In the year 2005, without much advertisement and hype around it, if I recall correctly, this game came out for PC, Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube, Lego Star Wars. Being mildly interested in Star Wars (I watched one or two of the original trilogy movies, don’t remember whose, back then) and being interested a lot in Lego games I bought it, and well, I wasn’t disappointed.
Lego Star Wars is the beginning of the Traveller’s Tales serie of Lego games, that is basically having the monopoly of Lego games. The story follows the plots of Star Wars Episodes I, II and III with some parodistic humor added in the mix. And when I say follow I really mean follow. I played the game before watching the movies, so while watching the movie I was like “Oh yes, this is the beginning of that level” or “According to the game now it will happen that”.
You can play as major and minor characters, most of them are unlocked by completing the various levels, if you are really a fan of that lesser known jedi you can buy it with the studs you earn while playing. These studs are earned by destroying or interacting with the environment or by finding all the hidden minikits. There are 10 in each level, and collecting all of the award 50 throusands studs. In addition to that, each level has an indicator that fills as you gather studs. By filling the indicator you earn a piece of the Superkit, and completing the superkit unlocks a final bonus level.
The hub world is Dexter’s Diner from episode I, in here you can access all the levels, see the unlocked minikits, and buy characters and other extra features, most of them are silly, like replacing all the lighsabers with brooms, but others can help like Invincibility or the Minikits detector.
Most of the levels play like a 3d platformer with a fixed camera, a bit annoying because it often gives a false sense of depth, with some simple puzzles that require cooperation among the various characters and the possibility to freely switch between each with the push of a button. The characters are split in 6 big groups: Jedis and Sith that can use the Force on specific objects, Characters with blasters that can use grappling hooks, R2 units that can float and interact with some control panels, Protocol droids that again can use specific control panels, characters that jump higher and short characters that can go through manholes.
So in an hypotetical situation, a jedi has to build a platform so an R2 unit can get past a large gap and activate a bridge through a control panel. The AI on that regard does its purpose well, which is a good thing considering the co-op nature of the game. And talking about co-op, this game has drop-in multiplayer, so a second player can join any time and leave any time, which is a good thing when you have to deal with a difficult part and your dumb friend keeps messing up.
Once completed the level once, in the so called “Story mode”, with the canonical characters, the “Freeplay” mode unlocks, that allows you to replay the level with a wider choice of characters, and in that way have access to the entire level. Many parts, often the ones containing minikits are blocked at first to encourage replaying the levels and exploring them.
Veichle levels instead, are a different thing. Starting from Lego Star Wars 2 they started being pretty much like the non-veichle levels, with free play and all, while in the first Lego Star Wars, first off they were available in Story Mode only, and they played in very different and disinctive ways. For instance, the podracing level plays much like a racing game, you have to reach the checkpoints before time runs out, and another one plays like a shoot em up. They are harder than the traditional levels, but are a welcome change.
The overall difficulty of the game is low, aside from the veichle levels and a few other exceptions you can pretty much get the levels at your own pace, it makes sense since the demographic they were aiming for was probably children or families.
This game was an extreme success, and it spawned a sequel, plus many other games that play pretty much in the same way. At first it was great, Lego Indiana Jones is still a personal favorite, but well, feature more feature less it’s still the same today! I would love to see some change, or some remakes of classic Lego games like Racers, or Island, imagine them with today’s hardware power!
So, worth or not? As I said before this game is excellent for children, families, or if you need an easy game for when you want to play videogames but wihtout the desire of a real challenge. Knowing Star Wars is not mandatory, but highly recommended. I also suggest picking up Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga instead of Lego Star Wars 1 and 2, since it includes both games in a single package with a lot of improvements.
Thank you for watching, and see you soon on VGP.
hope that helps
