Lego Island 2 is definitely not 'beautiful', but it is certainly cute. There's a certain amount of 'blockiness' that's actually part of the look, considering that everything is made of Lego blocks. The sound is very well done, however. From the sounds used in the option screens to the music to the sound in the games, everything seems to fit well with the game. (Okay, Pepper's 'Whoa!' might get a bit old after a while, but other than that, the sound is pretty good.)

Lego Island 2 puts you in the role of 'Pepper', a skateboarding pizza delivery boy caught up in a chase to capture a nefarious criminal who's gotten loose on Lego Island... In the course of doing this, you'll have to explore a bit, race a bit and joust a bit among other things in a wide variety of wacky mini-games. I have seen games that play in a similar manner before, such as 'Incredible Crisis'. I am sure that there's a new genre there somewhere, but I have neither heard of a term for it nor can I think of a good one. Let's just say that you'll have to do a lot of different little tasks to work your way through the game. If you find a mini-game that you really enjoy, you can easily play it again by selecting it on Pepper's computer (in his house).

Also, even after you finish the game, the citizens of Lego Island invite you to stay a while and have fun on the island. And, there actually is a bit of fun to be had there - you can jump in the various vehicles and drive them around if you like. Also, by pressing the 'Select' button, you can change other people's appearances and a lot of the elements of the landscape. These changes are then saved when you save your game. After finishing the game, I decide to embark on a mission to change the entire island into one big pizza place. I changed every tree, flower, street sign and what have you into a umbrella covered table like the ones at the pizza place. If I happened upon another Lego person in my quest, I put a chef's hat on them. No, you don't get points for it, nor are you congratulated with any FMV when you get done, but then I used to play with Legos when I was a kid and there wasn't any goal other than my curiosity then, either.

I do find that some of the minigames in Lego Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge are a little more difficult then I would expect for the age group of the targeted audience. Often, it wasn't so much that the game itself was difficult, but that the objective wasn't extremely clear. At any rate, although there is no difficulty level to be set, the game will allow lower levels of success and still allow you to advance in the game. This is done by awarding you 'trophies' upon completion of a mini-game. If you do marginally okay, you get bronze. If you do magnificently, you get gold. In this way, you can play until you 'eek' by any mini-game that gives you a hard time and then go back (via Pepper's computer) and try the hard ones again (if you want to) at your leisure.

I general, The Brickster's Revenge works well. I don't believe I encountered any problems within the mini-games themselves. (In the asteroid field, try to conserve fuel by moving as little as possible and just wait it out...) However, while skating all over creation, I did find some 'clipping' problems in the game. In certain areas, it is possible to jump into an area you're not supposed to be inside of, such as a building or in between the ribs of a skeletal dinosaur ribcage in the desert. The problem here is that it's just as hard to get out of these areas as it is supposed to be to get into them. I have found myself stuck in a building for a while on quite a few occasions. The good news is that I never encountered a time that I couldn't eventually get myself out. If this happens to you while playing the game, keep trying to get on and off of your skateboard and try jumping while on the skateboard (hold down the square button for an extended period of time before letting go and you'll jump higher) and you should work your way free.