Who says LEGO is dead? With all these next generation of consoles, smartphones, and tablets pouring in non-stop, sometimes I take a moment back to what I played in childhood. Yup, you guess it. LEGO! Each year my good neighbour back home asked me what I wanted as a present and each year I answered “LEGO”.
Kids nowadays, all they cry is “I want an iPad” or “I want a Nintendo DS” .
LEGO is not dead. In fact, it is one of the many companies who always survive and innovate. With their latest product, Life of George, LEGO combines the good fun of creative building with bricks and our latest gadget, like a smartphone.
The idea is you first download the Life of George App (available on Android’s Google play and iOS App Store) on your phone or tablet (surely someone in your family has one).
Then, using the LEGO bricks and the mat, you need to assemble what is being displayed on the screen.
You have to build as fast as you can (there is a timer) with the included LEGO bricks and then scan your masterpiece with your phone/tablet. The quicker you assemble, the better your score is. There are tons of challenges, variety in themes, and interesting models to be built by you or your kids.
In my experience, the game is quite tough. Well, it’s not hard, in fact it’s fun and awesome. It’s just no matter how fast I built, I never seemed to get a great score (or maybe I just sucked). The sound of the clock ticking definitely creates a sense of urgency and increases tension.
The scanning part is a hit and miss. Using my iPhone 5, it auto uses flash which causes issues (the app smartly gives a tip to tilt the phone a bit so not to have a reflection). After a few misses, I managed to find the trick to it. Scanning is surprisingly very quick and easy.
The single player has tons of interesting creations which wow-ed me. But of course, where’s the fun in playing alone? How about competing against a friend? You don’t even need a WiFi or a Bluetooth connection. Life of George supports a pass-and-play mode where you can just use 1 device and the Life of George package to play with others in the same room. Scores will be saved within the app so there is no need to scribble your scores on a piece of paper.
Bored of building the same thing over and over? How about creating your own model? Or go online and try building what others have come up with. There are many awesome ones.
Life of George is an interesting twist and innovation from LEGO and if you ever say “LEGO is dead”, I’m gonna poke you. Life of George is the answer to smartphones and tablets era and LEGO innovates by combining the fun and creativity of LEGO bricks with the latest and greatest techs.
There is also another app that makes use of the LEGO bricks and mat called Build Your Brain. This is just the beginning. I’m sure LEGO will come up with other fun and creative apps with this. Totally recommended to bring the little child out of you (or get this for your kids)
Disclosure: LEGO Life of George review sample was provided for the review. Opinions are 100% mine
