Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

1. Official Site
2. Platform: Xbox
3. Publisher: LucasArts
4. Developer: Travellers Tales
5. Release Date: 09/12/06
6. Genre: Platform

by Mitch Youngblood

My Fair Lady recently threw a surprise 30th birthday party for Yours Truly and at said party was a former co-worker of hers who has a three-year-old at home that recently discovered Star Wars. When asked how this happened, her husband piped up saying they just couldn’t take Dora the Explorer or the Wiggles any more and opted to try something new that they also could enjoy. So they threw in Star Wars figuring it was worth a shot.

The funny part is that they inadvertently created a fanatic.

They said the very second the fanfare roared onto the screen followed by the famous chase through the stars their son was a believer. At the tender age of three, he wanted to ride across the dunes of Tattooine with Luke Skywalker and C-3PO and battle TIE Fighters in the gun turrets of the Millenium Falcon with Han Solo and Chewbacca. In place of bedtime stories, they read him details from one of the many encyclopedias devoted to the universe George Lucas crafted. He desperately wanted Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader at his third birthday party.

When Yours Truly suggested they pick up LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy for him they looked at me with a quizzical look on their faces as if they couldn’t understand how this wasn’t "just another kiddie game." There was, of course, one and only one way to answer their bafflement.

I smiled and said, "Trust me."

In an ironic bit of history, I actually wound up playing Travellers Tales’ masterpiece LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy before playing the prequel game, and what’s frightening is just how accurately the games reflect their respective source materials. Where the prequel games skip over great swaths of the films, part two is filled past the point of bursting with classic sequences and an absolute love and passion for all things Star Wars. The great Pauline Kael wrote of the first movie that "it’s like getting a box of Cracker Jack which is all prizes" and that applies to the LEGO video game. There may be a sour here and there (such as the Endor sequence), but the overall package is chock full of one sweet treat after another.

At the end of the day, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is a game featuring anything and everything revolving around LEGOs. The result is, naturally, that everything looks blocky which is entirely the point. What makes this so much fun to look at is how much passion and attention to detail have been lavished upon the Star Wars universe. Running through Mos Eisley and shooting it out with storm troopers while in the cantina feel as close to being in the movies as is possible because the game gives you the desire to believe in what you’re seeing.

That’s a powerful difference from accepting what you’re seeing, which is how we play most games. The Star Wars universe may have become grossly commercial over the years but it didn’t start that way and this game taps into the wonder and fun from the first movie. What makes things even better is how it maintains that sense of awe through to the very end.

The character touches are by turns wonderful and hilarious, frequently in the same shot. Darth Vader coughing as he walks through a smoke-filled corridor is priceless as is Luke’s awe when he first gets his lightsaber. The little touches like clothing and how each LEGO figure reacts to their situation give each one their own unique personality which is saying a lot considering they’re all essentially just LEGO’s.

Everyone knows by now what Tattoine, the Death Star, Hoth, Cloud City, and Endor all look like. Now picture LEGO versions in your head, add to it a wicked sense of humor that finds storm troopers lounging in hot tubs or huddling near a heater in Echo Base and the game is as much a joy to watch as it is to play. The feeling of running through the corridors on the Death Star or blasting TIE Fighters in your X-Wing or in the Falcon are also handled very, very well. The look of outer space is, frankly, beautiful and the show-stopper is easily the asteroid belt chase in Empire. The player truly gets a sense of scale when flying past the floating rocks or blasting through them all while being chased by TIE’s.

In short, the game does Star Wars proud.

As with all things Star Wars, John Williams' legendary score is as much a character as Luke, Vader, and Han are. The symphony soars on the soundtrack as players run from one famous location to the next and grows softer as players face down the game’s puzzles. Of course, once the action kicks into high gear so does the music and it feels like you’re playing a LEGO version of the movies sans sappy drama.

The entirety of Skywalker Sound’s archives were opened for the game and it shows when players start blasting. Laser blasters sound just like they do in the movies, the hum of the Millenium Falcon's engines is ripped from the archive, and the AT-AT walkers fall with the same thunderous roar as when we first heard it in 1980. The short version is if you’re a fan of the sounds of Star Wars then you will appreciate how well represented everything is here.

