LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Jul 12, 2006

Just about everyone who played the original LEGO Star Wars loved it. A rare feat in the games industry considering the breadth of software available. Yet when it shipped last March, it sat in a unique position shared by very few games. Regardless of age, gender or gaming preference, LEGO Star Wars just happened to be up your alley. In all seriousness, what first looked like a childish spin on Star Wars wound up as a beacon of groovy game design and one of the best Star Wars titles ever released for consoles.

With the second installment, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the talented folks at Traveler's Tales want to make a great game even better. But how do you improve on a title most considered near perfect in the first place? By adding a little more of everything that gamers loved the first time around, that's how. The sequel includes more characters, puzzles and stages, not to mention all-new vehicular stages that play far differently than their predecessors.

And by differently, you should understand they actually play better. Before going any further, though, it serves to discuss the basics for those unfamiliar with the series. First thing: you play as LEGO characters. Ridiculously obvious, yes, but the visual style of the characters goes hand-in-hand with the game's design. Specifically, the whole experience shoots for the type of fun-loving, family-friendly vibe that pretty much defines playing with LEGOs. A stretch, you say? Not really. Who really doesn't love tinkering with LEGOs?

This doesn't mean franchise lacks depth, or that kids will enjoy it more than game veterans will. As noted above, Star Wars has this uncanny ability to erode the walls separating all kinds of gamers. On the contrary, LEGO Star Wars had a ton of variety and different gameplay styles, and the same thing is true of the sequel. The game still revolves around a trio of flicks, this time the original trilogy, and you still control a bevy of characters each with their own abilities. Also, there's a good mix between action (both light saber and blaster combat) and puzzles, which fans remember have you actually building structures out of LEGO blocks.

One of the first major differences in the new installment deals with adaptive difficulty. To put it simply, the game now changes depending on how well you play. For instance, if you happen to survive a string of levels without dying, the game will increase the health of enemies and the game they inflict. Once it realizes you've had enough, by dying a bunch of times no doubt, it will readjust enemy attributes in hopes of reaching a happy medium. Having said all that, the game will never actively try to squash you. Even if you possess crazy LEGO skills, the game won't go HAL 9000 on you and murder you.

One of the bigger changes has to do with vehicle stages. In the first game, they acted like icing on a cake. They tasted great, sure, but there was a disproportionate amount of them to stages on foot. This time around, developers have evened things out a little bit. Every chapter of the trilogy will include vehicles stages, so you can expect to ride the Millennium Falcon and snow speeders in Episode V, as well as X-Wings and speeder bikes in Episode VI.

But the biggest difference, in addition to the quantity of stages, is how they play. You now have free reign over arena-style sections of the environment. Those of you who liked the "on-rails" design of the first game will need to content with a lot more room to move. When attacking the Deathstar, for example, you actually decide where to go. The stage throws a lot at you, including laser turrets and squadrons of tie-fighters, so the added size and freedom to the stages gives you plenty of room to maneuver. You can perform barrel rolls, loops and other defensive maneuvers, too.

One of the cooler parts of this stage has you flying over open chunks of the Deathstar "collecting" torpedoes. They trail behind your fighter when you pass over them, then blast off toward the front of the craft when you press the fire button. It's an odd mechanic, one that's definitely new to the Star Wars universe, but it's fun and just as quirky as the rest of the game. At the end of the stage, you need to perform the infamous trench run. You need to dodge incoming laser blasts from turrets and tie-fighters, but you also need to loop and change direction mid-run to handle enemies that approach from the rear.

Missions that don't have you strapped into a cockpit play a lot like they did in the first game. You will notice a bevy of tweaks, however. Puzzles now come in two varieties, to start. You will have to solve light and dark puzzles by using the right character. Also, every character's innate abilities now play a bigger role. Unlike the first game, where you could swap certain characters due to identical skills, you now need specific characters to beat stages. This lends the game far more variety than the first one, plus it enhances the level of strategy and involved a bit, as well.

Also, some doors now require specific helmets to get through. These "identity gates" will have you hunting for storm trooper or bounty hunter helmets, depending on the icon next to door. And now, you can't just run around decapitating characters for their helmets. Well, you can, but you can't actually pick them up. Instead, you find helmet dispensing machines that simply spit them out. And, of course, each stage has all the extra stuff for you collectors out there. You can score different vehicles and characters for diligently hunting out specific building blocks on every stage.

In short, LEGO Star Wars II looks to improve upon its predecessor. A lot of what the sequel borrows from the original benefits from a new coat of polish, and more importantly, tweaks that actually enhance the mechanic. It looks and sounds good, too, and you can bet it's every bit as funny as the first one.