• Summary

• Reviews

• News
• Images
• Videos
• Downloads
• Hints & Cheats

By Keith B (4th Apr 2007)

No doubt most of you reading this, like me, are HUGE Star Wars fans, at least fans of the original episodes 4, 5 and 6. If you are not a fan or haven’t seen them you really are incredibly strange and void of any real taste! They really do have something that appeals to everyone. Action, adventure, romance (the one draw back), glowing swords that go “wvooooo” and hot slave chicks wearing tiny metal bikini’s just to mention some of their appeal. Lego Star Wars 2 (LSW2) lets you relive it all and actually BE the characters! It gives me shivers just thinking about it!

To be honest the game could have been completely rotten and I still would have loved every second of it, simply because it is the original story! Thankfully though, this was not the case. The game ROCKS! Basically the game is a mix of the original plot, characters and scenery merged into a Lego world, yep, everything is made of Lego. The characters are the simple figures we all have played with and pulled apart because we thought it was funny to have the lil guys bum where his pee-pee should be! The game reminds me a lot of Mario 64. The 3D worlds and movement are very similar. I, however was not a massive fan of Mario because of the story line and the fact it was incredibly ‘cutesy’. LSW2 does have a bit of a cutesy factor, but it is far outweighed by the humor it employs throughout the game. The individual characters have facial expressions and stances that reflect their movie counter parts and their reactions in the game. For example Hann Solo’s (Harrison Ford) LSW2 character always has a cheeky half smile that accompanies a macho pose whenever he is slightly inactive. Chewbacca has the ability to jump on his enemies chests (while they are standing) and rip their arms out of their sockets.

The game play is very varied, calling on problem solving, flying attack ships and blasting the utter snot out of storm troopers etc. On each level (which is a chapter of the movie) you begin with a set number in your party (which again follows movie lines). For example in ‘New Hope’ you are just captured by the Death Star and need to find the imprisoned Princess Leia, rescue the droids and escape. The level is started with Luke, Hann and Chewie. After you rescue Leia she joins the party, and then the droids when you find them. Some areas are only accessible by storm troopers or bounty hunters, which require disguises. Although you only control one character at any given time, you can swap to another simply by standing next to them and pressing ‘Y’. This is necessary as in some areas you have to be droids or use force powers to progress.

The two player aspect (cooperative) is a lot of fun as well. There are two major draw backs though. Firstly your movement is restricted by the other player, so to advance to the far side of a screen both players must be in the same area. The other major draw back is relationship problems! I played with my Girlfriend, and being the Alpha Male that I am, I found myself getting very annoyed by the fact she didn’t jump when she was supposed to or killed me because she thought I was a storm trooper! I guess it is possible that I was frustrating her as well, but incredibly unlikely because I am The Scott!

The Lego aspect of the game is also very entertaining. At various intervals you will find a pile of Lego blocks on the ground. By pressing ‘B’ when standing in front of the pile your character will automatically build the necessary equipment. The Currency in the game is ‘Studs’ which is the smallest Lego blocks (little circles). You can spend these studs at the Space Port on Los Eislee. This is the home base of the game. After you finish each level you return to the space port to save, spend studs and blast some random customers for no apparent reason. You can also collect other colored bricks and bonus kits through the levels that unlock secrets, these are mostly very hard to find. Some are only able to be attained in ‘Free Play Mode’. For each level there is ‘Story Mode’ and ‘Free Play Mode’. Story mode is simply following the star wars saga with the applicable characters for each level. In Free Play Mode you can return to each level with any character. This allows you to access special areas and secrets using the other characters special abilities.

The sound is just what you expect when watching the movies. The music is taken from the movie, as are the sound effects etc. The only major difference is the voices, there are none. They have been replaced with mumbles and a strange ‘gobbledygook’ which is quite easy to understand if you know the movie. R2D2 and Chewie have the same sounds associated with them. You would think this would be a let down, but it isn’t. It is again just another of the little humorous aspects of the game that add to its appeal.

As mentioned before the characters, ships and scenery are all made of Lego, so it is difficult to rate the Graphics of the game. For what it has been designed to be it is fantastic though. It is a very good mix between the Lego base and the cartoonish appearance of the game. Movement and animation is also excellent. The characters move just how you would expect Lego Space Adventures to move (if that can be expected at all?!). The gun turrets are sometimes a little difficult to control, but that is such a minor thing that it really doesn’t effect the games enjoyment.

For the absolute purist’s, it is not exactly like the movie. Many parts of levels did not appear in the movies, and there is a lot more killing of storm troopers, sand people and other aliens that did not occur. But hey, I aint complaining! I ended up finishing the first two movies (New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back) and started Return of the Jedi in one sitting! I had a huge headache and tripped over a couch because my left leg was asleep, but it was worth it!

The Scotts Final Word
Get it and Play it! The game has too many good points and funny little aspects to mention in this review. There aren’t too many games out there that will hold your attention for as long as this game, and it has replay-ability! As I mentioned earlier, Star Wars fans will Love this game, and probably either get fired or fail school because of it. Either way, it frees up more time for gaming….this is the game that keeps on giving!