison chalice," and hypothesised that LEGO Media's desire to drastically change the game was due to poor sales of Command & Conquer on PlayStation.

...every night I’d retire to my hotel room, exhausted, thinking to myself “That was a good day, we made good progress… but the game’s still going to crap.” All in all, it was a depressing and demoralising experience that soured my attitude towards working at LEGO Media.

David Upchurch, dupchurch.com

After many strategy-focussed elements were removed from the PlayStation game, the developers were left with a 3D rendering engine that could render and deform terrain, some LEGO vehicle models, and small minifigure sprites. Upchurch enjoyed controlling the vehicles and suggested making the game play like a hybrid between Gauntlet and Blast Corps, where the player could complete missions either on-foot or in vehicles, and could construct vehicles and decide how to best use them to traverse caverns.

As the game's submission date approached, Upchurch spent nearly two months living in Birmingham while he worked on it with Data Design Interactive, playtesting and designing levels for it. After finishing work on LEGO Rock Raiders in August 1999, Upchurch left LEGO Media, going on to launch PlayStation World magazine for Computec Media in 2000. He later cited his negative experience producing this game as a major reason for leaving.

Release

According to IGN, the North American version of LEGO Rock Raiders released on 17 August 2000. GameSpot listed an earlier release date of 30 July.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	59%

Review scores

Publication	Score
GameSpot	3.2/10
IGN	6/10

LEGO Rock Raiders received mixed reviews on PlayStation according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.

Adam Cleveland of IGN reviewed the North American version of the game positively, concluding "Who knew playing with Lego's [sic] on your PlayStation could be fun?" Cleveland praised its presentation, particularly its FMV sequences, vehicle graphics, and music. He also stated that its level design made each mission feel unique despite the repetitive environmental textures. Cleveland criticised the game's two-player mode for not being split screen, and wished that it allowed the two players to shoot at each other. He also made sure to mention a childhood friend of his defecating on his LEGO collection.

Shane Satterfield of GameSpot was far more negative, concluding that "the small things that are done right are far outweighed by the multitude of those done wrong." Satterfield found the game's visuals to be poor and the gameplay far too easy and tedious, stating that playing LEGO Rock Raiders was almost "akin to reconstructive knee surgery."

The game's loading times were particularly criticised as being far too long; the slider puzzle in the North American version was stated to help "make the wait more bearable" by IGN.

External Links

• Lego Rock Raiders at Wikipedia
• LEGO Rock Raiders for Windows at MobyGames