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LEGO Universe Remastered Soundtrack & More!

by on March 10, 2021
in Other News & Updates

In December of last year, the LEGO Group marked the 25th anniversary of its first ever video game with the release of the popular Bits N’ Bricks podcast series. Now, the company marks another important date with the release of the fully remastered LEGO Universe (Original Game Soundtrack) to purchase and streaming for the first time ever. The soundtrack is accompanied by three episodes of the Bits N’ Bricks podcast looking back at the game’s development, with the first episode focusing on conversations with composer Brian Tyler, producer Richard Dekkard, as well as a brief visit from the voice of LEGO Universe: Sir Patrick Stewart. Details below.

LEGO Universe was the company’s first ever massively multiplayer online game launched in October 2010, with a soundtrack composed by Brian Tyler and additional music by John Harman and Richard Dekkard. Now a celebrated Hollywood composer, Tyler has composed soundtracks for huge blockbuster smashes including Avengers: Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3. The soundtrack to LEGO Universe was the first video game soundtrack he composed following soundtracks for classic films like Constantine and The Lazarus Project. It was created with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, but due to scheduling constraints, Tyler ended up overseeing the entire recording live from a studio in Los Angeles using video and audio streaming between the countries.

The LEGO Universe theme went on to be used at the entrance at LEGOLAND parks across the globe and proved to be very popular with fans. Despite its popularity, the soundtrack has never been available to purchase or stream until now. As the landmark anniversary approached, Tyler and Dekkard came together to completely remaster the score, which the LEGO Group released on February 24th across popular digital music stores and streaming services. The album is also available on YouTube featuring a special behind-the-scenes video retrospective. Patrick Stewart, who served as narrator for the game, also appears in this video.

On the remaster, Tyler said: “I’m really proud of the music and I’m proud of the game. I am asked all the time ‘Is it going to be available? and earnestly thought to myself ‘I hope it is!’ I really wanted that for the fans, so I was not going to miss a beat in terms of helping get this out there to the world.”

To hear more about LEGO Universe’s inception, creation, launch and eventual closure, as well as other key moments in the LEGO Group’s long, rich history in digital play and video games listen to the Bits N’ Bricks podcast. Hosted by journalist Brian Crecente and documentarian Ethan Vincent, the podcast draws on over 120 interviews and explores the many facets of LEGO gaming, from unreleased projects to beloved masterpieces. You can listen to the podcast at the LEGO Games 25th Anniversary website or your favorite podcast platforms:

The remastered LEGO Universe soundtrack is available on most popular streaming and digital music services:

The YouTube  version of the soundtrack features a continuous mix of in-game and rare behind the scenes footage as well as concept art from the development of the game. The rest of the playlist includes all nine behind-the-scenes episodes.

Besides the podcast episodes and the soundtrack, the LEGO Games 25th Anniversary website features other interesting information as well. Like detailed description of each podcast episode followed by reference links to images, videos and other content, and sample summaries of each podcast episode for those who are unable to hear the podcasts due to hearing challenges. There is also a neat visual timeline, touching on some of the most impactful of the more than 80 main LEGO themed games released over the years.

What do you think? Did you play LEGO Universe when it was available? And how do you like the Remastered soundtrack and other content about LEGO games? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO is Moving Away from Black Instruction Books

by on March 9, 2021
in Community News

In the past couple of years, LEGO has been making a lot of effort to attract adults to the hobby with their 18+ collection. Their focus is not just on current adult fans of LEGO, but also on those who are completely new to the hobby and are looking for a relaxing and creative activity. To differentiate these sets from those made for kids, the boxes are black with a minimalist design.

The black boxes certainly look sleek, and they do grab the attention of adult builders and hobbyists. Unfortunately, LEGO also decided to make the instruction books black, which created problems and complaints.

This is not the first time LEGO used black instruction books. They were introduced in the LEGO Architecture line, which was also targeting adult builders. However, LEGO Architecture sets are usually small with relatively few building steps, and the buildings are usually light-colored. These features made the instructions fairly easy to follow even with black pages.

The difficulty with black instruction books became especially pronounced when LEGO started using them for the large and complex sets in the 18+ collection. It’s very difficult to follow the instructions, especially when the pieces themselves are dark. The worst example is probably the #10277 LEGO Creator Crocodile Locomotive, containing mostly brown and black parts. You basically need to shine a flashlight on the pages to be able to make out the building steps.

LEGO also did not consider that the target audience of these sets likely has failing eyesight, which makes it even more difficult to follow instructions with such low contrast. It’s also worth considering that instructions on black paper use significantly more ink than standard instruction books.

After many complaints to customer service, LEGO finally decided to move away from black instructions. LEGO fan Sam Walker shared in the AFOL Facebook Group the following letter that he received from LEGO Customer Service.

I’m happy to let you know we’ve been listening to feedback about the background color in our building instructions. We’ve done lots of testing already and have plans to move away from the black backgrounds entirely.

We recognize how important it is to be mindful of visual and color impairment when we create our building instructions. We have LEGO designers with color impairment helping us improve in this realm.

We can’t give you a timeline or further details about improvements to the background color in our instructions, but we’re making sure we listen, learn, and get better.

If you already have some sets from the 18+ collection with black instruction books and you have trouble following them, you might consider the following tips. Use the best light you can, preferably natural daytime sunlight, or artificial light that mimics sunlight. Keep a good LED flashlight at hand, and shine it at the page from an angle. This should make it easier to see the instructions and differentiate darker colors. You might also want to try the online PDF version of the instructions. Sometimes they are easier to see, and you can manipulate the light and contrast that works best for you with your screen settings.

What do you think? Do you have any of the 18+ sets with black instructions? How do you like them? And do you have any other tips to make them easier to follow? Are you happy that LEGO is going to ditch black instructions books? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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