We haven’t talked about LEGO Ideas projects for a while, so today I wanted to show you one that I really liked. The LEGO Handheld Arcade by mjsmiley. It brings together everything LEGO and arcade games are known for; exciting play either by yourself or with a partner, creative building opportunities, and lots of fun! 🙂
Here is the description from the LEGO Ideas page: Bring action games to life with this rebuildable handheld game system. The idea starts out as a dual-paddle handheld game platform that can have countless different games built upon it. Some of the first games already developed are Skee Ball, Space Pinball, Baseball, Targets/Archery, and Soccer/Football. The best part of the idea is that anyone can create new games for it with their own LEGO elements.
The paddles can be pressed hard or soft for some finer maneuvering, and because this is a handheld game, it is up to the player to adjust the tilt, and thus the degree of difficulty. Another interesting feature is that two game units can be linked together for two-player competition games. Below is a list of the included games:
- Skee Ball: launch the ball up the ramp and attempt to land it in the center of the big red bull’s eye.
- Targets/Archery: Shoot the ball at top speeds to flip the 5 targets up.
- Space Pinball: Send the ball amidst multiple obstacles and if you hit the trigger enough times, the rocket will launch!
- Soccer/Football: Re-use many pieces from the Skee Ball target to build a soccer goal. The sports figure will swing about when hit as you aim for the goal.
- Baseball: Two players optional. Hit the ball and move your players according to the color you land in. Red = Out, Yellow = Single, Green = Double. Keep track of scores and outs on the side rail. Three outs, and you change players and see who gets the most runs.
- Vs. Targets: Hook two systems up with the targets game layout. Attempt to pass the ball over to the other player’s board without hitting your own targets. First player to flip all targets loses.
In many ways, this game is similar to the #21305 LEGO Ideas Maze that is scheduled to retire soon; you set up the gameboard, and guide a ball around to achieve goals. Personally, I really like the LEGO Ideas Maze, and have played with it many times. I feel that the arcade game can even become more popular due to the smaller and more portable size. Also, I would imagine that the two-player option can be very fun. In the video below you can see the game in action.
Looks fun, isn’t it? If you are interested in this project, you can find more details on their LEGO Ideas page. Please keep in mind that now projects only have 60 days to achieve 100 votes. If they reach that first milestone, they are given a full year to reach 10,000 votes – the requirement for LEGO to consider the project for production. So if you like this project, and would like it to become an official LEGO set, please vote, and also share with our friends: VOTE FOR LEGO IDEAS HANDHELD ARCADE
What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Handheld Arcade? Is this something you would like to see become an official LEGO set? What other games would you add to it? Have you ever built your own LEGO arcade game? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! Also, if you would like to check out the currently available LEGO fan designed sets, check out the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
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Looks great! Even if it doesn’t make it on Ideas, I would build this! Looks simple enough.
Yeah, the idea is pretty simple. It looks like the mechanics work pretty flawlessly, which is the most important part. Other than that, you can set up the game any way you want. 🙂
My biggest issue is that those balls seem highly likely to get lost in the game process…
You mean like the balls will bounce off and go all over the place? Hm… possible. Maybe put some clear cover over it with window panels? 🙄
Seems like the walls are tall enough to contain the ball. At least that’s what it looks like in the video. I voted, and I will also try to build it myself. It looks fun and not too difficult to build.
Thanks Brick Blogger for posting this. As the submitter of this, I’ll attempt to field the questions about the ball flying off. It is possible to get the ball to fly off, especially if the game you design has a ramp or jump like my proposal for Skee Ball. I put the side guards on the ramp to help curb wayward flight patterns. The games don’t take too much time figure out, but it takes some finesse to master them. So if you do pound it hard, you will likely get a fly off…but for most of the flat games, its pretty hard to knock the ball out of the playing area. I’m glad to see the support and coverage on your site. Thanks and take care.
Hey, Mark, thanks for stopping by! I hope your project makes it to 10K! Would love to play around with it! 😀
Another fun project!