Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
Short overview sentence that summarizes the review goes here.
Introduction
What do you get when you combine two of the most successful franchises of the last half-century? You get LEGO Star Wars. Not the first game to integrate a single one of these, but the first to incorporate both. Whilst any consumer will be aware, LEGO has been making the Star Wars series since Episode 1 was released back in 1999.
LEGO Star Wars lets you play through the trilogy of the prequels to the original Star Wars. You get to play through ‘The Phantom Menace’, ‘The Attack of The Clones’ and ‘The Revenge of The Sith’. Since the third movie is yet to be released, this game gives some insight into the storyline of the third movie. As you may be able to tell, this game is aimed at a younger audience, but that does not mean it will have no appeal to the more mature gamers.
Graphics
As you would expect, a lot of the graphics are ‘blocky’ as this game is based on the LEGO franchise. Although this mainly extends to the characters, interact-able objects, and some background elements. For the most part, the backgrounds are what you would likely see in other Star Wars games, with a more cartoon like appearance. While the characters stay true to there LEGO counter-parts, they aren’t without there sense of charm.
It’s amazing how enjoyable it is to watch something no bigger than your thumb move and act on the screen. All the LEGO parts are exactly that, when a character dies, they will usually explode into the LEGO pieces that make them, which are usually the legs, body, head and hair. Although this has some exceptions with droids, and other non-human life-forms.
The graphics suit the context of the game, but they are not overly brilliant. But they are what you would expect from the combination of these two franchises. That is not to say they are bad, it all looks great when the action heats up, and stays at a constant frame-rate throughout the game.
Sound
As in all licensed Star Wars games, it has full access to authentic sound effects. From the hum of the light-sabers to the sounds of the blasters, it is what you would expect to hear in any of the movies. Although you are able to play through the stories of the first three episodes, no actual dialogue is given.
The lack of dialogue may disappoint some, but was more than likely done so as not to give away the storyline to ‘Revenge Of The Sith’. The game makes up for this lack of dialogue by making many familiar scenes more light hearted and comedic, although no words are actually spoken the facial expressions and actions are obvious to their intentions.
Gameplay
As this game is targeted at a younger audience, the gameplay can be very simplistic at times. The controls are very simplistic; attack, block, jump and special ability. When using a Jedi character, the special ability is the force. When using other characters the special ability will vary, depending on the character’s class.
There are various ‘classes’ of characters, which include, the Jedi or force users, blaster characters, small characters, jumping characters and droids. Jedi characters are able to move objects with the force, blaster characters are able to use a grappling hook to reach secret areas, small characters can enter certain ducts and shafts to reach certain areas, jumping characters can obviously jump higher than others, and the droids are able to active certain security locks.
When you play through story mode, only the characters present during the time will be playable. That’s when the character classes come into play. After completing a level, you can then go back and play through again on ‘free play’ mode, with any characters you wish. This gives you the chance to reach areas inaccessible during story mode. The reason for doing this is to collect ten small LEGO parts which are scattered in each of the twenty seven levels.
Collecting these parts for each level will ‘build’ a LEGO vehicle relevant to that level. So for the battle with Darth Maul, you will build his spaceship. Not only do you collect these parts, but when defeating foes, you receive galactic credits, or LEGO ‘lights’ which represent the currency of the game. You can use this currency to purchase extra characters, of which there are over forty in total, and other cool bonuses.
This game can also be played by two people, although unlike many games, its two players on the fly. You can begin a level solo, and then whenever you feel the need, you can bring in a second player. Once the second player has joined the mission you can remove them anytime you want. This is something that hasn’t really been done before if any other games, but it surprisingly works very well.
Lastability
To re-iterate the point, this game is targeted towards a younger audience. To totally play through the entire game and finish every mission, takes about six hours. However, to go back and collect all the LEGO pieces, and the republican credits for each level, may take a little more time.
With that said, after you have done this, you will find the game isn’t worth picking up for another play. Although, there is one extra special level, featuring some older characters, it doesn’t really extend the lastability of this game.
Overall
This game is good fun. If you’re looking for a great adventure game with an amazing storyline and compelling action, this really isn’t it. This game is definitely a rental, unless you’re a die-hard LEGO/Star Wars fan. Most gamers will be able to churn through this in a weekend easily.
LEGO Star Wars has defiantly achieved what it aimed for, a light-hearted game based within the Star Wars universe. It is a fun game, and even more-so with a friend. It is a relatively short game aimed at a younger audience. If you’re a gamer looking for a more intense Star Wars experience, you won’t find it here, but you will defiantly enjoy seeing your favourite characters as LEGO miniatures.
FINAL SCORE
70 %
