Brick by brick: how Lego embraced video games

Lego The Incredibles is the latest video game to help introduce the brand to a new generation of children - one 3D block at a time

For some parents, the idea of kids sitting down in front of a Lego-branded video game might be baffling: isn't the point of Lego that it's not on a screen? But the mega-success of Minecraft - based on building things out of blocks with different colours and properties - proves that Lego and video games have been influencing each other for at least a decade. There are now Minecraft-branded Lego sets: a real-life toy influencing a game that becomes a real-life toy again.

Many official Lego games have come out of a cross-pollination. Since the mid-90s there have been more than 50 of them, the most recent being this week's Lego The Incredibles, based on the Pixar film. Video games aren't replacing traditional ways of playing with the toy, but they're providing new twists on Lego's ethos: the ability for children to be creative in their play.