This is not a classic lego set. The main focus of this set is playability, not the parts or look of the build. The main focus is the game, which is very fun with friends or family. The fact that it is lego adds a lot of possibilities, like expanding the board or making your own character. Overall, it is a great set.

I buy the LEGO Games just for parts for my collection, as they are good value with the Amazon discounts here in the UK. I rarely build or play them, but I had to have a go at this one. We all love building LEGO cities, right? Well here is a microscale one! A clever idea of LEGO's to tie into the City theme, and me I love building microscale.

The Build

It is VERY microscale, probably as far as you can go! (Far more micro than Microfig scale.) Much like the recent 'Imagine' LEGO ads which render cartoon characters in a few 2x2 pieces, the designers of these buildings have achieved a lot with very few parts. Here are some of my favourite buildings in the game, and the very neat trees which I love!

The 'baseplate' plates are nice useful parts.

The completed mini-city is very cute indeed. The addition of the harbour is a great touch. I really wish they'd added a red or dark blay 2x2 round plate in between the white & trans yellow on the lighthouse, but that is one of the few mods I will make to the supplied buildings.

Play

The temptation is to start redesigning and adding to your new LEGO city straightaway! But I held back and played the game. Essentially one person plays the robbers, who move to buildings and rob them of bundles of cash, whilst the other player is the police who move to catch the robbers, and protect the buildings using a terribly dinky micro helicopter (nice piece usage here - a zip line handle for the tail). It's fun, and there are enough elements of basic strategy to keep it interesting. I was left with the feeling that it's more fun being the robbers, so switching over after each game is wise and adds to the variety of gameplay.

There were a couple of things on the instructions that weren't crystal clear, but since the idea with this series is to 'make your own game', it doesn't especially matter. Customising the game feels easy as the variables are clear and easily changed whilst still staying within the general structure of the rules. And of course adding your own buildings or changing the layout is a lot of fun.

Parts

Although most are fairly common, the set currently parts out on BrickLink averages at double the RRP so if you get this at discount, you can be confident it represents good value. It comes with the new orange brick separator and the 16x16 plate is also valuable. Police and robber Microfigs are very welcome after the fantasy/historical aspect to so many of the other Games. In terms of higher quantities, you get 40 light blay 2x2 jumpers and personally I was also happy to have 13 $100 bills, 11 black jumpers and 8 dark tan 2x2 bricks.

I read somewhere that this is the only game to contain all 6 of the different 'die' tiles. Ironically they are not used on the die, as there is a seventh tile (which has a really nice subway train symbol on it that I'm sure some train MOCers out there could find good use for). Instead the 7 tiles are turned upside down and shuffled, whilst the die has a mix of $100 and helicopter symbol tiles on it and determines the success of the robberies.

The 3 lime Technic ball joints rocked my world (I love lime) and are only available in two other sets at the moment (and in smaller quantities than here). And of course the ol' favourite, there's a croissant.

Summary

Good value for money and play. I'd especially recommend this set if you want:

• A fun little micro build that you can expand, perhaps to imitate your City layout
• All 6 of the tiles to make a regular die
• Microfig cops & robbers
• Good value for your BL store
• Loads of light blay 2x2 jumpers

Both this set and Battle of Hoth contain great micro builds before the game starts, so I hope this is a sign of things to come with LEGO Games. I'd like to think that kids may be inspired to try a little micro building after playing this.