The Good: Fun, Can be won, Decent challenge, Neat “bonus” features
The Bad: Silly concept, Perspective issues
The Basics: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is one of the few video games that maintained my interest long enough to beat the game and return to for fun other times!
Not very long ago, I suppose it would be almost two years ago now, my wife and I were visiting her friend in Michigan and he and I had a discussion. He was never much into any form of geek culture, so I thought it was hilarious that he had some Lego Star Wars stuff around, including the Wii version of Lego Star Wars. I’ll admit, I mocked him pretty mercilessly for that. But then, my wife picked up Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for us. It was, in fact, the only video game we purchased specifically for our Playstation 3 (which we bought for its Blu-Ray disc playing capabilities).
And it is cool.
The concept may be crazy and somewhat ridiculous, but Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is pretty cool and very fun.
Basics
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a video game interpretation of the Star Wars Saga where the characters and settings are constructed mostly of Legos. Animated with the joint structure of Lego mini-figures, one or two players team up and run around the worlds of the Star Wars Saga, mostly in the same order as the films themselves.
The game also includes space battling capabilities as well as vehicle combat scenarios for worlds like Hoth and Kasshyyyk. On the people-based levels, players run around shooting, jumping, throwing bombs, using grappling hooks and using the Force to achieve goals and kill adversaries like Battle Droids, Stormtroopers, and Destroyer Droids. With the destruction of each enemy, Lego pieces explode and change to coins. Players collect coins to purchase objects, vehicles, and new characters in the Cantina. By using the left and right keys, one may toggle between the characters they have available and as one becomes more adept in the game, it helps to assemble a team that allows the player to toggle between shooters, jumpers, Jedi, droids, and bounty hunters with bombs. This allows one to access all areas with a level.
The space battles follow a similar format, with a single player/ship appearing on screen at a time.
After the successful completion of a level, the player may replay levels to find red blocks and canisters, which unlock greater abilities and secret levels. In the free play mode, the character may wander more and find things at their own pace, as well as enjoy levels outside of a time limit (there are timed events which challenge players to collect ten blue canisters within ten minutes and they can be exceptionally challenging).
Story
Set in the universe of Star Wars (reviewed here!), Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga follows the general plot of the film series. Starting with Anakin Skywalker and the older Jedi leading the fight against the Trade Federation, the game follows the downfall of the Lego Republic to the influence of Darth Sidious and the rise of Darth Vader. Players then join the Rebellion to destroy Death Stars and bring freedom back to the Lego Universe.
Game Progression
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a pretty straightforward video game with a view that is slightly back from the character or ship the player is playing. The net effect is that the view is like being followed around by a camera, as opposed to a first-person shooter style game. The perspective issue actually becomes problematic at times when the “camera” does not follow the view of the player. Moreover, during the space and land battles, the perspective can be very skewed, making it confusing how one’s ship is moving. The perspective issue can be very problematic when it comes to jumping in different directions, three-dimensionally.
The gameplay actually peaks in its challenge with the fall of the Republic. Outside the timed events on Hoth for the Empire Strikes Back section of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, the later portions are easy enough to pass. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga has a fair learning curve, but it remains accessible. To wit, after not playing the game for some time, I went back and within half an hour, I was able to play both styles of gameplay proficiently again.
Effects
The Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga game was designed for high definition systems, like the Playstation 3 (reviewed here!). We played it on the Playstation 3 connected to our Sony Bravia HD (reviewed here!) and it looked and sounded amazing. The figures have an unsurprisingly blockish dorm to them, which makes sense because they are Lego renditions of the characters. The backgrounds and ships, however, are immaculate in the way they are represented.
The sound effects are accurate to the sound effects on the original Star Wars: The Complete Saga for things like blaster bolts and lightsabers. When things are destroyed, though they sound like Lego blocks rattling around.
Replayability
Because Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga has the linear narrative, the free play, and the timed challenges available for each level, replayability is exceptionally high. On several levels, I was gratified to finally pass the board and move on. However, to unlock more bonus levels, one must go back and do better and earn more points. As a result, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga actually has decent replayability as one works to go from simple accomplishment to a more comprehensive exploration of each level to achieve more.
Overall
The Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a great deal cooler than I ever would have suspected. It is fun, replayable, generally affordable, and is challenging enough to keep adults engaged for quite some time. Despite perspective issues on some levels, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a worthwhile game.
For other game reviews, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Angry Birds Star Wars
Star Trek 25th Anniversary For Gameboy
Star Wars: The Complete Saga Customizable Card Game Premier Edition
8.5/10
For other video game reviews, please check out my index page on the subject by visiting my Software Review Index Page!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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