Lego Star Wars: The Video Game

So last night I rented Lego Star Wars: The Video Game. The game takes the Lego Star Wars toys and puts them in an action/adventure video game based on the prequel trilogy. In the game pretty much everything is built of Lego blocks: your characters, droids, buildings, and even some plant life.

Also, no one talks in the game at all. There's still some Gungan sounds and the Battle Droids say "Roger, Roger," but otherwise it's mostly gibberish or all done through character expressions. The game is also presented in a comedic/satirical fashion; which is one of its strong points.

To date I've played through the Episode I section and the game has some strong points and some weak points. Let's go over the strong points first.

Overall the game looks very well, and all those Lego characters have fluid animations. This is generally a kid's game, so it's very simplistic in it's controls and it's also impossible to "die." Upon player death you just magically respawn and keep on trucking, with the only penalty being lost Studs (essentially the game's "money" that you can trade in at Dexter's Diner for stuff or more characters to play as). The simplicity is a great strong point as it's simple, plain hack and slash fun... with Lego. Let's face it, many of us wanted Lego Star Wars toys as a kid, but never got it. Well in this game you can play with them in a more contemporary fashion that won't make you look 5.

Now some cons: The simplicity can also be a negative as things get too repetitive and thus a bit boring. Other areas of the game were insanely hard, i.e. the Pod Race. Who the hell designed that stupid level?!?!??!?! I swear, if I were 5 I would have put my controller through the TV; designed for a kid my ass. I've also noticed the music can cut off abruptly for no apparent reason on many occasions which gives a lack of polish feel to parts of the sound mix, in great contrast to the beautiful graphics.

One other problem I encountered was crashing and the locking up of my Xbox. I think this has to do with my rental disc being scratched up a good bit on it's bottom, but in only a few hours the game locked my Xbox twice and today when some friend's were playing we had a few weird bugs were a death sequence would keep repeating itself.

Overall a fun game and good rental, though nothing I'd want to run out and buy for $40.00 to $50.00. If I found it for $20.00 though, I'd probably pick this one up. It's got enough humour and simple fun to be entertaining.