| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: Lego Star Wars
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Licensed games range from simply milking a known entity for cash to taking a franchise to a whole different level. For every Knights of the Old Republic there are several Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Star Wars games on the PC have ranged from the mediocre to the excellent with a couple of truly poor games mixed in, whereas LEGO games have generally never been better than average. LEGO and Star Wars have had a great synergy in producing movie tie-in kits for the past several years and they remain among the brand's best sellers. The target audience for this game is truly 'kids to adults'. So how well do the pieces fit together? (I make no promise that this will be the last bad Lego pun!)
Before looking at the game, let's talk spoilers. (Note: a ﾑspoiler' is a piece of information that reveals a critical element of a game/movie/story) This review won't have any, and really wouldn't spoil Episode I or II if you haven't seen those yet. However, as someone who has remained pretty much ﾑspoiler free' for Episode III, it was with some trepidation that I walked through the III door. Make no mistake, the game will tell you much about what happens in Episode III, but if you choose to only play Episodes I and II, no spoilers will be foisted on you, so you can play two-thirds of the game and remain spoiler free.  The basic gameplay mechanism is simple. You start in a hub (Dex's Diner from Episode II) and move into doorways representing Episode I, II and III. Each Episode has doors representing the chapters available in that Episode. There is even a parking lot to store the vehicles you have collected. Once you have completed a chapter in 'Story Mode', you can then go back and repeat it in 'Free Play'. You can also jump around between Episodes after you complete the first level of Episode I. So if you get stuck somewhere, or just want to see something different, you can feel free to explore. However, within each Episode progression is linear until you completely finish the levels, then you are free to replay whatever chapter you want. This is an unprecedented level of freedom in a story-based game. Once you start Episode I Chapter I, a couple of things become apparent. First, graphically everything is represented as LEGOs, and when something explodes, it breaks down into constituent LEGO blocks. Sounds simple enough, but it is extremely fun and effective. Everything you encounter looks like it could have come from a LEGO kit off of a shelf, right down to your characters. The other thing that is readily apparent is the humor. From the opening cut-scene of Episode I, expect chuckles galore. There are many times where you just stop for a minute and enjoy the fun, and a few times where you want to restart the Chapter to experience it again. My favorite character from all of the movies is Obi-Wan and he figures heavily in the humor throughout the game. A great deal of the laughs come at his expense. Objectives within each Chapter are communicated in a simple and effective way. You either need to get someplace, rescue someone, destroy a certain amount of enemies, or complete a task in a given time. Whatever the requirement, it is shown in a clear way on-screen. While the levels are generally linear, there are loads of 'side trips'ﾗlittle things you can do to collect 'mini kits' or 'LEGO studs', or just have some fun. The LEGO studs are the currency of LEGO Star Wars and they do two things for you. First, collecting a certain amount in a Chapter allows you to achieve 'True Jedi Status', which unlocks one of the 17 pieces (one for each Chapter) of the 'secret vehicle', which in turn unlocks a secret Chapter. LEGO Studs also allow you to purchase things from Dex. You can get characters, options and hints. Certain characters are 'unlocked' for free after completing a Chapter. For instance, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are unlocked after the first Chapter while others are 'unlocked for purchase', meaning that you can pay a certain amount of 'studs' to make that character available for Free Play mode. You can also purchase 'options', which include silly things such as moustaches for all characters, to things like a mini-kit locator and invincibility. You can also buy hints, which are inexpensive and might help if you are stuck. The ultimate goal of LEGO Star Wars is not simply to get to the end of Chapter III, but rather to get there, then go back and get to 'True Jedi Status' on all levels to unlock the secret level and also to build all of the Chapter vehicles. You choose two characters before entering a door in Free Play and the game then auto-fills a bunch of other characters into your 'inventory'. During the Chapter, you can toggle characters at will to take advantage of special abilities they may possess. Anyone who has played the demo would have noticed that there are mini kits your characters simply cannot get to because they don't have the correct droid or special ability. For these you go back with the droid or other character you might need and then can get to the items that you missed before. The game encompasses several types of play styles. Whether it's straight action, vehicle control or platforming, you will need to use different game skills to get through each Chapter. If you lack skills in a certain areaﾗI'm lousy with vehiclesﾗyou might find a Chapter difficult. Ultimately that can keep you from unlocking the Secret Chapter. This is another area where Free Play is valuable. Episode I Chapter I yields about 40,000 studs per play-through, and between replaying that and some other lucrative chapters, I was eventually able to save enough studs to buy ﾑinvincibility'. I could then go back to the vehicle Chapter of Episode I (care to guess what THAT is?) and get to True Jedi Status.  In general, the game makes things easy enough for anyone to pick it up and play successfully yet challenging enough that it can provide hours of gaming fun for even seasoned gamers. The game just wants to be played. It's a fun, energetic gaming experience. The game constantly gives you feedback without being annoying about it. For instance, if you are a Jedi, anything you can interact with using the Force will glow when you look at it. The exit to an area is marked with an arrow. All of these help without making the player feel like they are being spoon-fed information. Everything about the game is done in a way that enhances playability. Everything I have described so far has the makings of a perfect family friendly action adventure game. But while LEGO Star Wars is an excellent game, it is certainly not perfect. There are some levels that so completely drip with Star Wars love that the less inspired levels are more disappointing in contrast. My least favorite level suffered from non-obvious design, combined with a required aimed-combo move that is non-trivial to execute from the computer keyboard. That's the other shortcoming of the game: the keyboard controls and camera. The controls are set up to allow easy access for all ages and to permit two-player mode from a single keyboard. Unfortunately the location of the keys in relation to normal hand positions will leave you with sore wrists and often have you missing keys as your hands drift. The other complaint with the controls is manipulating direction. You aim where you look, and there are times you need to shoot something at an angle, and it can be somewhat difficult to manipulate the arrow keys to get to exactly the right angle. Camera control is handled automatically by the game. In general it works pretty well, but occasionally your characters end up obscured and out of your control. In one case it got so bad I just restarted the Chapter. These complaints don't mar an excellent gaming experience. My measure of excellence for a role-playing game is whether I start a new character immediately after finishing the game without quitting in between. In LEGO Star Wars I did some Free-Play before even finishing an Episode and before the game was done I had jumped around in Story and Free mode through various Chapters several times. This is the most pure fun I have had playing a game in some time. I figured this for a cute little children's game I'd enjoy a bit and then hand off to my kids. The game greatly exceeded my expectations, and now after dominating it entirely, I'm finally sharing it with my kids. Any developers making family-friendly and/or licensed games needs to play this game with some kids at their side and take some notes. 
THIS IS NOT A KID'S GAME!! YOU HEAR THAT KIDS? GO AWAY, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!!! Are they gone? Good, more 'Free Play' time for me! Truth be told, this is one of the best kids action games I have ever encountered, and one that truly crosses generations. There has not been a game in our house yetﾗnot on GameBoy, GameCube or PCﾗthat has captured the ﾑFun for All Ages' label that E-rated games covet. Some of the action gets intense and perhaps a 5 year old could handle it, but I recommend younger kids play some of the classic Lucas Learning games if they want a taste of a Star Wars game.
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Star Wars" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Lego Star Wars |
Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
|
Please Note: GamerDad is not intended to be read by anyone under 18. We stay clean, but be warned! Content Management System developed by Redbird Solutions. |
