Lego Star Wars

"Simplistic fun, but rather short."

Lego Star Wars: The Video Game is a 2005 release featuring Lego characters playing Star Wars episodes 1 – 3. In it, you can control famous Star Wars characters, in Lego form, as you play through the newest Star Wars films. Here is what I though about the game.

Story: 7/10

It's pretty hard to rate a story from a film that almost everyone knows already, but not everyone liked. Of course the game follows the films pretty faithfully, and I need to point out that aside from the beginning of every level, there is no dialogue in the game at all. This of course places all of the emphasis on the action segments of the films, giving you a reason and place to fight. And while the majority of the game features fighting through the well-known plot, not everything is fighting, such as Anakin's famous pod-race. Due to there being no dialogue, the game is rather short overall, as the average gamer could beat it in 4-5 hours, but the dialogue before each level does provide an overall look at the plot.

Gameplay: 7/10

The gameplay is fairly simple, but fun nonetheless. You of course get to control various Jedi characters as well as various characters who fight using blasters. There are also many enemies and droids you can control. In total I believe there are around 50+ characters to control during the game. Quite a few, huh? Well during the story missions, you can only control the characters who took part in that particular part of the story, but after you complete it you can play through it again using any character you've unlocked.

Playing through the game is fairly easy, all you do is attack enemies using your weapon and solve fairly easy puzzles to proceed to the next area. Each type of character (i.e. Jedi, Blaster, Droid) will control and fight differently, but after a minute of playing with any given character you will have learned everything they can do. As I stated before, the gameplay is simple, no rpg or leveling up antics here. Thankfully, you can switch to any other friendly character following you at any time, and a second player can join the game at any time as well.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics are..... LEGOS! What did you expect? Being the main attraction of the game, every character, vehicle, and almost everything is made out of Legos. Its great to see everything made out of Legos, and all of the various expressions on the characters really add to the quirkiness and fun of the game, since there is no dialogue after all. The character movements are fluid and thankfully not Lego-like at all. The environments mirror the films fairly accurately, as do all of the character designs.

Music/Sound Effects: 7/10

Almost everything here is from the Star Wars vault. There are quite a few pieces that almost everyone knows, such as the opening intro, which plays at the start of every level. Aside from various other iconic scores, the music is mostly dramatic battle tunes, which fits in fine with all of the fighting. The sound effects are fairly standard, featuring your standard blaster and light saber sounds.

Re-playability: 8/10

Thanks to the ability to go through the levels with any character, the re-playability possibilities of Lego Star Wars goes through the roof. In addition to that, there are some portions of the levels that only certain characters can go through, such as droid-only areas, or areas that dark Jedi can only reach. On top of that, each levels has 10 hidden items in order to build extra Lego vehicles, and there is even extra stages you can play through once you find every hidden item.

Overall: 7/10

Overall a high 7. A fairly average game overall, which could have been much better with deeper gameplay but as it is most likely targeted to the younger audience I wasn't too disappointed with it. There are many better action games, but quite a few worse out there. I recommend it as a great way to spend a lazy afternoon with a friend. It is pretty cheap at any game store, but given its short game time, you may want to just rent it. I should mention that there is a game called Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga that includes episodes 1-6, so you may want to check out that game before making any final decisions. Have fun and keep playing!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/08

Game Release: Lego Star Wars (US, 04/02/05)