Lego 2K Drive is as close as we’ve got to an open-world Mario Kart

I’m having a good time with Lego unit 2K, a light-hearted take on the open-world racing genre that has one of the dullest names ever conceived. In fact, so boring that my son laughed when he saw the trailer and then asked me if I was serious or not. It is, but the game definitely isn’t. Also, and you might think I’m stretching myself here, he got me thinking about how an open world Mario Kart would work. If it ever happens, it might not be far from the Lego 2K Drive.

Before we delve into what Lego 2K Drive does really well, it’s worth looking at the way the game tries to squeeze (or to put it more politely, tempt) out of you for money. There is a currency that you earn by playing (Brickbux), but there is also a premium currency that costs you real money (Coins). There are plenty of cool cars and equipment to buy in the store, but using the earned currency seems like a tall order. In general, when playing through the story mode, you should be able to afford to buy a new car after about five or six hours, but it’s worth noting that replaying a race generates fewer bricks than the first time you win, and races in line pay a small amount. amount of bux.

So it’s easy to see how you might want to add more Brickbux to your wallet by trading coins, avoiding the effort at the cost of your actual bank balance. I hope the seasonal activities reward you with some bux too… speaking of which.

Lego 2K Drive is also set to implement seasons, each of which works as normally found in play-to-win games like Fortnite. There will be premium and free versions of these seasons, with the premium version offering better rewards. It’s too early to see how they’ll work in-game, but they won’t be limited in time, allowing players to work on them at their own pace without risking running out of time to earn all the rewards.

Make of it what you will. I think a lot will depend on whether you play this as an adult or give it to your children. As an adult, you hopefully don’t bother with a cool car to the point of anger. Children do not have that ability to control their requests.

The game, so the part that you play instead of buying, is great. There’s a story that takes you through various open and explorable maps, and it’s actually much more entertaining than what Forza and even Need for Speed ​​have achieved. It helps that this doesn’t carry a trendy spoiler or gritty bumper: it’s just Lego characters doing Lego stuff, which turns out to be mostly stupid, silly, and funny stuff. Sometimes there’s a Wacky Racers sensibility, other times it’s cliché but fun genre tropes, but it’s never more than entertaining.

The center of the progression is the flags, which are awarded for winning key races, but the bulk of the game is how you earn the necessary XP to access these race events. There’s a feast of side activities to find and partake in, which net you loads of rewards and XP. Do enough of these fun side quests and challenges, and you’ll unlock new races; complete them and then you will earn more XP again to advance the game. Some of these activities are roaming, others are more marked and enclosed, but overall the game does a good job of making use of its open environments.

How is this similar to Mario Kart, you ask? Well, it’s the feeling more than anything. The cars glide satisfactorily, without requiring much skill on the part of the player. Power-ups litter the racetracks and make a huge difference to the results, and it all has that enveloping blanket of joy nestled on top. The multiplayer options even include Mario Kart-style cup events, removing the open world element and focusing on racing events.

Even the way the cars transform into different vehicles suitable for the terrain is similar to what happens in Mario Kart. Dive into the water and you become the boat of your choice, hit the road and you become the big wheeler of your choice, and hit the streets and suddenly you are behind the wheel of a sports car. (of classes). Speaking of vehicles, 2K Drive includes some pretty good creation tools, allowing you to build new vehicles from scratch on pre-set bases. You do have some limits on the bricks used, and you have to submit them for approval to use these creations online, but there are already some brilliant creations out there in the wild.

I don’t know if Mario Kart will ever deviate greatly from what has worked throughout its history, but Lego 2K Drive has made me want to try something new more than ever. Lego characters offering quests, wildly crafted worlds that draw heavily from the franchise’s fantasy, a sense of adventure and discovery, all with driving physics that feel perfect for an arcade-like experience. That would translate perfectly into a Nintendo world. Even if that doesn’t happen, at least we now have this, just be careful with the hassle.

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