This is my first attempt at writing a game review for this blog, and strangely enough it’s not even a game for the new Wii I got for Christmas.  I feel like I haven’t played a lot of those games enough to give them a fair review yet (though I’m sure Kim would say I’ve played more than enough Twilight Princess, and in fact I will probably have a review ready for that in a few days, based on the first third-to-half of the game).  No, for this post I’ll be talking about LEGO Star Wars for the GameCube, which was another of my Christmas presents, and which Kim and I have almost finished.

The premise is simple: play through the major action scenes of the prequel trilogy (i.e. none of the political background or the “you’re smooth like sand isn’t” pseudo-romantic crap) in a Star Wars universe constructed entirely from LEGO blocks.  All of the playable characters are little LEGO figures, with the round yellow heads, blocky bodies and claw hands.  The Jedi have little LEGO lightsabers, and they use the Force to manipulate LEGO bricks laying around in the various stages, blowing up things or rearranging them into platforms and such.  You can collect little LEGO studs that you use as currency to buy more characters and unlockable extras (like options that turn lightsabers into push-brooms or give everyone silly blasters).

In two words: pure genius.

Notwithstanding the LEGO aspects, this is actually a pretty solid Star Wars game.  Obviously it follows the plot of the movies, but where it really gets me as a Star Wars fan is in the details.  Lightsabers block blaster bolts, and with some practice (Kim is far better at this than I) you can deflect a blaster shot back at the shooter.  On the podrace level there are actually Tusken raiders camped out on the canyon dune turn.  All of the lightsaber wielding characters have distinctive sword styles, including Darth Maul with his double-bladed form, and Yoda, who can best be described as a whirlwind
of destruction (more on him later).  To advance in some of the stages you have to do what was done in the movie, such as blasting out the deflector shield around the hangar bay to enter Grevious’ flagship.

Throw in the LEGO portions of the game and it’s even more fun.  Whack Battle Droids and Clone Troopers with your lightsaber or blaster and they fall into their constituent bricks.  The royal palace from Episode I is decorated with the same little LEGO trees and flowers I remember from actual LEGO sets (you know, the spiky bushes and three-stem flowers with red, yellow and white petals).  In many levels you can tear apart and rebuild parts of the scenery into platforms or stairs to open up new areas.  A lot of the vehicles you can fly are modeled, as far as I can tell, after real LEGO sets you could find in
stores.  Even the Star destroyers have huge LEGO engines and weapons.

The gameplay itself is divided into two portions: story mode and free play. Story mode restricts you to a small number of characters that actually were in that part of the movie; for example, in the first level of Episode I you start out with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan aboard the Trade Federation cruiser.  As you advance through the level, you acquire a protocol droid to open doors.  You fight through squadrons of battle droids (and a couple of droidekas near the end) in order to smuggle yourselves onto landing craft and escape, just like in the film.  Scattered amongst the character-based levels are a few
vehicle levels (one per episode) and some boss battles (at the end of each episode, and a couple in the middle).

Once you’ve played a level in story mode, it becomes available for free play.  Now you can go back in and play the level again with any of the characters you’ve acquired (by meeting them in story mode, or buying them with the studs you’ve collected).  There are two reasons to do this.  First, sometimes you can’t explore an entire level with just the characters provided in story mode.  The first level requires R2-D2 and young Anakin to get everything, since R2 can manipulate certain panels and Anakin can crawl through tight spaces.  In a couple levels you need a Dark Jedi (like Dooku or Maul) to Force-activate certain switches which ordinary Jedi can’t operate.

The second reason to replay things in free play is that you can be absolutely any character that you’ve unlocked.  Don’t want to face Darth Maul using Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan at the end of Episode I?  Call in Yoda and Mace Windu as ringers, once you’ve found them in Episode II.  (Yoda normally walks with a cane or floats around in a little hovercar, but once you bring out his lightsaber, he turns into a whirling dervish.  Literally.  His steps become jumping slashes and his jumping slashes become huge spin attacks.  It has to be seen to be believed.)  Or you can be Maul yourself, if you’ve forked about
100 grand in LEGO studs (2-3 levels’ worth) to buy him.  Two lightsabers not enough?  Another 45 grand will get you Grievous and his four blades, who’s about as fun to play with as Yoda.

The replay value of this game cannot be underestimated.  You need to collect a certain number of studs to attain “True Jedi” status, and you also have to collect ten hidden canisters of LEGO parts to build some kind of vehicle, to truly complete the level.  (Get True Jedi status on every level and you unlock a bonus stage where you play as Darth Vader, storming the Tantive from the start of Episode IV.)  Getting everything almost always requires using some extra characters in Free Play, often working as a team, to open previously inaccessible areas.  And a second player can drop in and out at the push of a button, so it’s just as fun for two simultaneous players as it is for a single gamer.  In fact, most of my time playing it has been with Kim as Player 2.

All that said, there are a couple of points about the game I found frustrating at times.  My main problem is that the 3D camera is relatively fixed, it can’t be affected by the player, and when the camera angle changes your character will be pulled along with it, to keep your character on-screen.  This isn’t a big issue in single player mode, as far as I can tell.  But with two players it can often lead to some unforeseen deaths, as one player moves into a new area and the camera drags the second player along, into a wall or over a cliff, killing them.  It also means both players sometimes have to stick close together and do tricky jumps at the same time, which is hard if there’s barely enough room for two characters on the platform you’re jumping too.  However, these are probably complaints common to all two-player 3D platformers.

To sum up, LEGO Star Wars is an excellent game all around.  It’s fun to play either in single player or two-player co-op mode, it’s straightforward to play through in story mode, and there’s enough depth in the free play mode to keep bringing you back for more.  The puzzles required to find all of the canisters or studs in a level are generally clever without being too hard to figure out and execute.  This game manages to combine the scenery and atmosphere of the Star Wars saga with the fun of recreating it with LEGO blocks, and it really gives the best of both worlds.

Four stars, two thumps up, or however else you want to say great.