YMMV / LEGO Island

• Accidental Innuendo: Papa Brickolini's introduction video, especially "If you think that's good, you should taste it!" YouTube Poopers had a field day with this one.
• Accidental Nightmare Fuel: Some of the faces in the second game can be quite nightmarish depending on your viewpoint, especially in closeups, due to possessing a similar case of Unintentional Uncanny Valley as Thomas & Friends. Pepper's "shocked" face particularly stands out because of its suddeness.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Wes Jenkins recalls the higher ups at LEGO questioning the viability of the game and had very little faith in the product (which would explain their rather controversial decisions to can the originally intended sequels and fire the development team a day before release to avoid paying bonuses). They also strongly questioned why he was opting to make the game 3D, as at the time that was very uncommon for family-oriented computer games^note Games aimed at kids tended to aim for the Lowest Common Denominator when it came to the system specs of a family computer as parents would be extremely unlikely to upgrade their computer just to be able to let their kid play a game. The game would wind up being a Breakthrough Hit that put LEGO licensed games on the map and completely shattered every low expectation they had, and directly led to many more games being produced in the wake of its success.
• Awesome Music:
  • The whole soundtrack of the first game. Specific examples:
    • The Brickster chase.
    • The observation deck.
    • The hospital.
    • The information center. (Remastered: as initially provided by Project Island, a proper recreation of higher-pitched in-game version using initially provided version)
    • "Brick by Brick" (remastered) by the Flying Salvias ^note Henry Salvia and Kathleen Salvia (née Enright), the latter spelled in-game as Kathleen N. Right and was the only credited artist back then Also one heck of an earworm.
    • The game features guest appearances from bands such as Decal and The Torpedoes, the latter of which could cause a Song Association due to actual songs such as "Interplanetary" when on the beach or "Tarantula" when riding/racing on the jet ski.
    • While the first LEGO Island game is known for its laid-back and relaxing atmosphere, it does have a pair of genuinely creepy tracks: Mystery (the cave theme) and Brick Hunt.
  • As contested as LEGO Island 2 is, no one can deny that it has an awesome soundtrack. Asteroids is the one everyone remembers, but the game has other gems too, like the mysterious-sounding Pyramid Area, the epic intensity of Snake Pursuit, and the substantially-creepy OGEL Island.
  • From Island Xtreme Stunts, we have 2002, a rather under-appreciated atmospheric techno tune; Xtreme Tower in Car, a hard rock remix of the game's main theme; Brickster Boss ver. 1, a fast-paced penultimate track; and of course, Brickster Boss ver. 2, which sounds like an epic Dark Reprise of the Brickster's theme from the original LEGO Island.
• Ass Pull: The constructopedia in the second game. It's never mentioned in any of the other games in the series and is literally there just to give the game a plot and not much else.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The first game contained many, many, many, many, MANY, of these. In fact, pretty much the whole game is comprised of them.
  • Also, the girl in the ending of the second game. See What Happened to the Mouse? on the main page.
• Broken Base: The faces in the second game. Charmingly hilarious or insanely scary?
• Contested Sequel: Island Xtreme Stunts, compared to the first LEGO Island (it's considered a Surprisingly Improved Sequel compared to LEGO Island 2). On one hand, it is a welcome return to the free-roaming sandbox approach of the first game, now combined with the increased freedom in movement introduced in the second game, and gives us a much larger island to explore, plus a hefty dose of Awesome Music provided by L.E.G.O. Radio. On the other hand, it has unprofessional voice acting, carries over its predecessor's poor platforming (which becomes apparent, once again, when you must ascend the Brickster's tower), and has numerous Game Breaking Bugs including one particularly infamous one which corrupts your save file. Some fans of the series also feel that the Extreme Sports Plot felt out-of-place in the LEGO Island setting, while others don't mind it at all.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The first LEGO Island game has Enter and Return.
• Fan Nickname: One of the tracks from the first game's soundtrack, played in the (mostly) uninhabited central region of the island, is described in the game's credits as "Bank Song" and in the files as "Central Roads" (both of which more or less accurately describe the location where it plays). However fans generally know the song by the name "Happy Roaming", which was invented from whole cloth by fan soundtrack re-uploader spyfoxguy when he uploaded the track to YouTube in 2008. The name caught on, and even more "official" subsequent uploads of the track (such as the one on the Project Island website) use it.
• First Installment Wins: While the two sequels have their fans, it's the first game that everyone remembers and loves the most.
