Lego 2K Drive: I’m in for a new Lego Racing game no questions asked – but what we really need is Lego Island

If you like Lego and video games, it’s an exciting time. For the first time in years, it’s looking like we’re going to get a fairly large-budget, console-based Lego game that isn’t some sort of spin on the Traveler’s Tales formula perfected in Lego Star Wars and its kin. Not some mobile game, not a limited-scope indie-style effort like the excellent Lego Bricktales – but something mainstream, mass-market, and different.

If you’ve not been following the video game rumor circuit, this game is supposedly called Lego 2K Drive, and it’s basically been described as a 'Mario Kart-style racer' that also takes inspiration from the classic Lego Racing games of years gone by, of which there’s a few.

One prolific leaker (who generally specializes in reprinting things gleaned from media who have seen stuff under embargo but can’t keep their mouth shut) suggests that there’s a closed beta for the game, and screenshots have even leaked online. Lego has finally teased an announcement for later this week. The announcement features roads under construction and a logo of Octan Racing.

Octan is a fake gas station and motoring brand that goes back to the Lego City sets of the 80s and 90s. So this is all obviously real.

Anyway. I’m absolutely pumped. I like the adventure games that Traveler’s Tales has specialized in for years well enough, but we haven’t had something truly different in a very long time. Dimensions was the same sort of game as the licensed products but with a toys-to-life NFC element. Though still similar in many ways, the last game to really scratch this itch for me was the criminally underrated Lego City Undercover – so I’m just thrilled to see something new.

Plus, I regard the 90s Lego Racers games, which launched in different guises on PC, PlayStation, PS2, Game Boy, and N64, to be classics. The idea of a modern take on these titles is really, really exciting – and it’s nice to see Lego finally breaking out of an admittedly bulletproof formula that’s worked flawlessly for years.

I called for this last year, in fact, saying how I missed Lego’s early, experimental period with gaming. I bemoaned how so much from Lego games-wise was now formulaic. I even called out Lego Racers in that article. So to say I’m excited is a bit of an understatement. And yet… this isn’t what I really want yet.

Racing is a relatively safe bet. Lego Racing has even had a light run-out in the form of Forza Horizon DLC. But I really hope this can lead to revivals of more of those nineties classics.

Rock Raiders was a great real-time strategy game and could be ripe for a revival, even if it’s no longer an active Lego theme. Or that idea could be mapped to another current theme such as Monkie Kid, City, or Ninjago. And, well, the one I really want is Lego Island.

A breezy exploration-based open world adventure, Lego Island is just a masterful piece of design. As a kid it captured my imagination and utterly enraptured me - and it’s the sort of open world game that isn’t made very often any more.

There’s distant threads of relation from Lego Island to City Undercover years later - except City Undercover’s largest inspiration is Grand Theft Auto, and so it has the pace and feel of those titles. Lego Island was something quite different - relaxing, for the most part, the perfect game for kids to noodle around in, discovering secrets, tackling missions, and mini-games, and… god, I imagine a new one of these and the thought runs away.

Very early rumors of a deal between Lego and 2K Games suggested the pair were partnering on multiple games – of which Lego 2K Drive would be only the first. If it can channel the energy of those 90s games, I’m there for 2K Drive day one. But I really hope to see more out-there ideas for the next games in this deal.