LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game (PlayStation 2) review "Most zones require rapid character swapping if you want to discover everything. For example, you might see a ledge you can’t reach. Your Jedi only has a limited jump, but perhaps you have Padme along. She can use her grappling hook to reach higher areas, then trip some switches so that her friends can follow. Or maybe there’s a hidden item. You can see it, but you can’t reach it."

Cutting through a bunch of rebel forces as Darth Maul kicks butt. I don’t care that technically they’re on my side. That’s irrelevant. There’s just something exhilarating about carving into them, then watching plastic helmets go flying in the wake of masterful light saber strokes. My black cape swirls and my menacing scowl leaves everyone quivering—if they’re not dead from the force of my assault. For these moments and many others, I can’t stop thanking LEGO Star Wars: The Game.

Now, you might have a few general issues with the game I find so enjoyable. Plastic helmets? Where’s the blood? And Darth Maul? He’s from the second Star Wars trilogy, the one that showcased Jake Lloyd’s non-existent acting skills, the one that made everyone hate Hayden Christianson. How can a game based on those disasters be worth playing? I can understand your points, every last one, but I don’t care. This game is so much fun that they don’t matter!

When you start playing, it won’t be as Darth Maul. You’ll star as a Jedi and his apprentice. They’re working their way through a spaceship. Sound familiar? LEGO Star Wars: The Game follows the movies quite closely. From the meeting on the trade ship to Obi-wan’s final saber duel, you’ll live out many of the trilogy’s most pivotal moments. There’s none of the angst or the bad acting, though. Voice work is limited to a few convincing grunts and that’s it. Portions of the film that stretched out for minutes at a time are here glossed over in a matter of seconds, and then it’s on to what counts: the action.

Most stages are straight-forward in nature. You start at one point and you work through a fairly linear path to the end. There are side routes you can take to grab hidden items—each of 17 chapters features 10 ship parts you can gather if you’re so inclined—but mostly you’re just hacking or blasting your way through swarms of enemies and sometimes using the Force to levitate or otherwise manipulate objects. Generally, that amounts to a lot of button mashing. When droids swarm you, their firepower will blow you to bits if you try to make precision strikes. Instead, you’ll sweep your weapon about, deflecting lasers and chopping through one foe after another. You’ll know you’ve done well when the plastic starts flying all over the place.

Yes, plastic. As the title implies, much of what you’ll see here is constructed from LEGO pieces. That’s particularly true of the individual characters, who even have the familiar c-shaped hands. Some of them look cool (like Darth Maul) and some of them look fat (like Padme), but the effect is pleasing as a whole. Environments and ships sometimes include the telltale round bumps that remind you what the ground you’re walking on is made of, but things don’t go much further from there. I was actually disappointed by how often you’ll go through a given area and only see a few signs of plastic construction. Clearly, the developers cared more for Star Wars than they did building blocks.

At least they didn’t skimp on the actual gameplay. I’ve already mentioned how a lot of areas amount to button mashing, but that’s not necessarily a critique. The same could be said of many games within the genre, and at least LEGO Star Wars throws in some variety. Each episode has one chapter where you’re doing something really cool, like stepping into the driver’s seat for pod races, cruising along canyons in a cruiser, or even flying through space battles. The last of those three feels more like a great shooter than anything I can recall playing in a long, long time.

Even when you’re not in one of those special stages, there’s plenty to do. Most zones require rapid character swapping if you want to discover everything. For example, you might see a ledge you can’t reach. Your Jedi only has a limited jump, but perhaps you have Padme along. She can use her grappling hook to reach higher areas, then trip some switches so that her friends can follow. Or maybe there’s a hidden item. You can see it, but you can’t reach it. Sometimes, there’s a way around it, right then and there. Other times, you’ll have to come back in “Free Play” mode with one of the other unlockable characters.

Free Play is actually code for “replay value.” If you want to uncover everything, you’ll have to play through most zones multiple times, no matter how good you are. The more you play, the more money you’ll get. The more cash you have, the more characters and cheats you can unlock. Early levels feel almost entirely different when you go back through them as General Grevious. Or Count Dooku. Or whoever. There are lots of options, and they really keep things entertaining.

Of course, LEGO Star Wars isn’t perfect. Like many games of the three-dimensional persuasion, it sometimes suffers from shoddy camerawork. Thankfully, that fact isn’t game-crippling. At worst, it makes finding some of the secret items more difficult. When you really need to see everything—in the heat of a massive battle—the viewpoint is quite acceptable. The developers knew better than to get too close to the action, so cramped quarters aren’t anywhere near the mess they are in other titles that spring to mind.

The game’s other problem is more distressing: its main quest is just too short. I know the point was to keep things short and sweet, but it seems like they could’ve covered more of the great moments from the films. For example, where’s the underwater escape scene from The Phantom Menace? What about Anakin’s revenge for the way the monsters treated his mother in Attack of the Clones? There’s only one scripted battle with Darth Maul, too. If not for all the replay value—and a two-player mode that lets a friend join in and exit whenever you like—this is one cool game I’d have to recommend as a rental only. Thankfully, that’s a fate the developer avoided. With an understated but unique appeal that’s all its own, LEGO Star Wars: The Game is one game you should experience just as soon as the opportunity presents itself. After all, where else can you play as a plastic Darth Maul?

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Staff review by Jason Venter (May 08, 2006) Jason Venter has been playing games for 30 years, since discovering the Apple IIe version of Mario Bros. in his elementary school days. Now he writes about them, here at HonestGamers and also at other sites that agree to pay him for his words.