Lego Star Wars
Posted May 7, 2005
Growing up there were two things that were the epitome of cool, Star Wars and Lego. Just in time to catch the Episode Three tidal wave
Eidos has published what is one of the best Star Wars video games made with the simply put Lego Star Wars. Not content with focusing
in on a single episode in the 6 movie arc, LSW takes bits from each of the three prequels and hand picks some of the better action
sequences to translate into a wonderfully simple, yet amazingly fun gaming experience.
Gameplay:
Upon launching the game, you control Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan inside of Dexters Diner, two doors are available to walk through, one to the parking lot which will eventually contain some of the wealth of extras you can unlock, and the other to another room which contains even more doors, representing the levels within the movie episode you can play.
Naturally, Episode 1 is the first and only level you can play, but after beating the introductory level, you gain access to the starting levels of Episode 2 and 3. Once the levels are unlocked, you can play them in any order that you wish, so if you want to play through the game in chronological order, you are more than welcome to, but you also have the option of bouncing from scene to scene.
Levels range from the pod racing of Episode one to the duel with Darth Maul, to the opening fight with Jango Fett on a rainy Kamino all the way to the fights in Episode 3 (which due to the timeliness of the review, I won't spoil any of the six scenes you get to play. Within each scene you do play however, you start out as a duo of characters that can be swapped at any time in the game with a quick keystroke. During the level you will sometimes see additional characters (like R2D2, or *shudder* Jar-Jar) and when you tag them, you also unlock them from the roster of over 30 playable characters. Not all characters are unlocked in the levels though, some you must purchase from Dexter in his fancy diner for the collected Lego studs that you find scattered throughout the levels, and uncover by both destroying enemies, or using other methods to shake the studs out of their hiding spots.
The game is a very simple one to play, largely due to the fact that it's a game for the younger set. There is one main attack button, a jump button and a special feature button, which depending on your character type performs different functions. When you're a Jedi character, obviously your special skill is the force and you can manipulate a lot of the items in this game. Is a door blocked by Lego? Just use the force, are the droids all lined up like bowling pins? Just use the force to toss one at them and knock them out. Sometimes the force would be used to solve puzzles, like early in the game there was a forcefield that couldn't be switched from the side you were on, so by using the force to dismantle one item and build it into a step-stool, you were able to turn off the barrier. It's little touches like this throughout the game that make it such a blast to play. Who cares that it's a button masher, and a very basic one at that, it's an extremely fun way to spend a couple hours.
There's no need to worry too much about being spoiled by the scenes in the episode 3 section of the game, as there is no dialog at all in the game, the only real indication of story would be the standard scrolling text at the beginning of each level to give you some background into what's going on. But for those who want to be extremely fresh, I'd say avoid these levels until May 20th.
Graphics:
This game looks exactly how you'd expect it to look...like a Star Wars game made out of Lego. The characters are all blocky in that way that only Lego characters can be, which only adds to the charm of this great little title. The levels themselves are quite expansive, but also made of Lego, so you never feel that you're starting to creep into the "real world" it's all Lego coolness, all the time.
For those with weaker PCs, there are options to tone down the graphical detail of these little plastic characters you'll be controlling, but doing that takes away some of the polish and little extras that the game has. You can control the shadows, and the high gloss finish, as well as the bump mapping. One thing the game box mentions is that the game was created with nVidia in mind as the graphics chip of choice with a photo demo of the things you'll be missing out on, namely the lightsaber blur when your little Jedi is swinging his weapon with avengence. I do have a nVidia chipset so I can't comment on if this actually is the case. Sorry.
Audio:
Even though there is no dialog spoken in the game, we do get a lot of the Star Wars feel in the title, thanks to the great score throughout. The classic Star Wars themes are here and sound great. It seems the sound effect bank was also borrowed here, as all sounds from the first two movies that I recognized are here, like the lightsabers, blasters and the flying of the Slave.
