Lego Star Wars

Posted 07/01/2005 at 12:08pm | by

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Lego Star Wars is like any other Star Wars game, but everything in this game is built from Lego blocks. That’s right; world geometry, vehicles, even the characters you play are built from small, colorful interlocking modules.

Using the Force, you can break down and rebuild many objects—after all, they’re made from Legos—in order to complete puzzles as you progress through the story arc of all three prequel movies.

Unlike most platformers, in Lego Star Wars you always have multiple characters available to complete your missions. Everyone from Obi-Wan Kenobi to Count Dooku are available—and more than 30 characters can be unlocked by successfully completing missions and collecting items. Different characters have different abilities; Jedi and Sith have access to the Force, blaster-wielding guards can use Episode I-style grappling hooks, and different droids can unlock new areas for you to explore. You can swap between characters in your party at will.

That this is a budget-priced children’s game explains its short length—we completed 95 percent of the missions in about five hours—but some of the puzzles you’ll encounter are difficult enough to challenge experienced gamers. Each mission also includes extra areas and collectibles that are only accessible if you revisit the level with different characters—and different special abilities—than you used during the story mode.

When you play the game as a Jedi, and thus have access to the Force, the objects that can be manipulated with your powers exhibit a faint glow. Press your Use Force button, and the appropriate Force power is automatically at your disposal. This simple approach is much better than the incredibly complex scheme used in the Jedi Knight series of games.

There’s a lot we like about Lego Star Wars, but we have some serious gripes as well. The game is just too damn short. We also encountered a bug that prevented us from completing the Phantom Menace story arc. Some might see that as a blessing, but we did not. Finally, the default control scheme with the keyboard is virtually unusable. Further compounding the problem, if any game controller is connected to your PC, the game insists on using that for player one.
—Will Smith

+ LEGO: Novel concept, good execution, awesome Force power control, play as every character.

- EGGO: Occasionally buggy, extremely short, requires gamepad.

Month Reviewed: July 2005
Verdict: 7
URL: www.legostarwarsthevideogame.com
ESRB Rating: E