Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

"If you enjoyed watching the original trilogy, then you won't be disappointed with this game."

The original Star Wars trilogy is the one that I grew up watching, and have seen these movies many, many times. I enjoyed playing the first Lego Star Wars game, but I really wanted to play a game that dealt with the latter episodes. I'm glad to have been given the chance to do so.

Presentation-

Imagine the movies, but in Lego form, plain and simple. Some parts are different because they are adding some humor to the scenes, and the humor is just perfect. I won't ruin the moments for you, but whoever thought up the humor aspects for the added scenes must have been a Star Wars fan.

Every part of the game is true to the movies. From the characters, to the scenes that move the story along, to the music. If you loved the movies, and enjoy playing an action game about Star Wars, then you won't be disappointed with this game. Although I have completed the game at 100%, I can see myself playing it all over again in a few weeks. 10/10

Graphics-

I never talk too much about this section since the graphics are only important if I encounter problems, or if they look extremely poor for the system that they are on. The game looks great for a PS2 title. I never ran into any slowdown when I had many characters on the screen. Even though Lego objects don't have that much detail to them, they still looked great in the game. 9/10

Sound-

The best part of this section has to be the music during the levels and/or cut scenes. It is the exact music used from the movies. Even though you don't have any voice actors for the characters, the sound is still great. Blasters, Light Sabers, Spaceships, and everything else sounds perfect. I really enjoyed the rock version of the Imperial march, and seeing the pig guards playing guitar with their axes. 10/10

Gameplay-

I'll talk about the few problems that I faced first, just to get them out of the way. I had the game freeze up on me twice…both times during a speed run for an episode. The first freeze happened on the last level of Empire Strikes Back. I was putting C3PO back together and it froze. The second time was on Return of the Jedi when I was on the planet Endor, when you need to build the C3PO switch to drop the two wooden fences down. It is annoying to have the game freeze in the speed runs since you have to restart the whole episode again. It isn't as if the freeze happens on a regular level, so that you only have to replay that one level again.

This wasn't a problem, but more of an annoyance. During the speed runs for the episodes, you cannot skip the cut scenes. I like the cut scenes, but after you've seen them twice (from doing the levels on Story and then on Free Play) you really want to skip them and just get to playing the level.

Lastly, when your character is too close to an enemy (or even your partner), they will slap them instead of using their blaster. At first this is funny to watch, but as you play through the game you realize that the slapping takes much longer to kill an enemy than the shooting would.

Oh, I almost forgot. When you do the bonus levels where you need to get one million studs (time limit or not), they should have given you the studs when you completed your goal. Instead you get nothing but a gold brick. I guess they wanted you to earn your studs in the regular levels for each episode, or end up using the stud fountain.

Okay, now we can talk about the good. The levels that require you to fly a spacecraft are fun. My favorite level has to be on Hoth with the Snowspeeder. Being able to take down AT-AT's like in the movie is just too cool for words. I used to enjoy playing the Hoth level on the SNES version of Empire Strikes Back for the same reason, but the Lego game is much better and looks great too. The final level for Return of the Jedi was a close second since it was very close to how the movie was.

Building things out of Legos is fun, and most of what you build is important in the game. Plus it gives you something to do besides shooting or chopping up bad guys with a light saber. I also liked riding around on some of the larger animals that certain levels had. While they are fun to ride, they also serve an important feature to the level (having to reach a higher point).

Finding hidden objects like the mini-kits or the power bricks can be hard. You really have to search through the levels in order to see what is needed or who is needed to open up a certain spot. I like a challenge for hunting down objects, and only a few objects really had me stumped for a while.

Puzzle solving in the game isn't hard, and the puzzles are really easy to figure out. Whether it is opening a door, to freeing up a character, it adds to the game play and makes you use your brain.

I really wanted to give this section a higher score, but having the game freeze on two important parts upset me greatly. 8/10

Lasting Appeal-

This game will give you plenty of hours of enjoyment. It took me about thirty-one hours to reach 100%, and I had fun during a large percentage of that time. There are plenty of items to unlock, and collecting the studs can be time consuming unless you find/buy the Score Multiplier early in the game and use it when you have to replay levels.

You will have to play through the movies three times to get everything unlocked. The hardest part of this was the speed run for each movie. You have to complete the movie level in under an hour and collect 100,000 studs. The studs aren't a problem, but rushing through the levels to have a time less than one hour can be frustrating. Return of the Jedi was the toughest movie to complete in the time limit, but it can be done.

An extra bonus when you are playing through the game collecting gold bricks is Lego City. Your mission here is to destroy the town and collect one million studs. Some parts can be tricky, but it is fun to figure out just what needs to be done to what object in order to get the studs.

A fun mini-game to play deals with bounty hunting. You can't play these levels until you have purchased all six bounty hunters, but once you have them unlocked you can enter the door and start playing. You have to find ten Rebels hidden on ten different levels. The time limit for each character is three minutes, but they are not that hard to find. I just like being able to play as the bad guy in games.

If you have played the first Lego Star Wars game and unlocked all of the characters in it, you can buy your old save and use those characters in the second game. In total, after using your old save, you can have one hundred and sixteen characters to choose from. That is a lot of characters to use!

From being able to replay levels, to having plenty of unlockables to find/buy, and getting to use every important character from all six movies, this game is almost perfect. If it wasn't for some small annoying glitches, this game would of scored a ten. 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/07