something I never understood about lego console games

[lockdownTF]

why do they never give you a build your own vehicle option?

I know the emphasis of the game is supposed to be on that one particular theme and its sets but seriously why not just give us a few vehicle frames and let us build our own versions of the batmobile and x-wing which we can then use in the game stages. the last time I saw this kindof feature was on lego racer for the PSone and I spent ages building custom cars to use in races. in fact I built so many I constantly had to delete older ones to make way for newer ones.

this is one of the main things that stops me getting into lego console games and I hope they add soon.

[brickmack]

My guess is that either that feature didn't get very good reviews, despite a few people liking it, or perhaps it's just a difficult feature to include for whatever reason, so they stopped doing it.

[Aanchir]

Also note that a "build your own vehicle" feature is easier in a racing game where the weight distribution can be a genuine factor in performance. Also, LEGO Racers vehicles had a relatively standardized scale. Games like LEGO Batman couldn't easily replicate this feature for anything much larger than those vehicles.

And it would surely be difficult to program such a feature. Even LEGO Digital Designer, TLG's dedicated brick building software, has occasional bugs. Put something like that in a console game where the finished model has to function as a playable vehicle, and the bugs could easily make the LEGO building and play experience less enjoyable for users than the real thing, which could reflect badly on the company's core products with some users.

It should be noted that LEGO Universe did have a building component to it, and it was criticized a lot for being awkward to control and for that awkwardness getting in the way of creative building, which is probably exactly the sort of criticism TLG wants to avoid in their licensed games.

Edited January 24, 2012 by Aanchir

[JackJonespaw]

On Lego Racers and Lego Racers 2, that was the point. But it always took a long time to get the perfect car. And if that car is with only around 30 bricks, (I think that's the limit) imagine building a 600 piece X-Wing. That would take a couple hours at most. The games aren't supposed to focus on the vehicles, anyways. They are supposed to focus on how to movies, TV shows, or comics are on. Lego Racers was a Lego only game. Since 2005, with the release of Lego Star Wars, there have only been Licensed games. Maybe you would like to build your own X-Wing, but I'm happy just using what the games gives me. Plus, vehicles are rarely used in the Star Wars games, with the exclusion of Lego Star Wars III.