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PSP: Review of Star Wars Lego II: The Original Trilogy
Tue, 10 Oct 2006

Getting a new car, working long hours, visiting with family etc etc has conspired to keep me from finishing a few blog entries that are nearly done - yes, sometimes I hack away at an entry over the space of a week in scraps of time; not that this imparts editorial quality, just so you understand me.) I've got a new gp2x project three-quarters done and some reviews for that little platform, but alas you shall have to bear with me for this quickly written review.

But first, as I must do for any review:

Pulling droids apart
Force-flinging them all about
Beats Mario Kart

Star Wars Lego II: The Original Trilogy is really really good. A fusion of action-shooting, platforming and puzzling could be bad - but not here - and with a Star Wars plotline is almost too much to handle. Further, with the Lego theme thrown in you've pretty much taken even the most half-shaven Matrix-wannabee geeks brought, Spartacus-like, to their knees.

I'm only part-way in, maybe halfway or three-quarters through the Star Wars episode 4 (A New Hope) plotline, and I fear picking up the unit again for to pry it out of my clawed and malshapened hands takes more willpower than even I can muster. The game is arranged into the three classic SW films, each broken up into what must be dozens of scenes. For instance, when A New Hope opens, you're in control of a Rebel and blasting your way through Princess Leia's ship while trying to help her escape and in effect ensure the video gets recorded before her capture. The blasting away is comical and cute beyond belief, with enemies and terrain exploding into lego bits when struck, and the difficulty level is not really high -- which is great for a lamer like me. When controlling more than one character you can switch who is being directly controlled while the uncontrolled units follow along, or take shots at things on their own. All in all controls are very simple, with the only trouble being the automatic camera occasionally zooming a little too far in or out or picking an odd angle -- still, since the game designers very carefully crafted each scene they have ensured the camera knows where to track and show the important details, so a good all-around job. The animation and action is very well done, so the camera is used to good effect. Controls are solid.

There is a little but not too much in the way of platforming -- jumping from one place to another, which is good -- enough to be fun and cute but without making controlling little lego guys in a 3D environment annoying. Jump over here and then there to pick up more bits, or to find a pile of bricks that you one-button-hold to assemble into something to blow up or use. Platforming is generally present as an element within the puzzling which is again not too difficult, but fairly plentiful, and cute beyong belief. There are often a few ways to work through a given scene's puzzles, but in the end it is a joy to fiddle around and see something happen that makes you giggle away like a schoolgirl. Each puzzle is only a few minutes work -- nothing too far out or complex, instead being a way to make you think in cute ways and change the pace from blasting or sabering troopers. With one puzzle you're pushing blocks around, while another you're using a crane boom to drop troopers off a cliff (woot!) and other such devious activities. More involved puzzles come around, but usually any given scene might feature a half dozen puzzles one after another in bite sized chunks so together are an interesting thing, but individually are something you can work through quickly while on the bus or taking a break. For example in one scene I evidently needed to activate a moisture collector to pick up some waste that was in the way on Tatooine, while working towards some Jawas. That moisture collector required C3PO to operate it, and he can't jump or fly (whereas R2D2 can hover a touch) to get up a ledge that was in the way. I know LyNC figured out some other way to do it, but at that scene I had Obiwan present so just force-flung C3PO up over to the moisture collector and then took control of him to activate it. Simple but a good intro to how the system would play out later. Using Obiwan to chop up things with a light saber or double-jump to high platforms is crazy-fun, again making you giggle mirthfully, as is using Luke's grapple to pull yourself up a zipline to another floor. So many times I pressed the action button and was amazed at what would occur -- this was a game that played like the good old days before you'd "seen it all" -- good crazy fun, and with blasting, and with Star Wars.

I've played through for a couple hours already and still have a ways to go in completing A New Hope; as such I expect the following two films to be equally well implemented. Additionally, they've included some highlights from the prior game (Star Wars Lego 1 featured the newer Episodes I-III), such as battling Anikan/Darth with young Obiwan, to keep you with lots of content. I'd say the length of the game seems pretty good though it might not be the most replayable thing ever. Still, you can run through the scenes with alternate characters (each with their own abilities) but all told.. a pretty good value for the money.

Also included is ad-hoc multiplayer so you can team up with a buddy and control multiple characters at once to work your way through the scenes in co-operative mode. Lastly for this little review, they've included some goofy stuff, like being able to assemble your own characters from the Lego body parts of others -- everyone wanted to put Leia's head onto Chewbacca's body, right?

All in all, I'm quite impressed, and pleased the PSP is getting some good solid titles of late.

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