• Franchise Original Sin: People who complain that the gameplay of LEGO Island 2 is just walking through an overworld from one minigame to the next fail to remember that LEGO Island was literally just an overworld with four "building" minigames and five "obstacle course" minigames. Granted, the overworld of LEGO Island is much more alive than that of LEGO Island 2, but there isn't much to do in LEGO Island besides the minigames, which is a common criticism aimed at LEGO Island 2 instead. For that matter, at least the LEGO Island 2 minigames are more varied than those of LEGO Island.
• Fridge Horror: Sure he's an unredeemable jerk, but in the second game, Pepper basically leaves the Brickster to die of starvation trapped in a conveniently placed cell in his own palace. Sure, he gets out eventually by Xtreme Stunts, but come on.
• Gameplay Derailment: In LEGO Island 2, "Mr. Hates' Camp" is meant to be beaten with the player airlifting the dinosaurs out of their pens and releasing them at the designated drop point. Many players don't realize that there is a drop point and instead drop off the dinosaurs anywhere in the level - even right back into their pens. The player is supposed to fail the subgame if they don't achieve enough points from freeing the dinosaurs the intended way, but the player also earns 5500 points for dropping three sandbags on Mr. Hates at the end, which is enough to win the subgame as long as they don't miss too many sandbags. Therefore, unless going for gold ranking, winching the dinosaurs to safety is optional despite being the entire point of the subgame.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • The famous runaway vehicles bug in the first game, where if you exit a vehicle while driving it before stopping, the vehicle continues going onward by itself using the same AI as the citizens to go along the roads. This works for every vehicle in the game aside from the helicopter, so you can even do it with the skateboard, the bicycle, and the jet ski. It becomes total havoc if you can get every vehicle in the game to do this.
  • In the second game, for some reason, you can walk up walls. This makes for surprisingly useful shortcuts up space mountain and provides loads of entertainment.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Let's get this outta the way: if you fail to catch the Brickster in the final mission, the bad ending is a definite Tear Jerker-Nightmare Fuel mix. The heartwarming part? The Infomaniac happily reassures the player that the island will be rebuilt; all you have to do's start a new game. Considering the target audience was children, this was a definite must, especially after witnessing the devastation the Brickster laid in his path.
  Infomaniac: Well, it's not as bad as it looks. Er... well, maybe it is. No, actually! You can just start again, or come back later when you want to! We'll be able to reconstruct. I think. Oh, what am I saying?! Of course we can! We're the citizens of Lego Island! So start a new game, or, exit through those doors. And come back when you want to visit again.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Laura Brick's introduction features a Minifigure with an afro, which wasn't an existing LEGO hairpiece. The 2010s would introduce an afro hairpiece (albeit much smaller).
  • The song "The Brickster" by Decal has a part where the vocals are replaced with gurgling. Many people pointed out that this is similar to Splatoon's soundtrack.
  • In the "Mr. Hates' Camp" mini-game in LEGO Island 2, Pepper mistakes baby T. rex for Velociraptor. Velociraptor figures have been made since LEGO Dino in 2012.
• Humor Dissonance: The original uncut version of the bad ending was reportedly intended to be a Black Comedy. This would certainly explain the use of the ridiculous over-the-top Stock Sound Effects and the comical failure music that accompanies it, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to offset the rather disturbing images of homelessness, chaos, and destruction. Most testers (and onlookers from years down the road when it was eventually released to the public) agreed that it would have traumatized kids had they kept it in and thus the decision was made to drastically cut it back.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The first LEGO Island game, thanks to compatibility problems with newer computers, will frequently glitch out during the "do you want to exit the game" sequence. Triggering that sequence and then going back to another part of the island can cause the Infomaniac to start looping phrases ("Are you ready to le-" "Green red brick, you stay!"). These have become popular in the fandom.
  • And, you can CHANGE flowers!^Explanation In the first game, one of the tips the Infomaniac provides if you click on him is that you can change the characters' headwear by clicking on it.
  • Be short-
  • OOOOPS! You have to put the CD in your computer!^Explanation If you try to open the first game without the CD in the disc drive, a special message comes up with the Infomaniac reminding you to put the CD in your computer. It's an edited version of a line intended to play upon the player ejecting the disc from the drive during play that ultimately went unused, with the Infomaniac telling the player to "put the CD back in [their] computer". It quickly became subject to memetic edits and YouTube Pooping, such as this notable one, where the Infomaniac asks you to do... something else with it.
  • "Oops! Driving ain't like skateboarding!"^Explanation From LEGO Island 2, Pepper says this every time he crashes into something in the driving mini-game. It became notorious for how often it's heard.
