Who here remembersLego Island? While modern Lego games have found success by adapting other established IPs, withLego Horizon Adventuresbeing the newest example, 1997’sLego Islandremains something of a cult classic, even if The Lego Group doesn’t remember it. Or so we thought until the release of anotherFortnite/Lego collaboration, which featuresLego Island‘s main character in a cameo role.
Recently, The Lego Group added a newFortniteIsland for players to download calledLego Tycoon: Tilted Towers. As you may gather from the name, it has you rebuilding the iconicFortnitelocale, albeit in Lego form, while also farming resources, establishing new businesses, and defending the city from all manner of disasters, like floods and zombie invasions. It seems like some harmless fun and a neat diversion from the mainLego Fortnitemode, but fans quickly caught on to a cameo appearance byLego Island‘s Pepper Roni (yes, that is his real name) in the announcement traileron Twitter.
With all this building, we’re a little hungry!pic.twitter.com/ALgywKLabM
At one point in the trailer, we go inside of a pizzeria, where we see Pepper manning the booth, identified by his ginger hair, red cap, and the exact same shirt he wore inLego Island. This deep cut of a cameo has been more than enough to make older Lego fans happy as evidenced by some of the Twitter replies. “Blast from the past! What an AWESOME Easter Egg reference. Mama and Papa Brick would be proud!”wrote one fan, whilea coupleothershope this will lead to Pepper getting his ownFortniteskin. Unsurprisingly, this has also sparkedsome demandsfor a re-release ofLego Island, which would be neat considering it’s not readily available anywhere (at least legally).
For context, the originalLego Islandlaunched on PC in 1997, and was a first-person open world adventure game where Pepper had to save the island from the evil Brickster (where’s hisFortnitecameo?). It saw a more fleshed out sequel in 2001, followed by a third title in 2002 calledIsland Xtreme Stuntsall about Pepper being a stuntman for an action movie. Guess the career change didn’t pan out if he’s back to making and delivering pizzas. Unless he’s made other appearances elsewhere that I’m not aware of, this means Pepper hasn’t been seen in over 20 years. No wonderLego Islandfans are thrilled to see him pop up inFortnite.
The odds of any of theLego Islandgames seeing a remake or re-release are probably very low. However, a team of fans are putting together the next best thing: their own sequel dubbedProject Island. It still sounds like it’s a long way away from releasing, with the team currently working on a playable demo that, at the time of writing, lacks any sort of release window.
