Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

"Bricked Up"

I spent more time on this game that it deserves. But, I digress.

I had been eyeing the Complete Saga for a bit now since I've been needing some more Star Wars (and Lego, too, I guess) love in my life, but I needed it cheap. At the time of its release, it was $60. That's way too much for a game of this caliber, but thankfully, it recently became a platinum hit and the price was lowered to $20. And that's how I came to own the game. I should write stories for a living, huh?

...

Anyways, the game is what it sells itself on the box to be. A Lego game featuring the Star Wars movies. What disappointed me is that only the characters, vehicles, and certain structures are Lego. Everything else is "real". I'd have loved to see a fully Lego world, but alas it cannot be. The game is aimed primarily at children, but I can see some older folk playing it to relive their childhoods. I certainly had a quite a nostalgia rush going through the game. The game is pretty fun and humorous. The world is bright and anyone can go through the game.

The premise of the game is to go through the six Star Wars episodes, all of which contain six chapters plus a few extras, and to collect things along the way. If you're going for 100% completion, you'll have to collect every stud (like the Lego version of Mario's coins), regular minikits (like the red coins of Super Mario 64), red extra bricks (secret bricks hidden throughout every chapter that let you buy cheats), blue minikits (have to go through speed runs of chapters collecting blue versions of the regular minikits mentioned previously), gold bricks (similar to stars from the 3D Marios), and every character. That's a hell of a lot to collect, and I don't think any kid would have the attention span to do it all. I certainly got burnt out doing it. All in all, you'll probably end up going through the game, unskippable cutscenes and all, at least three times. You'll be sick of the game soon enough.

Of course, it has its fair share of problems. The camera is GLUED onto one spot, and despite there being a toggle to turn the camera, it only does so slightly and is almost as effective as pulling a large wad of gum off your shoe. When you pair that camera up with a shoddy online co-op mode, you're in for a disaster. As the game is aimed at kids, the difficulty of the game is pretty easy; Your character can die, but the penalty is only losing some studs. Your character will pop right back up. The mass amount of collecting in the game will have you burnt out by the time you unlock every character. I sat through it for a bit (re: a lot) longer because I know this is a game that's possible to get the full 1000 gamer points on. I stopped at 900.

The game has some boss fights, but, honestly, they can all be beaten by simply jumping with a Jedi character and doing the "ground pound" area of effect attack over and over again. And, of course, no Star Wars game is complete without the imaginative vehicles. Unfortunately, the vehicles are played the same way as characters except ALWAYS moving. You CANNOT stop. This can lead to death after death on some levels and can get quite annoying after a while. Vehicle levels suck, in other words.

My final gripe is with the AI, or, just A since the developers of the game seem to have forgotten the 'intelligence' part. Through-out the whole game, you'll be stuck with computer-controlled partners that will get stuck on everything, fail to recognize when to help you on a puzzle and do zero damage to the enemy AI even when attacking! That's right, your AI team mates can NOT fight. And, get this: The enemies KNOW this and will home in on you EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It's worse than the computer-homing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and that's saying something!

Pros: Fun, humorous, appeals to all ages, extremely good deal, 20+ hours of game play, plenty of extras and things to collect, tons of characters and vehicles, interesting levels/puzzles, good for a nostalgia rush

Cons: "Last gen" graphics, godawful camera, terrible vehicle levels, "childhood" level difficulty (can be a pro if buying for a kid), pointlessly easy bosses, too many things to collect (think Donkey Kong 64), horrible AI, easy to get burnt out on, fall-through-level type glitches, extremely weak online co-op, unskippable cutscenes

A good game, but flawed. It's definitely worth the $20 price tag and is pretty good for the whole family. I may have listed a lot of problems with the game, but it actually is very charming and fun. None of the issues I listed are game breaking, but they can get to be quite annoying after playing for extended periods of time. Some good advice I would give towards playing this game is to turn it off when you get sick of it. This game is best when it's taken in pieces, not whole halves.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/09

Game Release: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Platinum Hits) (US, 2008)