  • "I must watch where I'm going!"^Explanation Similar to the above, Pepper says this line when he crashes into something in the bi-plane mini-game.
  • "My best!"^Explanation Also from Lego Island 2. At one point, the Infomaniac asks Pepper "Pepper, what are you doing?" to which Pepper answers with "My best!". It became a meme due to the corny delivery of the line, the long pause between the question and the answer and the fact that Pepper inexplicably loses his body while he's saying it. Caddicarus notably made it into a Running Gag into his review of the game.
• Memetic Psychopath: The Infomaniac, largely thanks to the aforementioned Memetic Mutation leading to videos such as The Infomaniac's Revenge.
• Narm:
  • Most of the serious lines in LEGO Island 2 turn into this. The Infomaniac's Big "NO!" is a standout.
  • The Brickster's complete Dull Surprise voice acting upon being captured, finishing with a big "Heeeeeeeelp!"
• Narm Charm: From Xtreme Stunts, the song Minty Fresh. The lyrics are unbelievably cheesy, but the music itself is really awesome.
• Nightmare Fuel
  • In the first game, there's a hidden, haunted cave on the side of the mountain that's actually pretty creepy for a game about a building toy, especially if you're within the game's target audience. The ghostly meowing of the cat spectre in the chest is especially unnerving.
  • The racetrack from the first game. Especially the bigass skeleton whose swinging legs can knock you off the bridge he's floating above.
  • The sequel has OGEL Island, a poorly-constructed replica of LEGO Island IN SPACE!
  • The bad ending in the first game has made kids speechless. Basically, poor sounding music plays, everyone is crying, and almost everything is destroyed. Then we see the The Brickster with a red tint on him with lightning in the background, Laughing Mad. Him immediately regretting his actions doesn't help, though the Infomaniac assuring the player they will fix everything does help lessen the sting.
  • The original, longer version of the bad ending was even worse, showing just how miserable everyone on LEGO Island is after the Brickster wins and has even more discordant music and screaming and crying than the final version does. The sequence was truncated to the quicker and less noisy ending used in the final product and it is really not hard to see why.
• Nightmare Retardant: While many find the bad endings of the game to be creepy, just as many fans find them to be incredibly goofy due their dramatic pans and music coming across as melodramatic (which was likely the original intention). The original ending especially tends to get a lot of laughs due to the large amount of absurd stock sound effects stacked on top of each other, apparently Lego Islanders yodel when they are in despair.
• Obvious Beta: The second game shows a lot of signs of this, with its jerky physics, excruciatingly long load screens (which were the result of lousy programming, by the way), and just generally seeming incomplete as a whole in a number of ways. The game was rushed quite a bit and had a good chunk of its planned content cut out, which left it in this state.
• Once Original, Now Common: The rise of open world video games in the years since the original game came out can make it difficult to appreciate what a big deal the game was for the kids who originally played it. Back when the game came out, kids didn't have access to anything like it.
• One-Scene Wonder: The redheaded girl who appears out of nowhere to kiss Pepper at the end of the second game. She never appears anywhere else in-game, but seems to have a similar fashion sense as him which has led some to joke that she could be his sister.
  Brutalmoose: Oh look, that must be Pepper's terrifying sister! [...] Well, if you're gonna be stuck on an island with only a few people, incest is bound to happen sooner or later, am I right?
• Replacement Scrappy: Pete Bog, who seemingly replaced Enter & Return. The latter was more entertaining as they were arguing with each other about silly things constantly, whereas the former played absolutely no role in the whole game besides be dull and uninteresting.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The big skeleton on the racetrack in the first game. He knocks you back extremely far and makes your chances of winning very slim once it's happened, even if you are far ahead in first place.
  • The first game forces players to walk on designated paths and roads; players cannot even walk on the grass as it's perpetually protected by Invisible Walls that aggressively brings movement to a halt should players touch them. (Of course, combined with the slow walking speed and the turning being tied to the game's frame rate, this is to distract from just how small the island is.)
• So Bad, It's Good: LEGO Island 2, which has a largely nonsensical plot, comically mediocre voice acting, and many amusing bugs (such as being able to walk on water). A scene in the PS1 version of LEGO Island 2 got hit with technical limits even harder when it came to recreating it. The end result is rather hilarious.
• Sophomore Slump: LEGO Island 2 is considered the trilogy's weakest work, with its dull voice actors, unfunny attempts at humor, and bugs everywhere. Some like the change in gameplay style, but most will say the only saving grace is nostalgia and Awesome Music.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • In the first game during the racing segments, all of the island's building and other distinct features disappear throughout the course of the challenge, possibly due to a coding error that prevented them from loading during the action of the main challenge.