The controls are pretty basic and quick to pick up so blowing up Lego structures is about as easy as pie. The A button jumps and double-jumps when hit twice. The X button fires your gun or swings your lightsaber, Y jumps on or off an animal or vehicle, the B button holsters your firearm and acts as your special ability should you have one. The triggers come into play during Free Play mode and let you cycle between the various characters in your party.

For the most part, it’s dirt-simple controlling the characters. You simply run around and either blast things, build things, use the Force on things, or push things. Where things get dicey is cycling between multiple targets. If you have your gun drawn when under attack just stand still and the game will auto-aim for you and move you out of the way of blaster fire. If, however, you run forward while shooting then the game will still auto-aim for you but it’s up to you to dodge. Equally tricky is using the Force on a single target when something else is close by. Say for example you want to move a giant block that’s against the far wall but your companion is standing right next to it. It is entirely possible that you’ll have to physically push them out of the way, or kill them outright, so that you can access the object against the wall.

This sort of thing is easy enough to overcome but it happens far too frequently throughout the game. Also, the camera is locked into position for the most part so do not go in expecting to be able to see everything. You can pan slightly to the left and right based on where your character is but that is all the camera control in the game.

The comparison between the first LEGO Star Wars and this one is akin to comparing night and day. The sequel is so vastly superior in every way it almost boggles the mind when trying to comprehend how so much fun could be contained on such a small disc. Right from the start, players find themselves in the middle of the best time period of the Star Wars universe and running through all the famous locations borders on achieving a religious experience. Yes, everything is made of LEGO’s. But the thing to keep in mind is how much love for all things Star Wars the creators have poured into this game and the result is a title bursting at the seams with fun things to do and see.

Players take control of two characters initially per mission and swap between them, and other characters they pick up along the way, to accomplish various tasks. Anyone can build anything they find laying around, but only certain players can access certain areas. Doors that require bounty hunters or storm troopers or droids are all marked as such, so if you find one such door but don’t have the required character type then remember it for Free Play. You have to play through the story mode first before you can go back and play a level in Free Play, which lets you swap out anyone you want from a set collection of unlocked characters, which allows for enormous amounts of exploration. The very first mission level in the game is massive, but you won’t see half of it your first time through.

Is this a good trick to require players to go back through each mission time and again? The answer would be no if the game weren’t so chock full of infectious fun. Each time players run through Free Play mode they’ll find dozens of secret items, locations, and hilarious secrets that the developers must have had a field day crafting. Playing through the game also unlocks various secret modes which people need to find on their own.

Combine all of this with the various collector’s pieces available per level and the challenge of getting a certain number of coins per mission, along with the game’s natural puzzles and general combat, and boredom will never set in. The only chance it may have of creeping in is during the lengthy Endor sequence which goes on for far too long. A lot of the missions throughout the game are huge and take quite a bit of time, but Endor frequently feels like the developers were padding it because there wasn’t much there to begin with. Sort of like Return of the Jedi actually...

Players have to jump through some major hoops to obtain the elusive 100 percent completion in this game, but it’s worth it. There is so much fun to be had along the way that this game deserves a place in everyone’s library. Players have to accrue enough credits to buy or unlock tons of playable characters, upgrades, secrets, hints, and so on but to do this they have complete a multitude of goals. This will definitely appeal to the completionists among us, not only because there is so much to do and pretty much all of it is fun, but because it manages to keep you enthralled start to finish. This is easily 40-plus hours of pure entertainment and that’s tough to beat for the price.

I’ve sunk north of 40 hours into this title and after achieving 100 percent completion I wanted to start it again fresh. Even though things may get a little wonky on Endor, with the odds fairly high that you’ll encounter a show-stopping bug in the forest, the game is absolute bliss from start to finish. The little character flourishes, attention to detail, loving recreation of the most famous Star Wars sequences, and overall sense of fun makes LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy an absolute must-own game on this or any other system. Play this one immediately and the Force will be with you.

Gaming Trend Score

96

1. Graphics: 94
2. Audio: 98
3. Controls: 93
4. Gameplay: 97
5. Value/Replay: 98
6. OVERALL:96