Conclusion:
While a very short game (I made it through the 6 levels of episode 1 in around 2 hours, including some redo's on the pod racing level), it's one that could easily be picked up and played at any time. Once the story mode on a level is unlocked, it opens up that level to free play mode, which lets you take any of the unlocked characters through the level sometimes allowing alternate paths to be taken, thanks to the different abilities characters have.
Gameplay:
Upon launching the game, you control Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan inside of Dexters Diner, two doors are available to walk through, one to the parking lot which will eventually contain some of the wealth of extras you can unlock, and the other to another room which contains even more doors, representing the levels within the movie episode you can play.
Naturally, Episode 1 is the first and only level you can play, but after beating the introductory level, you gain access to the starting levels of Episode 2 and 3. Once the levels are unlocked, you can play them in any order that you wish, so if you want to play through the game in chronological order, you are more than welcome to, but you also have the option of bouncing from scene to scene.
Levels range from the pod racing of Episode one to the duel with Darth Maul, to the opening fight with Jango Fett on a rainy Kamino all the way to the fights in Episode 3 (which due to the timeliness of the review, I won't spoil any of the six scenes you get to play. Within each scene you do play however, you start out as a duo of characters that can be swapped at any time in the game with a quick keystroke. During the level you will sometimes see additional characters (like R2D2, or *shudder* Jar-Jar) and when you tag them, you also unlock them from the roster of over 30 playable characters. Not all characters are unlocked in the levels though, some you must purchase from Dexter in his fancy diner for the collected Lego studs that you find scattered throughout the levels, and uncover by both destroying enemies, or using other methods to shake the studs out of their hiding spots.
The game is a very simple one to play, largely due to the fact that it's a game for the younger set. There is one main attack button, a jump button and a special feature button, which depending on your character type performs different functions. When you're a Jedi character, obviously your special skill is the force and you can manipulate a lot of the items in this game. Is a door blocked by Lego? Just use the force, are the droids all lined up like bowling pins? Just use the force to toss one at them and knock them out. Sometimes the force would be used to solve puzzles, like early in the game there was a forcefield that couldn't be switched from the side you were on, so by using the force to dismantle one item and build it into a step-stool, you were able to turn off the barrier. It's little touches like this throughout the game that make it such a blast to play. Who cares that it's a button masher, and a very basic one at that, it's an extremely fun way to spend a couple hours.
There's no need to worry too much about being spoiled by the scenes in the episode 3 section of the game, as there is no dialog at all in the game, the only real indication of story would be the standard scrolling text at the beginning of each level to give you some background into what's going on. But for those who want to be extremely fresh, I'd say avoid these levels until May 20th.
Graphics:
This game looks exactly how you'd expect it to look...like a Star Wars game made out of Lego. The characters are all blocky in that way that only Lego characters can be, which only adds to the charm of this great little title. The levels themselves are quite expansive, but also made of Lego, so you never feel that you're starting to creep into the "real world" it's all Lego coolness, all the time.
For those with weaker PCs, there are options to tone down the graphical detail of these little plastic characters you'll be controlling, but doing that takes away some of the polish and little extras that the game has. You can control the shadows, and the high gloss finish, as well as the bump mapping. One thing the game box mentions is that the game was created with nVidia in mind as the graphics chip of choice with a photo demo of the things you'll be missing out on, namely the lightsaber blur when your little Jedi is swinging his weapon with avengence. I do have a nVidia chipset so I can't comment on if this actually is the case. Sorry.
Audio:
Even though there is no dialog spoken in the game, we do get a lot of the Star Wars feel in the title, thanks to the great score throughout. The classic Star Wars themes are here and sound great. It seems the sound effect bank was also borrowed here, as all sounds from the first two movies that I recognized are here, like the lightsabers, blasters and the flying of the Slave.
Conclusion:
While a very short game (I made it through the 6 levels of episode 1 in around 2 hours, including some redo's on the pod racing level), it's one that could easily be picked up and played at any time. Once the story mode on a level is unlocked, it opens up that level to free play mode, which lets you take any of the unlocked characters through the level sometimes allowing alternate paths to be taken, thanks to the different abilities characters have.