Back in 1999, the Lego Group started producing themed Star Wars kits featuring a range of vehicles and characters to be enjoyed by small children and geeks around the world. These models had their limitations, though – they required a bit of imagination to place them within the colourful Star Wars universe, and it would be hard to put a whole scene together without some serious building. Fortunately, an alternative came along in the form of a Lego Star Wars video game, allowing fans to play through the films in the form of a 3D arcade-style game. Having been released in two parts in 2005 and 2006 and across several platforms, an improved Complete Saga version of the game is available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox and Wii, recreating all six episodes in glorious Lego technicolor.
The premise is reasonably simple: one or two players can play as characters from the film, build their way through a range of puzzles, rack up some points and shoot as many droids, clones and stormtroopers as they want. The game does not feature any blood and guts; instead, characters fall apart, leaving the bricks that made them in a neat pile on the floor. No knowledge of the films is required, though it does help. The levels recreate a variety of scenes from the films with an impressive degree of accuracy, though there are workarounds in some places to make the game feasible. Jedi and Sith abilities are available to the appropriate characters, vehicle-only levels mean that such craft as the Millennium Falcon and the TIE Fighter also feature, and millions of Lego studs can be accumulated and spent buying just about any character or vehicle from all six episodes.
Bricking It
With the game consisting of an entire world made of bricks, it's not surprising that there's a heavy emphasis on building things. Unkempt piles of Lego can be found in all sorts of places, with players having to hold down just a single button as they watch their character quickly throw together anything from a doorway to a tractor. Naturally, it's slightly harder than that – the characters have an irritating habit of stopping building if they get shot in the back by a stormtrooper. While some constructions simply allow the player to reach somewhere new, others consist of vehicles or guns that the player can use.
As if that weren't enough, players also get to blow up the majority their surroundings and collect the Lego studs1 that are scattered as a result. Lego studs are the main currency of the game, though hoarding of gold bricks and 'minikits' is also encouraged. Each level contains a vehicle hidden as ten pieces of 'minikit', with the player allowed to use completed vehicles in a bonus level at the end of each episode. A gold brick is awarded when a player finishes a level for the first time, collects all of that level's minikit pieces, or manages to collect a quota of Lego studs from that level. There are also red 'character bricks' that unlock the game's extra features, and a series of bonus levels and challenges that are too mind-boggling to cover in this entry. The game provides tremendous replay value, eventually rewarding players with extra levels known as 'Bounty Hunter missions' and unusual extra characters such as 'Han Solo frozen in carbonite'.
Characters
While the appropriate characters appear in each level of the game during the Story Mode, in Free Play players can use just about any character except Jabba the Hutt, provided they can save up the points to buy them. One notable feature of the game is the attributes that different characters are given, based loosely upon the characters' actions in the films:
The ability to use the force is limited to those carrying lightsabers, whereas hookshots that allow characters to swing from platform to platform can only be used by those with a blaster.
Jedis and Sith have green/blue and red lightsabers respectively, and Mace Windu has a purple one.
Some characters are able to jump a little higher than most, while a minority including R2D2 and Jango Fett can hover for long enough to cross the wider gaps between platforms.
Small characters such as children, Jawas and Ewoks are able to crawl through holes intended for them.
Bounty hunters are particularly useful as they are equipped with thermal detonators that allow the destruction of shiny objects. They can also open doors marked as being specifically for them.
R2D2 and C3P0-type robots each have doors that only they can open. The same goes for 'stormtroopers', a diverse group that includes clone soldiers, snowtroopers, beach troopers, death star troopers, Darth Vader and the Emperor.
The ghosts of Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker are invisible and invulnerable.
Lando Calrissian will hold and kiss Princess Leia's hand if he gets the chance.
Gonk Droids are adept at saying 'Gonk' and walking very, very slowly.
In order to make things more complicated, machines that provide characters with stormtrooper or bounty hunter hats, and thus the ability to open certain doors, are scattered throughout appropriate levels such as those inside the Death Star.
Vehicles
The game contains a handful of vehicle levels ranging from the Mos Espa pod race to the attacks on both Death Stars. Vehicles are available for purchase in a similar manner to characters, and special attributes are given to some: snowspeeders are able to wrap a line around the legs of an AT-AT walker, and TIE fighters and bombers are allowed to pass through special barriers hidden in the vehicle levels.
The Force
Depending upon their affiliation, some characters can use either the light or dark side of the force, while both camps can push and pull Lego bricks around and send droids flying into one another. Jedi mind tricks are reserved for Jedi, while Darth Vader is allowed his trademark Force Grip, and the Force Lightning attack is only used by Count Dooku and the Emperor.
The Farce
Having originally been described as a children's game, it's not surprising that Lego Star Wars includes a reasonable amount of humour. While the game's cutscenes2 are based upon scenes from the film, the characters do not speak and the cutscenes tend to be on the slapstick side. The characters' actions in-game also tend towards the humorous, with Chewbacca attacking stormtroopers by pulling off their arms to create a popping noise. Meanwhile, hat machines allow players to give almost any character a top hat, baseball cap or Princess Leia hairstyle3, and some of the extras available include a fake-nose-and-moustache disguise and the ability to replace stormtroopers' blaster pistols with carrots.
A Downside
Unfortunately, the Lego ghost of Anakin Skywalker looks a lot like Hayden Christensen, and not at all like Sebastian Shaw – Christensen played the teenage Anakin in Episode 2 and Episode 3 and was used to replace Shaw as Anakin's ghost in Episode 6 when the films were 'remastered' during the 1990s. Other changes made during the 1990s are also evident, including the bizarre plant-like mouth added to Great Pit of Carkoon. However, the game's cutscene in which Han Solo shoots the bounty hunter Greedo remains similar to the original version of Episode 4, with Solo shooting Greedo first.
1 Small round pieces that in real Lego can fit over one of the little bumps on a Lego brick.
2 These are videos shown during the game in which the player usually lacks control of the action.
3 Interestingly, giving Han Solo a certain hat makes him look an awful lot like Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford's other famous film role.
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