A great achievement

The first game in this series was seemingly quite well received by a great many people, including Justin. I get the sneaking suspicion it was quite overlooked by most gamers because Lucasarts have over the years done a grave injustice to the Star Wars license by producing a vast amount of very lackluster games. The big Lego logo would also turn off those gamers who go for so-called mature titles, as it would indicate this game is purely for kids. Both groups would be wrong, and gravely so – this title is a great achievement in that it takes the Star Wars license and makes a very entertaining game out of it.

Charming Lego

The charm is in the Lego. The entire Star Wars world is recreated using Lego parts, and this is used to great comedic effect throughout the game. For instance, the ships that fly past in the cut scenes all look like Lego constructions, and when your character dies he or she falls apart as Lego men do, into his or her constituent parts. The cut scenes are particularly enjoyable as Traveller’s Tales have reenacted exact scenes from the original Star Wars trilogy using the Lego style. The scenes play out like a silent movie as Lego men cannot talk, and knowing the movies is a great help to knowing the plot. Of course, if you haven’t seen the movies you’re unlikely to be remotely interested in the game, and the developers have designed things specifically for fans of the series.

The license might be great, but that means nothing in the world of video games, just look at Pirates of the Caribbean. So the question must remain: how does it play? Just the same as the last one really. Traveller’s Tales knew the old “don’t break it if it ain’t fixed” adage. Or was it “if it ain’t fixed don’t break it?” They did, obviously, change the story to match the original trilogy (that is, Episode 4, 5 and 6) and for some people that will be enough. Others may have hated the new trilogy (Episode 1, 2 and 3), and thus shunned the first game and will have no idea how the game plays, so I better explain in one sentence: Control Lego characters to reenact the Star Wars plot of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi in a 3-D action adventure. Genius.

Others might be interested in the game play changes from the last game so I’ll espouse them here: you can ride vehicles. Oh, you can also “create a character” by mixing heads, torsos and legs but that’s hardly game play, is it. Otherwise they just changed the plot, and that’s perfectly ok. It seems to me that the chapters in the game are slightly longer than their counterparts in the original game of the second trilogy which is actually the first three episodes of the series, so you’ll get more mileage out of this game than the last. All the same maniacal collecting mechanics are in place so you can eat studs to your hearts content and purchase a million items from the Mos Eisley Cantina with all that currency you found lying around in Dagobah.

Single and co-operative play

The most enjoyable and unique aspect of the game other than the cuteness of the Lego style is the drop in/drop out co-operative play. When you have a partner to play with you each control a different character on screen and must cooperate to complete puzzles and so forth. Much hilarity ensues when one player pulls one way and the other the other way as it often results in a death when one of the guys falls into a swamp. Usually this would not be entertaining, but the sight of the Lego man falling apart always makes it bearable, and indicates quite clearly that this is not a game to be taken seriously. If one player has to go to the bathroom, they can just drop out and let the AI take over for a while, in which case your companions are very cleverly programmed to know exactly what to do and to follow your lead. I dare say it’s often easier to play through the game by yourself, but of course it’s more enjoyable having someone to shout at when you fall off a cliff.

I can say for sure that this is one title that really doesn’t benefit a whole lot from being on a more powerful console like the Xbox 360. The controllers are great, for sure, but it doesn’t really look much different from the PlayStation 2 (at least to my memory it doesn’t). There is some more reflections happening, but in general everything is rendered using flat colour, just like Lego should be, and the 360 is not pushed at all. Having said that, who really cares? It’s a fun game, looks polished and controls well, it’s not like this version is inferior in any way to the other platform versions – it’s likely to be the best, and most expensive one of them all.

Star Wars and Lego fans rejoice

If you’re a Star Wars nut you should really try this version of the story out, and if you’re a nostalgic Lego fan you’ll get a kick out of the rendition of a story you likely know. Traveller’s Tales have a great format on their hands, but I don’t think they’ll find a better setting for this unique brand of adventure. From young to old, there’s much to be enjoyed in this adventure – it’s good light-hearted popcorn entertainment for the whole family.

The Good Stuff: Humourous cut scenes that follow the films’ story; easy to pick up and play; play with a friend in drop in/drop out co-op; permanent respawning; good length (not too long but with good replay).

The Bad Stuff: A bit too much item collection for my liking; a few dud levels; the camera doesn’t compensate when players are slightly apart from each other.

Purchase: