I don’t know about any of you, but when I was younger Lego was a big part of my childhood and even today I still act like a bit of a kid when it comes to playing around with it, however back then we had to imagine the rest of the world where our models would run. Technology though has come on a long way since those days and a few years ago we saw the introduction of Mindstorms and then a lot more recently PC and console games which took the Lego concept into the next world.
There has however been a large gap between the Lego we build by hand and the games we play on the screen, but this is all about to change as Lego come out with their latest mastermind – Lego Fusion.
In short Fusion is a game that is run on an iOS or Android powered tablet which involves the building of physical Lego that we can touch with our hands to progress through the game.
To merge the real and virtual worlds together, users will have an app installed on their tablet which builds the virtual world and as they progress through the game they have to build buildings and other models on a special VR base plate which the app can read through the camera and after ‘reading’ the model, the building, car, tower or other model is then built by virtual workers, replicating the real model brick for brick (including all those odd colours that we like to include)
Fusion will be coming out initially with four different kits; Town Master, Battle Towers, Create & Race and Resort Builder. The first three kits will be hitting the shelves in a couple of months time for around $35 in the states, with Resort Builder coming a little later in September. A UK launch date is not quite decided as of yet, but I certainly imagine it will be out before Christmas with Lego potentially looking to have Fusion as this years ‘must have’.
Although I personally wouldn’t get this sort of kit – instead preferring to stick to the physical models and the Technics line of projects, I’m certain this will appeal to the younger generation a lot more, where console and mobile gaming is more popular than building models.
Source: BBC News
