LEGO Qui-Gon after being told how Episode 1 ends…

I’ve decided to do a series of reviews on video game movie tie-ins. Since I am one of the few people who actually liked E.T. for the Atari 2600, I feel qualified to do this.

Historically, games based on movies have tended to be slapped together pieces of crap that outsell better games by banking on brand recognition and riding the coattails of the movie’s gigantic promotional push. You could fill a landfill in New Mexico with the number of bad movie related games made, while the good ones would barely fill the bin in your bathroom. I’ll never understand how someone can take ideas seemingly perfect for video games like The Incredibles, Batman Beyond, Fantastic Four, and The Matrix and make such bad games out of them. Hell, even Star Wars which has produced some great games in the past, fails to make good games based on the actual films. I know, Super Star Wars for SNES was good, but I don’t consider it a true movie tie-in if the game comes two decades after the film (see Godfather, Russia With Love, Scarface, and Dirty Harry; all titles currently in production).

These days, Hollywood takes video games more seriously since many of them have bigger opening days than most movies. This is both good and bad for the media. Good because more tie-ins are decent these days. The LOTR series for example, Spiderman 2, and Chronicles of Riddick. Bad because Hollywood is starting a trend of video game tie-in movies which I think is one of the signs of the Apocolypse.

I’m trying to be unbiased when selecting a tie-in game; playing both the good and bad. I chose my first title “LEGO: Star Wars” because it looked like a unique take on the genre and has gotten a lot of buzz recently. It’s hard to imagine this sort of marriage of mega brands making a decent game, but to my surprise it’s actually worth playing.

I should start off by saying this game is primarily for kids. It even has a “Help For Parents” section in the manual that dumbs the instructions down for parents who want to play the game with their kids. The combat is button mashingly simple as are the puzzles, but there’s something refreshing about that. It takes me back to the two button days of NES. What really makes the game worth playing for adults is its sense of humor and attention to detail.

This game does a brilliant job LEGO-izing the Star Wars Episodes I, II, and III universes. The buildings, plants, vehicles, weapons, and characters are straight out of that big bucket of LEGOs you had as a kid. When you kill your enemies they break apart into individual LEGO pieces. That alone is worth playing the game for. Seeing the bald jedi Mace Windu with that LEGO knob on the top of his head is hilarious. Along with being fun, many of the LEGO pieces have a function. When playing a jedi you can use the force to manipulate them to solve puzzles or find hidden items. You’ll come upon a pile of LEGOS and will need to use the force to turn them into a bridge so you can cross a chasm, or stairs to climb a cliff. The force can also be used to throw enemies or turn missles on the person who fired them at you.

An interesting element to the game are the “Lost Vikings” style puzzles that force you to switch between characters to get everybody through the level. Padme can use her gun to shoot targets and can use a grapple gun, the jedi can use the force and double jump, robots can open doors and deactivate other robots, Young Anakin can slip into small vents, and Jar Jar can jump really high. None of the puzzles are that difficult, but they’re fun nonetheless. Some of the puzzles serve no function other than entertainment. For example, I activated this disco floor by stepping on the dots while my droid stepped on others. Disco lights turned on and the aliens started dancing to a really great disco version of the Star Wars theme.

Along with the straight 3rd person action levels are some vehicle levels. The pod race is simple, but exciting and challenging. There’s also a Zaxxon type level using the gun ships from Episode II. These levels do a great job breaking up the action and keeping the game fresh.

Technically, LEGO Star Wars has some issues. There have been some bugs every time I play such as audio sync problems and characters getting stuck. Sometimes the music gets really quiet for no apparant reason. That aside, the game looks great and playing to John Williams’ score is always a plus.

A major gripe is the total lack of camera control. This is unacceptable in my opinion. Many of the levels have you fighting at the far end of the screen where you can’t tell what’s going on. Often enemies are off screen and you basically have to get shot to find them. Another issue is the inability to skip the cutscenes. This was really annoying during one stretch of the pod race. There was an initially cute scene where one racer knocks out another that happens in the middle of the race. After seeing the scene for the 8th time after I kept crashing, it became really annoying.

The best part of the game by far are the cutscenes. Since you’re playing through each of the prequels, the storylines are the same as the films, but LEGO Star Wars performs each movie WITHOUT DIALOG! Each scene is broken down to gestures and some grunts or sighs with a few comical gags added. Without Lucas’s atrocious words being badly acted in front of green screens, the stories are able to breath. I realized that Phantom Menace wasn’t such a bad story after all, although Episode II is still bad. These scenes are well worth playing through the game to see, even if the gameplay is easy and lacks finesse.

Finally, they’ve added some depth to LEGO Star Wars in the form of unlockables, and collecting. Throughout play you can collect and find LEGO studs and then use them to unlock chracters, weapons, and other extra such as moustaches and silhouettes. The studs all over the friggin place and it’s hard to not go into Pac Man mode and grab all of them. Since nearly every bush will yield studs if you use the force on it, it tends to really slow the game down. It wouldn’t be so bad if the studs would come to you after uncovering them, but they explode all over the place and you have to run around and get them.

Despite its simple kid-oriented gameplay and lack of camera control, the hilarious cutscenes and clever re-interpretation of the Star Wars universe make LEGO: Star Wars a fun time.

RENT IT!