GDC 2015 - Sick Bricks is What Would Happen if Skylanders and LEGO had a Baby

Posted by Rob Rich on March 9th, 2015

Games like Skylanders have some pretty intense appeal for kids, and they cater to the toy market quite nicely as well. The LEGO games also have a pretty good handle on that section of the market. Sick Bricks from Spin Master takes the madcap weirdness and love of building blocks from LEGO, and fuses it with the real world-meets-toy world concept behind Skylanders to an impressive degree.

The game itself uses simple but seemingly intuitive and responsive touch controls to let you wander around the world of Sick Bricks. Of course by "wander" I really mean "fight badguys and explore various locations for goodies."

What's cool is that you can find (i.e. purchase separately) all sorts of toys, then scan them into the game using your device's built-in camera. Admittedly this method can run into problems when the lighting is a bit dim, but I was seriously impressed with just how well it worked even in semi-dusky conditions. It also works extremely fast. You just line the character up to the wireframe and a couple seconds later you've got them in the game. Character parts like heads, bodies, and hats are interchangeable, so you can mix and match all your real world toys for some truly bizarre (and powerful) creations.

You can also build and scan vehicles, but I didn't get to see this particular feature in action so I can't be sure if it's as simple and quick as character scanning. It's certainly a neat idea, though.

If any of this sounds like your kind of thing, you won't have long to wait for it. Sick Bricks will be coming to the App Store this Thursday (3/12) as a free download.