  Oh, yeah, Skywalker. Well, I'm not the one who kissed my own sister...on the lips, punk. |
I'm man enough to admit that I used to play with both Star Wars action figures and Lego bricks when I was a kid. (I'm also man enough to admit I let a girl put makeup on me at a bar the other weekend, but that's a story for another time.)
Yet somehow I missed the spectacular peanut-butter-and-chocolate fusion of Lego Star Wars in my youth. By the time you could buy special Lego kits to build Star Wars vehicles and spaceships and playsets, I'd already moved on to more mature pursuits, like assembling models of World War II airplanes and blowing them up with firecrackers.
Even worse -- and it may damage my gamer cred to admit this -- I never played U.K. developer Traveller's Tales first Lego Star Wars game, which followed the events from The Phantom Menace to Revenge Of The Sith. I heard it was great, but it just sounded so, well ... dumb. It's Star Wars, but with toys? Riiight.
I don't want to play with a virtual video game action figure of six-year-old Anakin Skywalker. I want to hold it in my hand, so that I can hurl it to the ground and stomp on it. "Die, you little franchise-destroying tow-headed munchkin! You're the worst thing to happen to Star Wars since Ewoks! DIE!"
So maybe the reason I'm so taken with Lego Star Wars II is I'm getting that first heady rush of how much fun the whole concept is, but doing so with the original trilogy: The real Darth (Vader, not Maul), the real Kenobi (old Ben, not young Obi-Wan) and nary a Jar Jar Binks in sight.
True, there are Ewoks. But you can kill them if you want to.
If you're like me and new to the Lego Star Wars experience, the game is a basic mix of willy-nilly shooting, clever puzzle solving and simple platforming elements, following the storyline of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. You know, the trilogy that didn't suck.
All the most memorable moments from the movies are revisited, from breaking Princess Leia out of the Death Star detention centre to bringing down Imperial walkers with Snowspeeder tow cables to fighting alongside Ewoks on the forest moon of Endor.
And if a few of the fuzzballs have to stray into your line of fire ... well, these things happen in the heat of battle.
And yeah, it's all Lego-fied. All the buildings and vehicles look like they're made up of the familiar stud-rippled bricks, blocks and sheets. All the characters have those claw hands, blocky bodies and little nubs on their heads to attach hair or hats.
So yes, that means you're running around blasting stubby Stormtroopers while collecting little studs (the coin of the Lego realm) to buy new characters and upgrades. But even with its toy-like setting and cheeky humour, this is quite possibly the most faithful recreation of the Star Wars experience ever done in a video game.
What makes Lego Star Wars II so special, aside from the laser-sharp level design, is how faithfully it adheres to the Star Wars universe. Some of the films' classic scenes are even recreated frame for frame, but with little Lego vehicles and characters. Fans of the films will be in heaven.
The game knows it can't get away with being too serious -- it's freakin' Lego, after all -- so there are priceless moments of original slapstick comedy sprinkled in as well. It doesn't sound like it should work, but it does. It really does.
The game would be great even if all you did was follow the 18-mission storyline using each chapter's pre-selected characters. But after you complete each level, you can head back in at any time and switch between characters on the fly, giving you access to secret areas and bonuses that you can't find in the standard story mode.
(It also makes for the unusual sight of watching a Jawa blast apart a squad of Stormtroopers, or a TIE Fighter zipping through the ice canyons of Hoth. You can even create mix-and-match characters, putting Vader's head on Leia's body. Sexy.)
Finding all of the game's special characters, power-ups and secrets could consume dozens of hours of exploration, and if you're one of those people who obsessively goes after 100% game completion, you've got your work cut out for you.
But even for a casual fan, the game is a complete hoot, occasionally challenging but never frustrating. It reminds me of what I liked so much about Star Wars in general, and takes me back to the days when I used to play with the toys.
Which reminds me, I'd better put them away when I get home. I don't want the dog to swallow Chewbacca again.
BOTTOM LINE: It's all cute and Lego-y, yeah, but this is also a thoroughly charming, satisfying and faithful tip of the plastic hat to the original Star Wars trilogy. The Force is strong with this one.
WHAM! Rating: |
9 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
E10+ (Everyone 10+) |
Official Web Site: |
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