I figured that I should make a quick return to my youth while my options are somewhat limited here in Europe, and in my eyes there was no better choice than
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, especially as a completely new game, with all 9 episodes (and possibly the third game as well maybe?) is coming out in the future. Of course for me this has immense sentimental value, the first game was the very first video game I'd ever played, so the obvious question is: does it hold up? Well I've concluded that it definitely does, for a few reasons beyond my own nostalgia.
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| My twin and I circa 2005, off to rescue the Chancellor before bed. |
The first is gameplay, and it's perfectly polished and executed. Controls are incredibly easy to grasp, and combat is fun and unchallenging. It's a lot of fun to go through the six episodes on offer, destroying, building, and operating all sorts of contraptions as the entire cast of the films (no matter how obscure). The only issues here are that not all characters are created equal, specifically the various blaster characters, which compose most of the roster. See, in the second game (which comprised the original trilogy), about half of these characters were 'special' in their move sets, which allowed them to automatically dodge blaster fire and return fire (which looked absolutely badass by the way). Now this is fine on its own, but when making this game, this attribute was not also given to blaster-type characters from the first game, even if it would make sense. The only other issue with the gameplay itself is that while it is indeed simple, this can also get stale if played for long periods of time (like I did for this review). A good way to allay this is to play some of the more experimental or ship-combat levels, which can range from exhilarating and awe-inspiring to traumatizing. Fortunately, there are also unlockable extras which can ease the pressure in these difficult levels, or even turn the game into a broken mess. All in all there's a strong base of gameplay which we would see in pretty much all subsequent lego games to an extent, and its also a great game for kids to play with their parents thanks to co-op.
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| Mos Espa Podrace (original), where boys became men. |
Storywise the game covers episodes one to six of Star Wars, in LEGO format (obviously) in a generally whimsical and slightly abridged format. It doesn't cover the entire plot of these films, only the most pertinent details of each episode's plot in six chapters. There is no dialogue, everything is communicated with sight gags and grunts, and even someone who has no idea of what the story is could follow along. There are no long cinematic, they are at the most 30 seconds, and those I believe are only for the conclusion cinematic at the end of each episode. Again, this is great for young and old alike, there's absolutely nothing that could be deemed offensive here, it is ridiculously pure.
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| Despite being ridiculous most of the time, the setting can still pull off some badass moments. |
Few problems considered, this is a very solid game, probably the best introduction to video games in my opinion besides Mario, and even then I'd say that this is the better pick. You can play this game however you want, be it as an adventure game, pick up and play title, or a collect-a-thon completionist thing, there's really no one way to play this game, and that's the beauty of it. Like a LEGO set, you buy it and it's yours forever, just as it should be.
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| Gunship Cavalry (original), where men became legends. |
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