  • The second game is especially prone to this due to its Obvious Beta status, with everything ranging from bizarre facial animations, landscapes and features loading improperly, among other things.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: LEGO Island 2 is a rather Contested Sequel, but Xtreme Stunts fixed almost every problem it had, making the load times short, adding lots of replay value, running without any glitches (except for Motorbike Mayhem), and explaining the mini-games much more clearly.
• That One Level:
  • The car racing minigame in the first game. The jerky controls of the game already make it hard to get anywhere fast on the track, but the large amount of obstacles makes it a true test of patience. The giant dancing skeleton especially is despised for its weird hit box and sending you far back if it kicks you.
  • The Fishing Minigame for the second game. Apart from having almost zero explanation, the entirety of it is waiting for something to happen. By the time it finally tells you to strike, you will have fallen asleep and miss it. The length varies greatly too; it can take anywhere between five minutes to hours.
    • What doesn't help is that it's one of the few minigames in the entire game which follows immediately after a previous one, meaning there's no way of saving the game between minigames. You finish the first, you MUST finish the second before you can quit
  • Also the jousting minigame. Once you know what you're doing it's reasonably straight forward, but the game does such a poor job explaining the controls you're left hopelessly confused the first few thousand times you try it.
  • Bi-plane can also qualify for such, what with the not-very-well explained scenario (why exactly do you need to shoot bananas at the targets again?), plus the fact that you have to watch your fuel supply which is decreased if you crash into things- which is almost impossible to avoid since the whole level is in a canyon and monkeys are throwing coconuts at you), and it's very hard to pick up extra fuel tanks without crashing into the ground by accident. Even worse, on newer computers, the game runs very smoothly. The problem is that the fuel supply is not based on an actual timer, but instead the frame rate (which does cap at 60, but they clearly designed the minigame with 30 in mind). If the framerate is high enough, the fuel will always run out just before you reach the runway at the end, unless of course, you exploit the fact that fuel does not decrease when bumping into walls.
  • The Fishing Minigame in the GBA version can be seen as this, but for different reasons than the PC version; the controls are not explained at all within the game, since it's not a traditional mini-game, but even following the instructions from the manual likely won't help matters, since it's (supposedly) based on timing your power meter with where the fish will be... except the fish icons don't move, so you're basically navigating blind and hoping that you strike at the right time. It's also easy to accidentally break your line by pulling too hard or too much.
  • Xtreme Stunts brings us Motorbike Mayhem, otherwise known as Motorglitch Mayhem. It seems like it was put in at the last minute with little to no playtesting, thanks in part to its clunky controls and the fact that Pepper loves to stutter all over the place. The Brickster is also amazingly good at this minigame, and won't stop at anything. It takes tons of practice to get it right the first time, and once you get it right, you'll never come back to it again.
• Tough Act to Follow:
  • Regardless of what you think of the second or third games, it's pretty clear that they suffer pretty greatly from this trope. The first game was such a new and innovative kids' game that had never been done before, not to mention how full of life and creativity it was, where the second and third stuck to more mainstream tried-and-true game design mechanics. The first game is often considered a landmark in Lego's history, where the second and third tend to get glossed over as a result.
  • This game to the future LEGO games as a whole too. While many later LEGO licensed games would go on to achieve Cult Classic status, none of them ever reached the level of success this one did up until LEGO Star Wars. This game was just so unlike anything released before it that it captured the imagination of children all over and few dared to be as unique as this one.
• Values Dissonance: In the second game, Pepper has to go to Castle Island and repair a bridge, which was destroyed by the Brickster. Fair enough, but here's the thing; the kingdoms on both sides of the bridge were bitter enemies at war with each other, and the Brickster's interference meant they couldn't fight. What does Pepper do? Take advantage of the situation and bring peace between the two sides? No, he repairs the bridge specifically so that both armies can go back to fighting each other. However, judging by the dialogue, it seems to be implied that the two sides enjoy fighting each other. After all, when you're a LEGO figure living on Medieval islands connected by a bridge, you were pretty much build to fight the other side. By destroying the bridge, the Brickster pretty much took away their way of life and reason for existence.
• Vindicated by History: Island Xtreme Stunts was highly overlooked when it first came out due to little marketing from LEGO, and even now it's still the least-known game in the series. As more longtime fans learned of its existence though, it started to become slightly more popular and is now usually considered a much more worthy sequel than the second game.